Learning Texturing
 

Got fed up with character animation and decided I wanted to learn more about texturing in Maya. So I have dug out an old project of mine and I am gonna attempt to convert it from NURBS into polys so I can start texturing (?) it.

I think it could be fun, I always found texturing in Maya a bit of an arcane science so I wanna get better. Here's the model:

Looking good. I definately recommend taking a look at Danny's uv tools here: http://www.dannyngan.com/mel_dannyuvtools.htm

(Was down by the time I posted this though)...

I made a small modification to it so you can assign new random materials on the fly. Don't know if Danny has included it in the zip at his site but PM if you want it :)

Calling Undseth
 

Forgot to mention I know that Undseth is a keen aircraft modeller. If you are out there Undseth did you ever texture any of your planes? I did like your Spitfire, do you have any orthographic drawings of it or could you tell me where to get them I would like to model a Spitfire.

Perhaps I could then animate a dogfight between the Spit and the Fokker... that would be fun!

:) :) :)

I, for one, am curious to watch your progress on this as I know almost nothing about texturing.

My site is back up, so you'll be able to download the scripts. I haven't had a chance to post the modified scripts yet, but I will do so as soon as I can.

First Efforts
 

Well, having sorted me wings tips out I have finally started texturing the model. I was gonna convert everything into polys but decided to stick with NURBS cos I like a challenge!!!

I have only done the wings so far, I am quite pleased with them, but I am more interested in how to do it. I used planar projection maps a technique I learnt on the learning Maya CD. Texturing in Maya always seems a mysterious area to me.

Gonna start on the body lunchtime once I work out how to unravell the fuselage...

Dissappering Textures
 

To me this is weird... To the well experienced thought there is probably a reason - I HOPE!!!

Please see attached the fuselage for me Fokker with decal on the side (I prefered the transfers you used to get with AirFix kits). The fuselage is made from a set of lofted splines, you will also see the cockpit spline in place. The decal looks fine!

Now I projected the cockpit spline on the fuselage and trimmed it away and hey presto! The decals disspear too...

What have I got to do to get them back? I know they are there but I don't know how to restore them.

Here's the result...

Have you tried projecting after trimming?

Mick

Thanks for replying! Yes, I have tried projecting after trimming that's what I did first. It was only when I was trouble shooting this problem that I discovered that it was the trimming that caused the problem.

It's almost as if the trimming does something to the surface that causes any sort of projection (not regular shading BTW) to go out the window.

Have deleted history also - doesn't solve the issue. Probably better stiking to polys for texturing. Bit clueless on this one...

The wings look good!

Maybe goint to the shaders attribute editor and enhance the hardware shading will solve your textuing disappearing, in combination to go looking for it on other parts of the aircraft.

But, I never dare texture nurbs :(.

About that spitfire, hrm I dont know where it is right now. But I'll contact you in distant future unless you really need this.

Else you are sure to find drawings of spitfires on the web. Just takes a little time to find the ones you want.

Tried increasing the texture quality but.. Yup! you guesssed it DON'T WORK!!! I have looked at other things but I think I'll find the answer in my Character Animation Book! It has some great tips and I think I will spy the answer there.

As for the Spitfire, it probably flew off... he, he, he. I think I will try my hand at a Hurricane - the one that everybody seems to forget about but actually was a very good rugged gun platform.

I can't wait to animate this model, it won't need much detail since it will be moving flying too fast!

Cheers guys!

I don't work with Nurbs often, and when I do, I usually make a point of avoiding trimmed surfaces (for this reason, among others).

TADA
 

Well there is a great saying if you can't do it the correct way -CHEAT! Which is what I did. Rather than ponsing around for hours I cheated and have added more textures to me plane.

I still have a bit more to do, but my character animation book has some great tips on materials and doing fings wiv em. Exhaust pipes to be added and sorting out the undercarriage and then it's going for it maiden flight!!!

Thanks Mike & Undseth for ya help.

Ooohh! This is looking good!

The windshield is a bit heavy on the smudge though. I love the texturing of the fuselage! Very nice!