Spring RTS Engine

Could someone please tell me what the hell a UV map is?



Now that I think about it I should have said that sooner.

http://taspring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewt ... 8908#38908

I thought it was you who asked the last time... but no it was munch.

Do any of you pros (sorry zoombie for deviating slightly here from topic) ever find though that sometimes you just can't moddel? Or cant draw? Or just somthimes nothing you do seems to work??
Im just deeply curios to know if its just me that has this problem, Only cause a few years ago I was getting somewere, and then suddenly I found I just could not make anything go how I wanted it, wether just a drawing or a moddel. It sux's big time. Is there some way to get out of this stupid rut?

aGorm

sit down, take a box in 3dsmax.. and apply EVERY MODIFIER TO IT.. and play... literally...

an Idea will pop in your head..

aGorm wrote:I just could not make anything go how I wanted it, wether just a drawing or a moddel. It sux's big time. Is there some way to get out of this stupid rut?

Perhaps you set your own standard too high? If that then frustrates you its hard to enjoy yourself, stay motivated and improve. My suggestion, experiment on a blank canvas, don't set a rigid goal. That way you can enjoy learning some new techniques and rebuild your confidence. Then you will be ready for a new project.

LathanStanley wrote:sit down, take a box in 3dsmax.. and apply EVERY MODIFIER TO IT.. and play... literally...

an Idea will pop in your head..

Sat down, used 3dsmax and applied every Modifier - and max Crashed... and crashed.. and crashed...

Lathan you are expecting way to much. I myself never get anything good out of stuff i have not planed in detail on paper. It is really Easy to loose the "Overview" when you start a Thing in Max without Planning. I have kicked whole splinemodells, because of lost Overview.

But still, Max for the Ruule, sacrifice all Maya Users...

I mean... I can obvillsy draw right.... I mean I can map, and I can give a man 7 fingurs in photoshop make some cool planets, create cool avatars, but the second I try to do somthing I realy want... It all fails on me.
I mean... I been trying to draw the same pictures for like 3 monthes now and I still cant get it right.
And Every tme I try to moddel my robot I get scred over by missing some important step, getting somwere I like and then finding its all scred (normaly because right at teh beging ill do an extrude faces insted of an extrude group without realising...2 hours latter i have a model that when i try to make a tiny adjustment turns out to have 1000's of lost faces inside it.)

Guess tonights not my night...

(BTW guys I dont have Max... only wings and blender (and no i dont model in blender!)

aGorm

Zoombie wrote:Could someone please tell me what the hell a UV map is?



Now that I think about it I should have said that sooner.

A UV (I dunno what U or V means, lol) is where the polygons (the sides, a cube has 6, a triangle 4..) are textured, I would love to steal some of smoths examples, so I shall...

smoth wrote:I have said it before.. but I'll repeat it...

textures are the skin of a model. In order for it to be placed on the model correctly it needs coordinates..

Imagine unpeeling an orange then laying all of the skin flat on a surface. painting the skin then glueing the skin back on. That is what uvmapping is.

Since it was requested earlier..

here is an example texture:


Here is the model that the texture goes to:
http://cs.selu.edu/~ssmith/gallery/g2da ... ective.jpg

see how it looks like I unpeeled the model onto the texture? that is what uvmapping does. It tells the model where it looks for what part of it's texture.

U and V are the wrapped coordinates.

I see...so thats it. Thanks dudes, and aGorm...when ever I feel the need to be creative I just take two random things and MASH them together and see if I can get them to work.

Like...World War One and the Undead.


Hmmm....

But another good thing to do is just read a good book, or look at a nice picture or something...

Nah I agree with who ever said it before, just start with a blank canvas with no goal in mind and paint/draw/model whatever comes to mind. It doesnt have to be perfect, or even good, but it will get you thinking again, so you can find an idea you really like and be motivated about.

Eh...whatever works for you.