texture projection? 3ds max.

dkorch

well for some reason I can only search like once a day on this forum lol, so Ill have to ask this question maybe prematurly. however I havnt been able to find it anywere so maybe not.

I am wondering if there is a way to project a texture on to a model, then bake out that texture in max. I want to do this multiple times on different angles then blend them together in photoshop.

I know you can do this in maya, however I am unsure how to in max, can anyone help me out?

Ninjas

You can do a "camera map" modifier, and probably bake that in ("0" key for the bake menu), though I haven't myself.

dkorch

I tried the camera map thing, but It didnt seem to work at all. maybe im doing it wrong though, I would love a tutorial if anyone has one for max on this?

Ninjas

I don't know what to say, camera projection should work fine...

Bryan Cavett

You can just add another uvw projection on top of your stack and bake it out to paint on. Then bake that new map out and erase the parts you dont need when you apply it to a new layer in photoshop over your existing texture. You will just delete that temp modifier afterward. Hope I am understanding you correctly.

Eric Chadwick

Here's an old-ish tutorial about it.
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/map_channels/map_channels.htm

dkorch

thanks for the input.

bryan, thats what I thought of doing at first however doing it that way would change my uv cordinates that I set up so it wouldnt work.

basically I saw this maya tutorial that I wanted to try and use in max, because max rules! lol.

it involved doing a render of the front, side, back, and top of the head. taking those renders in to photo shop and painting your tex on to those so you get an exact look of what you want, then taking those ortho paintings and projecting the textures you just did through the same cameras on to the models. then you baked out the texture on all sides, and stiched it together in photoshop.

when I tried the camera map thing, I could not get the textures to line up what so ever, so I dunno, maybe im doing somthing wrong, or that way doesnt work for it.

anyways thanks for your help all, if anyone still has a suggesetion im all ears.

sevenfingers

just planar map it from each angle you want the projection to be, have the planar UV-maps on a separate UV-channel, and bake from say, channel 1 to 2, rince and repeat, and stitch in photoshop.

MoP

Yeah, if you just add a UV Map or another Unwrap UVW modifier to the stack, bake your textures, then delete/disable the new UV modifiers, your initial UV layout will remain unchanged.

Toomas

Also you can have multiple sets of UV's at the same time, they are called UV channels.

Eric Chadwick

You still need to give each projection a mask/alpha, and setup your material properly. If not, only one of images will show up when you bake.

I'd do the material a bit simpler than Neil has it in that tut, but then again I'd avoid this whole method anyhow.

dkorch

found out the method to do it, its called per pixel camera mapping. worked pretty well, not sure if its the best way to go about it, but it worked.