I wanted to post this on DCMF, but I get alot of "error" messages, and just adding it to another post seems glitched as well. Just wanted to add this really quick in case anyone from there can fix it.

I haven't posted much, but I've been around for quite a while. I have looked at all the tutorials I can find, and if the answer is in them, then I have been unable to find a clear picture of what it is I desire to do.

I use MED, Costume editor, and other various tools for modding. So I'm aquainted with these tools, and I feel that I'm pretty at getting around them, using them, etc. However, what is lacking, or at least not explained anywhere I could find is a clear grasp of how to make your costumes appear to be made of different materials. I know you can add textures and such for this to happen, I just cannot find a cut and clear answer to some questions.

To make a costume appear to be made out of latex or other shiny material, is the material texture to be greyscaled, and a certain darkness? If so, how dark, how bright? Etc.

The same question applies for fur, leather, metal? Using some examples, how would you make an Iron Man costume look like it's made out of Metal? How do you make it look more solid then Batmans more flexible costume? How would you make Black Cats costume look as though it's made out of latex, yet keep the fur around the collar and sleeves looking as though it's made of... Fur?

Also, is there any way to blend mesh's to create a new mesh in MED or costume editor, without using the whole mesh and making parts invisible?

For example, lets say you want to make a Catwoman, or Black Cat costume, with them wearing high heels, keeping the costume skintight. The only way I could think of is using the female 60's und. with another mesh that has the high heels. Then making the feet on the 60's costume invisible at a point on the legs, and the mesh with high heels invisible everywhere else. This actually works, and lines up but... You end up with two mesh's, and it seems to me you can only add textures to one of them in the editors.... as the other one will use only the texture you made as it's Original. Bassically, your using another mesh as a prop that isn't designed to be a prop, but it works.

If there are no answer's for any of these questions, is there any thoughts on how it might be done better then the way I have explained it?

If I have missed an important tutorial that does indeed explain all this, please link... but keep in mind I have been a member for a long time, and I have searched quite a bit of tutorials over and over... meaning, don't just post a link if you haven't found the answer in that link yourself.. Don't assume that it is there.

To make any material glossy or matt you need to work on the Specular texture that can be added to any material in Blender, Med or Mesh Manip (not sure about CosEd thaugh). The principle is that this texture will control how glossy a perticular part of a mesh will look like. Most are grey scale images as only a value, not a color is usualy needed. Experiment with them and show us how it looks, the more mad scientists the better. Also try using the alpha channel in the Specular map. Not a whole lot is known about how the game engine uses them outside making things transparent. From my initial experiments, it looks like the game uses them in different ways from one mesh type to the next (ex:Costumes vs Cars)
As for the mixing of parts from other costumes, the best way so far is in Blender.
Edit the costume parts to create the final version. Combine the parts into one mesh and in the UV editing window go to Image/Consolidate into one image. Keep the ratio and get the size to 1024 or 2048 to keep the details looking great. Once you have that one image replace the curent material with a new one that uses that image. From there you can edit and refine it some more in your graphic app of choice. You can also pull a Specular map from it.

Have fun!

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Baby we were Boing to run...

"ex:Costumes vs Cars"

Interesting, I will check a few things out there.

Thanks for the fast reply. I was hoping some sort of knowledge was known on the specular texture, like... will it be shinier if it's brighter, or will making it bright create a different effect (bright, almost white).

What I am looking for is mainly the way to controll it though, as I can do as you said and experiment. However, do you know if black or white stops the effect for the rest of the texture (the invissible parts), that you don't want that look on?

EDIT: Costume editor does allow specular FYI.

AFAIK Black is not specular (matt) while white is completely specular (like super shinny metal) in the color channel side. If the Alpha channel is used then i think it controls the intensity. So shades of grey might work best to get specific specular values on the same texture. Never tried color in the color channels thaugh and that might give you intersting effects like burned yelow to get a gold specular effect, mid tone grey for chrome, bright red for Ironman armor...mmmm shinnyyyyyyy.....but i digress
Look at the car textures. The Alpha channel here actualy works on the specular and reflectivity values of the paint instead of the transparency, while the glass texture for the car has an alpha that works on transparency but not the specular or reflectivity, it has 2 other textures for that. This helps increase the confusion when it comes to understanding how the game engine is set up to read the game assets. That's why it was so hard to get a grip on the specs and create Med.

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Baby we were Boing to run...