I started by creating the main mesh for this structure in 3D Studio Max and after a long process of vertex removing and welding I started the part I sometimes hate: the mapping.
This mapping step is in fact a 2D representation of all the polygons that the mesh has. This is done in 3D Studio Max with the tool called "Unwrap UVW". This tool I hated... it eats a lot of time and energy and makes you forget why and what you are doing in the first place. In the beginning when you get to use this, looks very complicated and you get a feeling of disorientation. It is a freeking 2d tool in a 3D space!! and is exactly what it does... make your 3D object 2D with all sides visible. Now the interface this tool uses hasn't change much with the versions of 3D Studio Max. Has some basic buttons (move, rotate, scale and mirror) and some presets that you will find impossible to use when you start this mapping process... I recommend reading a lot about this "Unwrap UVW" method before you even think you can just figure it out! Better spend weeks of watching video tutorials and reading about it than me that I just started to use it, I figure it out a few useful things at first, than try to apply those allover... believe me it is a nightmare if you have no training before.
Few month ago I have discovered the 2 options to verify if your mapping "Select Inverted Faces" and "Select Overlapped Faces". Back than I was working on Vlad the Impeller character, I worked on the model several days, welded / added / removed vertexes... a long process... I started with no 2D reference... started from a standard box... I wanted to be the BEST game character that was ever made... and I was about to start it in low poly. I spend a lot of time and energy only by modeling this character... I had some fun doing it... but the lack of a plan, lack of a pen and paper sketch made me work a lot and I was not efficient at all... I mean not even a bit... I have spent over 22 days working on the mesh... changing it over 12 times ... cloth... hairstyle... face... and all this by vertexes and polygons... and if you ask me now... Vlad the Impeller is not even close to be completed... I need to finish it sometime...
Anyway... back to our mapping options "Select Inverted Faces" and "Select Overlapped Faces", I decided to try this options after I mapped Vlad's mesh... after hours of moving point to point in the "Edit UVW's" working space, all the triangles were red... this means only one thing... the faces either overlap either are inverted... and I have spend another 2 hours to manually click and drag points in the "Edit UVW's" working space until I had no triangles overlapped.... but the "Select Inverted Faces" option still make my triangles red... and I realized it wasn't the "Unwrap UVW" option to blame... not even its "Select Inverted Faces" option to blame... was my mesh... the one I worked 22 days to make the BEST game character ... was broken... had inverted faces.... vertexes that were overlapping ... a real nightmare...
I have learned this tool the hard way...
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