3DTotal.SwordMaster.3DSMax

SwordMasterPart 5Modelling theArmourIntroduction: Fig01Welcome to the fifth instalment in the serieswhich will provide a step by step guide tobuilding a low poly character based upon amodel by Seong-Wha Jeong. Last month sawus adding clothing and hair and now we reachthe last phase in the modelling section which willcover giving our warrior some armour to wear. 1. If you have followed the previous tutorialsthen open the last file which saw us make thebelt for his waist. The first thing we are goingto do now is re-position some of the verts onhis left arm. In Fig01 you will see some of theexisting verts (highlighted in red) that have beenmoved into different positions on the mesh. Thegreen line across the front and back sectionsrepresent additional cuts. When you havereached this stage it is time to create the actualarmour for the arm.2. The next step is to select the poly’s that makeup the whole of the armour section (seen inred in Fig02). What I do then is detach these,universally scale them slightly and then re-position them central to the shoulder edge andthen re-attach them to the main mesh. You canthen create a line of poly’s to join them back upthus adding volume to the armour (see greenpoly’s in inset). Fig02www.3dcreativemag.com page 51 Chapter 05

Fig03 SwordMaster 3. Now onto the forearm section which will be initially made from a separate cylinder. First delete the poly’s highlighted in red but on the opposite side where the armour is located (Fig 03). Now create an eleven sided cylinder and then convert it to an editable poly deleting the top and bottom faces. Scale the top row of verts and scale them in somewhat and then bevel the two bottom rows of poly’s to form the shape seen on the right. Now place the cylinder between the elbow and wrist and scale it to fit as closely as possible to the elbow. You can then snap the arm verts to the cylinder top and then attach the two. All you need to do now is create a set of poly’s around the wrist and do not worry too much if the hand is not central. 4. Next piece to be made is the elbow guard. This we will do in a similar manner to the knee guard. Start by creating a tube making sure to add a slice of 180 degrees (Fig 04). Add one segment and a similar number of sides to those in the picture.Fig04 page 52 Chapter 05 www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster5. To finish off the piece extrude the middlesection of poly’s down as shown in Fig 05 Toform the rounded front section just select andextrude the end poly’s highlighted in red andthen make four cuts (two on either side seen ingreen) from the corners. It is then just a case ofpulling in the corner verts. Fig056. Right, well we have the armour across hisleft arm but now we need to create a strap thatwraps around his body that holds it in place.This will involve creating a spline that roughlyfollows the contours of his torso around whichwe will Loft a rectangle shape to form the strap.This first of all involves making a spline fromunder the Shapes tab on the control panel.Choose Line and make sure you set the Initialand Drag types to Corner (Fig 06). Start thespline at the center of the face ringed in greenon the back of the model and curve it roundto the front section of the armour just short ofthe shoulder (eight verts in this case). You willnotice that I have also made a small rectangle(in orange which has the same proportion as theface from which the spline starts) and this willform the shape of the strap. Fig06www.3dcreativemag.com page 53 Chapter 05

Fig07 SwordMaster 7. Select the spline shape and under the Geometry tab and Compound Objects click on Loft and then click on Get Shape followed by the rectangle (Fig 07). Under the Skin Parameters make sure to uncheck both capping boxes and set the Shape and Path steps to zero. You should now see a rectangle stretched around our character’s torso similar to the picture. 8. All you need to do now is snap the end verts to the armour (ringed in red in Fig 08) and tweak the shape so it hugs the torso. You will notice also that I have added two smaller straps which connect it to the front section.Fig08 page 54 Chapter 05 www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster9. We now arrive at the final stage of theprocess – adding the shoulder piece. The firststep is to create a shape similar to the one onthe right in Fig 09 which you can do either bycreating a Plane or converting a Spline. Onceyou have the shape apply a Shell modifier togive it some depth as seen on the left. Fig0910. Now duplicate this which you can do usingthe Symmetry modifier and then collapse theobject to an Editable Poly making sure to weldany overlapping verts afterwards ! Next selectall the front Poly’s and perform an Extrusion,keeping the height to zero and then clickingApply and OK (Fig 10). Now with the poly’s stillselected scale them down slightly as shown inthe picture. Fig10www.3dcreativemag.com page 55 Chapter 05

Fig11 SwordMaster 11. With the same group selected add a Bevel by an amount similar to that shown on the right in Fig. 11. To enable the model to fit around the shoulder it will need to be curved which we can do by adding a Bend modifier. You will notice from the picture that it has been bent around the X axis but it is perhaps better to apply this when the model is complete to form a better shape as we will add some more subdivisions first. 12. The next step is to make a cut across the front as shown in red on stage 1 in Fig 12. Now select the poly’s in red on stage 2 and Extrude them outwards by a similar amount. Now weld up the verts highlighted in yellow to form the version on stage 3. The second row down from the top can be welded to the row above as indicated by the white arrows.Fig12 page 56 Chapter 05 www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster13. Now add two cuts along the front marked bythe red lines on stage 1 in Fig 13. Then selectthe new verts shown in green and one by oneperform an extrusion altering the height andbase width to form teeth shapes similar to step2 on the right. If you did not add a Bend modifierbeforehand then do so now and fit it around theshoulder area. Fig1314. All that is left to do now is add a fewsmall details and we will have completed themodelling phase. In Fig 14 you can see thatI have made a small cylinder and placed it atthe center of the shoulder (2) and made somestuds to go around the wrist area (3). I have alsoadded a few extra poly’s around the shoulderstrap that will be used to texture the buckleseventually (1). Fig14www.3dcreativemag.com page 57 Chapter 05

SwordMasterThis concludes the modellingphase of the tutorial and nextmonth we shall begin mappingand unwrapping the mesh inpreparation for the texturing stages.www.3dcreativemag.com page 58 Chapter 05

SwordMasterPart 6Mapping andUnwrappingIntroduction Fig01Welcome to the sixth instalment in the serieswhich will provide a look at mapping andunwrapping our finished mesh. This is quitean involved process and will be covered inonly one tutorial. In order to keep this frombecoming too long I have not detailed everystep along the way but rather opted to providean overview of the principal techniques used.This should hopefully equip any beginnerswith enough information to tackle the entiremodel and complete it on their own. The crucialmethods necessary will be covered and thencan be repeated to map sections that have beenomitted. The important thing to remember is thatthe tutorial has been filtered to contain only thekey procedures.1. The first step is to apply a material to ourmodel so open up the material editor and selectall the geometry and then click on the AssignMaterial to Selection button (highlighted in red inFig01). Notice how the model has now adoptedthe grey colour of the assigned material (topcenter) and is now surrounded by four whitetriangles indicating it belongs to an object in thescene. Get used to naming your materials too– in this case Swordmaster.2. In order to check the integrity of our mappingco-ordinates and enable us to successfullyunwrap our mesh we will need to apply astexture to our geometry to act as a guide – inthis case a checker map. The idea here is thatthe squares are a consistent size and so willeasily show any stretching and badly mappedpolygons. To load the texture make sure you firstof all have a checker map and then click on thesmall button next to the Diffuse slot (highlighted Fig02www.3dcreativemag.com page 59 Chapter 06

Fig03 page 60 SwordMasterFig04 in red in Fig02). This will bring up the map browser where you need to select Bitmap at the www.3dcreativemag.com top (bottom right of image). Click on Ok and the map should appear on your mesh – if not click on the checker cube along the toolbar (ringed in red). You will now see a very messy checker map across your character which will require mapping. The checkermap will eventually be substituted by our painted template and the idea is that if the squares appear correctly so then will the finished texture. 3. The first step to correcting this is to apply the UVW Mapping modifier which you can find in the modifier list. Before doing this select all the poly’s that make up the head and neck area as seen in Fig 03. Now apply the mapping modifier which you can see in the upper right and click on the little + symbol and highlight Gizmo. Now select the Cylindrical radio button just below and click on the Fit tab as highlighted in red. You should now see the yellow cylinder fit neatly around the selected poly’s with a green line representing the seam which you want to align with the edge along the back of the head. If it dos not appear in the correct position simply use the rotate tool on the main toolbar to move it. Hopefully you should also see a much more consistent checker pattern too. 4. The next stage in the process involves applying the Unwrap UVW modifier directly above the mapping with the poly’s still selected. You can see the modifier in the stack on the top right in Fig 04 and the selected poly’s highlighted on the left. This modifier enables us to manipulate the mapping co-ordinates and move UVW verts and faces that correspond to those on the mesh – in other words we can transform the mapping so that we get a true and proper checker map without any obvious distortion. Chapter 06

SwordMaster5. In order to do this click on the large Edit tabunder parameters to open up the Edit UVWswindow (Fig 05). This window gives us accessto our mapped geometry in the form of aflattened lattice of verts and faces – in this casea head and neck area. You will notice alongthe top of the window are some of the standardtransform tools and in the window itself you willsee a blue square that represents our templatesize which in this case is a1024x1024 map seenin the upper top right. Fig05 page 61 Chapter 066. Using the transform tools we can alter themapping co-ordinates in this window which willdirectly affect the texture. On the left of Fig 06you will notice a vert highlighted in red whichhas been moved out of alignment with its edgeand as a consequence the checker map hasbeen stretched in the corresponding position onthe mesh, encircled in red. The basic premiseof this part of the process is to use the toolsavailable within this dialogue box to accuratelymirror the checker map across the surface ofour geometry. Start by using the scale tool tomake the checkers appear square and thenconcentrate on details where stretching occurs.The green lines’ surrounding the unwrappedhead represent the seam lines / open edges andare also visible on the model in the viewport.There are two polys which you will notice falloutside of the neat edge and we shall go on tocorrect those later. Fig06 www.3dcreativemag.com

Fig07 page 62 SwordMasterFig08 7. The next thing to do is map the outer faces of one of the ears. The way to do this is first apply www.3dcreativemag.com an Edit Mesh modifier on top of the Unwrap UVW and then select the necessary poly’s in sub object mode and apply another UVW Mapping modifier. In the left or right viewport click on Planar under the mapping parameters, expand the gizmo as before and then click on the View Align tab. This aligns the gizmo with the view and if you wish you can use the rotate tools to better align it with the selected faces if they are not perpendicular (which they will not be) using the top view as a guide. You can then click on Bitmap fit and select the checker map and proceed by applying another UVW Unwrap modifier. It is a good policy to move any unwrapped geometry outside of the blue template square as all the geometry will inhabit this area by default otherwise when you unwrap the entire mesh you will have all the separate elements overlapping one another inside the template. (Fig 07) You can also move the mapped faces before you unwrap them as the gizmo itself represents the template shape and so if you move this in the viewports once you have applied the planar map the UVW’s will appear outside the blue square when you unwrap them. It is entirely up to you which way you do things. 8. As you map your model use the checker pattern in the viewports to try and keep the squares a similar size by scaling the gizmo, so our texture will have a consistent resolution. We will actually break this rule later on but for now just unwrap everything to a similar size. If you map some geometry and forget to move it outside the template boundary you may find when you unwrap it along with further poly’s later on there will be some overlapping as we have mentioned. In Fig 08 we can see an example of this. We see the previously mapped outer faces of the ear already outside the template but when the inner ones were mapped they were not moved. When the entire Chapter 06

SwordMasterhead is selected we see the ear overlappingthe face. Instead of selecting all the culprit vertsindividually we can tick the Select Element boxat the base of the window (highlighted in red)and then move the whole piece across. Youwill also notice that the outer verts of the otherhalf of the ear are highlighted in blue. Thesecorrespond with the verts that occupy the samespace on the actual model and are weldedtogether. The idea is that if we wish to unwrapthe model in large sections we know which vertsto weld in the Edit UVWs window which we willdo next.9. First thing to do is move the inner faces of Fig09the ear outside and scale them to match theouter facing sections. At the moment the twohalves have the same orientation so the newlymapped faces need to be flipped horizontally.Select all the verts and click on the symbolringed in red along the top of Fig 09. Now selectthe left edge of verts and you will see the onesthat correspond in blue alongside.10. Make sure that the two sections of theear are very close and then region select twoadjacent verts and then right click and you willsee four context sensitive quads appear. Scrolldown and click on Weld Selected as shown inFig 10. To make sure you weld both open theOptions by clicking on the tab in the bottomright (highlighted in yellow) and turn the WeldThreshold up to 10.0. As open edges are weldedso some of the green seam lines become whiteto indicate they are now closed. Fig10www.3dcreativemag.com page 63 Chapter 06

SwordMaster 11. As we mentioned earlier we shall now go on and fix the two stray poly’s along the top edge. In Fig 11 we can see how the edge traced in red mirrors the seam line across the head model in the viewport. What we really want is a neat, straight line running from the neck to the top of the scalp. Select the two verts in red, right click and then click on Break as shown in the image.Fig11 12. Tick the Select Element box and then move this poly across to the right side where it belongs as shown in Fig 12. You do not need to worry about welding it up for now. We now have two sets of two verts which we need to weld together to close the three open edges seen in green on the left. Region select the two groups ringed in red and then weld them to close the edges.Fig12 page 64 Chapter 06 www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster13. Close the UVW Unwrap window, applyan Edit Mesh modifier on top of the stack andthen select the half of the head in sub-objectpoly mode that has not had the ear unwrapped.Delete these polys and then apply another UVWUnwrap. Now move the verts around along thetop edge using the checker map as a guideto improve the distortion across the scalp. Donot worry about it being perfect as there will besome degree of stretching but it will eventuallybe concealed by the hair anyway. You shouldaim for something similar to the shape in Fig 13with a nice neat seam line through the center.14. Close the window and collapse the stack Fig13and then in sub-object poly mode duplicate the Fig14head and neck area that has been mapped.With this new half selected apply a UVW page 65 Chapter 06Unwrap and you will notice that you see anexact copy what we have done so far. This isbecause duplicate geometry carries with it anymapping co-ordinates that have been applied.Move the entire unwrap aside away from itscurrent position. Now close the window, weld thetwo halves of the head together and then selectall the poly’s that make up the head / neck.Apply another UVW Unwrap and you will noticethat you have two identical halves. Flip thenewly unwrapped section and then move themnext to one another so the central line of vertsoverlap down the middle of the face as seen inFig 14. Turn the Weld Threshold down to 0.01(bottom right) and then with all the central vertsselected click on Weld Selected. You shouldnow have a completely mapped head with aseam around the base of the neck and from thetop of the forehead to the top of the shoulders. www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster 15. Now it is time to move onto the torso. Select the front half of the body from the neck line down to the trousers and half way around the side as seen in Fig 15. As with the ears apply a Planar map whilst in the front viewport making sure to then click on View Align and then Bitmap Fit under the Alignment parameters.Fig15 16. Follow the same procedure for the back to complete the torso area and then with all of these poly’s selected in sub-object mode apply an Unwrap UVW. In Fig 16 you can see that I have moved the two pieces alongside one another with the intention of welding the verts highlighted in the top left which run under the arm. You will also notice that the two sections have been moved outside the template and are currently of a lower resolution than the face due to the larger checker pattern.Fig16 page 66 Chapter 06 www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster17. In Fig 17 you can see that the verts havenow been welded and the section scaled tomake it more consistent with the head. You willhave to re adjust the verts in the Edit windowonce welded in order to reduce some of thedistortion. Fig1718. Now it is time to deal with the limbs. As yousaw with the head any mapped geometry thatis duplicated retains its mapping co-ordinatesand so to save time delete one complete legfrom the waist down (inset 1 in Fig 18). Nowselect all the poly’s that make up the trousersbarring the three quads under the groin (inset2). Apply a Cylindrical map making sure to clickon Fit and then rotate the gizmo so the greenline is aligned with the inside edge as closelyas possible (see main image). Then Unwrapthis section exactly as we have done before.The basic procedure that will be repeatedthroughout this tutorial is to select poly’s insub-object mode, apply the UVW Mappingmodifier followed by the Unwrap UVW. Thenapply another Edit Mesh on top of the stack andwhen the stack gets a little too big just collapseit – you will not loose any of the mapping! Fig18www.3dcreativemag.com page 67 Chapter 06

Fig19 SwordMaster 19. You can follow the same procedure with the lower leg using a cylindrical map and then transforming the verts in the Edit UVWs window to refine the mapping. With regard to the feet simply apply a planar map from the left and right sides as seen in Fig 19. You can see in the top views that the gizmo has been rotated to better align it with the general direction of the polygons. 20. When both sides have been mapped unwrap the whole foot except the sole and then rotate and move the two respective sections together as seen in Fig 20. Weld the two edges of verts within the red rectangle to close the seam line seen running down the top of the foot on the right. Then tweak the vert positions to minimize any obvious distortion.Fig20 page 68 Chapter 06 www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster21. Now it is on to the arms using the sameprocedure again really. In Fig 21 you can see acylindrical map being applied to the left arm. Itruns from a line at the top of the shoulder downto the wrist. You can see that I have rotated thegizmo to follow the orientation of the arm usingits local co-ordinates (highlighted in red alongthe main tool bar). You will also notice in theinset that I have positioned the green seam lineon the inside of the arm in a less conspicuousplace. When you select new groups of Poly’syou will automatically be creating a seam linealong the boundary at which the selection endsand so it is important to think about where toplace these. Adhere to natural seams in orderto ease the texturing process such as the top ofthe trousers and edge of the armour but otherthan that decide on where they will be leastvisible. Fig2122. In Fig 22 you can see that the seam lineson the limbs are on the inside as this is usuallythe least visible area. This means that if thereare any problems with edges not matchingexactly on the final texture they will be lessnoticeable here. On the torso you can see oneseam line on one side under the left arm andthere is one above the top and one below thetrousers. This is a good area to have themensuring a sharp edge to where the texturechanges on the character, similarly with theshoulder armour on the right arm. The seamline down the front of the trousers and facewill eventually disappear when the mesh iscomplete. Fig22www.3dcreativemag.com page 69 Chapter 06

SwordMaster 23. When the leg is fully unwrapped it is time to copy it over and weld it to the main body. In Fig 23 you can see the duplicate leg on the right which is still a separate object. Before welding it up move the UVW’s – of which the trouser section is shown in the window on the left. With the entire leg section shifted over now weld the mesh together. The hand can also be mapped and then copied over and re-scaled but you may want to map the two arms separately as they are slightly different – it is up to you really.Fig23 page 70 24. Now it is time for the armour pieces – the first of which is the main shoulder section. AsFig24 this is symmetrical we can delete one half to start with. Before we start to map it we are going www.3dcreativemag.com to alter the pivot point. Click on the hierarchy tab at the top of the Modify panel and then on the Pivot tab (highlighted in yellow in Fig 24). This will show the pivot point of the object in question (the three arrows in the main window). We need to align this with the center of the open edge as seen in the image. You can do this by clicking on the Align tool on the main toolbar and then entering the values as shown in the dialogue box on the left. If your pivot point has a different orientation you will need to change the parameters accordingly but the main thing is to get the pivot point aligned with the open edge even if it is not central. Chapter 06

SwordMaster25. Now map both sides separately using aplanar map, rotating the gizmo to keep thechecker pattern as accurate as possible (Fig25). Once done, duplicate the piece by firstselecting the whole object and then clicking onthe Mirror tab on the main toolbar. Fig2526. When the dialogue box opens select theNo Clone radio button and either the X, Y or Zradio button above to give you what we see inFig 26. You can use exactly the same methodsto map all the armour pieces. In the case of theaccessories you can planar map all of these andwill not need to do anything different to whatwe have done already. Once you have finishedwith the armour and clothing it is time to moveonto the hair. Because there are many piecesthat make up this area it is unnecessary toindividually map every element as it would takeup far too much texture space. There will be justunder fifty separate meshes that make up thehair but we will only have to map nine of these.The idea is that we map the nine sections andthen duplicate them to make up the rest of thehair. Fig26www.3dcreativemag.com page 71 Chapter 06

Fig27 SwordMaster 27. These groupings are visible in Fig 27 and are colour co-ordinated to show how they have been organised. In the top right you can see that the front three poly’s have been separately mapped (numbers 1-3). Along the top of the head there are three blue poly’s so you would only map/unwrap one and then copy this twice, snapping the verts to line up exactly with the remaining groups. There will off course be a bit of stretching on the checkermap as each of the meshes varies slightly but nothing serious. When this is done delete the two redundant versions and then repeat this until you have completed the rest of the hair pieces. 28. When the hair section is mapped you can attach the front three sections to the main body as shown in red in Fig 28 but leave the rest of the hair pieces as separate objects; the reason for which shall be revealed next. Select the main body and apply an Unwrap UVW and then move the three front hair pieces in line with the top of the forehead, scaling them accordingly.Fig28 page 72 Chapter 06 www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster29. In order to save even more texture space Fig29select the row of verts highlighted in red inFig 29 and Break them. Now move the rightelement of the head over to the left and overlayit with the area marked in green by flipping ithorizontally. The reason is that this section ofthe head will be under the hair and thereforecarry little detail and so can be symmetrical.More importantly the face area which is thefocal point can still look different on both sidesas it is mapped in its entirety. The two smallpurple poly’s should also be broken from themain lattice and overlapped to make way for thethree hair pieces which you can see have beenwelded to the forehead on the right. The purpleand green areas showing the vertices nowrepresent both halves of the head thus savingspace which means that we can now paint asmooth transition between the face and hairline. The three hair poly’s on the right of the facerepresent all five front pieces and mean we arealso saving more space.30. This concludes the mapping section of theexercise and now we need to assign a materialto our mesh in preparation for texturing bydragging the material onto each and everymesh. Open up the Material Editor and selectone of the example slots. Click on the Standardtab (highlighted in red in Fig 30) and selectMulti/Sub-Object from the browser. You willbe prompted with a Replace Material box ;just click OK as either option is fine. You willnow see ten sub-materials under the BasicParameters– click on Delete at the top of thewindow until you see only three remaining.Notice how the material is now a Multi/Sub-Object material that contains three Standardmaterials. Fig30www.3dcreativemag.com page 73 Chapter 06

Fig31 page 74 SwordMasterFig32 31. Now name these accordingly as shown in Fig 31. You can also change the colour of the www.3dcreativemag.com materials by clicking on the small colour swatch on the right so you can easily identify each one on the model. On the left of the labels is an ID column and this corresponds to an ID number that is assigned at the sub-object poly level. You can see that ID 1 represents the main body, 2 is the armour and 3 will be assigned to the hair. Now we need to select each of the meshes that make up our character and assign the appropriate numbers. So in sub-object poly mode select all the poly’s that make up the body and then scroll down to the Surface Properties –Material and choose 1 next to Set ID. These should now adopt the colour schemes in the editor (in this case grey). Go on and assign the rest of the ID numbers to the model as indicated in the picture. If you wish to select all poly’s of a certain ID number then use the spinner arrows in the Select ID box and then click on the tab next to it. 32. Now select the hair material and check the 2 Sided tickbox as seen in Fig 32 under the Basic Parameters. This will enable the hair to be visible from both back and front and mean it will look thicker as we orientate around the character. You can see how the poly’s are now also apparent from behind our character on the right of the picture. Now as you remember from earlier on in the tutorial we unwrapped each of the meshes that make up our character. Before we begin the texturing phase we need to arrange all of our pieces into a template that we will export as a wireframe and will represent our final texture layout. As there are so many elements they will not comfortably fit into one template and so we need to split them into two separate ones. Chapter 06

SwordMaster33. In order to see all the unwrapped geometry Fig33together we will have to attach all the pieces ofgeometry into a single mesh temporarily. Selectthe main body and then click on Attach in themodify panel and then select the remainingmeshes as shown in Fig 33. You can see in thepicture that the model on the right is a singlemesh by the highlighted geometry where asthe left version does not yet include someof the armour. When you apply an UnwrapUVW modifier you will now see every piece ofgeometry in the edit window and what you needto do now is decide which pieces to put intowhich template. This is entirely subjective anddoes not ultimately matter but keep the variouspieces intact when you divide them up and avoidsplitting individual pieces across two differenttemplates. You may decide to try and keep thehead and body parts together or split them updepending on how you wish to make use ofthe space available. You will inevitably need tore-size certain elements and I advise that youafford a bit more space to more detiled aspectssuch as the face and hands for example.Sometimes certain shapes fit better togetherand mean less wasted space but again it is apersonal choice how you divide everything.Arrange as many of your chosen pieces asyou can into the template and then closethe dialogue box. Now make sure the sameelements are attached as a single object. Youwill need to Detach pieces from the characterand then re-attach them in the same manner asbefore in order to do this. You will have to do thisin sub-object mode and to make things easieryou can make selections in sub-object Elementmode (next to polygon mode). This will enableyou to select entire elements of geometry.The remaining pieces can then be attachedinto a second mesh that can be unwrapped inone piece and these will make up the secondtemplate.34. In Fig 34 you can see that the three Fig34 www.3dcreativemag.com page 75 Chapter 06

Fig35 page 76 SwordMasterFig36 characters show the three ID groups : A. body B. Armour and C hair. You should endeavour to www.3dcreativemag.com keep the elements intact but can combine them in any way you see fit. For example you could place the body poly’s in A with the hair in C as well as shoulder piece 2 in B. Once you have arranged all of the geometry into two separate unwraps you are ready to export them both. 35. In order to get the wireframe templates that will act as your guide you need to install Texporter – a free plugin available to Max. Once installed click on the Utilities tab on the Modify toolbar and select it from the list under the More tab. You will be faced with a set of options similar to those seen on the right in Fig 35. At the top you can specify the size of the Image which in this case will be 1024x1024 as shown. Under Display make sure to uncheck all the tickboxes except Edges. If the model were a single mesh and the poly’s were divided into two ID groups then you could tick the Only ID box and enter the relevant number next to it but in this instance we have two separate meshes that represent our two templates so this is irrelevant. IN the Colourize section below choose Constant and set the colour to white. Now click on the Pick Object tab seen in yellow and select the mesh. You will now see a window appear which mimics our UVW co-ordinates. Save this image by clicking on the Save Bitmap icon on the toolbar and then repeat this procedure for the second mesh. 36. You should now have two templates that between them represent the entire character. Before we begin texturing there is one final thing to do. You will have noticed throughout the tutorials so far that the geometry has looked very angular with numerous hard edges. We are now going to iron out the creases by applying smoothing to various polygons which will help disguise the limited amount of geometry important when modelling for games. Having a hard edge is important in some areas and Chapter 06

SwordMasterdeciding where these boundaries will lie is adetermining factor when assigning smoothing. Theway to go about this is to first select a number ofpoly’s in sub-object mode and then scroll downto the Surface Properties – Smoothing Groupssection and click on the Auto Smooth tab whichis set at a default of 45 degrees. You can seein Fig 36 that the hair has been selected andthe difference this has made on the right handcharacter – much softer ! If your character is madeup of separate meshes then you can go througheach piece individually and follow this procedure.If some of the angles or edges remain sharpsimply increase the angle and try again until youare satisfied.37. When you wish to retain a hard edge on a single object you mayfind it is best to assign separate smoothing groups as shown in Fig 37.The poly’s that make up the arm shown in red have been assigned asgroup 2 where as the rest of the body has been assigned as group 1. Theadvantage of doing this is that you will have more control over where hardedges remain. In the lower inset in the top left you can see an exampleof an Auto smooth applied to both the arm and body together and theremaining two edges that look sharper than the rest. In the picture abovethe arm has been assigned a separate smoothing group whereby theangle can be modified until the upper edge is also smooth. The problemwith not assigning separate groups is that in order to soften any unwantedsharp edges you may end up over compensating on the rest of the modeland giving it the appearance of a clay maquette that has been placedunder running water. This technique preserves hard edges where yourequire them but also allows different settings for selection groups givingthe user more control.38. When you have been through the entire model and completed thistask all you need to do now is load the two wireframe templates onto themesh ready to begin texturing. You should now see a black characteroverlayed with a wireframe guide as seen in Fig 38. This concludes themapping stage of the tutorial – phew ! It has been a lengthy and detailedsection even though I have not covered everything. I hope you havemanaged to follow every step without too many problems. Next month wewill begin the last phase of the tutorial – texturing.www.3dcreativemag.com page 77 Chapter 06

SwordMasterPart 7 Fig01Texturing skin andhairIntroduction:Well, we have at last reached the final stagesof our tutorial: Texturing. This is perhaps theonly part of the exercise where you will notbe held by the hand throughout the process. Ican only really point you in the right directionbut the final texture must be created by you,as the steps involved are far too numerous todetail here. I will break the texture down into thekey components and talk a little about how tostructure your PSD file and organise the variouslevels so that changes can be made quickly andeasily.1. The first thing to establish are the colourblocks which will show the key areas of ourtemplate – in this case the skin tone which willbe done using an RGB value of 198, 152, 98.This is placed over the body, arm and head, asseen in Fig.1. Create these on a separate layerand name it so that it is easily recognisable.You will also notice that I have blocked in thehair colour (R179, G173, B157). The remainingareas comprise of the armoured arm and bootswhich we shall ignore for now.2. Now, create another new layer which we willuse as our shadow layer and will contain all theshading for the skin. This is perhaps the mostimportant layer of all in that it defines the musclegroups more clearly than any other. This layeris set to Multiply as a blending mode and usesvarious shades of a single colour (R47, G29,B5), as seen by the small square inset in the topleft in Fig.2. Fig02www.3dcreativemag.com page 78 Chapter 07

SwordMaster 3. First of all, concentrate on only one half of the face as we can copy this over when it is finished. Choose a standard soft round airbrush with a pixel width of around 30 (Fig03a) and carefully paint in the general areas of shadow without worrying too much about detail (Fig.3). Fig03 4. You can alter the opacity and flow values of the brush along the toolbar to help control the strokes and, when you are happy, then select a hard-edged airbrush (Fig.4a) to refine the detail so that it looks similar to Fig. 2. Remember to use only one colour for all of the shading and keep it on a single layer. Now that the face has a shadow layer intact it is time to add another layer, this time dedicated to highlights. I chose an initial pale yellow, as shown by the square inset in the top left of Fig.4, and set the layer blending mode to Soft Light. I also used a near- white colour in a few areas to add the brightest highlights. On the right of the face is the final version and on the left is the layer set to Normal blending mode and without any shadows so you can see more clearly where it is placed. When painting textures for low poly characters, try and imagine that there is a soft ambient light above the character, as if they are outside. This helps the eye read the forms better and generally creates a more realistic lighting solution.Fig04 page 79 Chapter 07 www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster5. With the head area well underway, it is agood time to start on the body section. Thesame principles apply for all the skin sections.Start with the shadows and then move onto thehighlights layer. I also find that to help get detailsin the correct areas, it is useful to create a newlayer which I call “Guidelines”. On this layer, Idraw line configurations and then save out theimage and load it onto the model. This enablesme to see where to paint in certain parts of thetexture, as seen in Fig.5. I have used a whiteline to depict the area covered by the armourstrap and also drawn in the abdominal musclesbefore starting on any shading. Fig056. To help get the armour strap in the right place,simply look at a front view of the character inyour 3d program and use the wireframe as aguide (Fig.06) Fig06www.3dcreativemag.com page 80 Chapter 07

SwordMaster 7. When you have finished the shading on the torso, use the guideline to paint in a shaded area that follows the strap on a separate layer, which will help bind it to the body (Fig.07). You will also need to repeat this for the back section of the character too. Use the same colour as the shadow layer and set the blending mode to ‘Multiply’ to keep things consistent.Fig07 8. We have covered the crucial stages of painting the skin but we are yet to add in theFig08 details which we shall yet again do on a new layer. In this part of the tutorial we will deal only www.3dcreativemag.com with the eyes, eyebrows and nipples. There are no special techniques here, just careful painting using a small standard airbrush. In Fig.08, you can see a close-up of the eyes and eyebrows. I have chosen blue as a colour, but the important thing to remember is that they do not appear too bright and feel very much as though they are sunk in the head and in shadow. I also added a small highlight on the tip of the nose to help distinguish it. page 81 Chapter 07

9. Now add a further layer and set it to Soft SwordMasterLight (I named mine ‘colour tints’), and, using apurple colour similar to the small inset in Fig.09, Fig09begin adding some colour variation across someof the body and face. Be sure to keep awayfrom the seams and do not overdo it – you willnotice I have concentrated around the eyesand nose on the face with small patches on thechin and cheeks too. This will help break up themonochromatic quality and create some interestacross the areas of skin.10. With regard to the arm and back section ofthe model, I suggest you always start on theguidelines layer and draw in the shapes of themuscle groups and then save out an image totest the accuracy on your actual mesh beforeembarking an any significant detail and shading.This is essentially trial and error and will meanmany changes and test renders before you areconfident in painting in the main shadows andhighlights that will define the form (Fig.10).11. With the face and body sections well Fig10 www.3dcreativemag.com page 82 Chapter 07

SwordMaster Fig12 underway, it is a good time to make a start on the hair. This will utilise an alpha channel which shall be used to control the opacity within Max in order that we can identify hair strands. What I do here is create a new layer which I call ‘Hair alpha’ and I use a pure white colour and paint in the hair strands, as seen in Fig.11. We shall then copy this entire layer and paste it into a new Channels layer. 12. Select the Channels tab and click on the small icon ringed in red in Fig.12a. This will create a new channel that is called Alpha 1 by default. Now, before we paste our hair outline into this new channel, zoom in on two opposite corners and paint in a 1x1 pixel square, as seen in Fig.12. This will not effect the texture as the two squares are outside the mapping co-ordinates but will ensure that the hair shapes remain in exactly the same positions when they are pasted.www.3dcreativemag.com page 83 13. Copy ‘hair alpha’ into the Alpha 1 and then Chapter 07

SwordMastersave out the image as a 32 bit tga, which will Fig13retain the alpha channel. In max, load the tgainto the Opacity slot in the Maps rollout of theMaterial Editor, as shown in the upper part ofFig.13. When you click on the map slot (ringedin red) it will take you to the Bitmap Parameterswhere you will need to select the two highlightedradio buttons. When you look at your characterin Max, the white areas should remain visibleand the surrounding black areas should becomeinvisible.14. In Fig.14, the white areas will be the hair,which we will see, but the grey boundaries of thepoly’s will disappear in the final render.15. Now that we have the outline of the hair we Fig14 www.3dcreativemag.com page 84 Chapter 07

SwordMasterFig16 can begin painting within the alpha areas on a new layer. Use a mid to light grey, similar to the colours seen in Fig.15, making sure to keep the roots slightly darker. To help these blend in with the scalp, I have used a grey colour across the top of the head also. Do not forget to also blend the hairline in along the top of the face. 16. When all is done and applied to our model it should look something like Fig.16. There are a few areas that could be refined somewhat but you get the general idea hopefully. www.3dcreativemag.com page 85 17. When we apply our texture so far to the Chapter 07

model you may notice that there are a few areas SwordMasteralong the seam lines that do not match up verysuccessfully. It is a good idea to create a new Fig17guideline layer to establish which edges areadjacent on the model. Try painting differentcoloured lines and matching them up alongcertain edges as seen in Fig.17. You can seethat the black and orange lines on the body arejoined with the top seam of the arm in the upperright, and so on. What you need to do now isto make sure that the RGB values along thecorresponding edges are similar and have arelative variation on each poly.18. In Fig.18, you can see the seam problemsaround the top of the arm on the left side of theimage where the edges do not match. On theright side is the revised version which shows animprovement.This just about concludes the most crucial Fig18 www.3dcreativemag.com page 86 Chapter 07

SwordMasterstages of texturing the skinareas and hopefully gives youa good picture of how to goabout structuring your PSDfile into key components.All that is left are theear and hand, whichare predominantlydone using methodsalready outlined.The hair couldbe tweaked toa degree toimprove the lookbut you shouldbe armed withenough knowledge totry your hand at painting a texturefrom scratch. Next month will seethe conclusion of this Swordmastertutorial, when we tackle the armourand clothing.www.3dcreativemag.com page 87 Chapter 07

Part 8 SwordMaster Chapter 08Texturing Armourand Clothing.IntroductionWe have finally arrived at the end of this seriesof tutorials. Last month we covered the initialstages of texturing the character by painting inthe skin and hair. This month concludes withus adding the clothing and armour. As with themapping section this is a very detailed andlengthy process and there is simply not timeto cover every aspect. Instead I shall detailsome of the key stages which can be applied tonumerous areas of the template and hopefullyprovide a practical overview.1. The clothing itself is by far the simplest to Fig01achieve as this will comprise of only two key Fig02layers of detail in the form of shadows andhighlights, much like the skin previously. As page 88such, we will start with the armour as this isa little more involved. We will begin with theelbow pad as this is a relatively small part ofthe armour but one that utilises most of thetechniques we shall use on the more dominantpieces. First of all, select a neutral grey andblock in the area on the template and then,using the elliptical marquee tool, select a smallarea within the curved section. Now, on the mainmenu bar, click on Layer – Layer Style – Beveland Emboss. Alternatively, you can click on thesmall “f” icon at the base of the Layers palette.This will bring up a dialogue box similar toFig.01. Here you can alter various settings thatwill determine the direction of light, along withthe type and depth of bevel. You will notice thatI have chosen an Emboss, and the angle of lightis directly above in this case. This is becausethe orientation of the detail on the texturemap is such that the top of the ellipse will befacing upwards on the character and hence theshadow will be underneath. Experiment with theslider bars and styles and observe the effects. www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster 2. One more thing which will help is to add a subtle Drop Shadow, which you can find at theFig03 top of the list. Check the tick box and then slide the Distance arrow down to zero and increase the Size and Spread until there is a soft shadow around the ellipse. Now, on a new layer, create a smaller ellipse inside this one and fill it with the same grey colour. Right-click on the ellipse 1 layer and select ‘Copy Layer Style’ and then paste this into the new layer, as shown in Fig.02. You will now have two ellipses that both incorporate an emboss and drop shadow. 3. On another new layer add in some rivet heads using the same technique, but perhaps leaving out the drop shadow (Fig.03). 4. Now add one more layer and start to draw in some outlines that will trace the shape of the elbow pad and create some extra detail, as seen in Fig.04.Fig04 page 89 Chapter 08 www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster5. Now, believe it or not, that is essentiallythe structure of our elbow pad. It doesn’t lookfinished yet, but with a few minor tweaks itwill be. As this is a relatively small area onthe template, we are going to apply our finaladjustments on the main colour block layer, asopposed to adding any further layers. You caneither use the Colour Dodge / Burn tools orchoose lighter and darker shades of grey to dothis - both methods will require some paintingby hand. We are aiming for something similar toFig.05, in which you can see some modulationto help emphasize the grooves and curvature ofthe metal. Already we can see an improvement,but one final layer will create the finishing touch. Fig056. This will be a metal overlay which shalleventually be used on all of the armour and somust be near the top of our layer stack. Chooseany photo of metal that demonstrates the rightkind of scale and then set it to ‘multiply’ andlay it over the top, making any colour / tonaladjustments as required (Fig.06). This thendescribes the general process we will applyto all of the armour sections, no matter howcomplex. Use the marquee / selection tools toadd shapes followed by Layer Effects to add indetail and lighting. Then, either on a new layeror on the base colour, paint in the refinements,such as shading and highlighted edges etc. Youcan then clone parts of the metal overlay ontothe designated area to complete the armour.Remember to use a guidelines layer initially,as we did with the skin section, to check theintegrity of your mapping – no point in spendinghalf an hour painting an area of detail only tofind it is not correct on the model! Fig06www.3dcreativemag.com page 90 Chapter 08

SwordMaster 7. Now on to the hand - a fairly small but highly detailed area. The first step is to find a suitable image of chainmail which can then be copied into our template and scaled to a sufficient size, as seen in Fig.07, to form the palm.Fig07 8. Now add a series of straps across the fingers with a slight shadow at the edges and a small highlight in the centre, as seen on the left in Fig.08. The next step is to add two layer effects, seen on the right in the layers palette, which will help define them further.Fig08 page 91 Chapter 08 www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster9. The top of the hand, which shall be armourplated, will be a little more intricate. First of all,use the guidelines layer as a gauge by drawingin the outlines of the metal plates, as seen inFig.09. Fig0910. Now make separate selection groups aroundthe guidelines so you end up with a series ofshapes, as seen in Fig.10. Afterwards, you canfill in with a flat grey colour, consistent with therest of the texture, and when you apply the layereffects they will occur on each piece. Fig10www.3dcreativemag.com page 92 Chapter 08

SwordMaster 11. In Fig.11, you can see the effects of the two layer styles that have been applied; the inner shadow which provides a dark outline and the drop shadow which is below each piece.Fig11 12. Now when we overlay some more of our metal texture and some finishing touches, we end up with something like Fig.12. You can see here that I have added some shadows between each finger, together with some highlights across the tops. I have also created some rivets, as before, and painted in some lines to further embellish the hand. When tackling the rest of the armour, follow these procedures and be mindful of the fact that you want there to be an ambient light source above the character.Fig12 page 93 Chapter 08 www.3dcreativemag.com

SwordMaster13. Now for something that features quiteheavily on our template – the belts. There arethree altogether and all are made in a similarfashion. Block in the base colour and then find asuitable photograph of some leather and pasteit over the top in a new layer. Set the blendingmode to ‘multiply’ and alter the hue, brightnessand saturation accordingly. This will give you agood starting point, similar to Fig.13.14. We can now position the rivets, which we doon a new layer, by using the circular marqueetool set to a fixed aspect ratio, as seen along themenu bar in Fig.14. The way to paint these isto first fill in a circle with a grey colour. Then goto Select - Modify - Contract and choose about3 pixels, dependant on the size of the circle ofcourse. Then delete the inner portion until youare left with a simple ring. All you need to donow is to apply a Bevel and Emboss effect and“voila”! Now simply Ctrl + Alt drag two more tofinish. Fig14www.3dcreativemag.com page 94 Chapter 08

SwordMaster 15. Next we will add two indentations where the belt forms two straps. You can do this on the main colour layer as it is relatively simple. Make a rectangular selection and paint in a dark band under the top edge (a) as shown in Fig.15. Now invert the selection (shift + Ctrl + I) and lighten the lower edge to form a highlight (b). Now do the same on the upper strap to finish off.Fig15 16. The two other details that are still missing are the buckles. Again these will be done onFig16 separate layers in order that changes can be made quickly. In Fig.16, you can see two www.3dcreativemag.com buckles that have been painted in. To create the left one make a circular selection and fill in with a grey colour. Now contract this selection group and hit delete, leaving a ring, as we did with the rivets. Now delete half of the remaining shape and use the circular selection once again to add the small semi-circles around the inner-edge. Now just use a brush to add in the highlights and shadows manually. These elements are best done by hand in the end and so there are no clever tricks to speak of, just an awareness of where you want the light source. page 95 Chapter 08

SwordMaster17. The next stage involves adding in rivets and a few vertical straps, as 18. To complete the belt we now need to add in the shadows andshown in Fig.17. You can see that I have also painted in highlights across highlights, which can be done using two new layers, as with the skin inthe middle of the straps. last month’s instalment. In Fig.18, you can see that I have placed some general shading around the centre of the belt, as this area falls under the arm, and also made sure there is a shadow around the buckles which helps fix them to the leather and avoid the appearance that they may be “floating”, as it were. Again, I have added some thin stitched lines along the length, which can be traced by a highlight.www.3dcreativemag.com page 976 Chapter 08

SwordMaster21. Now using a shadows layer set to ‘Multiply’,start painting in the direction of some of thefolds, using the same colour as the trousers.Using a standard soft round airbrush they willnaturally come out darker, due to the layerblending mode. Use a larger brush to begin with,to get a soft edge, and then reduce the size ofthe brush to sharpen crease lines. In Fig.21, youcan see the arrows which dictate the direction ofthe creasing. Try and vary it slightly as there isalways variety where folds are concerned. Fig2122. Now on the highlights layer (Set to SoftLight), simply trace around the shadows toemphasize them, as well as placing a fewstrokes in between, as shown by the arrows inFig.22. Bear in mind which areas will receivemore direct light (in this case the outside of theleg), and focus the stronger highlights in thisarea. Use a colour that is almost white, but witha shade of the green, in the trousers, which willhelp. Use a small, soft brush to add crisp edgesto some of the more extreme creasing down theoutside of the leg. Generally, creases appearmore around areas of tension, such as joints- hence the detail around the groin, so keep thisin mind. Fig22www.3dcreativemag.com page 98 Chapter 08

SwordMaster21. Now using a shadows layer set to ‘Multiply’,start painting in the direction of some of thefolds, using the same colour as the trousers.Using a standard soft round airbrush they willnaturally come out darker, due to the layerblending mode. Use a larger brush to begin with,to get a soft edge, and then reduce the size ofthe brush to sharpen crease lines. In Fig.21, youcan see the arrows which dictate the direction ofthe creasing. Try and vary it slightly as there isalways variety where folds are concerned. Fig2122. Now on the highlights layer (Set to SoftLight), simply trace around the shadows toemphasize them, as well as placing a fewstrokes in between, as shown by the arrows inFig.22. Bear in mind which areas will receivemore direct light (in this case the outside of theleg), and focus the stronger highlights in thisarea. Use a colour that is almost white, but witha shade of the green, in the trousers, which willhelp. Use a small, soft brush to add crisp edgesto some of the more extreme creasing down theoutside of the leg. Generally, creases appearmore around areas of tension, such as joints- hence the detail around the groin, so keep thisin mind. Fig22www.3dcreativemag.com page 98 Chapter 08

SwordMaster 23. One final layer, to help provide some subtle Conclusion shading, can be added on top of the previous three. This will incorporate a Gradient, which Once you are satisfied that you have completed can be found on the toolbar (seen ringed in red each of the components on the texture, you can in Fig.23). First of all, create a selection area add a couple of finishing touches if you wish. around the wireframe containing the trousers, These incorporate painting in some shadows and then click on the gradient tool. This will around the clothing and armour, particularly open up a dialogue box, similar to that on the under the shoulder piece and elbow guard. left. Now select the preset in red along the top This will just emphasize the geometry and add of the editor, and proceed to click on the three a richer and deeper contrast to the shadows tabs under the gradient bar, ringed in green. when the character is placed in a scene. You Change the colours to black, white and black, will notice that the trousers have not been as shown, and then drag a line from the left of unwrapped in their entirety and so it will not be the trousers to the right, making sure that the possible to place a shadow under the waist belt layer mode is set to Multiply. You should now and banner, as it would be mirrored on both see a consistent shadow down the edges of the sides. Ideally you should unwrap both legs in trousers fading away in the middle, as seen on order to solve this problem, but for the sake of the right. A similar approach can be used on saving time I have neglected to do this. One the waist banner, except that is for the gradient. remaining aspect you can add is some wear Begin with some broadly painted shadows using and tear to the clothing and armour, through dirt a Soft Round airbrush, and then tighten the maps. Finding a suitable image of rusted metal creases with a smaller Hard Round brush before will provide a good base from which to extract emphasizing them with a highlights layer. some detail which can be colour adjusted and then overlayed.www.3dcreativemag.com page 99 Chapter 08

You could use a Multiply mode to add dirt/rust,or perhaps Soft Light/Screen to add scratches.Have a go and see what you can come up with.You could also try using Layer Effects – Bevel/ Emboss to add dents and create a battle,hardened look. This, I hope, covers most of thecrucial aspects of the texturing phase of thetutorial. You may find that some of the texture isstretched slightly when applied to the model, asis often the case. An alternative to changing thetexture itself is to tweak the mapping within Maxto solve the issues, which is usually far quicker.Simply apply an Unwrap UVW and transform theverts, as outlined in the mapping tutorial. Whenthe texture is applied to the mesh, and renderedin a simple scene, we end up with somethingsimilar to this image. Tutorial By Richard Tilbury [email protected] The ‘Swordmaster’ character was originally created by Seong-wha Jeong www.xcloud.net [email protected]