Hey. Is there anyone who can texture a horse for me for free? I can texture with no problem, but I look at others art and know my time is best spent making models and animating rather than trying to further develop artist ability. I want someone good to show me how its done. Im working on a horse model for a midieval project of mine and I want a good 2d artist to help me out. You will be given credit and your work will not be sold or given to anyone else, I just ask permission to use the texture in my project. Im looking for nearly photo real. This is a low poly model so it needs all the texture help it can get. I say nearly because I don't want a picture of a horse manipulated to fit the uv layout, it needs to be painted so it can easily fit in with future environment and character art. Just post here if you wanna help me out. Thanks.

Nude figures/creatures are usually easy to texture using photos... just go to www.3d.sk (or find free ones), get horse photos, and manipulate them until they cover your UV layout correctly... if you can find all the orthagonal directions, plus random camera angles to fill in the blanks, you're golden.
If you want normal mapping or proper bump mapping though, that's not so easy, and you'll have to model a high-poly version for the former or paint the texture yourself for the latter.

yeah, its mainly just a matter of making a good uvw unwrap so it'll be easier to texture.... or if you do it the other way its a matter of making the texture layout logically in photoshop and making your uvw unwrap match that (which one depends on the project).
what modeling app do you use?

Hey. Thanks for the advice. I used to have a subscription to 3d.sk, but Im on dial up so(I live 20 miles from civilization and love it). I got tired of waiting for textures to load in my browser.

The thing is, I want to work with somebody on my project. I could do the texturing by myself but I already know the outcome(not to bad). Also if I had a buddy who could texture my models, I would have maybe 50% more time to model and animate. I would like to team up with someone who can make some great textures and concept art. I've never really got together with another person and created something to finish.

Im going for realistic movement in the animation with a possible 7 progressive stages of forward movement including jump I will animate all stages but use only 4 or so for forward movement, to make things simple. I found some great reference material from the early 1900's. The photographer is Muybridge, who wrote and supplied photography for Animals in Motion, originally published around the turn of the century and now available from Dover. This is the source of the information above about Muybridge. Animal Locomotion



I use Maya 6. I don't ever see having to upgrade or change apps, maybe oneday, upgrade that is. I tried max around R3, but then I found Maya, it just really clicked with me like we were made for each other. I model all organic or living things starting out with cylinders, ruff the shape then fine tune, all the while deleting history every 10 or so actions with a save after history deleted. The box method is counter intuitive for me, though this horses head started as a box.

My team and I could help with the concept art, but I don't have experience in 3d modeling/texturing. I work for free. I do my concepts by hand. If you require 2d pixel art (a form of concept, rough sketch), that can be provided as well. I only form of credit that I need is my name as well as my team's name (Red Winter Studios). More info, samples etc. can be provided if you're interested. Contact: darshan_shankar@hotmail.com.

well, eninja, you're going to have to learn how to texture well eventually. most artist both model and texture thier models.
as far as your model goes... it looks more like a dog to me (except for the feet), i think you should refine the legs and head a bit more.

Well, a horse is a dog for the most part. The leg muscle group should be larger. After it's textured, and good lighting should provide the additional stuff. Besides, it seems very low poly. Perhaps he's using it for a game?

Quote: Original post by D Shankar
Well, a horse is a dog for the most part. The leg muscle group should be larger. After it's textured, and good lighting should provide the additional stuff. Besides, it seems very low poly. Perhaps he's using it for a game?

not quite, there is much of the body structure that needs to be tweaked. and it doesn't matter if its low poly or not, the body structure should still match;

If we get a side view, we can see the muscle groups better. Nevertheless, I'll give the argument to you. There's some more work to be done. The red highlights on the modified image indicate areas where muscle groups can be enhanced with texturing. Lighting can give the shine/shadow to show depth/form. Imo, The horse is missing more of a hump near its neck. Minor stuff really. Horses are much larger than dogs, so when well textured and rendered in a proper environment, it should look appropriate.



EDIT: About the low-poly. He could move some of the polys around, but more muscle definition would mean more polys right?

Well, there are different species of horses, and they can vary from pony-like (for example, the one pictured), to tremendous Clydesdales (twice as high at the whithers/shoulders as a pony... 22 hands or so). Either way, the shoulders in front and rear don't look powerful enough.
You'll also need more geometry to deform correctly, depending on how high poly you're willing to go.
This is again a design issue, but medieval war horses were of a breed extinct today, larger than even clydesdales, which are draught-horses. So if this is indeed a mount for an armoured knight, who is carrying hundreds of pounds of baggage, he's going to need to be alot more powerful and bulky than the current pony-like proportions of the current model. If its not supposed to be a warhorse though, ignore these last comments.
And Jarrod is right, you really should learn how to texture well, it will teach you how to model better as well.

As for Maya6, alot of people choose to stay one-version behind the current, with good reason... its hard to find plugins and in Maya's case MEL scripts in the most current version. 6 right now has all it'll ever have. I do suggest you keep upgrading one version behind the current, though, or at least wait until after the first patch or two to upgrade. Refusing to upgrade means you lose out on alot of improvements (especially the built-in poly tools in version 7), so if stability is your issue, just play it safe but definately upgrade eventually.
And this is a bit OT, but just a tip, save BEFORE the history is deleted, so if you make a mistake you can go back and correct it.