Hi I'm actually a programmer,but because of the lack of a reliable graphic designer,I started to learn the basics of the 3D modelling.. I am using Milkshape because it is easy to learn and use and it is very cheap,of course.I am planning to create low poly tank,car,human and building models for my strategy game. A few days ago,I finished my first model,a tank and then tried to create an appropriate texture for it.(Well,now I need to learn photoshop for that,but it is another sad story..) As you know,I needed to obtain the UV map of my tank to draw the texture upon.. This is where I ran into tons of problems.. First of all,I downloaded that damned program called LithUnwrap as a start.Theoretically the UV map should be the skin of my tank as if it is peeled out and flattened on a surface.(Well,isn't it? :) )After reading lots of tutorials and wasting countless hours on it,I gave up.. My first question:How can the flattening the skin on a surface thing can be possible just by dragging the vertices around??? For example in a tutorial (uv mapping a zombie) I encountered this image and I think it is badly incorrect: http://www.prodesignhost.com/tutorials/3d_studio_max_tutorials/images/tut7/zuvm11.gif By just dragging the vertices of the leaned surfaces,we only change the y coordinates of them,the effect in this image can only be the result of a rotation and it is not possible in LithUnwrap,I think.. Anyway,this UV mapping thing started to annoy me badly and I don't want to waste any more time on it,here comes my second question:Is there any program or any plug-in to Milkshape or to any other modelling program,which does this unwrapping thing automatically for me??? Even if I can manage to create a correct UV map of my models somehow(possibly as a result of a miracle),they will take tons of hours it seems.. The last question is about something which came to my mind while I was desperately struggling with LithUnwrap:If the skin of a model is flattened on a surface,there will be certainly cases in which a single vertex should have two different uv coordinates.Well, let me try to explain this visually: ......._ ._ _|_|_ |_|_|_|_| .1 2|_|4 .......3 Consider this as the UV map of a simple box(Well it looks very deformed in the actual message,but it is clear enough,I suppose hopefully). The upper left corner of the leftmost square (square number 1) and the upper right corner of the rightmost square(square number 4) are mapped to the same vertex in 3D space actually.But this vertex contains two different uv coordinates in uv space.Obviously,the vertex should be duplicated in this case.What disturbs me is,that I modelled my tank without this issue on my mind! So, for a lot of vertices in my model,their duplicates could be needed in cases of this UV discontinuity.The question here is,after creating the UV map,do I have to find all such problematic vertices in my model,one-by-one and duplicate them,which is surely an annoyingly tedious thing to do,or are the 3D modelling programs clever enough to detect and solve this problem somehow in texturing stage??? Or am I thinking badly wrong somewhere??? I really need all kinds of help and direction.. Thanks in advance..

Hello there.
I'm no programmer but I use LithUnwrap and I can tell you that dragging vertices around actually does the trick: it flattens faces. Try different unwrappings. If box does not work then try a flat one. Remember that faces can belong to different groups and that groups can be unwrapped in different ways. One trick I use to make quick groups is to assign different materials to the model parts, so I can select them in LithU. Watch out for seams...
As far as I know no low price/free unwrappers can unwrap meshes automatically with no need for vertices pulling, so some addictional work on your part is in order...
It will take some time get good results, don't give up.
See you,
Sirren.

Ok,let's say I managed the UV mapping thing somehow,what about the vertex duplicating issue? How is this problem handled?

The vertex may be used by several polygons, but you're texturing the face of the polygons, not the vertices. Just make sure your textures line up (perhaps continuing the texture on a new layer, then rotating it into place). It's been a while since I use Ultimate Unwrap (the new name for lithUnwrap, I believe), but I'm pretty sure there will be a way to "split" a vertex for UV mapping, otherwise you may have to have severa polygons share the same piece of texture. If you really do find yourself with such a problem, try selecting one of the offending faces, go to Vertex->Unweld, and Milkshape will duplicate the vertices of the face, and attach the face to these new vertices, while retaining the originals. Try it on a cube first, if you're not feeling brave enough to try it out on your models.

In response to the image, yes, it does seem a little confusing, and I'm not entirely sure what the author was going on about.

Good luck with your skinning, and show us a few pictures when you're done! :)