Targetware: 3D Dev Guide

Texture Mapping Examples

Texture mapping is an art-form. It requires just as much effort, if not more, then creating the original mesh for your object. A less-than-optimal texture map can make things very hard on the 2D artist, and seriously affect the final appearance of your plane. Here are some examples of texture maps that work, and some that don't work not quite as well.

Example 1: A-20 Wings

When this model first came out of the shop with texture mapping, I had to ask the modeler to overhaul the mapping. The A-20 is a large plane, and needed all the texture space it could to have a decent amount of detail on the wings. As initially finished, the panel lines stood out as pixelated lines on the wings. I put together a cut and slash suggestion for the next version of the texture map. My goal was to get the most detail (ie: space) on the wings as could possibly fit in one texture map. To do so, I rearranged them according to their shape, increasing the amount of space allotted to each wing by approximately 150%. I also set it up so that the engine parts would be mirrored. It's not necessary to have unique engine maps for a multi-engine plane. Some of the parts were moved to empty space on the fuse texture. Also, given a chance, I might have shrunk the crankcase map a bit if I needed to slip something else more important in.