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Base Texturing

Setting textures to your mesh in 3DS Max
(C) Malard 2009


The most important process in creating a mesh for IMVU is to set up texture map distribution. This is where you must apply different textures to your mesh so that when you come to finalize your product in the Previewer, you will be able to assign your textures to it properly.

 Pre-organising Mesh Material Assignments

I will assume you have a mesh which has multiple parts to it which are separate. It is noted that this process should be before any major processes such as Physique-ing.
The way meshes work in IMVU is that the client uses nearly always a single mesh file. Each file may contain only one mesh but sometimes it can hold more An example mesh would be a scene or a multi-layer jacket. We term each mesh inside a mesh file as a "sub-mesh" and you can define Material ID's to single or multiple meshes depending on preference.

So first of all, you currently have a mesh with multiple parts which are separate meshes to themselves. It is recommended that you save another Max file before converting all your mesh parts just in case a part needs changing, and/or the modifiers associated with that part are required.. Firstly convert one of your mesh parts to an "Editable Mesh". This is done by selecting and then right clicking on your selected mesh. You will see a menu show up, click on "Convert To" then "Editable Mesh".

You can also apply an "Edit Mesh" Modifier if you wish to keep the modifiers in the stack.

Now that mesh has been converted to a single modifier mesh, you can start to add your other parts. Click on your recently converted Mesh and click on its Editable Mesh layer in the Modifier Stack. Select the Element Button and then in the modifier's properties list Click on a button saying "Attach". The button should be an orange colour. Now click on all of your parts, and when you have attached all of them press the Attach Button again to deactivate it. You will find that al your parts will be the same colour of that mesh that you converted to editable mesh. This is a way of confirming that you have attached all the parts you require. Now that is done it is time to set your meshes Material ID numbers. In the same menu scroll right to the bottom and in a tab called "Surface properties you will see a box called "Materials". In that box you have "Set ID", "Select ID" (which we wont be using) and a Drop Down box which shows the lists of material ID's currently assigned to that mesh. Since there are no materials assigned there wont be any entries.

 

Since you have got the Element Selection mode still on select an attached part of your mesh. That part should then turn red or have a red tint to it. Now back in the menu type or select 1 next to the Set ID and press enter. You should now see the Select ID number show 1 also. Do this with all of your parts but with different ID's. If you mesh may have multiple of the same part (e.g. a pearl necklace) then it may pay to select all of the same parts and then setting an ID. this will make all your duplicate parts use the same material ID.

Once you have set ID's on all of the parts, its then time to set up your texture Co-ordinates. Please note i have skipped Unwrap UVW for this tutorial. Please see the UVW unwrapping tutorial.

 

Applying textures

Deactivate the Editable mesh or Edit Mesh modifier since we no longer require its properties and then Open up the Material Editor by clicking on .

You will then see a window like this:

This is where you will be assigning textures to material ID's. First off, click on a clear (grey) Sphere. and you should then see something like this:



Currently the material on the clear Sphere is the default "Standard" Material (seen next to the top most drop down box) which we don't want. We need to change this to a "Multi-Sub" material. Click on the button saying "Standard" and a list will appear. In the list will be an entry saying "Multi-Sub Object". Click this and select ok. You will then receive a small window saying "Discard material". Click on the top radio Button saying "Discard Old Material?" and press ok. For how ever many ID's you have set you will need to create that same number of multiple materials. So currently your Material Editor should look like this:

Since your mesh will probably wont have 10 ID's you will need to change how many there are. So, click on the "Set Number" button and then enter the number of materials you want, so in your case would be the number of ID's. You should now see the list shorten or length. It will pay first of all to change the initial colour of each Material. This is done by clicking on the small grey box next to the button that says by default "Material #[NUMBER] (Standard)". You will then get a colour selection window show up. An idea for the selection of colours is to use the rainbow pattern, then it would be easier to associate your mesh's parts with the materials. Once that is done we need to set the materials to the mesh so, select your mesh and then press the "Assign Material to Selection" Button . You should then see (if everything went ok) that your mesh colours have changed to the rainbow colours. This is a confirmation that you have setup your material ID's correctly. Now we need to apply textures to your materials otherwise the textures will not show in the Previewer. Click on one of the Material buttons "Material #[NUMBER] (Standard)" in them) and you should then see a list of options appear below like this:

Here is where we set up a the materials properties and set a texture to the material. Click on the Small button next to the colour sample box that is named Diffuse and you will see a list of different texture types. Click on the "Bitmap" entry and then select a texture. You can either apply different textures to your materials or apply a single texture to all of your materials. This will not effect the textures in the previewer. This stage is merely to get 3DS Max export the texture co-ordinates in the mesh file.

SIDE TRACK NOTE: TEXTURE FILES SET IN 3DSMAX WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE UPDATED IN THE VIEW PORT VIEWS IF YOU CHANGE OR MODIFY THE TEXTURE YOUR CURRENTLY USING. THIS IS USEFUL FOR CHECKING TEXTURES ON YOUR MESH IF YOU PROVIDE END USER TEXTURED MESHES.

Once you have apply textures to all your materials your ready to export your mesh OR if you haven't already, UVW Unwrap your mesh.