Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

Texture mapping with Milkshape 3D

I love meshing and creating for the sims...:0) I love texturing my objects, clothings...I specially like shoes! Recently....a few months ago, I found my way, easier than ever...wanna know ?... Please create a new texture for your BOX...yes, we will map a box! So make a cube....any size you want, directly in Milkshape, OR using your favorite meshing program (I create all my meshes using Anim8or) and bring it into Milkshape. Are you ready ? Go to Material, choose new, and then press none. A window will pop up, asking you to browse to find your newly created texture, find it, open it. NOTE : For better results in SimPe, always use PNJ format., but...for easier texturing, save a copy of your new texture as JPG. You'll then use the JPG one for texturing, but you'll use the PNG one when you'll BUILD DXT in SimPe. The purpose of this, is because of the transparency that the PNG offers...in Milkshape, it'll make texturizing much harder, as you won't be able to see the invisible parts of your mesh. Though this is exactly what you want as a final result in the game...I suggest you to *work* with a JPG in Milkshape . This is the texture I am using for this tutorial.

That being said...let's continue :0) Now, click on Assign...nothing happens. :0( Normal...:0) right click on your blued window (3D window) and select Textured, and then CTRL + A to select everything, aka : your mesh.

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

Now, click again on Assign, and your texture is one the mesh. But...that dosen't fit well huh ? Click anywhere now, in any of the 3 other windows, to deselect all, and to see better...without the red lines. You can see that only 2 sides of the box are displaying the texture correctly...front and back, or almost correctly, depending on the size of your new image. Yet, you want the same good result on each sides...

Lets open the Texture Coordinate editor, under Window, or use CTRL + T. But before, reselect your mesh. If your mesh is not selected, nothing will show in Texture Coordinate editor's window. Okay! Let's see... The window will be small, enlarge it if you want, then to have your image(new texture) showing properly, use CTRL and left mouse button at the same time to move it towards the middle, or where you'll see it better. You can see the 4 little red dots, at each corners ? Those are you vertices. You can also, on the same picture, see that your mesh is called mesh01, and just underneith, Front.

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

If you click on the arrow where Front is now selected, and scroll down, you'll find these :

Front, Back, Left, Right, Top, Bottom. Those are the directions, your texture will be applied on the mesh., It is set to Front, by default.

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

Have you ever dressed a table ? You apply the tableclothe on the TOP, and it makes it Flat on the top...good looking, but what dose this looks like on the sides ? Right, this is not Flat at all... For a tableclothes, this is perfect, but for your new mesh, it'll have to be Flat for all sides. Now, play a bit...scroll down the list, and choose...Left, then Remap...see what happens. (minimize your Texture Coordinate editor window, to see your mesh...:0) The texture will be applied FROM the left, instead of from the Front... and Right side will be the mirror of Left. look at the writtings!

Same deal if you select TOP, and remap...Bottom will be the mirror of Top, and then again, the letters will be mirrored also. If you are using a texture without writtings, the mirror effect will never affect anything, but if you are making a cereal box, or a fish food box...you might want a different writting on the left side, on the right side, and so on. But that will have to be taken in consideration, when making your texture. :0) So! the best trick I found, the methode I always use is this : map each side separatly, for better results. For this cube, if I want the writtings only on TOP, I'll make 3 groups, and map these 3 groups one by one. One for the top, one for the left & right sides, and one for the front & back.

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

To make the groups now. We have 6 faces, but we won't need the bottom one, as it will not show in the game, so go ahead, and delete the unwanted, unnecessary faces. Deleting a face...

Unselect your mesh, then right click on the 3D window, and select Smooth shading...that will hide the texture, for now. Then go to MODEL Tab, Select button. Click on Faces, and check By vertex. The Ignore Blackfaces should always be uncheked, Redraw All Viewport should always be checked, along with Auto Tool. This is true for any Milkshape workings, not just for texturing :0)

Now, delete the bottom, by selecting the 2 bottom vertices in your top right view... that just selected all except the top...so you have 2 choices, 1- go to Edit tab\select invert...then hit delete key. OR... 2- with shift key pressed down, right click on your mouse ONCE in your top right view, and see it changes from MOVE to SELECT...? Righ click again...:) it changes from SELECT to MOVE... Enough playing....stay on SELECT, and select the top 2 vertices, doing so will unselect them, and will leave you with only the bottom one selected, then hit delete key.

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

Move it around in your 3D window, and here you go, you have an empty bottom... the inside is black = texture not showing. the outside is gray = texture showing. Time to make our 3 groups out of this ONE.

At this point, you want to see the texture, so right click again in your 3D window, and choose Textured. Click again on SELECT, and grab the 2 bottom vertices in your TOP VIEW window, so the bottom left window.

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

The purple line shows the front, the yellow one shows the right side. it will select more than just those 2 again, so do like in choice 2...to unselect everything BUT those 2 vertices. like this :

Now go to GROUP tab, and hit Regroup. Rename this group: Regroup01, to front, since it is the front of the box. To rename it, highlight it, type your new name, and hit Rename, NOT Enter ! Now, go back to Model tab, SELECT button, and choose the upper 2 vertices, only... Now the back only is selected, but since it can be map the same way for front and back, we group the back face with the front face, so, go back to GROUP tab, your new front group should still be highlighted, so select it by pressing SELECT, beside HIDE... Now your back bace AND your front face are selected..hit Regroup!

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

It will rename itself to Regroup02, highlight the name Regroup02, and change it to front, again.

We have one group done out of 3. Let's do the same for the left and right now...the process is the same :0) Click anywhere in the top view, to unselect all, OR click on select beside HIDE, to swith to unselect. Now in your top view window, grab the 2 right vertices, and hit Regroup, you don't have to be in MODEL tab, it will select them. name it...right! select the 2 left vertices now, and like before, make sure your right group is still selected too, and hit Regroup!

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

Rename to right...again.

Your Group tab should look like mine, 3 groups, one called mesh01, one called front, and the last one called right. mesh01 is the top one, so rename it TOP ! highlight it in the window, and rename it.

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

We are done making our groups, we go texturizing now...:)) Select all, CTRL + A, and open up, or bring up your texture coordinate editor window. The group named TOP should be showing there already...and the vertices are red, but you have only 2...yet a face has 4 corners... Let's remap the TOP group.

Just above Remap button, scroll and select TOP, then hit Remap. Press on SCALE now...and play with it, using your left mouse button... Move your selected vertices using the MOVE button, and left mouse button... I'll place mind to see the writtings, and the wood texture properly...

I'll use the select button also, if I need to select one or more vertices at same time, try the rotate button also, if you wish, experiment... To select a vertice, just click and drag around it, to add to your selection, press shift key, left click and grab another. To revove from selection, shift key right mouse button, pull them out... Works for main window, also :0) You might want to make your texture coordinate window smaller, and check the Redraw, box to see the changes on your mesh as you go along...:0) Remember, CTRL + left mouse clik, to drag your whole image around. To zoom in and out in the 3D window, shift + left mouse button...move up zoom in, move down, zoom out. Works for main window, also :0)

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

When you are happy with the way the texture applies on top, select another group, from the first list, I choose front, then from the bottom list, choose the front also, to apply the texture from the front. turn it around...you just mapped the back face TOO!. :0) Now, left and right faces...go ahead :0) TADA! all textured :0)

Deselect everything, to get rid of the anoying red lines, and see if you like your box now... To see even better, right click on your 3D window, and unchecked Wireframe overlay...

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

Now that your box is all mapped up, we need to regroup everything, like it as to be for SimPe to recognize your new mesh as it. Are you still in GROUP tab ? if not, go back. If you need only one group , select all and hit regroup, rename accordingly to what Maxis had name its group originally. If you need more than one group in your gmdc, exporting using Unimesh, or export as an obj, for example, then regroup accordingly, and rename to original Maxis. And here you go, not more complicated than that. When making a new object mesh, one important thing according to me, is...don't make more than you need ! for a table, you need 4 legs...but don't mesh them 4, make only one...texture it, then duplicate it 3 times...less work, and they will all be mapped the same way. You want a side table, a coffee table, an end table...to go with it ? Same deal, use the same table top, the same leg. They are already textured...:0) clone an end table... your Milkshape is still open, your exported table too...scale it down, smaller the top, resize it to Maxis's imported end table, and export it back! Here you go, you texture once, and make a bunch of matching furnitures, in no time!

Another important thing to me, is low poly count...always delete the faces you don't need... So before you make your next mesh, ask your self... 1- what are the faces facing front ?...select them, regroup them together... 2- what are the faces facing back ?... 3- can i group left and right together, or do I want different textures on each sides ? 4- Do I really need this face, or should I delete it ? Do you like meshing ?!? I DO :0)

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

Mapping sim's bodies, and shoes...:0)

The process is very similar. But, first thing first, before importing any sim body, make sure in Group tab, that Auto-Smooth is unchecked...

This has to be done before importing, otherwise, there is no turning back... Your sim will have ugly lines, a bit like if he was comming out of a cheap mold...:0) After importing you sim body, and before regouping anything for better and easier texturing...open a note pad document, and copy each group name, along with its comment. Your final result MUST carry the same names and comments, otherwize..crash., BodyShop explosion... Big ploblemss :0) Once done, you'll probably find it easier to map a bit differently than Maxis did originaly... You might want to regroup just the front of the skirt, instead of all the front... Or, both sides of an arm, intead of right and left...or even you might want to scale the arm down...and rotate it, to fit your new clothing texture..who knows ? You'll see. :0)

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

SHOES...made easy?...YES! You copied your original Names and comments ? Shoes looks hard to map correctly...but it is Maxis's fault... Map the feet diferently, and you'll see, you have great results. First, select the Morph(s) and Hide it(them), you work with the *FIT* type only for now. For shoes, select the feet ONLY If you wish to see your sim wearing booties, then select up to the heals too, and so on... Once the shoe part that fits your new shoe image, (yes, you'll need an image of the shoe...) Go to Group tab, and hit regroup, name that new group Feet, or whatever fits... Go to Material, then like before, click on new, then on none. Find that shoe image and open it. (Open your JPG image) Make sure your selected shoe part is...selected. :0P Than hit Assign. NOTE : the best images I found, easy to work with are the ones that pictured a shoe from the

side, like this one : Use it if you wish....Kickers official site offers perfect pictures...if you like Kickers shoes, that is...:0) Bring up the texture coordinate editor, select your new Feet group, and since it is a picture from the side...choose Left, or Right and hit Remap ! Almost right away....you'll have something decent...both feet were originaly mapped the same way, and now both will be edited at the same time :0)

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

Now, select all the vertices (you have both feet in there...) And, hit scale, then move...and try to fit your mesh, nicely on the image...

When you'll be happy with the result, I suggest you to unselect your feet part, by clicking in one of the windows, then move your model in the 3D window.. You should see in the texture coordinate editor, that the image is still there, but not the mesh, no vertices, no lines...? Hit print screen! Then in your paint program, press CTRL + V, to paste that image. You can use it on your new clothing image, after scaling it down..but keep the proportions though. You could use your JPG or PNG image to put on your new clothing texture, but if you noticed, texture coordinate editor window has deformed it a bit... So it will be easier to work with this one, when it will be time to map the whole thing together. :0) When done, you need to recreate the original group, and this is where your note pad document will be useful. With only the main body + feet group selected ( main = not the MORPH), hit Regroup. Rename to what it was originaly, (body, usualy)and open the comment tab, copy what you have there. Don't add to the comment, just highlight all then paste over it...to be sure :0)

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Texture Mapping with Milkshape 3D

by rose-maman, 22 May 2008

Another Tip

When you are done and happy with your mesh, the way all texture applies, go to File and export it as an .OBJ. Name it...forTheMorph This will just create an OBJ version of that mesh, you still can use Unimesh Export to save it properly after that. Select the morh group, copy its name and comment on a note pad... and delete that group. If you have more than one MORPH, do the same for all of them, and keep the order. Go to File again, then choose Import an .OBJ (wavefront OBJ) browse for your new mesh : forTheMorph.obj Rename this new group to what the original Morph group was, and paste the original comment in the comment tab. Now...fatten it up! Add a big belly, and so on :0) No need to mesh twice, to make the morph exactly like your new created body normal mesh...just fatten it. :0) Oh!...and the morph is already textured...:) A morph group has no joints, exporting your mesh as an .OBJ, does the trick. OBJ have no joints. :0)

That's it for now! Have fun meshing...and texturing!

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