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Tip

To create an efficient pelt map, you should rotate the stretcher so the spring distance is at a minimum. •

Tutorial: Using pelt mapping

Pelt mapping is especially helpful on characters because they have irregular seams and surfaces. The Pelt mapping method works well for smoothing out character textures.

To use pelt mapping on a character's face, follow these steps:

1. Open the Lion toy face.max file from the Chap 33 directory on the CD.

This file includes just the face of a lion toy model.

2. With the face mesh selected, choose Modifiers⇒UV Coordinates⇒Unwrap UVW. Choose the Face subobject mode, and select all the face subobjects in the face mesh.

3. In the Peel rollout, click the Pelt Map button.

A planar gizmo appears in the center of the viewport. Rotate and move the gizmo so it's parallel to the face mesh and in front of it (or press the Align Y button).

4. The Edit UVWs dialog box appears with each seam positioned along the Stretcher. Select all the stretcher points with the Select Stretcher button and rotate the Stretcher points about 10 degrees clockwise so the pelt is stretched out straight. Then click the Start Pelt button until the face is stretched out, as shown in Figure 33.28.

FIGURE 33.28

Using pelt mapping, you can stretch the UVs for a mesh object.

Summary

I covered lots of ground in this chapter because there are lots of different maps. Learning to use these maps will make a big difference in the realism of your materials.

In this chapter, you learned about the following:

• Understanding the basics of mapping coordinates

• Using mapping modifiers

• Applying labels with the UVW Map modifier

• Controlling mapping coordinates with the Unwrap UVW modifier

• Rendering a UV template

• Editing seams

• Using the Peel and Pelt mapping methods

In the next chapter, you learn how to use the Render to Texture interface to bake textures into an object. Creating normal maps is also covered.

Chapter 34: Creating Baked Textures and Normal Maps

IN THIS CHAPTER

Using channels

Using the Render to Texture interface

Creating normal maps

3D games pose an interesting dilemma—creating interactive scenes that are displayed in real time with the highest quality graphics. To achieve this, game developers use a number of tricks designed to speed up the rendering time. One of these tricks is pre-rendering textures that include all the lighting information and applying these pre-rendered textures as texture maps. This allows advanced lighting solutions such as global illumination to be included within a game without requiring extra time to render such a complex solution. The process of applying pre-rendered textures as maps is called baking a texture.

Rendering textures is a significant part of the rendering process, and baking a texture doesn't remove this step; it simply completes the step beforehand, so that the game engine doesn't need to do the texture calculations.

Another common efficiency trick is to use normal maps. Normal maps calculate the lighting results used to light small details that stick out from the surface of an object. These details are then re-created using a normal map that is applied back onto a simplified version of the object. The normal map allows these details to be simulated without the extra polygons used to create them. By allowing simple base objects to have details such as bolts and rivets without the extra polygons, the objects can be redrawn quickly without losing their visual quality.

This chapter covers some of the features found in Max that enable the amazing graphics that are found in the latest real-time games.

Using Channels

When 3D models are used in games, the color and material data for the models is stored in channels. The game engine then knows that if it wants to change the color of a group of vertices because of an explosion that has happened, it just looks in the preset channel, finds the vertices it needs, changes