GMax Fundamentals

[clintonman]

Oil rig target model is done. In the tutorial they used a couple of tools found in the extended tools section of Max, but GMax only has the basic tools. They used a tool called L-ext which makes "L" shaped beams and they used a stair making tool. I just had to do it the old fashioned way.

Next step is to UV and texture everything.

[spacekdet]

Drill, Baby, Drill!

[clintonman]

I started the UV mapping for the F14 jet.

The first step was to assign colored materials to the jet to pre-plan the UV mapping and make it easier to select regions for uv mapping.

The second step was to apply a checker texture so the stretching and compression of the uv mapping could be seen while the individual parts were mapped and many of the pieces stitched together. It was mostly planer maps with some cylinder maps used in sections that were cylindrical in shape.

The basic unwrap of the body is done and the number of materials was reduced to 2 to correspond to the 2 texture materials that will be applied. At this point the uv sets are split with one set on the left and the other on the right.

The next step is the organize, resize and tweak the UV's and do a screen capture of the final UV set then finish unwrapping the other pieces of the jet.

[v3rd3]

Thanks Clinton. This will be a great workflow walkthrough when you are done....

[clintonman]

I just finished laying out the UV's for the F14 jet. Ended up with 2 UV's for the main body, 1 for the wings, 2 for the missile, 1 for the stabilizer, 1 for the fuel tank and 1 for the engine nozzles. GMax makes it difficult to see the direction a UV is facing so I'll be adding left and right versions of the wings UV's and a few other items later.

next up is texturing the missiles.

[tahnoak]

Thanks for sharing all this detail Clintonman. Great stuff and I am following with keen interest to see how the UVMapping comes out.

[clintonman]

Started texturing the missile body. The fins have a temporary material used to identify them inside the image editor. I think the next lesson is adding grunge to the texture.

[clintonman]

Finished texturing the missile. It has diffuse, bump and specular maps, but only diffuse shows in the GMax viewport.

[clintonman]

Jet main body texture. It has bump and specular but they do not show.

[froo]

Wow you've really got the hang of this don't you?