Mapping Magician V1.2
(C) Copyright 1998 Roy Riggs fur@edge.net
This program is free, you may distribute it however you like
as long as: this readme file is included and not modified,
and there are no fees involved. If you want to distribute
this application in a book or CD-ROM compilation, please email
me for permission first. 

Installation Instructions:
UnZip into wherever you like, double-click to launch application.

This is a 32-Bit application for Windows 95, 98 or NT.

Usage:
Use the File|Open... menu to open an OBJ file. If the screen
remains blank, chances are the objects in the file do not have
any UV mapping applied.  The UV map is drawn in the window,
you can export it as a BMP, TIF, JPG, GIF, or PCX.
Remember UV mapping is proportional, so you can make the 
width and height of your texture map whatever you like.

MapMagic has two purposes, the first is merely to create
template images for models with existing UV maps.  The
templates show you where which pieces of the model are placed
on the texture map. The second purpose is to make combination
template maps for models. That is, a single texture map which
has different pieces of the same model laid out in different
places.  This way you only have to keep track of a single
texture map to texture the entire object.  It also can aid,
or even replace, using a 3D paint program to paint your models.


Tutorial
--------
First you will need to build or obtain a model in OBJ
file format.  Next you will need to create a series of
UV mappings for your object.  For example, if you have a
model of a human, you probably want a map to paint the
front of the figure and one for the back.  (You can
break the model up into as many pieces as you like, but
I'll keep it simple for this tutorial.)

Now while you might want the mesh broken up into pieces
like, hands, feet, etc. for animation purposes, you will
probably NOT want the mesh broken up in the same manner
for texture mapping purposes. If these are going to
broken apart differently, you need to first break them up
for texture mapping, use MapMagic to edit the UV mapping,
then bring the model back into your modelling software and
then break it up into the pieces for animation. (If it was
already like you wanted, you will have to undo your work, and
then redo it. Sorry, but the next version of MapMagic
should eliminate having to redo your work.)

In our example, join the model into a single mesh if its
not already. Then split the mesh in two, a front half and
a back half. Add a planar UV map to the front and another
to the back.  Save out your OBJ file and load it up into
MapMagic. You can see that both maps span from 0,0 to 1,1
to start with.  Using the tools under the Edit menu, or by
dragging the pieces with your mouse, you can separate them
so they don't overlap.  If you have a bunch of pieces, you
might want to try Edit|Tile to get started.  Everything about
UV maps are relative, when laying out the pieces you can
make them whatever size you want, but remember its the
proportions that count. The larger you make a piece, the more
detailed the texture map will be for that piece.  Size
your UV map pieces according to how much detail you need for
each piece, not neccessarily how large each piece is.
When finished, save our your OBJ and reload into your modelling
software. You can now split your mesh up into the pieces
you need for animating it.  The UV map should not be affected.

Since this is the first version, there are bound to be bugs,
please email them to me at fur@edge.net. Thanks and Enjoy!
Look for the latest version at http://edge.net/~fur/index.html
