#making windows
3 messages in this thread
I was trying to figure out how to cut windows in a spaceship-like hull created
using the fit tool, and someone suggested that I use MeshPaint. I actually want
to put in transparent windows, if possible. Is there any easy way to do this? I
would greatly appreciate nany help. Thanks.
-Darin Friedmann
Actually, I was the one who suggested MeshPaint, but not for the windows (for
precisely applying your details to the ship). However, you CAN use MeshPaint
(or any other technique for accurately drawing your windows) and get
transparent Windows — you just need to use the resultant map as an opacity
map.
Assuming you want your windows completely transparent, you just paint white
where you want Windows and black everywhere else. The easiest way is to start
with your texture map, and just paint over it. Use this in the opacity slot,
turned to 100% and you're home (hey, I may have gotten the colors reversed —
but you can still paint it that way and turn on Negative in the map parameters
to make it work). By not copying this map to the shininess map slot, you'll
have a slight gloss to the areas that will look perfect (if you copied it the
effect would be more like a hole than glass.
While I've never done this with opacity, I use this technique all the time when
I want lit windows (a la Star Trek) on my spacecraft. It works just great.
Any object you have inside should then be visible in the windows. My theory is
to always use maps when I can rather than model geometry.
Darin, this is how I'd approach this.
First, make sure your hull mesh is as simple as possible; eg a one-element mesh
with nothing attached to it. This should allow multiple boolean ops. I've done
these operations with complicated meshes made with Deform/Fit, etc, many times
(as long as the mesh is a single entity), so I know that it is a viable
solution.
Create a mesh in the shaper in the shape of your proposed window(s) and extrude
it in the Lofter. In the 3D Editor, intersect it at with the hull at the
position you would like the window to exist. Save your file (important).
Do a boolean intersection between the hull and the window extrusion to create
the window mesh. Select it, and do a Save Selected, naming it window01.3ds, or
whatever.
Now, bring up the original file you saved with the intersecting meshes. Do a
boolean/subtraction in which you subtract the window mesh from the hull mesh.
This should give you the hull with a window-shaped "hole" in it.
To fill the hole with window, simply merge the window01.3ds file. This should
give you a discrete, perfectly-formed window mesh in your hull that you can do
whatever you want with.
This technique is also great for applying "decals" to non-regular surfaces.
Have fun!
-Alan