SELECTING THE GROUPSOK, I exported the UV map and opened it up in Photoshop, 1. I created a new layer by clicking the blank page on the bottom of the layer TAB. 2. Then using the Polygon Selection tool, I went around the front of the shirt, then whilst holding SHIFT I also selected around the back of the shirt, Now using the Paint Bucket/Fill tool I filled it in solid 100% in a kind of off-white colour, as you can see in the next step.


LAYERSI did the same for each group that I wanted to keep seperate, So I have The Trousers filled on a layer, the Stump filled on a layer, all the skin filled on a layer and the shirt filled on a layer. This allows easy selection of each group by holding CTRL and left clicking in the area marked red in the layers TAB, your trousers will be magically selected :) These solids will form the basic colour tones of the model and all details will be painted on layes above each one allowing easy modifications...


ASSIGNING THE SKINOK, now open up Milkshape and keep it open at the same time as Photoshop. Click the materials TAB and CLICK NEW (I forgot to mark it :)) anyway create a new material then 1. click the top material button marked 1, and choose zombie.jpg (which is a flattened saved version of the photoshop file) then 2. Click EMISSIVE and move it up from solid black to a dark grey, this lightens the shading on the model and brightens the colours. then SELECT ALL THE FACES (not vertexs as shown in the pic heh heh) and click the ASSIGN button. Right click the 3d window and select Textured view and there it is, tha basic colours.



THE STUMPI created a new layer above the STUMP layer and CTRL clicked the STUMP layer to get my selection, then using the airbrush at various opacities, colours and sizes I added some details on the layer above, again this allows me to delete/adjust stuff without affecting the main solid colour layers.


SKIN DETAILSI created a new layer above the SKIN layer to paint the details onto, but first I lowered the LAYER OPACITY of the SKIN layer to about 96% this allows me to see the UV mesh underneath, giving me a guide to follow when painting stuff. Back to the Skin detials layer above and I start airbrushing in some very rough details, just blobs of a darker colour really, I constantly save the image and flick to Milkshape and Re-open up the image file to update it. As you can see at this point I'm just finding out where the forms of the face are


MORE NASTY DETAILSAfter putting in some blobs and finding out roughly where the eyes were etc, I zoomed in and started to paint some details using low opacity airbrush and various small brush sizes. I painted some dark areas around the eyes then painted the solid white eyeballs over the top, and using darker shades of the skin colour (use ALT (eyedropper) while on the airbrush to quickly pick colours from within your pic) I also found a site the other day in preparation for this all about skin disorders...hmmm nice and I saved off some nasty pics for reference, I roughed in some holes and gashes getting ideas from the pics.



CHECK IT OUTAll the time I'm painting I constantly flatten and save (or save for web) and re-open up the skin in Milkshape to see how things are going. If you have the new UNWRAP 3D you can leave the 3D window open over photoshop and it auto updates each time you save the skin, but I prefer how things look in milkshape for the time being. I also added a bit of craqelure to the skin to give it a leathery look...


PAINTING THE TROUSERSI added some monochromatic noise to the TROUSER layer just to give em a bit of texture. Then I created (guess what?) another layer above the TROUSER layer to paint the details on. I picked a lighter blue colour and lightly airbrushed some subtle highlights onto the detail layer, then Using a slightly darker blue I added some shadows, creases and general blobs :)


THE SKINThis tutorial is not meant to teach anybody how to paint or anything its just to give you guys an idea of how I do things I suppose. Anyway, I added some dirt and grime and a bit of shading on a layer above the SHIRT layer and I also spent a couple of hours tweaking and changing all the other bits until they looked right on the model.


THE ZOMBIEThese are a few screengrabs from 3D explorer but its lights tend to make definate lines, but it looks fine in Milkshape etc, but I kinda like the lighting in it. As you can see the textures are finished and the mapping works OK, phew!!!! OK I hope you guys found this useful somehow :) The next tutorial will probably be in a few parts dealing with CHARACTER FX and creating a skeleton, assigning the vertexs, then how to do a simple walk cycle, so look out for that soon-ish....