-= Skin and Pelt

Now that I have a body and a head, I need to paint them. This process involves "unwrapping" the mesh into segments that can be flattened. Think of it as if you were to peel an orange. You pull off the slices of skin, lay them out next to each other, and sew them together into one flat piece. Now paint over the flattened skin, go ahead draw some eyes on it and a mouth.

Now take that painted skin and re-apply it to your orange. Hey! Check that out. Your orange has a personality. Okay, well maybe it is not that easy. Yet that is what texture artists are asked to do to strange and complex 3d objects.

One technique is to apply a texture map to your whole mesh in order to see where things are deforming. Using a checkered contrasting pattern you can see where the faces on a 3d model will pull on the pattern.

Learning this, and learning to use the still fresh skinning tools in 3dsMax is proving to be a test in patience and persistence. Thank god that I can leave in a few minutes to go eat some food. I've never had Middle Eastern chow, I hope I like it as much as I like far eastern cuisines.

Labels: 3d, VanDerDick