HELP NEEDED FOR TEXTURING IN XSI6.01

Yes, your sins models need to be a single object.

To merge objects in XSI, go to the Create->Polygon Mesh->Merge while having both objects selected. You will likely need to dial the distance setting down to avoid distortion.

A better way is to prep your mesh objects prior to merging, by deleting selected faces on both objects and then snapping (press and hold Ctrl-M) the egde vertices together before you merge the objects. That way you get one tidy, continuous mesh.

That kind of a mesh is much easier to UV map and reduces the polygon count. The only reason you'd want a non-continuous mesh is when modelling structured geometry which does not really flow (like antennae or other such sharp protrusions.

Thank you... now I just need to do that tomorrow... after I've had some Zzzz

Got done doing the bases for two new ships and before I got further I wanted to make sure I didn't screw myself into having to start over completely... btw I love your mods and wish to incorporate them into my mod I am developing these models for... keep up the great work ManSh00ter

Yeah, I'm stuck on the texturing part but for a different reason. I'm using Mod Tool 7.5 and when I try to import a clip (black background picture from photoshop) before UV Stamping the mesh nothing comes up. Or shall I say, all I get is the default no Icon pic I started out with (also the reason I can't use Rotoscope). This is really frustrating at the moment as it's incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to edit the picture with the checkered coloured background. I don't know if it's just because it's 7.5 or my system on which I use it on, either XP or Windows 7 gives me the same problem. Any ideas? The search funtion isn't very good on the site so if a similar problem happened to someone else I haven't found the corresponding topic.

Thanks Grendels!

zRazor, you can try assigning a material (Ctrl-7 to open material manager), which has that black picture assigned to Diffuse. That should also port to the Texture editor so you can stamp the UV mesh. Don't forget to make the black picture the same or higher resolution than your texture.

Thanks for the reply. I'll try it out. Something's better than nothing I guess.

Also just wanted to know whether you used zbrush for filling in your textures? My friend gave me this little program and it's really quite good at creating fantastic texturing for models. It's certainly a lot faster than Photoshop, but ultimately I know photoshop is needed to save the textures in .dds format. I used it currently to map out how the model should look like when textured (importing it in as an object), but I am wondering if I should also fill in the texture file here then export to Photoshop to create the .dds files.

Anyway, I am a big fan of your wonderful creations and can't wait to play your mod after the summer. All the best!

Thanks! Yes, I use ZBrush to polypaint the colors and deformations on my models, then export the resulting images into Photoshop, for compositing. I also use Zbrush's Cavity Mapping feature to accentuate the deformations, and XSI's Occlusion Shader to bake a simulated global illumination effect onto the model. Works wonders with shadows, you don't have to do them by hand in Photoshop.

Make sure you don't use jpg's

I've noticed this happening before with them