Hi everyone,

I am comfortable using Milkshape, Texturing, and customizing cloned Meshes. However I would like to "add" something to a mesh which I am not too familiar with doing. I have read just about everything I can get my hands on and this is my problem:

I want to add for example a sphere to a shoe, directly to the group_base.
I created the sphere and moved it into position on the mesh and used the Vertex Merge plugin to attach it. (correct?) The Sphere shoes up at the bottom of the group list though and does'nt seemed "attached" at all. I realize this when I open up the Texture Editor and the sphere is not on the UV map? When I apply a material it does not cover the sphere either, only the shoe. What am I doing wrong here?

I also tried attaching the sphere to the "Left Foot" under the joints tab but I was still unable to have the material cover both the shoe and the sphere on the group_base. Any insight to this would be greatly appreciated.

Did you regroup them, i.e, select both groups(shoe and sphere) in the list and click "regroup "?

Yeah I did and moved the regroup to the top of the list. However the material would not apply. When I selected "all" of the groups fat, thin, special, etc;, then regrouped it worked, I was then able to apply one material to both the sphere and the shoe though the list of "groups" all became 1 group, I don't think that is correct is it? Also, thanks alot for helping ..

Also to clarify, I have found no way to select just the group_base without selecting all the other groups, I always feel like I am doing something wrong there. Surely the groups are seperate for a reason but have not found a way to attach something to a mesh without regrouping them all into 1 group.

You're making a clothing item right? Mapping might be different for them and I only make objects so take whatever I say for what it's worth...lol.

But if you want to apply a Material (ie. get your Group onto a map) you need to select that Group, import your Material, and then, with the Group still selected, click the Assign button. Then open the TCE with that Group still selected and you'll see it on the map. It's best to do this before you regroup so that you can move that Group to where you want it on the map without it getting tangled up with the second Group you regroup it with.

Until you regroup two separate groups they will appear separately on the map even if assigned to the same map. Once you regroup them though when you open the TCE they will both be on the map at the same time. At that point, when you regroup, the two are essentially a single object from Milkshape's perspective...that is any action taken on that group will affect both objects in the single group.

Is that what mean?

Thanks OM for lending your expertise, I tried what you said and it seemingly worked for my clothing item (shoe) as well. However the UV map confuses me at this point as it covers the entire map now, maybe I am still doing something wrong here maybe the screenshots will help you to help me further, again thanks for helping ..

Did you make the sphere yourself using Milkshape's sphere button? If so, when you assign a Material to it the sphere will take up the entire map. The best thing to do is create the sphere and then assign a Material to it (the map you want it to share with the shoe). Then using the TCE buttons shrink it and place it on the part of your map you want it to end up on once it is sharing space with the shoe. Only then should you Regroup. Otherwise you're gonna have a tough time getting the sphere parts away from the shoe parts.

Is the sphere still able to be completely selected without selecting shoe parts in the 4 panel view? If it is you can select it with Select Faces and then click Regroup to get it to be a separate group again. Or, if you haven't closed Milkshape since you started with the sphere you can hit the edit/undo over and over until the sphere is its own group again. Otherwise you'll probably just have to start over.

This is why I love MTS. Thanks Orangemittens that worked like a charm. To be precise in case this helps others, I did the following:

1. Opened a mesh and made sure it was not selected.

2. Created a sphere, moved and attached it to the first mesh via "Vertex Merge/Normals" plugins from Wes and kept it selected.

3. On the material tab I clicked "New" and opened my texture and then clicked "Assign". The material should only be showing on the sphere now.

4. As Orangemittens said, use TCE and scale and move your sphere to a better spot on the UV map.

5. With only the sphere selected now under the material tab again, you will see "Material01" click on it and do not click on "new". Just click on "<none>" and bring up the same texture.

6. Now under the groups tab make sure both the group_base and sphere are selected and click "regroup".

Done. Now when you open up the TCE everything will be nice and neat, attached, and on the same map. Thanks again, it was fiddly at first because I kept assigning a new texture to the original mesh when none was needed and when the group_base is selected it does'nt really show it being selected. I do not know why that is. But it worked, and thanks so much!

I'm glad it worked for you Awhile back I wrote an easy tutorial with illustrations that goes over the basic steps of mapping with Milkshape that we discussed here. I'll post a link for anyone else who has similar questions:

http://jaue.com/om/OM_TextureMappingwithMilkshape.rar

Milkshape can do more for you than I show in this tutorial but this should get beginners started. If there's anything in that which is confusing questions are fine.