With MAX open, I then open Photoshop (I use version 7.0, any art program can be used however) and open my map that I plan to texture. Leaving it at 2048x2048. A lot of the skills here are similar to those in the Artwork tutorial, so I'm going to assume you have a base knowledge of photoshop in this instance.

Firstly, I duplicate the base layer and make the new top layer a Multiply Layer so that my white is see through and black is solid. These are now my guides for my characters texture. If you used overlap you can see where the areas are, hopefully you made the grey light enough to not be a hindrance. If so, either play with the grey, or reexport the texture.

I then fill the back layer with a general colour for the texture. In this case the base metal colour. I do this simply to note to myself that it ISN'T white, much like making sure it's colour is more full, rather than colouring in a sheet of paper. It's a COMPUTER people, USE it! :)

The system I use for texturing is similar to how I render 2D artworks. Make a layer of colour, and then shade on layers above that. This is good as you can change the basic information (diffuse) easily while keeping all the shadowing, highlights and FX you add.

On top of this colour however is the 'texturing' of the layer, where we add all the details that we use from images to add that extra realism. Blending and layer effects are the tool of the day in my texturing process. So if you haven't learned them well by now, you will by the end of this :)

The head texture is my first port of call as the texture is readily accessible and it's pretty much ready made. That, and I have been hanging out to see my face properly on this thing for a while now :)

So I open up my large images of me and get them ready to use copy, paste, clone and whatever else I can to make it work for me. I copy each view individually and copy it over to my map. I duplicate each one so that I have a spare large sized one if need be, and scale the duplicates down to something like the picture here.

I had slight issues in lining up, but this is due to slight moving around of polys in order to accomodate the depth in some places, like under the eye, the eyelid etc.

Once this is done I take off the right side of the face (as it is overlapped) and start merging between the front and side faces by using erase (with a big soft airbrush), select, dodge, burn and clone tools.

Make more duplicates of the layers you are working with if you need to get more material to work with again (at the right scale).

Keep to the contours of the face (or the polys in this case) in order to note where and what you are cloning to, trying to make sure there is no obvious cloning marks that make it easy to spot the cloning of skin. Repetitive spots or blemishes on the skin, stubble areas and hair can all be very repetitive if not looked at carefully. So move it around if need be, but keep the main things that make you, you.

As the shades will be significantly different across the head you will need to colour shift them depending on your initial photographs. This is best done by selecting an area with a selection tool of choice (paths, masking, free selection etc.) but give it a soft feather edge so that it blends into it's surrounding area. For example, the front face seem very white in comparison to the side, so by selecting the areas I want to bring up the colour I can then use the image tools (Hue, saturation and levels to name but two) in order to equalise the colour and shade effect. Hue saturation and Levels are a must for any work like this, so play with them as much as you can in order to get the end result you need. These can be found in the Image | Adjustments menu.

Masking is a very powerful tool in making selections. I used this method considerably when changing the hues of the face as a whole as well.

Firstly select the Quick Mask tool at the bottom of the toolbar ( ) or press Q. By using greyscale with white as selection and black as not selected, you can select areas using transparency that you can control.

Once you have a basic layout down you can test your texture by saving it as a .psd, and making a sub-object material in max. To do this, go to the material editor in MAX and select a new material box. Select the box that says 'Standard' and make it a Sub-Object material type. Discard the original map (or keep it if you wanted to use it) and set the number of maps to 3 (in my case).

Each material slot represents each map channel, so you can apply you materials as per usual, displaying them in the viewport etc. So set the 1st material with your new .psd as the diffuse, display the map in the viewport and apply it to your model. You should have the map displayed as you go along from here on in. Which is mighty handy for finding out how your model is progressing into the realm of 3D :)

I generally work with MAX and photoshop open. Saving the .pSD and refreshing the screen in MAX to see the results on a regular basis.

I have basically just started adding some basic texturing and effects in order to start building up the character. Easy stuff first. So the base colour/texture and some cool glow effects generally using Layers and blending effects to do so. The metal texture was one I got from a texture CD or the net.

In order to get the mana canisters to have transparency I made an opacity channel in MAX and used a grayscale image to define which were the seethrough and solid areas. In max white represents solid, black represents totally seethrough and everything in between is everything in between :) So I made a seperate folder in my photoshop layers dedicated to opacity, as that will be needed. I then saved out the image with the opacity information, and applied the opacity map into the required channel in the material editor.

Next I will be working on the shadowing, by using texture baking.

OK, the next bit is maybe not the best way, but it's the only way I have found Texture baking to work in MAX with the UVW Mapping I had already created. The only issue I have with it is mapping channels. So if anyone know how to do this without breaking up the model first that would be greatly appreciated. Email me here to get me that info...

For this case though, all you need to do is select your mapping channels one by one and seperate them from the main object. This way there is no second and third layer to actually worry about. In the end I had three objects, each object being the areas that each texture is used.

I selected the channel that my head and torso was part of by using the Select ID part of the polygon selection modifier, detached it from the body and set up a generic lighting system that represents a standard setup. I used, for mine, one at the front, back, two sides and top....and another at the top to do a soft shadow.

Once done I apply a plain white texture to it. (this isn't needed as if you set it up right it only exports the shadow map, but I find foolproof is good proof. Select the object in question and go to Render | Render to Texture. In the new window, make sure Automatic Unwrap texture is OFF. The objects to Bake window should have you selected object in it, leave selected object settings on.

Just below the output window is an Add button, click on this and select Shadow Map. You can change where it is saved and stuff underneath that, put the target Map Path to diffuse. I find that works for me best. Change the size of the map to what you use for the rest of your image (2048x2048 for me).

Once all it's done, hit the render button, you should get a texture rendered out that looks like your map, but with all the cool shadow information baked into it. Either save it in that window if you didn't tell it where to go before hand and there you have it. If it saves out as really white, sometimes I find saving it from the window (top left of the window) the best way to get the resulting file.

After that was done I loaded it in photoshop and ported the shadow map into my main image map for the character. I made it a multiply layer and tweaked as necessary (blurred/erased some areas to make them seem less polygonal etc.) and there you have it, a basic level of shadow mapping, and you didn't have to do it by hand :)

You may, however, need to edit some shadows out. Say for example shadows cast by the head will need to be moved if they are obviously cast by the head as it will move...while the shadows do not. It will look a little odd.

I also duplicated that layer and made it an overlay. This made an interesting contrast between shadow and highlights. Play with it as you will though. In my case it was particularly effective on the metal.

Now we get to have a bit of fun, in the most painful way possible (it's hard to get it right ;).

We get to dirty it up. Things like dirt, grime, dust, rust, scratches and the like are all part of making this character look real, even if it is an unreal character (no pun intended). As I go along I also add the odd detail here and there if I feel like it :)

Firstly we will do scratches. Generally I like to do things in a way that allows details like this to exist on their own layer. In doing so basic colours and textures can be changed at a whim without fear of having to redo the details.It also allows you to select the areas that would require reflection or specularity.

First thing to do is to make a base layer, for example if your material was metal and you had paint on it. Where it to be scratched you would have a plain metal texture to scratch back to. In my case as it's more like a raw metal I am just going to have a denser, near white metal to scratch back to. To do so I just fill a full layer with the material I would scratch back to. This method can be used from anything to scratches, to paint peeling back to older paint to whatever takes your fancy. So go wild in your execution :)

So i get a bit of white, a slight tinge of blue and white and Filter | Render | Clouds to make a bit of colour shift. Then I press the mask button in order to give that layer a mask, make the mask all black so you can't see the back texture and then you are ready to scratch! Use a thinish paintbrush and basically jiggle the thing with a white coloured pen around areas that would get scratched. Genereally these areas are on edges.

Make sure you paint in the mask itself and not the coloured layer. Having a graphic tablet really helps, especially when you're as dodgy as me with it and can't control it to save your life. Which works to your benefit in creating a certain randomness about it.

After you have started this you can add a slight effect to enhance it by adding a very light Inner Shadow to the layer to add a bit of depth to the scratch. Keep scratching till you are satisfied. Don't say you did this to your friends otherwise they might look at you funny, however.

I recomend sometimes going overboard with your scratching. Being too cautious sometimes doesn't give you the required scratchiness of it, it's a scratch! There's no control to it at all and should LOOK like that.

Next we will do dirt. Just plain generic dirt. Firstly we'll add the type that gets everywhere...at least on his torso. (Weaver is actually quite thorough in bodily hygiene).

First colour the foreground and background Black and White. Fill a new layer in with Filter | Render | Clouds. Select all and copy that layer. Next go to the Channels Tab and make a new layer, this is an Alpha Layer. Paste your Black and white clouds into that layer. Once done Ctrl click on the layer to make a selection. Go back to the Layers tab and make a new layer, getting rid of the original Black and White Cloud layer. Select a browny/grey colour for your dirt and fill the selection with it. You should have a cloudy mass interspersed with transparency.

Duplicate this layer and make the Layer effect Dissolve and reduce it to around 25% transparency to make the dots relatively sparse. The layer below that, reduce the transparency to something you deem appropriate and then merge the two dirt textures. Erase the areas that don't have dirt, and perhaps erase areas with a very soft brush that would have little dirt, perhaps at 50% strength.

As it is a pretty constant thing, it's quite unobtrusive in the grand scheme of things. However it is important in regards to 'the little things that count'. Subtlety can sometimes be much more effective than brute...err...textures.