Part 1

Katana is one type of Japanese sword. This tutorial will explain to you how to model a katana using 3dsmax. This tutorial is divided into 4 pages. The first page explains how to create a tsuba (guard), a piece of metal separate blade and grip. The second page explains how to create the blade. The third page is how to model handgrip. The last, you will learn how to texture this sword.
{mosimage}After you finished all Gundam modeling tutorial, now it’s time to texture the model. In this tutorial you will texture Gundam 3D model using Multi/Sub-Object Material. This material type lets you texture different polygon using different material. Basically you need to specify polygons to corresponding material ID.

1. In table below, I noticed that there’s 7 colors needed to fully textured a Gundam RX-78-2 3D model. I also wrote specific ID to each color.

After you download the model, import 3ds file (File>Import). Hide all objects, except head. We will focus on the head first. Base color for the head should be white (ID=1). Go to Modify tab and activate Polygon selection. Select all polygons and in Surface Properties rollout, enter Set ID=1. (Note: if you create Gundam object by yourself, you will have Editable Poly object and Material ID setting is located in Polygon Properties rollout).

2. Next, choose all polygons that needed to be textured using RED color. Set Material ID=5. Continue with other polygons and enter the corresponding ID (refer to table above).

3. When finished, you need to create material. Turn off all sub-object selection. Open Material Editor. By default, one sample slot is selected. I changed material name into “basic color”. Apply this material to head object (you can click Assign Material to Selectionwhile head object is selected). Click Standard button. In Material/Map Browser window, choose Multi/Sub-Object. In Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout, click Set Number and enter 7. You need 7 sub-materials. Notice that each sub-material has its own ID. Then, click button under Sub-Material. You will go to each sub-material settings. Change sub-material name and change its diffuse color. Use color described in table above. When finished, click Go to Parent window to go back to Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout. Repeat the process until each sub-material has its own name and color.

4. Finished textured head object.

5. Use the same process to apply material to all body parts. Set polygons to their specific IDs. You can refer to image below how to choose IDs. All of these process may takes a lot of time, so be patient.

Part 2

I think previous texturing tutorial is enough to get nice looking Gundam. But if you want more convincing texture, this tutorial is for you. There are several Gundam body parts that has text or “sticker” attached, like in left and right shoulder, and shield. You will create that “sticker” in this tutorial.

1. First, hide all objects except right shoulder. Zoom in and capture the screen (Press PrintScreen button in keyboard). Open Photoshop, choose File>New and press Ctrl+V. Crop image like image below. And draw or add text (white text on top of black color). Also create a black color image.

You can right click this image and save to use later in later step. For example save as gundam_rshoulder_mask.jpg

Right click and save this image as black.jpg

2. Next, you need to create unique material for right shoulder object. Open Material Editor. Drag “basic color” material to another unused slot to make material copy. Apply this material to right shoulder object. Name this material “right shoulder”. In Multi/Sub-Object Material, click Add button once. You will get new sub-material with ID=8. Click and drag from “white” sub-material to make copy of this material. Make sure you use clone method: Copy.

3. You need to modify this sub-material clone. Click this sub-material. Rename this sub-material. Click None button right next to Diffuse Color. In Material/Map Browser window choose Mask. In Mask parameters, click button right next to Map and choose Bitmap. Use any black image you have. Click Go to Parent button. This time click button right next to Mask. Choose Bitmap, use image you created earlier (gundam_rshoulder_mask.jpg).

4. Right now, you don’t have any polygons with ID=8. Select right shoulder object. Activate Polygon selection. In Top viewport, select front polygons. Then set ID=8.

5. Do a test render, now you will have black text appear. Look at image below to understand how this works. Noticed that you have white base color. Then you have black image map and mask image. Map and Mask image work together. Mask image works like opacity channel. It control tranparency in map image. White color area in mask image lets the same location in map image appear when rendered. Otherwise, black color area in mask image make the same area in map image transparent.

6. Unfortunately, text location in right shoulder object is not right. Apply UVW Map modifier to right shoulder object. Use Planar Mapping type, then activate Flip in U Tile. Note: Mapping type and Flip is differ from one object to another. Other object sometimes doesn’t need Flip active.

7. You can do the same process like above to any other part of Gundam. For example, I applied the same techniques to left shoulder and shield. For shield, because I want white text, I used white color image as map.

You can use this image below as Mask image in left shoulder object.

You can use this image below as Mask image in shield object.

Note: The masking textures are not applied in this 3D model.