How to make meshes?...

[Preacher]

How 2 make meshes?...

::In best Beldar Conehead voice:: Greetings.

I'm designing a new fighter for WC, and I've got most of it down. The prob is, I don't know how to do meshes. I'm creating this bad boy in TrueSpace 2 (old proggy, I know, but I got it 3 yrs ago for $25--what can I say?), and I can easily enough "paint" it (and/or its component parts) with a color or texture, but how do I create and apply a mesh for it?... I have several other (2D, and one other 3D) graphix programs I can call on to do the work, if only I knew HOW... Any help appreciated. Thx.

 

[Eder]

I'm not sure what you mean.

If you really are talking about making meshes, then what is the thing you can already paint in TS? Last time I checked, textures and colors were painted on...... meshes!

Clarify a little bit and I'll be glad to help you out man

--Eder

 

[Preacher]

Originally posted by Eder
I'm not sure what you mean.

Clarify a little bit and I'll be glad to help you out man

--Eder

OK, I'll try. As I understand it (and maybe I'm wrong, so feel free to explain) a "mesh" consists of a combination of patterns/paint schemes/textures that are then applied to a structure, yes?...

I can "paint" a 3D part a particular color. I can likewise paint that part with a texture. But how do I, for example, take and paint only a PORTION of a component... That stumps me.

If I want to take, say, the right wing of my ship and paint a stripe or two on it, how can that be accomplished? Since it's not a discrete 3D object, but only a PORTION of another object, I don't know how to proceed; If I "paint" it onto a texture I'm using for the whole ship, then the stripe would repeat, and appear elsewhere on the ship too, when I only want it on the right wing.

I don't know if that helps clarify, but I hope so. It'd be easier to SHOW someone in person what I meant, but it's kinda hard (for me anyway) to verbally describe what I mean.

 

[Eder]

Originally posted by Preacher
OK, I'll try. As I understand it (and maybe I'm wrong, so feel free to explain) a "mesh" consists of a combination of patterns/paint schemes/textures that are then applied to a structure, yes?...

It's probably just my terminology... but for me, a mesh is just a structure, of which several can be grouped together to form the same object (ie, for me, a wing and an engine are two meshes that compose the same object.) An object with textures I call a textured model. But I think that's just me

Originally posted by Preacher
I can "paint" a 3D part a particular color. I can likewise paint that part with a texture. But how do I, for example, take and paint only a PORTION of a component... That stumps me.

Here's how I do it in TS3 (using my terminology, explained above): I make one texture for each mesh, or one texture for each pair for the ones that are symmetrical (wings, guns, etc) and I apply each texture to its corresponding mesh separately, by using the UV coordinates tool, which is where you select how the texture will wrap around this particular mesh. After having assigned all meshes correct textures and UV coordinates, I group them as siblings in the Hierarchy tools, and voila, I can rotate, move, and export the whole object as if it were a single mesh! Nifty, huh?

Originally posted by Preacher
...If I "paint" it onto a texture I'm using for the whole ship, then the stripe would repeat, and appear elsewhere on the ship too, when I only want it on the right wing.

Basically, you're doing everything right, except that the trick is NOT to use a single texture for the whole ship, unless you have a good Low-Polycount modelling tool which allows you to edit each face's texture coordinates separately. Otherwise you end up having the problem you just described.... some faces (or components) will look like their texture is out of place, and you will have no way of changing that individual face (or component)... But today, objects which have a single texture are quite a rarity except for some games, I think....

Anything else?

--Eder