Wow, it's been a while. I've had lots to do on other stuff besides modeling - but I think I'm almost done. The only issue I'm having is with the Mask 1 and 2. I'm confused as to what I'm meant to do with them. Are they 8 separate files (RGBA for each), or 2? And if they're 2 files, how do I properly set them up (I've made 8 files so far. the unused masks I've left black with 1 pixel of white)

Thanks.

That's after about 4 or 5 models and 3 or 4 unwraps... but thanks :)

http://imgur.com/LiGj7zr

here's it so far. it's nowhere near finished, but I think (hope) it's a decent startpoint.

That makes sense - I was just overlaying everything... that explains a lot. Hopefully I'll have my first draft ready by the end of the week, It won't be amazing, probably won't even be good, but it'll be a starting point for me to make something less bad next time :)

Ah, that was the issue. I was attempting to apply my image as a texture rather than through the UV layout. Thanks for the help again. So the lightmap is a colour layer? Or a separate map? Or just used as a reference?

Wow, it's been a while. Not had much time to work on my model.

I re-optemised my unwrap to remove unnecessary seams, and I have a basic texture that I want to try out before wasting my time with the finer details. Two quick questions (that I'm pretty sure were not covered in the tutorial, or were, but I didn;t understand them :p)

1. What order do the levels need to be shown in GIMP/Photoshop for the texture file? I currently have my base colour, light, AO and finer details, and my normals as a separate file. Which ones do I actually need to put in?

2) how do I preview my texture in blender? I tried to do it myself, but it just wrapped it however it wanted. How do I make it line up with my UVs?

Sorry for all the questions again :( and thaks for all the help!

Thank you so much for all the help! I've now properly unwrapped the model and I've followed your tutorial to bake the initial 2 things: http://i.imgur.com/kvyeb7N.png

Texturing starts tomorrow :)

thanks! I'll try that now. I triangulated it before unwrapping it - should I undo that? and how do I get the 2 component parts onto the same mesh (sorry for all the questions)

This is my basic mesh: http://i.imgur.com/cnUZL3y.png
The handle and the actual shovel are 2 separate compoenents

The shovel unwrapped fine (I think) - I projected the two flat edges, and seamed and unwrapped the thin border: http://i.imgur.com/S2csBWx.png

However, when I unwrapped the the hande (super zoomed in), the UVs went weird - look at the left hand side of the top projection and how it's bent compared to the other one: http://i.imgur.com/qYqthW2.png

Thanks for the response!

I thought your tutorail was just for the modelling part of the production - huge mistake on my part. Sorry for the stupid questions. I've started working through the process your tutorial showed, and I have a problem. I have made a sort of staff, and I have projection unwrapped the top of it and I think it's worked out ok. But when I unwrap the handle, one half unwraps properly, but the other identical half unwraps with the bottom part at a weird angle. Also, I don't know how to get both maps onto the same file (I broke the model down into 2 parts). I have pictures I can upload if they would help (I just have no idea how to on steam - do I need to upload them to imgur are just type the links in?)

Also, the reason I'm using GIMP is because I have a budget of £0.00, Thanks again!