1. Blueprints

1.1 Choices

The first thing will be to decide what texture resolution (256 per 256 ? 512 per 512 ? etc...) and what size this texture will be in the model. Let me show you what i'm talking about :



If you use the texture tool in 02 you will probably notice that it's really hard to size the texture the way you want and have it on the right proportions... That's why I'm using a plane especially created to apply the texture. I Just have to move the plane to the surface i want to texture, and then fit the texture to the plane by clicking "Surface/Fit Bgr. to selection".

The texture itself is 512 per 512 pixels, that's what i call the texture resolution. Some people prefer 1024 per 1024, some people prefer a lot of smaller textures... I prefer this resolution, and re-use the free space on the texture for other parts of the model.

The size of this plane is what i call the size of the texture on the model. It is quite important to choose a size now, otherwise you will have a different resolution on other parts like the turret etc, and it will look a bit silly. So basically to choose a resolution, i try to find the biggest surface on the model. it's usually the top of the Hull which is very long, usually too long (something like 5 meters here) for a single 512 per 512 texture... So I made the choice to split the hull on the middle so i can use two textures to do it. The second biggest surfaces were the front and back of the hull. the biggest dimension of these surfaces is a bit less than 3.5 meters, so that will be the size of the textures on this model (which provide quite a good quality ingame).

1.2 Get texturing-plane on position

First, select the face you want to texture. If you texture more than one face at once, then select the one which looks the most alignated with the others (if you look at the side of a cylinder, take the face on the middle of what you want to texture). Here i'll select one face of the Hull :





As you can see, i use two view to avoid any confusion with other points, and i can check on the external viewer that i didnt select anything else but what i want.

So now let's look at the face by clicking this button : . Once it's done, one of your view will look straight at the face. Select this view and create a new plane [size : 3.5 per 3.5]. Make that new plane fit to the part you want to texture :



As you can see, i selected the machinegun ball and the driver's view-thingy as well, as it's easier to do it on the same texture. I cant do the same everywhere, as there is a "gap", or the faces are not oriented on the same way, between the part i texture and the other parts of the hull (as for exemple the mudguards, or the lamp on the right side...).


1.3 create a blank texture

Open PSP and create a new picture. Dimensions : 512 per 512. Uncheck the "transparent" box and select this color : [Red: 152, Green: 136, Blue: 98].
This color is the "dark yellow" used for the german vehicles as basic colour. You can also use a green like this one if you prefer : [Red: 92, Green: 95, Blue: 72]. This is the "olive green" i'll use later on for the camo. In any case dont put too much saturation on your colors !

Save it using the ".pspimage" image, all the layers and stuff will be saved separatly. You should obtain the following texture : sample 1.zip (unzip it first !)

1.4 the blueprint layer

I will now make a blueprint (or map) of what i'm texturing :
Under O2, make sure you can see the texturing-plane in full. if it's too small, zoom (+/- on the num. keypad) so it can fit the window. Press the print screen key on your keyboard.

On PSP, press CTRL+V or click "edit/Paste/Paste as a new image". Your screen capture will now be paste as a new image. Use the selection tool and draw a frame around the texturing-plane :



Copy/paste it to a new image (CTRL+C, then CTRL+V). Click "SHIFT+S" or "Image/Resize" and resize it to 512 per 512. Copy this new image (CTRL+C). and paste it as a new layer in the blank texture image (CTRL+L).
Rename this layer (named Raster 1) and call it "blueprint" or what you want it to be named... (right click, "rename").
Then set the transparency to 50% or so (i do this so the colour is no more the same as 02...) :



Press F8 if you dont have this dialog.

You should obtain the following image : sample 2.zip


Save this file as a .gif. the most comfortable way to do it is to save it as a copy. So everytime you'll make a new texture and save it, the ".pspimage" format will be selected, and everytime you'll want to save a copy, the ".gif" format will be selected. It will also prevent your layers to be merged.
So click "file/Save copy as" and select the ".gif" format. open the "option", then "Run optmizer..." and check the following points :
Transparency : None
Colors : How many colors ? 256
Colors : How much dithering ? 100
Colors : check "Optimized Octree"
The others options are not important. Click "ok" and then "save". Make sure you put the .gif in the same folder (or in a sub-folder) as the model.

1.4 Apply the texture.

Under 02, Use the texture tool and draw a frame (just drag and drop, dont care about the size/location) on the view looking at the surface you want to texture (the one with the texturing - plane). Right-click, then "Load texture" and select the gif format. Select your file and click open. Your texture will now appear on the frame :



What you need to do now is to
do now is to fit the the texture to the texturing-plane. To do so, select the texturing plane only, then click "Surface/Fit Bgr. from selection". you should obtain the following :



Now select what you want to texture (again), but nothing else !!! So here i'll select the front side of the Hull, the machinegun ball and the driver view-thingy (whatever you call it). Then press "B" or "Surface/Background mapping".

And this is what you should obtain on the external viewer :



Congratulation ! you achieved to do the hardest/most boring part of texturing... applying the textures.
Once this is done, you can enjoy painting your texture without the stressing about : will it fit the model ? as you just have to follow the blueprint !

Note : If you want to use the unused space to texture something else, you can now adjust the position of the texturing using the texture (step 1.2), by loading it and make it fit the texturing-plane at this step. This way you can see if you are texturing using unused space only.

part 2 : Metal edges

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