Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The problem emerges once everything is put together. In reality, the region
where two surfaces meet is a really interesting area. It collects all sorts of dirt,
grime, and visually interesting things if it's an inside corner (think of where the
floor meets the wall), and collects all sorts of drips on outside corners. When
the texture artist fails to take this into account, the scene loses much of the
visual information that clues the eye in on these all-important corners.
Warnings and Pitfalls
Make sure that the
object is selected in
Object Mode. If in any
component mode,
the next step won't
work. Outputting a UV
Snapshot only works
when the whole object
is selected, not just its
parts.
For the first part of this tutorial, we will look at how to put together a texture-
for-texture space without overlapping UVs. For the second part, we will take
this texture and dirty it down.
Step 1:
Select an object with nonoverlapping UVs and open the UV
Texture Editor (
Figure 4.10
). For this tutorial, I will be texturing the small
portico (downloadable at www.Creating3dGames.com) of the main door
that lets Aegis Chung into the facility.
Figure 4.10
Taking a UV Snapshot.
UV Snapshots
Step 2:
Output a UV Snapshot. When the UV Map is displayed in the UV Texture
Editor, choose Polygons>UV Snapshot (all within the UV Texture Editor). Within
the UV Snapshot window, make sure Size X and Size Y both read
2048
and that
the Image format is set to
TIFF
. Change the name to
EntryWay_PorticoUV
.
Tips and Tricks
Notice that the File Name input field includes a path. Notice that this path
is (or should be) the project file and the images folder within the project
file. The images folder is one of the default output locations for Maya.
Once again, having the project set correctly raises its head.
Why?
Why 2048×2048? First it's a power-of-two value texture. But why not
1024×1024 or even 4096×4096 or even 512×512? This is a good question;
what size to make a texture is dictated largely by experience and the situation.
