I see a lot of great looking tech and magical looking models that have places on the model where the texture "glows".. is this some sort of specular map? how does one go about making these?

i guess an example would be the piece vincent joyau did for the 2nd dominance war.. the glowies on his female warrior



thanks for any feedback

to create them it's generally just a texture map all black except for where you want things to glow.

For viewing them, xNormal would be your best bet at the moment. In xNormal it is labled as an emissive texture.

Well that image there just has some basic bloom, so all it is, is just a bright color in both the spec and the diffuse map which will make it glow a bit. But generally you would have an extra texture that is emissive(glow in the dark).

[ QUOTE ]
I see a lot of great looking tech and magical looking models that have places on the model where the texture "glows".. is this some sort of specular map? how does one go about making these?

[/ QUOTE ]
Well, you can fake some glow with the specular but won't look well. Usually need a 2D post-process effect to perform it well. To make it really good-looking need also HDR(high dynamic range), exposure/gamma control, tone mapping and custom AA resolve.

To be 100% perfect need to do it using true volumetric atmospheric lighting with radiosity.

And for a cheap substitute, put a map with bright glowy bits where you want them in the Self Illumination slot in max.

I can't wait till glow maps actually emit light in real time.

Alex

Wait no more.
http://www.fantasylab.com/newPages/F...eFeatures.html
http://www.geomerics.com/products.htm

Well, wait a bit more, but whatever.

very interesting article from geomerics there eric... and thanks everyone for all the guidance.. i joined the 3D challenge for the naruto competition and i'm also working on a separate character design that I may need to fall back on this advise.. thanks [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]