Joan of Arc - Part 13 - Mapping the sword

Mapping of the Sword

We will begin this section by texturing the sword. Before we launch into making the UV co-ordinates though it is necesary to think about how the materials we are going apply are made up.

For example here will have a single texture sheet but various other metal materials will be applied to different parts of

In the same way as the modelling we will work with the LPM and let the meshsmooth worry about the high poly version. This gives us far less polygons to set UV maps for.

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In Max 4 it is better to work with polygons and not the usual mesh. This enables a better smoothing of the texture.

Apply a turn to poly modifier above the edit mesh and then right click it and select Collapse to.

The object is now an Editable Poly.

Note that one does not lose the meshsmooth settings for the creases and weights etc.

We will assign a separate material ID for each different part of the sword where a separate material will be used

Create a Multi-Sub/Object material.

By default Max Defines 10 Sub-Materials.

The ID 1 will be asigned to the parts of the sword whose UV were not yet defined, so it is easy to see what remains to
be done.

One can make Drag and Drop of the default blue material into Sub material 1.

One can also name this Sub Matériau, here default.

Finally give a name has this Multi-Sub/Object material, here Epee.

To assign this material to the sword, select when done and drag and drop the material slot on the object.

It may be that some faces of the object have a ID material different from 1, in this case, to clean the ID, select all model in Element mode, enter value 1 in material ID (Surface Properties roll out).

All the faces have now the ID 1

Create a material checker with Tile of 20 for example.

Then with Drag and Drop it with into ID 2 in Instance mode.

This material will use to adjust the UV of all the sword and it will be copied each time as an instance, one can thus easily change Tile for all with the original material

The ID 2 will be the material of the blade.

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in polygon mode select all the faces of the blade

Enter Material ID value 2.

The selected faces change color, the checkerwork does not appear because UV are not defined. (do not forget to activate the posting of textures in the material checkerwork).

Always in sub-object mode with the faces selected in Editable Mesh, apply a planar UVW Map

For direct Gizmo of mapping correctly, use View Align in View Face, Center and the FIT to fix it on the selection of
faces.

Finally the board of texture will be square with equal values in Length and Width.

Here you do not need to improve UV.

In the stack, right click on the UVW Map, and select Collapse To to simplify it.

Thus helps with memory speed.
Meshsmooth remains on top and one does not lose the adjustments on Creases or Weights.

Return to Editable Poly in Polygon mode, benefit from the still active selection to hide the faces already textured with Hide.

By making this operation after each UVW Map, it becomes increasingly simple to select the not yet textured faces.

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In Material Editor, copy the checker into ID 3

Select the corresponding faces as shown then apply Material ID 3.

As previously, apply to these faces a planar UVW Map, then enter the same values in Width and Length to have a coherent mapping with that of the blade, proceed as before.

select the faces opposite and apply the checker ID 4.

Another planar UVW then 'collapse to' the stack

Click on Meshsmooth, you can see that the higher density mesh still maintains the correct mapping

To still improve one thing, activate Materials in Surface Parameters, that smooths according to materials.

There are thus clearer and better smoothed material limits.

As before, click on UVW Map and Collapse To.

Note that one you can temporarily suspend the effect of a modifier while clicking on the icon bulb next to it.

Select the faces opposite.

Create matérial ID 5, assign to these faces then apply a planar UVW map.

Always give same dimension to the Gizmo when mapping.

Collapse To.

Make in the same way material ID 6

This part is the most complex to map correctly, for the moment one is satisfied to apply a planar map to these faces
The adjustment will be made once all faces have the checker material

The ID 7 and 8 are for the central decoration of the guard.

Select the corresponding faces, external with ID 7 and interior faces with ID 8.

Apply planar UVW again

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For the handle, ID 9 and mapping cylindrical.

With the Gizmo of mapping a rotation of 90° on the axis of Z so that the seam falls in line with the one on the handle.

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Same proceedure for the rings, with cylindrical ID 10, mapping and rotation of Gizmo.

Arrived at this stage all the slots of Sub Materials are used.

To add some click on Add.

The pommel with the ID 11 and always a cylindrical mapping and the rotation of Gizmo.

Finally to finish with the ID 12, a planar map.

In the preceding page we used several Material ID's to quickly map all separate sections.

We will now finalize the UV's of all the faces while re-examine each checker pattern in Unwrap UVW.

Click on Editable Poly ensure that no faces are selected.
Apply Unwrap UVW and continue in 'Select Face' mode.

Open edit UVW.
Select the ID 3 Checker.

Using Unwrap Options Show Selected Vertices in Viewport.

On this ID certain faces have UV's that are stretched because of the planar map for the face of the preceding page.

Select the faces on top of the blade as shown and apply a Planar Map.
Rotate and move the mapping Gizmo so that it takes its orientation from the average normals of the selected faces.

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We can see UV's correspondents, in the window of edition, marked in red.See here we deform entirely to fit the
UV's square.
We need to redementionalize this set of UV's so that the mapping is coherent with the remainder of Checker ID 3.

Initially, uniform Scale until the visual checker in the viewport\All Users\Application

Finally a non uniform Scale on the remanining UV sets with the same dimensions.

For the ID 11, select the faces of the top and apply a Planar Map.

Scale the UV and finish the adjustment on the pommel.

Now that all UV are correctly adjusted it is necessary to prepare the final texture.

Select All IDs.
With all the ID sets at the same scale. We need to rearrange them so that they lay flat.

With Expand Selection start separating the various sets.
At this stage we arange the other sets right of the Blade.
If we leave things like that, all the sets have no problems but we waste alot of space on the board.

We will split the Blade into two sets of UV and thus will be able to increase its definition on final texture. Select the points top and click on the Break Selected Vertices icon.
Then move the selected points.
All the points of the selection are no longer welded anymore, for the remainder it is enough to Weld Selected with the corresponding icon (regulate the threshold with 0.001 in Unwrap Options).

Then arrange the remaining UV sets a like a little puzzle.

Note that certain sets of UV were increased the definition on the texture.

They correspond to the parts of the sword which need it most like decorated parts etc.

That also make it possible to use all the space available on the board.

Now we need to generate a beautiful image of UV with Texporter. Here texture we make is 1024x1024 pixels.

I colored the edges in Material ID mode for locating the ID on the board.

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