Unwrapping/Texturing

[AthlonTom]

Hi All - I made my first model yesterday; http://totalbf2.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61806

I've have now got round to texturing the model and have come unstuck, I understand how to make the unwraps for normal models, such as simple ammoboxes and medkits, but when It comes to very complex models such as the Viper shown in the first post how do you unwrap such a complex file in to one bitmap? Or are vehicle textures able to be seperate files?

Alternatively do you just make one bitmap for the unwrap and then highlight different areas in the materials editor of max?

Using 3d studio max 5.1 btw.

Thanks for your time

[jimbob]

all on one file - unwrap using checkerboard as material to make sure there is no stretching - do it in pieces set aside the UVW's then collapse to mesh - attach all together - unwrap UVW modifier - fit UVW pieces into box (like tetris game lol) - once layed out use textporter to make image of unwrap and then fill in in photoshop frequently checking progress in 3ds...

unwrapping in one paragraph lol.... sorry i cant do better, big topic....

[jilted]

This is a great tutorial, its for max7 though. I would suspect that the majority of the tools are at least similar and the workflow should be:

http://waylon-art.com/uvw_tutorial/uvwtut_01.html