Texturing help needed

[will h]

Im texturing my first street scene in max,I have a plaster texture i want to apply to the outer wall of the stairs,i have made it seemless and its ready to go.I have a few questions.

*when i apply do i need to be more specific with the uvw mapping or can i just use the one already in place

*I really wanna add some dirt onto the bottom and top,how do i do this,i have read up about dirt maps but havent got a clue how to make them and use them in my scene,so basically i need to know everything in order to get some dirt on my scene.Im assuming the general principle can be applied to anything else in my scene.

please help,cheers

[andoy]

if it's just a wall you are texturing then the default mapping should be ok, although you might need to adjust the sizes a little., or just apply a planar uvw map.
you can try a blend material for adding the dirt, this means you can blend 2 textures and use a mask where you want the second texture to show through the first.
you can read up on it in the max help references.

[will h]

just had a play and its a cool lil tool,i have to make my own masks though? they are similat to bump maps arent there?

also how do i add little bits of dirt on random areas,not just all over the actual bitmap?

[andoy]

check out the tutorial
'texturing tips' by Tom Greenway here...
http://www.3dtotal.com/tutorials/

also there are a few other tutorials here that might help you and point you in the right direction.
at least they will give you plenty of ideas to work with..
have fun