I have done quite a bit of research and learned a number of things about
creating UV maps, and so I thought I would share.  The first important thing
I learned is how to deffine cut areas on a model in the wings autoUV
function.  I just never tried right clicking while in edge mode before.  By
deffining where autoUV will cut you can create understandable uv maps.
Before I could not find areas of my models in the map because they
over-lapped or were shaped differently.

Next I searched the internet for information on how to paint a UV map.  I
found the answer in a tutorial on creating skins for games: use the dodge
and burn tool.  The tutorial was on adobe photoshop, but the Gimp works just
as well if not better.  The dodge and burn tools lighten or darken the area
of your image under the cursor.  Dodge lightens, and burn makes darker.  By
using them on a layer painted a nuetral grey (rgb .5) you can create soft
gradients of light and dark more easily then with any other tool I have
tried.  Then you can just overlay a semi-transparent layer over for coloring
or tweak the contrast for use as a bump_map.

These pictures are the result of mainly of these two pieces of information.
Also right now I am interested in the idea of painting fine detail onto a
model.  With comercial 3d applications the technique is called displacment
mapping, and it actualy changes the geometery of the model, but in Povray
the best I could do was create a normal map.

The technique for finish mapping I used here dosn't show very well as the
model only really has two finishes,  but I thought it was so cool that I
would try it.  For more information search the news group for a post on
finish mapping in p.b.i.

The next step is to test out these methods in an animation, but I will need
to create a different model for that.  Anyways I hope that helps somebody, I
know it would have saved me some time.

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Attachments:
Download 'watcher_plain.jpg' (6 KB) Download 'watcher_bump.jpg' (6 KB) Download 'watcher_pigment.jpg' (6 KB) Download 'watcher_all.jpg' (6 KB)

Preview of image 'watcher_plain.jpg'

Preview of image 'watcher_bump.jpg'

Preview of image 'watcher_pigment.jpg'

Preview of image 'watcher_all.jpg'

3ea5dca6@news.povray.org...
> Also right now I am interested in the idea of painting fine detail onto a
> model.  With comercial 3d applications the technique is called displacment
> mapping, and it actualy changes the geometery of the model, but in Povray
> the best I could do was create a normal map.

Well, you can use displacement mapping with Poseray.
As it seems you are using Wings3D, you can export your model to .obj
and open it in Poseray. I haven't try UV mapping with Wings3D, but I suppose
it exports UV coordinates and also suppose you have a bitmap for them.
You only need to use that bitmap with the bumps where you want the
displacement and Poseray does the job. Later you can export your modified
model to UDO/inc/obj. In this last case (.obj) you can import once again
your
model into Wings3D.
If you cannot get the bitmap for the UV coordinates, you can use UVMapper
to create it.
Links:
Poseray (freeware)
http://user.txcyber.com/~sgalls/index.htm
UVMapper Classic (this is freeware, the other one is shareware)
http://www.uvmapper.com/
Hope this helps.

Txemi Jendrix
http://www.txemijendrix.com

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Txemi Jendrix wrote:

>Well, you can use displacement mapping with Poseray.

Wow! Really! I never noticed that, and it will result in real displaces
geometery right!!!  Oh that would be very cool...  I knew I downloaded
poseray for a reason

   ^_^!

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I played around with Poseray and bump mapping and this is the result.  The
map I had made had much too much contrast, and as a result my first couple
of attempts resulted in ugly bumpy blobs, but once I turned the depth and
hight down to plus and minus .1 it worked as advertised.  The only thing I
dont like is that whenever I use *.obj format all my nice quad faces get
turned into triangles.  It doubles the number of faces I have to work with,
and means that the mesh dosn't smooth as well.  Regardless the displacment
works, so I can live with the other problems... Though any help would be
appreciated.

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Attachments:
Download 'watcher_bump_02.jpg' (6 KB) Download 'watcher_bump_01.jpg' (6 KB)

Preview of image 'watcher_bump_02.jpg'

Preview of image 'watcher_bump_01.jpg'