This tutorial will cover methods I have developed over time to UVW map an object in Gmax. The key to UVW mapping centers on good planning and clean model construction. If care is taken in the modeling phase of your project,. UVW mapping will fall into place without difficulties such as texture misalignment and stretching, as is often the case. The following example uses a P51D wing I've built.

The completed file for this section is wing01.gmax.


Launch Gmax, and open the "wing.gmax" file. First, I would like to draw attention to a few areas on the wing.
The top of the wing has ammo doors cut into the wing along with ailerons and flaps. The gear bay doors have been cut into the bottom too.


Before any UVW mapping takes place, it's preferred to have all the control surface and any doors etc. cut into the wing. This will become more evident as you progress through the tutorial. The wing will be UVW mapped as one complete object, only to have it's control surface's and other moving components built up after all the mapping is complete.


With the wing ready for mapping, Select the top viewport by short cut "T" expand it with short cut "W". Select the wing if it's not already selected by clicking on it. Go to the "Modifier Stack" and open the Editable Mesh tree clicking on the "+" sign to do so. In the sub-object list, choose "Element" sub-object level. Move back to the top viewport and click anywhere on the wing. This will select all of the Polygons/Faces making up the wing. Short cut "F2" will turn the Active Shader off and on. Give it a try to see what happens.



 


With the wing selected at it's "Element" sub-object level,. Scroll down to the "Surface Properties" rollout "Material section". In the "ID" entry box, enter a value of 22. Hit the return key on the keyboard to set this value. This will set the stage for the IDs in the Multiple Material that is going to be created in the next section.





Once the Material ID has been to set to 22, Open the "Material Editor" by short cut "M". When the Material Editor opens, select the "New" button to start the creation of the multiple material. When the "New" button is selected, a dialog will open asking you to choose between "Standard or Multi-Material". Choose "Standard " and select OK.





The look of the Material Editor will change from that above. The "Apply" button now becomes active. Clicking on the "Apply" button will load the new material onto the wing. Go ahead and click "Apply".




For now, there doesn't appear to be any significant change in the Material Editor after the "Apply" button has been selected. The only noticeable change is to the wing. The wing's color has changed from blue to gray. To see further evidence of the new Multi-Material open the "Material Navigator" by clicking on the "Gmax Material Navigator" Icon.




The Material Navigator shows both the Standard material and the new Multi-Material applied to the wing.




Select the "Standard Material" in the Material Navigator by double clicking it. This will automatically load it back into the Material Editor. This material isn't needed anymore so it's safe to delete it from the wing. The Material Editor will open on it's own when you double click the material. Once that has taken place, locate the "Delete" button and click on it.



Now go back to the Material Navigator, and again double click on the "Multi-Material" this time. It too will be loaded back into the Material Editor. When the "Multi-Material" loads back into the Material Editor, the "Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters" rollout will be open. It will show you a listing of all the sub-materials located within the "Multi-Material". Notice that you have 22 sub-materials. This is due to the fact the Material ID has been changed to 22 when the wing was selected at the "Element" sub-object level. Use the scroll bar on the right side of the rollout to scroll to the top of the list where "Mtl #1 (Standard)" is located.




At this point all of the sub-materials need to have their color changed to something other than gray. Doing this will aid in the reassignment of the material IDs later on. There are two colors to avoid using as the changes are made: White and Black. The color Black will actually be used as the last sub-material color choice. It will help to identify any missed polygons/faces during the reassignment of Material IDs. If the wing has been deselected by accident, it will need to be re-selected at the "Element" sub-object level again.

In the "Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters" rollout, locate the small gray box just left of the On/Off box with the check in it for "Mtl #1" and click it. The "Color Selector" dialog will open. Change the color of that sub-material to something other than gray. Once the color is changed, don't close the dialog. Instead, select "Mtl #2" small gray box and pick a new color for it as well. Do this for all the sub-materials contained in the Multi-Material. As the colors are changed notice the sphere is updated to show the sub-material's colors.



Once all the sub-material's colors have been changed with the last sub-material being Black. The wing's color should be completely Black. If you look at the wing with it still selected at the "Element" sub-object level and are unable to see the colored IDs because of active shading, then short cut "F2" to turn off active shading.


There are two items that need to be addressed for the Multi-Material. It should be renamed to "Wing_Material". As time goes by for any given project, there will be numerous materials developed in the scene. Naming each material will make it easier to locate if changes should need to be made. **SPECIAL NOTE** Gmax may crash unexpectedly from time to time when renaming a material. If this happens, just reopen the recovery file. The material name can be changed at this point without causing Gmax to crash again. The second item is to save the file. As always, save your work often. For this tutorial, Save as My_wing01.gmax.




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