The first image is the UV MAP. you have to create it.
to do that you used to have to select all the faces you wanted and cast a projection on those faces.
then select adjacent group of faces and do the same, and then stitch the parts together to make a seamless map image that you can draw across. but Now you can pretty much just select where the seems are and have the computer handle the projection for you.
no matter what though, the UV map is absolutely necessary if you're going to do any textureing at all.
Theirs a few ways to do it, and the layout is pretty much up to you.
Heres a map of the earth you've probably seen...
http://www.mncourts.gov/documents/2/ima ... _globe.gif
This is pretty much exactly the same idea of what a UV map is and how it works.
here are two more in a different style. still the same planet, just cut and flattened out a different way.
http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~kohler/z/icsilogo/isf-n9.png
http://www.genekeyes.com/CAHILL-LMW/201-3.jpg
So yeah... Quake 2...and Quake 1 (I made a couple skins for that game.)
and every game since then actually. (actually that's not true, but I'll mention it later.)
After your UV map is created, your 'skins' are basically make a new image that uses your UV MAP as a reference.
In my image I have the UVmap on top as the highest layer. Its only visible while I'm working on the image in photoshop, purely for my own reference. Once I'm done I usually delete the UV layer
UV MAP
Texture(skin) with UV MAP on top
The final image that gets used.
Can you draw directly on the model now?
absolutely. but even so you still need a UV Map, and you're still creating the map above.
you're just doing it a different way is all.
It's not necessarily "easier" but it takes pain out of matching up the seams of a model so that they aren't obvious.
I'd do it more often myself If I could find a program was robust and user friendly as photoshop, but did it all in a 3D space. Theirs lots a programs out there claiming to be just that. but so far none of them lives up to that claim.
So with the color...
Yeah most of the value in it comes from the lighting.
I do have a couple of shades in my texture, but the lighting is giving me even more by taking the geometry of the model into account, and including soft shadows as well as hard ones.
Below is the same model from the same angle. the one on the right is affected by light, the one on the left ignores the light completely, allowing you to see the texture for what it really is.
here is a shot of exactly what the light is doing...
and just cuzz...
here is whats called Ambient Occlusion. (AO)
I havent used this on any images before now.
![Image](http://www.johnnykaotic.com/misc/start2fin_016.png)
Its more shading than lighting...but its looks really nice on most things.
You'll see this more in film than in gaming. its pretty hard on the machines.
However, for gaming, what you can do is make an "AO bake" which basically maps out the shading and outputs it to a texture...then you can combine that with your flat colors.
Its kind of a cheap hack of a trick, but that's pretty much the nature of doing just about anything for gaming. That's why theirs so many kinds of texture maps...so the machine doesn't have to spend much power if at all, trying to do this stuff on the fly.
in film, you'll see this one combined with the regular lighting, and then that combined again with texture maps.
basically you're not likely to make a conscious notice of it until its not there.
AO is probably what made UP look as awesome as it did.
![Image](http://www.johnnykaotic.com/misc/up2.png)