Just made a zelot model

Hey I made a zelot model and I am a little fuzzy on how and what order to skin and animate the bastard:ggani:

First off, should I skin him based on nicoli's screen shot way or with the textporter, also isn't textporter a huge pain in the ***?

Second, is it easier to skin with the model having seperate body parts or should I attach them all togerther?

This question goes to modelling forum...

And I say, attach all them together, it becomes a lot easier for matching the skin parts, also better to preview the how is the model looking overall while you progress.

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defently attach them, it makes it more deficult then normal on yourself otherwise.

Unwrap first, then it doesnt matter if you skin or animate first, except if you animate after you skin you will be able to preview any texture stretching that might occur during deformation.

Textporter is a much better way to get it out then taking a SS IMO, but it really doesnt matter in the long run.

Well cool, I found a textporter tut but it used a box (like every stinkin tut!) and it told me I had to move all the faces and make them one flat image. This seems to be a little difficult for a character as intricate as mine. Can someone point me to a more specific tut or just help me out?

err textporter is not an unwrapping tool, it is a tool used to transfer your UVW coordinate data from your model into an image file so you can begin skinning it.

Search 3dbuzz.com or google.com for a unwrapping tutorial.

can i have that zelot model:abomHUH?: :abomHUH?: :abomHUH?: :abomHUH?: :abomHUH?: :abomHUH?: :abomHUH?:

screenshot?

yes when I am done, so this gives incentive to help me out eh?

p.s. it is pretty accurate to te origional except it's better :o)

Here's a small something I found http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/uvw/uvw.asp

Not sure if it helps a lot. But it's damn hard ti give direct support on how to unwrap the material to fit exactly, cause every model is different (I'd imagine that your Zealot model is pretty complex, so there you have it) Other than the above there should be a tutorial included with 3ds about Unwrapping. It teaches you how to unwrap their pretty spaceship, but the knowledge it gives you in general will help.

Anyways, I am highly looking forward to seeing a screenshot.:D

hehe does the link have a next button? I only see 4 steps...