Mapping Section

In this part of the tutorial is explained how to map our car.
In this tutirial is explained a method to map the car faster using a template with some poligons.

Let's see the steps to map the car:

1. Make two screen shoots of the car like this: (one from top view, and the other from side view):


Side view


Top view

2. Put the diferent parts of the car that you are going to map in the material (the texture, that have a sise of 1024x 1024 pixels). For example I map the sidepods, the nose and the engine on the first tga. You can see it in the next image:


Filling the texture with some parts of the screenshots

We will do the same for the 2nd material, its to say map the side of the nose cone, the front wing...

Finally we can use a similar way to prepare the 3rd material, that we will use to map some little parts of the car,like car numbers, little wings...
In the following images you can see that in the 3rd material I have put a lot of squares. It's to map the small details of the car. In this way it's very simple to map the details.





We will use these squares to map the different parts of the car. The following image shows it:



3. Now,in the tga1 and tga2 make some poligons whit different colors to differenciate the different parts of the car (using as reference the different parts of the car that we have copied and pasted in the second step). These poligons will be our reference when we map the car in ZModeler.
You can use any kind of poligons that adjust at the piece of the car that you are going to map.



4. Start to map the car in ZModeler (a good tutorial is the Mapping cars for GP4 by Auradrummer, you can donwload it on gpxcarpainting).

First of all I have to tell you that you have to map faces, so we will work on faces level.
So to map a group of faces, select the faces on faces level (if these faces belongs to different objects, remember the ZModeler section of this tutorial that says that to select faces or vertices of different objects you have to select the desired objects on objects level, then activate SEL mode and switch to faces or vertices level, click on the selection and now you can select the desired vertices or faces.) and activate SEL mode.

The next step is assign a material to our selected faces (remember to activate SEL mode), so go to the material editor and assign the material by clicking on the Assign to Selection button.



Aftet that, you have to assign UV to your selected faces (remember to activate SEL mode). To do this, go to Surface -> Mapping -> AssignUV and click on the desired view.
Remember also that if you want to remap a mapped area first you have to delete the current UV mapping of the desired faces. To do this: select the faces on faces level go to Surface -> Mapping -> ResetUV (remember to activate SEL mode) and click on the selection.
The next step is assing UV to the selected faces as usual.

Now you can see in the UVMapper view the map of your selected faces.

Remember that to scale it you sholud use the numeric box #1. Put in this box the number that you want to reduce the sisze of the texture. The best is reduce the 60% (thanks to Bojan Tarticchio to tell it to me). So put 60 in this box and drag with the mouse as usual, it'll scale down exactly 60% in steps. Reduce all the mapped objects to 60% using this method.



The following image shows the process of map a piece of the car: select a group of faces, map the faces (by clicking on the top view), scale the mapped area with numeric box #1 and finally see in 3D view the mapped area on the car.





5. You can see inmediately the parts that are mapped because they are painted in different colors.

6. Finally, we are going to show all mapped areas with each material (you can read also the tutorial How to find out the mapping of a gp4 car by Max Downforce, you can find it on gpxcarpainting.

To show the mapping of the car:

• Select all the object of the car in objects level.
• Switch on the SEL mode and go to faces level, right click on the car.
• Go to Select ->By Material and select the material that you want to get the mapping, for example the vte_1.tga. You will see that the parts of the car that belong to this material are selected.
• Now, go to Surface -> Mapping -> AssignUV (You should know that if you AssingUV to a face that is already mapped, ZModeler doesn't assign a new UV, it just show the current UV in the UVMapper.)
• Finally go to the UVMapper view and you will see the UVMapping of your selected material:




To finish we have to make a hi-res screenshoot of the wireframe in order to paint the car.
To make the screenshoot, first make the UVMapper in full view by pressing "f" on your keyboard. Then make the UVmapped area as big as you can. Take an screenshot. Go to your favourite paint program and paste the screenshot. With the rectangular seleccting tool select the inner area of the UVMapped area (I'mean, that you have not to select the grey line).
With the magic eraser tool and wiht out antialiasing delete all the background but not the wireframe. Change the image size to 1024x1024. Finally paint four little withe pixels at the corners of the image (it's to avoid problems if you copy and paste the image, remember that when you select a image with some transperencies, photoshop automatically adjust the selection to the painted area) and save it.
Congratulations, you have made the first steep to make a good template to paint the car.

On point 13 it's explained how to make a nice template.

7. If when you find out the mapping of the car you see that is incorrect (for example one surface is in a brong place), no worry, you can solve it.
Let's see how to solve it, in the following image we can see that the engine surface is displaced.



To solve this, switch to vertex level and select all the vertex of these surface:



Now, pres the SEL button on to activate the multiple selection and Modify -> Move. Then place the object on the desired poligon: finaly you will have the correct mapping:



Moreover you can do other things when you have selected all the vertex of a surface: scale it, rotate, mirror, reorient... So if we made a mistake when we map the car there is no probem because we can solve it using the method that I explained in this point.

8. Sometimes is good to write something when in the texture that we are mapping. Then you can see if you are mapping in the correct position or not. For example the engine. The image is self explanatory.



You can use any kind of poligons that adjust at the piece of the car that you are going to map.

9. Another surfaces like the suspensions, the inferior part of the car... are mapped whit carbone fribre. To map these we are going to use a method called Tile textures. Whe are going to use a material that is all black with a grey lines.
Select the surfaces that you would map with carbone fibre,



then assing the material to the selection and go to Surface -> Mapping -> AsingUV and clic on the view that the surfaces are more visible (for example tho map the bottom of the car click in the top view, or to map the rear fins click on the right or left wiew).
Then in the UV Mapper view you will see the surfaces that you had selected, now make them larger with the scale tool (no mather if the objects are outside of the texture), yo will see something like this:



Finaly in the 3D view you will see:



Now you can scale the surface mapped more or less and you will see that the gray lines are closer or they are farther. So you need to experiment and make the size of the mapped area that make in 3D view a better presentation.
Finally do the same for all the surfaces that have the texture carbone fibre.

Another and very useful mapping method to map carbon fibre parts of the car (thanks to Bojan Tarticchio to tell this method to us on gpxcarpainting forum.)

First of all make a pattern on your texture with black and gray lines (1 pixel with every line) and very wide (about 1024 pixels).







Now select the part of the car that you will assing the carbone fibre texture, assign the material and UV.



Scale the mapped object to 40% by enering 60 on numeric box#1.



Place axis ( X ) on the center of the front wing on the UVMapper view by putting over it the mouse and clicking on the keyboard " . ". Now, rotate the object 45º using numeric bar#1.



Move the object to the center of the black part of the texture.



Finally, place axis ( X ) on the center of the front wing on the UVMapper view.
Scale in vertical axis (select the V axis mode) and scale to fit it perfectly on the texture:



Finally the result is a nice mapped part of the car wiht a good carbone fibre texture:



This method is very useful because we don't use much space on the texture and we don't need to add a new texture for the carbone fibre.

10. The next etep is do the same for all the car, it's to say finish to map all the car.


11. To map more easy you con copy in a paper with a pen the poligons that you have made in the 3r step. And now you can with a pen draw the parts of the car that you are mapping on the texture and write the name in order to not have problems later (for example if we don't draw the mapped parts of the car we can map in the same poligon two parts of the car and this is a problem that can be solvet by writing the mapped parts in a paper with a pen).

12. The final step it's map the numbers of the car2. To do this save to copies of your car: car1 and car2. Now remap the numbers on the car2 and save the changes. So in this final step we have two cars: car1 and car2.

13. I will explain the basic steps to create o good template. (the explanation is to adobe photoshop, but to other programs like the gimp, paint shop pro... is the same, but the tools are located in different places).

First of all we have the wireframe in our texture (to get the wireframe of the texture see point 6) , it's something like this:



Now paint the exterior part of the wireframe of your tga in a color that you won't use for the car, for example this light green.



After that select wiht Magic Wand Tool the exterior part of the wireframe of your tga.



The second step is create a new layer with the selection, to do this: right click and select Layer via cut in the menu that will appear.



Go to the new layer and select the green part, now invert the selection in order to select the surfaces of the car (Right click and select Select inverse in the meny that will appear).



Now expand the selection to avoid some problems. For example 3 pixels.





The final step is paint the surfaces of the car with the desired color, it's to say, paint the selection. I have paint it blue.
The result is a nice template:



And doing the same for all the textures the result is a nice template.



The next step is paint the car using this template. Remember to add some texture shading, car lines...



By the way, to get a very precise template you can use a ZModeler plug-ins that allows you to export the template in eps format. And it's very preceise.
You can download it on: ZModeler plug-ins
Hope that this can help you.


NOTE: map lod 4
Remember to map the car lod_4:



This shape is very low resolution, to map it only map the correct color on the car: the color of the nose, the front wing, the rear wing, the sidepods... It's to see the car in the mirrors (you can see the lod_4 in the mirrors). So remember to remap the lod_4 and change the name of the materials: use the same materials as in the lod_0 (you can use less materials for example VTE_1.TGA and VTE_2.TGA, but the same name for the used materials).

I always map the lod 4 when the car is finished. You can see in the next image that the map is awful, and the car_lod_4 needs to be remaped:



For example I will explain how to map the front wing. Select the front wing (on faces level), activate SEL mode, go to surface -> mapping -> Reset UV, and then go to surface -> mapping -> Assign UV and click on the top view. Then you will see:



The next steep is adjust the mapping at the texture. The following image shows this:



And on 3D view you can see the result of our map-change:



If we remap all the car (it takes a few time) you can get a nice low-res car:



It's to say, we will see the correct colors of our car in the mirrors.



Some mapings tips
First of all thanks to Bojan Tarticchio to tell this method to us on gpxcarpainting forum.

This method is very useful for contiguos pieces on our car, it's to say, for the car body parts. You don't need to make this for wings and other parts of the car.

To aply this method, first select a pice of our car, assign a material and assing UV. Now Scale it to 40% (you must write 60 on the numeric box#1):



Finally move this object to the center of the mapping area.

Do the same for the other parts of the car.
But, for example some surfaces need to be rotated 90º. To make this precise rotation use the numeric box#1, and move it to the right of the maping area:



Doing the same for the other part of the car, and moving it to the left of the mapping area we have all the parts of the car mapped. To see all the parts of this material mapped, select all the objects of the car, activate SEL mode, switch to faces level, go to select by material and select the material that you have assigned at the mapped parts of the car. Finally go to Surface -> Mapping -> Assign UV and click in any view. You will see all the mapped parts of this material in the UVMapper view (Note that when you select a mapped face and assign UV, you won't delete the previous mapping, you just will see the previous mapping in the UVMapper view.)
It's to say, we will see in UVMapper view:



Now switch to vertex level, activate SEL mode and go to Select ->Quad. Move the select vertices (all object) to fill all the texture to left less spaces you can.



Selecting the other parts and moving it we obtain a good maped texture.
The next steep is draw a horizontal line (1 pixel width and non-antialiased), this line is a marker.



The last steep is to align the marker in 3D view by moving the mapped parts (left and right) on the UVMapper view. So select one mapped part (switch to vertex level, activate SEL mode and go to Select ->Quad) and move the select vertices (all object)) to fit it perfectly in 3D view.





Finally we can paint some horizontal lines on the nose cone, and we can see on 3d view that they fit perfecly.











About the materials in a gp4 car
Original materials in a original GP4 car
When you import a GP4 car in ZModeler, in the material editor you can see (for examples in the original Benetton):

COCKPIT_DAMAGE.TGA
CARLIGHTMAPCH2.TGA
CARLIGHTMAPCH3.TGA
BENETTON_1.TGA
BENETTON_2.TGA
BENETTON_3.TGA


Making changes to these materials
You can cange the names of BENETTON_1.TGA to VTE_1.TGA, BENETTON_2.TGA to VTE_2.TGA, BENETTON_3.TGA to VTE_3.TGA for example.
Then you can use the car for several slots in GP4. First make sure that your name isn't used by another car.

Moreover, the textures:CARLIGHTMAPCH2.TGA and CARLIGHTMAPCH3.TGA are very small, they are used by GP4 but if you delete these when you export the car they will be created. They aren't asigned to any part of the car.

You can use any material to any object when you map the GP4 car in ZModeler. And, moreover you can add some new materials as for exemple VTECARPARTS.TGA to increase the detail level in the car and for example the material used to map the carbone fibre parts on the car.

In the original GP4 car, the materials z_cockpit_right_mirror and z_cockpit_left_mirror are assigned to the material COCKPIT_DAMAGE.TGA to get reflections when you import the car in the game you need to asign these material to these objects, if you don't do this the mirrors won't reflect nothing.
The mapping of these two objects are shown in the image:



Moreover, the z_cockpit_visor must be mapped in the material COCKPIT_DAMAGE.TGA because this object have a trasparency in the game, the following image shows it:



The other z-object is z_cockpit_interior, but you can map it in the BENETTON_1.TGA or other material, it doesn't matter.

I think that is a goog method because when you modify a part of the car, you will have the necessary space to map the new part.
But in the other hand, you will leave some space without any use.



Please e-mail me and make suggestions to improve the method.
vtemarticent AT hotmail DOT com

Enjoy desgining F1 cars.
And remember to read all the tutorials in the gpxcarpainting web site and the Zmodeler web site .
You will find a lot of good tutorials and you will learn a lot of new things.




---

Vicente Martí

Vicente Martí home page