I have been experimenting using the 3dcopy for texturing. The problem I am having is that when I copy the texture it becomes distorted on the tool I placed in front of it. I was expecting it to take on the characteristics of the texture exactly. Instead the image on the tool is larger and distorted and very blurry. Does anyone have any suggestions?
You may not be using a large enough texture size. Or your model may have very irregular/stretched polygons.
Posting some screen shots could help us a lot with figuring out exactly what’s happening.
I’ve never posted a pic before so that’s why I didn’t. If it doesn’t come correctly I apologize I am a newby.
This is the texture I am using 
and this is what happens when I attempt to use the 3dcopy technique 
Sorry that the image is dark. Also this is the mock up without the texture. 
By the way aurick, thanks for the help. I am a big fan of your work.
Definately, that looks like an insufficient texture size allocation.
thanks gummie.
I am not really sure how to change that though.
how do I fix it? any ideas?
You create a base texture in the Texture palette. Assign width and height values, choose a base color from the color palette, and then choose Texture>New. This creates the texture of the size that you would like.
I can also see that the model that you are texturing is a ZSphere-created skin. This has the AUVTiles method of UVMapping, which requires certain setup steps to work with correctly. You can find the instructions in my post in This Thread
Thanks everyone for helping me out. I went to the other thread and will attempt all those cool things. The funny thing is that I am not even sure that I will use that texture in the finished piece. But I will post my finished piece none the less.
o.k once again I am here. 
I did that tile uv thing and it worked amazingly well. So well in fact, I printed the thread and used it as reference. 
However, I can’t seem to duplicate my success. When a textured tool is ready to have the tile manipulated those options are no longer available for me to choose. Different options are there allowing me to colorize or grd. But when I do seem to pick another textured tool, a sphere for example, (aurick you’re very observant. That was a zsphere rendered abject) Then options are Txr>Col and col>txr. Very curious indeed.
I was also wondering what exactly does auvTile mean? And what does it exactly do? An understanding of that fundamental might help me understand the process a bit better and troubleshoot myself. Thanks once again.
Different UVMapping options are available for different objects. Only polymesh objects can use the AUVTiles method (this includes skins, and also imported OBJ or DXF files). So if you want to use AUVTiles on a native object, you must first export it as an OBJ and then import it again.
Second, once you have started texturing you cannot change your texturing settings without having to start over. So be sure you have your settings the way that you want them before you start with the texturing.
To answer your questions about what AUVTiles is, the best way to describe it is that every polygon in your model is assigned its own square on the texture grid. Think of it as being like an orange peel. If you try to unpeel the orange in large sections, then it will get stretched in places when you try to flatten those sections out on a piece of paper. The larger the sections, the more stretching that you can expect. With a texture, this means that colors get stretched out and lose quality.
UVTiles takes the approach of unwrapping the model with the smallest possible pieces: individual polygons. This results in the smallest possible amount of distortion. However, at its default setting, the relative sizes of polygons isn’t taken into account. As a result, the model’s smallest and largest polygons are each given the same amount of space on the texture – which means that the small ones would get stretched or the largest would get squished.
AUVTiles compensates for this. The A stands for “Adaptive”, which means that you can use the AUV Ratio slider to specify how ZBrush assigns texture square size in relation to polygon size. The default value is 1, which is the same as UVTiles was. But you can boost it as high as 30, which means that the largest polygons in the model will be given squares in the texture that are 30 times larger than the smallest polygons will get.
When setting AUV Ratio, you need to make a judgement call by looking at your model. Are all the polygons pretty much the same size? If so, leave the setting at the default or maybe 2. On the other hand, if there are parts where the mesh is especially dense, then you’ll need to boost the setting appropriately.
One last note: Any time you change the size of the texture, or the AUV Ratio you MUST press Tool>Modifiers>Texture>AUVTiles again. This allows ZBrush to recalculate the mapping based on the new settings. It also means that any work that you did up to that point will be lost. So I stress again: be sure that your settings are how you want them before you start texturing!
Wow! how did you get so smart? Great explanation. I am going to read it a couple of times so it sinks in. I have been toying around with it and I think I will get what I want eventually. You guys should offer classes. I would take them!!
Hey how do I export my obj. file with the auvtiles map to 3ds. max. The image render all ****ed up I took 2 weeks texturing the model in zbrush all day every day with a 8000 5132 file jpg and the model is 318000 poly and I have to have the model exported for rigging and we have a skeleton for the model already animated for a movie and I have.
[
](javascript:zb_insimg(‘141308’,‘Steam%20Engineer.jpg’,1,0))