What 3d program do you use?
I'd suggest 3ds max or maya.
They have inbuilt UV mapping systems and make the workflow easy.
For texturing...the way I started was thinking about that layers...so you need to bake the Ambient occlusion...loads of tutorials out there for that.
To bake anything the uv maps must be completed first. As they are the coordinates for the light data.
IN 3DS MAX:
-Create a skylight, click the "
Cast Shadows" Box.
-Go to Render Setup, under common tab, scroll down "
Assign Renderer" to make sure they are set to
Scanline, apply a standard white material to the model.
-Then click "
Rendering>"
Render to Texture"
-Making sure your object/s is selected, in the "
Rendering>"
Render to Texture" settings the options are usually not working until the object is selected.. that is why, check padding, padding is the amount of space it will bake outside of the uv's, to make sure of no seams, for a small texture have small padding, maybe 2, for a large maybe 4.
-Scroll down until you see
output
(It will be a little box with rows, the bottom will give yo a button called "
add"..click it, then select lighting Map.
-Moving down a little further you will see "
Select Element Common Settings"...change the resolution to which ever one is suitable to you.
-Down a little further in those settings specify where you want to save the baked Ambient Occlusion map, and which format.
-Move down to "
Baked Material"...click the box called "
Render to files only"
You should be right to click render by then, to make a decent texture you'd also need to save the UV map wireframe, so you can blend it over the texture to see where things are, the ao(Ambient occlusion) helps with that as well, but the wireframe is more precise.
If you have any more questions...happy to help. Good to see another modder in his first strides.
