color map question

[spiritfall]

Just curious, and no matter how hard I search on google, i can't find anything.

 

I am a newb at modding and 3d modeling in general, so I might be missing something.

 

I am planning on making a weapon and/or armor, based off of Dakkon Blackblades sword and armor of MTG fame, out of a custom mesh that I will create in 3dsMax,

eventually I will struggle through. I understand normal maps, and color maps and their purpose. The one thing that I am having a problem with is the color map.

 

I looked online at other custom .nifs, and I have no clue on how to create a color map out of nothing. Something that will wrap around my mesh properly.

 

I looked at the fantastic Dragonbone Armor Mod, and the color maps are a jumble of random textures. How does one go about texturing a custom mesh from scratch.

 

Any help is appreciated

[SickleYield]

I looked at the fantastic Dragonbone Armor Mod, and the color maps are a jumble of random textures. How does one go about texturing a custom mesh from scratch.

Any help is appreciated

 

I'm using Blender, not 3dsMax, but this is the part of the process I'm struggling with myself. I have yet to find any tutorial that isn't utterly useless for anything more complicated than a cube. As near as I've been able to learn, you start from the UV map, export it, and use that to make your texture. The UV map will be an odd shape, but it will show you which parts of the texture go on which parts of your model, vertex by vertex. (This is why the textures for, say, a cuirass aren't cuirass-shaped.)

 

Figuring out how to translate between the UVmap and the colormap texture is a very time-consuming process for a beginner like yrs. truly. I hope things go easier for you. :)