Hi Folks,

I've created a new model that is basically a combination of two pre-existing weapons in skyrim. I've done this in blender. I also spent some time trying to get a decent unwrapping of the uv map (this is my first time trying to mod a model, and first time trying to do uv-unwrapping. It took about 3 tries, and a 4th try would probably again do a better job).

I then began hand-painting the texture into the uv map in a combination of MyPaint and Gimp, and it's a very time consuming task. I was curious how the Skyrim artists did this. Did they create a higher quality model, texture the model (procedural or otherwise), and then bake (is that the correct terminology) uv maps from the already textured model? Finally, creating a lower quality model and applying textures from the higher quality renders?

Maybe asking how Skyrim artists did this is the wrong question. Maybe how are community modders doing this is the right question?

Thanks!

Welcome to the wonderful world of 3D modeling.

According to my college instructors that are active in the game industry, a popular method to get something to look nice but with less triangles is to make a normal map from a high poly model and then apply it to a low poly model. Something like that. Used to be done with displacement maps and nurbs, but nobody likes nurbs.

Whether somebody wants to try to 'paint' directly on the model first using 3rd party programs or just go through the more traditional painting on a UV map seems to be more about personal taste. Both have their cons and pluses.

The way I was taught was to just painstakingly UV unwrap the object while using a checkered texture to help determine if something is stretched or not, following by using Photoshop and such to color that map in. Can take awhile, depending on the model size, but there really isn't many shortcuts to make the UV unwrapping go faster despite what 3rd party programs may claim. Well, raytracing helps.

Something that would make UV unwrapping easy and quick, without the end result looking stupid, AND with a good generated texture is a bit like finding the Holy Grail. At least, that is the impression I always got.

Thanks

My experience in this matter is mainly limited to years of raytracing using POV-Ray and hand coding scenes as well as procedural textures. My first train of thought after starting to paint over the uv maps was to generate some textures with POV-Ray, then manipulate those in Gimp onto the uv-maps.

At the very least, hearing "It's hard, there aren't really short cuts" is good to hear. It means I'm not doing it entirely wrong. UV unwrapping is difficult, but itself seems to be a fun game of "Ok, that's better, but where can i add a seem to make it unfold more nicely."