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Texturing a horse model

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Dosser:
G'day all,
first post here in the Anim8or community (well, at least on this board). I keep trying to get into 3d modelling, for about a year now. I keep reading books and tutorials, but can't really think of a full project to do, so lack practise (I like developing games, but haven't really come up with an idea that can be easily implemented in 3d yet). So I decided to make a horse, since that can be used for heaps of projects, and should be simpler than a person, but challenging enough.

I've made a basic model from 3 cylinders (torso, 2 for legs), then realigned the points to follow the reference image. Then I paused before adding a head or tail. I remember some weird stuff when texturing: I may have seen it in tutorials. How would I texture a model which clearly wouldn't fit into the normal UVMapper shapes (cylinder, sphere, box etc.). Should I join the legs to the body now, or wait? Should I mirror the legs now or later? I guess I'm just confused as to what needs to be done next, to make it as simple as possible to finish.

I've attached a pic of the model. The back leg looks weird because I still haven't decided how low poly it should be. It's amazing how much less smooth a hexagonal cylinder is than an octagonal cylinder (front leg) :S

Frankie:
just use uv mapper
it will still work

Try using different mappings and find the one that makes the most sence.

hihosilver:
I'd finish the modeling before you move on too the texturing.  What you want to do to texture is use an outside program such as UV mapper or Lithunwrap to unwrap the UV's of the model (google for tutorials on this) and paint the texture yourself.  As for the smoothing of the legs.  You can double click an object and change the 'smooth angle' too a value between 0 and 180.  180 will shade everything as smoothed, 0 will shade all edges as sharp.  Hope that helps a bit ;)

Dosser:
I finished the modelling and am now up to the texturing. As I predicted, most of the unwrapping options (in UVMapper classic) just look like a mess. Perhaps the best one is planar, which isn't ideal since it would stretch the flatter areas on the head and rump (correct me if i'm wrong). Could someone please have a look and tell me how to unwrap properly?

hihosilver:
I'd recommend using lithunwrap instead of UV mapper classic since in lithunwrap you can view the model in realtime as you unwrap it.  For the horse you'll probably want to do the legs as cylindrical maps,  For the tail and body you may want to do the same, but you'll need to stretch them out.  I'd really advise using lithunwrap though.  It's much simpler.

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