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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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".
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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