Viewport Canvas

4) Viewport canvas
This is by far my favorite method of applying textures is Viewport canvas.

viewport Canvas is a new feature in 3ds max 2011.

Viewport canvas allows you to paint direclty on to the model like a painter on a real life object.
It is good because you can paint freely  ignoring polygons and edges so you can have a realistic looking texture quite easy. The only way to achieve the same effect would be to perfectly stich all tthe polygons in the UV editor and then paint in photoshop.
Viewport canvas comes with all the tools to create burn marks, oil stains (smudge tool) and has a set of brushes to create rust, wood , concrete and skin effects. It supports multiple layers as photoshop.
  When painting a object which is a sum of attached objects (which is the case with character models) , you can select an object within and  create a mask to ensure you are painting only the desired object.
 You can take the image in photoshop and paint save and the changes will appear within 3ds max.
 Bellow is the rendered guard pad I textured using Canvas viewport.

This texture has all the effects I wanted
my targets were:

• Cover it all with a damaged metal look
• Add sumbols and insignia on various parts
• Add paint chipping 
• Add burn marks.

These were all achieved with vieport canvas with very little experience.

So now I will explain briefly how it was done.
First it requires a minimal of unrapping to start painting.
So I add an unwrap modifier   go to uv editor select all the polygons and flaten the objects polygons.
That is all that is needed in the uvw editor, I close the window and convert to editable poly (the object still remembers its points).
I then open the viewport canvas and select the paint brush it will ask you to save the file before it begins.

 From there on you can add layers and  add effects just as photoshop.


Finaly one other way of adding logos or brushes is to create your own.
Save your logo or brush as a tif file and plase it in the \ViewportCanvas\Custom Brushes folder
Bellow you can see a logo that I applied at the chest piece.

I did most of the dreadnaught using viewport canvas.

I will make a few conclutions about creating materials after I share some thoughts.