Model skins.

[DELTAtheDboi005]

How would I go about making skins for models? I'm trying to get into model making but I'm not exactly sure. Also, if the model skins fail, how do I go about making models that already have skins or colors? what formats outside of md3 are the best for this? I'm curious

[ramon.dexter]

What exactly you want to know? How to map a skin to a model? How to make material skin?

Basically, skin is a texture. And as you draw a texture in any graphical editor, you do the same for model texture(skin). Buut, you could also draw the texture directly on the model in 3d editor.

I don't understand what you mean by "if the model skin fails" - I just cannot imagine what you mean by that. Either the skin is mapped on the model, and therefore it works. The only way how it could fail is that the skin is missing.

How do I go about making a models that already has a skin - the second thing I dont understand. Please, elaborate more.

And, if you really have concerns, just go to youtube and wa5ch any blender tutorial. I learnt how to map textures after watching like two videos.

[DELTAtheDboi005]

Buut, you could also draw the texture directly on the model in 3d editor.

And then I'm able to save the texture in question as a png?

[ramon.dexter]

Yep, no problem.

And one good point I've found out during making models: when you name the material (the skin) the same as the texture used (for example, skin.png) and put the skin into the same folder as the model, you don't need to define the skin in modeldef. It's good for models composed of multiple parts with more than one skin.

[DELTAtheDboi005]

That's convenient... I guess...

Might have to do some research on this.

[GalaxyStranger01]

TIMELINE!

Maybe someone will get some benefit from this.

From my notes:
( These instructions are for an older version of Blender, but the overall concept applies. You should be able to google the key concepts and figure out how to do them in the newest version of Blender. )

Texture the model

First, we have to apply textures to the faces of the model.

Open the model in Blender and select it.
Select the Materials button.
Under Shading, select "Shadeless" for visibility. - This is optional. Do this if you're not using lamps in the scene to light the object. Otherwise, do not check this.

Shade the object:

Select the desired object and open Edit mode. Select all desired faces.
<ctrl>+<F> - Shade Smooth/Shade Flat
Also optional. Smooths the rendering. Sometimes desirable effect on the final skin.
An alternative to this is "Auto Smooth". Activate this checkbox by selecting the object and clicking the object's Data tab. Under "Normals", check "Auto Smooth" This may provide a more desirable effect.

Under the Texture tab, create a new texture and change the Type to "Image or Movie".
Under Image, click "open" to browse to the desired image.
Under Mapping, change Coordinates to "UV".
In the object's Properties panel, under Shading click "Textured Solid".
Open a new viewport to the "UV/Image Editor".
Select the image that was previously selected using the selector to the left of "New".
Select the main viewport and change to Edit mode and select Faces mode.
Select all desired Faces.
Press "U" to reveal the UV Mapping menu. Select "Unwrap" from the drop down list.

Creating the Texture Map

Now we're going to bake the texture(s) onto one texture map. The lighting will also be baked into the texture map.

Change the viewport to Edit mode and select all faces.
Click the Objects Data Tab.
Under UV Texture, add a new image and name it to reflect the new baked version of the texture map. Select the image in the list.
In the main viewport, select all faces.
Click "U" to open the UV Mapping menu again. Select Smart UV Project. Accept the default settings.
In the UV/Image Editor, select the "UVs" tab at the bottom and select "Pack Islands" to ensure all UVs are inside the texture map grid.
If resizing on the UV image, resize the mesh on the UV map as desired. Then set the object to Edit mode. Hit <ctrl>+<a>, then <s> to set the scale. Now, go back into Edit mode and finish the bake.
<g> to move, <r> to resize, <s> to scale
Click "New" to create a new image. Width and Height need to be a power of 2. Make sure the desired UV Map is selected in the Object Data UV Texture section.
Click the Objects camera tab. Under Bake, select the desired Bake mode, such as Full Render.
Click "Bake". The image has not been saved yet, so do so now by clicking "Image" and "Save As Image".
DING - FINISHED!

At this point, the new uv map can be assigned to a new material.