Still problems applying textures, after a week of hard work, i'm still stuck! help!

Support Materials and Textures
#1

Hi i’m very frustrated…

Trying to model a gun and texture it for a replacement in a game.

Modelling is done.

When I apply texture from side view, it looks very nice, but when I use a different image for the top view, when I apply the texture from that angle, it messes up the side view.

Best I could accomplish was to texture both sides, and have the top very bare.

I originally had the part where the belt feeds in open on both sides for realism, but this made texturing a nightmare, as it would always display the inside of the gun , so i closed it up.

When I project from view in order to texture the top, I angle the model to as close as possible to match the same angle as the uv image.

This shows a top view of the textured model and the top is bare because it won’t texture in the top detail from the reference image.
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/kb8ok

this is a side view with the gum model looking pretty good with the texture applied.
Take note the part where the barrel meets the reciver (round gray cylinder).
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/od3xo

this view shows the top on a 45 degree angle.
Take note that the round gray cylinder is almost translucent, and I can see the barrel where I extruded for the barrel hole. No matter how hard I tried, I can not texture it from same angle of image to get the top of it to be covered like the side.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/atqej

here are the two main reference pictures i used to model and texture the gun.

and 1 more that I tried to texture over the top, but failed.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/l3gu3

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/l4ge1

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/bn9x9

and here is the blender file.

http://www.mediafire.com/?5ozik59tku2y5va

Note: I modelled the handle,trigger and trigger guard seperately because they were causing texture problems… I want to sort the main gun out before I attempt to join the handle and texture.

thx for the help in advance…

after a week working on this i’m almost ready to call it quits!

#2

i see no texture and no UV layout in that blend file.

#3

Apply seams to your model to control the uv unwrap. Your unwrap has overlapping faces and so will give a useless result. I’ve not looked at all your images as I don’t have the time neccessary to view them all since they appear to be on the worlds slowest image hosting site. You can attach upload images to your post directly. As your model is symmetrical it will be much easier and manageable to just do the one half and add a mirror modifier

#4

that’s because the model grabs the texture and uv layout from seperate images in your dir.
When you upload a .blend file, it doesn’t store the textured or image references because it is not exported.

#5

Richard, here are the embedded images

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/5r6sx.jpg

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/8veki.jpg

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/qy15l.jpg

and here are 2 different views from my textured 3d model.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/3dyzw.jpg
(you can see from the side it looks good)

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/wjlub.jpg
(top is pretty bare, and gray cylinders that barrel goes into you can see inside them).

p.s. I never ‘unwrapped’ anything, as to say all I did was hit ‘u’ and from the menu I selected ‘project from view’.

another thing that annoys me is when i apply texture paint, it automatically reverts back to the last image I used… (i.e. when I textured from side view image, then loaded top view image and textured, back pops the side view image when I select edit to map a different part of the gun!).

appreciate the help - and again here is a link to my blender file, even though it will show up on textured.
http://www.mediafire.com/?5ozik59tku2y5va

#6

texturing a model is a task that can be splitted in 2 branches:

  • creating an UV map
  • applying 1 or more textures using that UV map ( you can apply a texture to a material only if the object has a material, and that texture is related do that material )

you are not achieving neither one of the two.

the first part: hitting U and choosing “Unwrap” without marking some seams it’s simply a useless thing to do, at least choose “Smart UV Project”, but the best result comes with custom seams.

find some tutorial and remember that the shortcut for creating seams is CTRL+E .

When you have created this 2D map of your 3D object called UV map you can use it creating a new material or using an existing one, go from the “material tab” to the “texture tab” make a new texture from “image or movie” and choose your image hitting the little folder icon; don’t forget to choose UV as mapping technique in the same tab.

Try to search the web for some basic tutorial.

#7

no no no. That’s not how I did it at all!

I didn’t hit unwrap… read my post… I hit project from view.
And I did create a UV map!
I split the screen and went into the right screen and select uv map/image editor and selected create new. Then I select the portion of the gun I want to texture, project it from view, then apply texture painting…

I’ve watched several tutorials on texturing guns, 3 or 4 at least and THIS is the method that they explained - which I have been trying to imitate.

Thx for trying to help, please read my post more carefully…

#8

in your blend file there isn’t a complete and correct UV map.

this is an example of what you have to do http://www.sendspace.com/file/v5cjpj

what you can see on the left is a complete UV map for your object, compare this to what your original file contains.

this is an UV map obtained using the automatic uv unwrap script from blender, the best result comes with seams and manual work.

#9

You’re falling victim to your modelling here. Get rid of all internal vertices/planes. Leave only outside mesh. Then when you use u, Project from view, which is uv mapping anyways, you wont see this hollowness anymore. For to use two different images to project from view you’ll need to add another uv layer and use that (Object Data - triangle icon, UV Maps, plus sign.)

#10

@@magnus28

you have to recalculate the normals, you have strange normals on your model faces.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/kumjvb

i didn’t check the normal in my previous file, i forgot to check that.

#11

thank you so much ble and eppo! I have much to learn, and I will try tonight to apply the changes.

Eppo, are you saying the stuff i made looks hollow because I have internal vertices? Or it looks hollow because I didn’t apply a separate uv map for each different angled picture that I tried to map?

#12

sorry, edit:

Eppo why is that pic you posted have the barrels warped? In my model they are straight. and how did you get the gray outer cylinders to have such detail and to be not see through and seem o wrap around? what changes have you made so I can learn from them.

#13

Looks warped because of close camera and angle probably. I deleted all centre vertices on barrel, connected some parts using bridge tool. Deleted most of the inner flat section planes, then roughly positioned according to picture and unwrapped from view. That’s it.
If you are to combine different view pictures into one texture you need to make seams as it was told, smart unwrap and assign this new image as texture. Then make new uv’s for each project from view, select your new image and base uv and switch to texture paint mode. there’s texture clone brush. with that you could select from which uv layer you want to clone texture to new image - see panlel closely. choose one uv created from views as a source and paint on model. you’ll see it painting -cloning on image. repeat for other views and you’ll end up with new texture image, combined from these you have. save that image and use as a new texture for final.
I suggest you see this tut for 2.49. Might be little confusing, but all features are there and stuff works. It’s the same trick, only used for masking seams. And a lot of other useful things are there too.

#14

i’m sorry this is all too complicated for me.

I watched the tutorials suggested, but out of the 35 min tutorial, i only understood about 2 mins of it.

Here’s what I got out of your suggestions:

-clean up model by deleting internal vertices and faces.
-create a texture from image, if I want to use several images, then create new uv map for each image.

  • mark seam does better job than smart uv unwrap.

I have some questions, please don’t direct me to tutorials, because these are for advanced users, and the guys usually go on tirads and digress from what they are telling you they want to do, and spend 5 mins talking about something else.

  1. I am in the split window, and I want to create a proper uv map for an image to be used to ‘texture paint’ how do I do this?
  2. Do I have to unwrap all the parts after marking seams, or can I just create texture from image and project from view.
  3. I watched a gun texture tutorial in which this guy would mouse over model and get a ‘preview’ of what the texture would look like in the current mouse position, how do I do this?
  4. how do I delete just the inner vertices and faces without touching the outer ones. (example: I tried to delete the part of the barrel where I extruded inwards to make it hollow, and it screwed up the end of the barrel, how do I fix this? I’m unfamiliar with the bridge tool or any technique to fix outer faces when you delete inner ones.

I have many more questions, but i’ll post them as I run into more problems.

Thanks richard, ble, and eppo for helping this noob!

p.s. I just want to get the basics down to texture this gun like I was doing before with project from view and texture painting, I don’t want to make things complicated. I am not familiar with subsurf modifiers, bump mapping, etc. Just want to make this look nice for my project. It should remain relatively low poly for use in a game, but I don’t want to go as far as adding low poly template and then baking high res texture on top of that - sorry for lack of proper terminology.

one final question though.

  1. for level of detail, do I have to make a low poly version, then hit subdivide, save it, sub divide again just to get 3 different levels of detail? (for game viewing distances)

thanks so much!

#15

First thing - assign default material to object, doesn’t matter how does it look.
Set N panel Display Shading GLSL and check Textured. In 3d view stay on Solid shading mode.
Mark seams in edit mode on object. Unwrap.
In UV editor click New Image, mark UV Grid option, name it. Save file somewhere handy.
Now, in 3d view you should have grid texture on your object, nicely wrapped. If distorted, change seams, repeat unwrap.
To be on a safe side, go to materials Textures, assign new texture to object, choose Image - saved image.
From now, you could switch to Texture draw and paint on object. In uv editor, image needs to be saved after painting.
The most interesting part follows.
So, you decided to copy what’s seen on source picture to objects texture. Texture paint - Clone brush does that, only thing - it needs to know what to copy where…
Again, first, open image in uv editor. Position your object like in your picture.
Go to Properties panel Object Data and click plus sign near UV’s. Switch to new one, name it Source. Rename first one FinalProduct.
Select object, it was in object mode, was it? Switch to edit mode and unwrap from view.
Now in uv editor you should see picture to copy and unwrap, bit off, bit small, whatever. Position, scale, make them fit.
In Texture Draw mode, choose Clone Brush, make 100 opacity, look for uv tab, switch that to Source.
In Properties panel - UV to FinalProduct, that’s important.
Paint in 3d view. It’s quick…
Go get another source pic, load that into uv editor, switch Properties UV to Source, position object, unwrap from view… wash, rinse…
Don’t forget to save texture file at the end.
I might have forgotten some, ask, if what. Wouldn’t be easy on a first go.

For modeling, dunno, probably better to make another one out of one cube… If not, switch to Face select, select outside, hide it. Delete the rest of the faces.
Barrels are ok, just delete central vertices.

Detail level in game is determined by textures, not polys, most important being normalmaps - you told that you don’t want to touch that…
Bump mapping is eeeasy, convert color texture image to gray, use it as a new texture (could use color one too, actually), check Normals -0.1 or whatever instead of Color and look down for BumpMap Method. Choose one…

If screwed up, Ctrl-Z is your friend on most of occasions:)

Happy blending!

#16

thx for the reply - I think!
gonna take me about 3-4 days to do what you suggested.

Thing is, I am using blender 2.6, and most of these tutorials are on older versions with a totally different interface.

I am not comfortable with unwrapping, because I don’t want my model opened like an orange, and then having to texture all the pieces and then wrap it up again.

Can I Just use project from view?

I wish I could find a vid tut using 2.61 that would show me how to texture the gun the easy way like I saw in other tuts, because in the 3 I watched, there was no unwrapping, just projecting from view. None of them talked about assigning a material prior to uv mapping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0oIXd_zUV0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oid7Pi7uXKI

the second link the guy has a projected image, then he copies something over to the 3d view, then he changes the position on the mouse and gets a preview of what the texture will look like before he paints it.
Looks super easy… can I texture like this guy was doing? He never once mentioned assign textures or materials.

sorry for sounding like a super noob… Just it’s like i’m asking how the thrusters on a rocket works, and i’m getting an explaination on how to build the entire ship!

Don’t get me wrong, I very much welcome the help, just a little overwhelmed on the process. …

#17

See, the whole point is, there are cheets all around everywhere… If you had nice side views for texture, project from that, forget about top being smeared, a bit not covered with color, call the day. You don’t have. You want combined texture, combined from different views. That’s hardcore. That’s a spaceship, not firecracker. You probably seen him doing this top front part which did not came on first hit. He was lucky coz top was looking good. You could try to project from view on cube with any kind of photo - side will be ok, top smeard mess - if that’s a piece of metal same color, no probs.
Follow his other tut for in gimp made textures - will be much easier, just Bake AO operation in blender, all the rest in gimp, overlaying colors, some cheesy scratches and you’re done.
Or see this slow and patient workflow. It’s for 2.58 which is more close to 2.62 - well, identical.

Unwrapping in blender is much better than it used to be. Smart, with island margin set to 0.05 does on most of occasions, Follow active quads makes it’s job on cylindrical stuff. Again, you even doesn’t have to pay attention how it unwraps while using workflow i described. Just unwrap and forget. Actual painting is done from Project from view. Of course, if it’s nice and pretty, one could try to paint some on texture by hand, which isn’t the case with messy unwrap. But as i told, you’ll be Clone painting without even considering manually painting textures.
I could try to put up some vid on how it’s done, it’s just that i’m not feeling like talking much - English is my third and i’m not practicing spoken, kinda rusty, you know :).

So? Gonna give a try to clone painting, or not?

;))

#18

i’m willing to try, I just need to figure out some shortcuts first.

First thing I have to figure out how to delete internal vertices. I know there is a shortcut for select all continous loop, but i’m unfamiliar with this, what I do is zoom in and manually connect by shift-right clicking.

I would be happy to project from view from a really nice side view picture, and have the top looking a bit smeared.
Can you tell me how to do this in a proper UV format? Also how to I render this with texture so i can see what it looks like in the 3d window? Apparently when I saved my project, it did not save the texture as applied with texture paint.

so for now I wish to.

  1. Create proper UV map from image, assign to a texture.
  2. project from view and texture paint. How to use a clone brush?
  3. save texture to model and render to view in 3d viewer
  4. have the camera parented to the model in a way that I can move the model around 360 degrees and view it fully textured.

can you tell me how to do this?

then I can work on cleaning up little things, then duplicating whole thing (minus hand grip and trigger) and then making a twin barreled version!

Thanks Eppo!

:slight_smile:

#19

sorry to hijack this thread,

thanks eppo for your great help!

i have a problem when using “project from view”

that’s the first picture.

the second is the uv unwrap.

the “project from view bounce” should also look like the uv unwrap,no?

can you help me what m’i doing wrong?

many thanks!!!

#20

please start your own thread blendom… as if people start hijacking threads then the ops questions might not get answered. You are in the right sub forum, just try a little etiquette next time?