Texturing Help. :(

[SmashingKirby148]

For some reason, The texture on the right of my hatch on my command pod goes up! I can't fix it no matter what I do! Also, the texture on the right of the command pod where the white lines are goes weird as well. Is there a way to fix it? (well duh, there is, but how?)

(Ignore the white. I tried to fix it, but I made it even worse than it already is!)

Am I just gonna have to give up texturing and have somebody help me with it?

[Fleskhjerta14577]

Try using Smart UV Project to unwrap it and then try (using normal unwrap can be annoying sometimes), and if the problem persists upload the .blend and the messed up texture somewhere so we can try to help.

Disclaimer: I suck at texturing. Take this with a mountain of salt.

[SmashingKirby148]

Try using Smart UV Project to unwrap it and then try (using normal unwrap can be annoying sometimes), and if the problem persists upload the .blend and the messed up texture somewhere so we can try to help.

Disclaimer: I suck at texturing. Take this with a mountain of salt.

Ok. I'll try.

- - - Updated - - -

I have realised that that is what I've been doing. :S

[landeTLS]

You need to shift the top of the marked islands outward. But doing it this way is doomed to fail in creating a pleasing result. Since you are unwrapping your model to fit what looks like the texture from the mk 1 pod you should probably start with a planar uv projection from the z axis(top) then position it in the center of the textured ring and scale the outer uv edge outward until it lines up with it. I would not unwrap a cone shape this way (i would cylindrically unwrap it and perhaps scale in the top a bit) but since you are using a texture map that is layed out like this you are stuck unwrapping your uvs to match it.

Btw this is not called texturing. What you are doing here is unwrapping.

[SmashingKirby148]

You need to shift the top of the marked islands outward. But doing it this way is doomed to fail in creating a pleasing result. Since you are unwrapping your model to fit what looks like the texture from the mk 1 pod you should probably start with a planar uv projection from the z axis(top) then position it in the center of the textured ring and scale the outer uv edge outward until it lines up with it. I would not unwrap a cone shape this way (i would cylindrically unwrap it and perhaps scale in the top a bit) but since you are using a texture map that is layed out like this you are stuck unwrapping your uvs to match it.

Btw this is not called texturing. What you are doing here is unwrapping.

I'm guessing you're explaining this as if I made the texture first and now I'm trying to unwrap it onto the texture, but that's not what I did. I exported the UV layout and then made a texture in Photoshop CS6 under the layout. I then imported the texture to Blender and got this result. So, If I smart unwrap the main pod instead of normal Unwrapping it, I can get the texture much better than this. But because of the way it Smart unwrapped it, re writing the text and having it be perfect with out stretching is gonna be a pain...

[landeTLS]

I'm guessing you're explaining this as if I made the texture first and now I'm trying to unwrap it onto the texture, but that's not what I did. I exported the UV layout and then made a texture in Photoshop CS6 under the layout. I then imported the texture to Blender and got this result. So, If I smart unwrap the main pod instead of normal Unwrapping it, I can get the texture much better than this. But because of the way it Smart unwrapped it, re writing the text and having it be perfect with out stretching is gonna be a pain...

Ok:P. I wasnt sure from the op. You are using a quite different workflow than what i would use for this.

Ill try to explain what im seeing as the main issues based on what i see. Nr 1: there are uv stretching both at the top of the pod (the innermost part of those uv islands) this is caused both by the fact that the inner circle is tapering too much and that the islands are shorter in 2d space than they are on the model. (This could be fixed somewhat by scaling the inner ring of those uvs out but you would need to repaint your texture)Nr 2: the issue you are having with the grey line going up too far is caused by the un-even(different from the model) distribution of the uv verts on that ngon. It would be easier for you to fix if it was triangulated or all quad, as you would be able to see the corresponding lines on the model and the uv islands causing the skewing of the texture. The smart unwrapping in blender also does a better job with quads/tris than ngons on nonflat surfaces.

If you are open to re unwrapping and painting the sides of the pod again i would suggest a manual cylindrical (left to right with slight tapering at the top) unwrap instead since there will be much less stretching. You can also write the text in a normal left to right fashion by doing it that way. The reason for the "wierdness" of the white line is both because of uv stretching mentioned and that the uvs are going slightly past your painted white line. Hope this helps

Btw. Dont give up bro. Im sure youll get it

You also dont need those vertical edges going next to the edge of the window frame. If you need the curvature there for the window then just weld both verts around the corner to it and dissolve the rest.

Edited November 7, 2015 by landeTLS

[SmashingKirby148]

Ok:P. I wasnt sure from the op. You are using a quite different workflow than what i would use for this.

Ill try to explain what im seeing as the main issues based on what i see. Nr 1: there are uv stretching both at the top of the pod (the innermost part of those uv islands) this is caused both by the fact that the inner circle is tapering too much and that the islands are shorter in 2d space than they are on the model. (This could be fixed somewhat by scaling the inner ring of those uvs out but you would need to repaint your texture)Nr 2: the issue you are having with the grey line going up too far is caused by the un-even(different from the model) distribution of the uv verts on that ngon. It would be easier for you to fix if it was triangulated or all quad, as you would be able to see the corresponding lines on the model and the uv islands causing the skewing of the texture. The smart unwrapping in blender also does a better job with quads/tris than ngons on nonflat surfaces.

If you are open to re unwrapping and painting the sides of the pod again i would suggest a manual cylindrical (left to right with slight tapering at the top) unwrap instead since there will be much less stretching. You can also write the text in a normal left to right fashion by doing it that way. The reason for the "wierdness" of the white line is both because of uv stretching mentioned and that the uvs are going slightly past your painted white line. Hope this helps

Btw. Dont give up bro. Im sure youll get it

You also dont need those vertical edges going next to the edge of the window frame. If you need the curvature there for the window then just weld both verts around the corner to it and dissolve the rest.

Thank you, that did help, but I'll show you what I mean with the text being hard to write.

As you can see, I have a new UV layout for the pod itself. I have the old texture up there as well so I can get my colours from it. Like a painters pallet (which actually makes sense, since I'm an artist (well, if a person who draws a lot whether they have talent or not is considered and artist...)) But you can see on the bottom left uv layout and the bottom middle one that the hatch is in between the two separate cones. So writing the text and having it stretch across is gonna be hard. Also getting some of the lines to match up.

[CobaltWolf]

As you can see, I have a new UV layout for the pod itself. I have the old texture up there as well so I can get my colours from it. Like a painters pallet (which actually makes sense, since I'm an artist (well, if a person who draws a lot whether they have talent or not is considered and artist...)) But you can see on the bottom left uv layout and the bottom middle one that the hatch is in between the two separate cones. So writing the text and having it stretch across is gonna be hard. Also getting some of the lines to match up.

C'est la UV mapping. If you have text, I would suggest placing the seams elsewhere. Otherwise, you can often get away with covering them up with panel seams - what better way to hide your UV edges than in plain sight! So (as I've learned) it's easy to overdue - using it sparingly.

[landeTLS]

Thank you, that did help, but I'll show you what I mean with the text being hard to write.

http://i.imgur.com/ZoOUR4g.png

As you can see, I have a new UV layout for the pod itself. I have the old texture up there as well so I can get my colours from it. Like a painters pallet (which actually makes sense, since I'm an artist (well, if a person who draws a lot whether they have talent or not is considered and artist...)) But you can see on the bottom left uv layout and the bottom middle one that the hatch is in between the two separate cones. So writing the text and having it stretch across is gonna be hard. Also getting some of the lines to match up.

That layout is not bad. But it can be further improved by unwrapping as a single piece as well as using a cylindrical projection method (as apposed to a fold out method as used above) this will both minimize seams(1 seam for the side) and produce a non curving layout(optimal for both texture use and for ease of painting)

If you upload your model me or someone else may be able to look at fixing it up for you.

Btw the layout has a lot of wasted texture space in between islands, but i wouldnt worry too much about it as you are just starting out.

I also started with drawing on paper and did it for most of my life until i transitioned to digital art and then to 3d art/assets. I still do it from time to time.

Example of a cylindrical unwrap:

Edited November 7, 2015 by landeTLS

[SmashingKirby148]

I have the main texture finished. How do I get specular and normal and the other ones?

[landeTLS]

Spec maps are usually applied on the alpha channel of your main texture. It consists of a grayscale image (black being 0 specularity white being full specularity) you can paint it on a seperate layer and later paste it into the alpha mask of your main texture in ps. But id suggest leaving both it and normalmaps to a future part once youve got the basics down. Normalmaps are a bit more tricky. As they are xyz values encoded in the red green and blue channels of a texture they cant be painted using standard methods. Youll need to either paint a bumpmap (grayscale texture where black is -1 depth and white is +1 height) then use it as is or convert it to a slightly inaccurate normalmap via xnormal etc. Or some plugin for photoshop. The other option(also for a pure 2d texturing workflow) is to use ndo(a plugin for photoshop)