It has been suggested to me on several occasions that I should write up a short, simple tutorial on how to do mapping for the IL-2 series. The most important thing about mapping is to have a plan in your head before you start about how you want the parts to lie. Remember that you want everything on the template to be the same scale; It's no use having a hugely detailed wing with no room left for the fuselage.
So, before we begin, here's a few things you want to look for whilst mapping your aircraft for IL-2:
Keep everything the same scale
All the faces of your 3D that face the same direction you want to map together (I'll explain more on this later).
All internal pieces of your external model (Eg the cockpit and gear bays) can be mapped to a seperate TGA file to save room.
All the external faces of the model must be mapped on to one 1024x1024 texture.
To show you how to map, I will take you through the basic by mapping a 3D Model I built a while back of the Bristol F2B Fighter. This model was originally intended for IL-2 however once I started I decided to go into higher detail that IL-2 would allow.
Here is the model prior to mapping:
Ok, So now we can begin.
Step one is very simple; I always like to start by mapping the wings so select the left hand wing (If, as in my situation, you have a biplane start with the top left) so select the wing, Right click and press hide unselected. You should be left with just the top left wing showing in your viewport. Make sure you have the wing select, Click on the modifier panel and select Unwrap uvw as show below:
Your wing is now ready to be mapped. The screenshot below shows what the mapping control panel looks like. Click on the small + sign and make sure you have face selected as show below. This is what I have to be the easiest way to map.
Ok, In the viewport, You want to be looking directly down so that you can see the top surface of your wing. It is also helpful now if you press F4 so that you can see the outline of Each face. Now we manually select every single face which we can see here by pressing Ctrl and clicking. (To do this quicker, You can drag your mouse over the entire wing but this can produce un-desired results). Here is what It should look like when you have done
It's always a good idea to zoom in as close as you can to the leading edge of the wing to make sure you have selected every face. On the right hand control panel, click on "Edit"; This should open up another window which looks like the following:
If it looks like a complete mess inside this box do not worry. It's not a big deal. On the right hand control panel, you should see an option for "Quick Planar Mapping". (You may have to scroll down on the mapping control panel depending on your screen size. Select this option and you will notice the shape in the pop up window changes. You will also notice above "Quick Planar Mapping" there is options for X, Y or Z. To get the shape of your mapping correct, You can try each one of these. Simply click X and then "Quick Planar Mapping". If that does not work click Y and then "Quick Planar Mapping" etc... Until you end up with something like this:
As you can see now, the faces have been positioned on the template to match the shape of the wing in the viewport. We're almost done!
In the little window that popped out, You have options to position and rescale the wing onto your template. The thick blue lines represent the 1024x1024 texture so you can see how much room you have. In the screenshot below, You can see at the top that I have the scale tool selected. Simply hover the mouse over the red faces, click and drag to resize. Then, use the arrow tool (Top left) to reposition. Here's how the final place for our top wing looks:
Now, Go do the same for the lower half of the wing!
Rock
Author
Topic: An idiot's guide to mapping in 3DS Max Part 1 (Read 5631 times)
