The Rendering Times - Texturing Basics Part 2

Texture Basics (Continued)

By: Daniel Routh

APPLY MAP

This was the mapping method I started out using. It does a reasonable job spreading the texture over whatever surface you give it. Apply Map was designed with the really strange, distorted, or drilled-to-death shape in mind. It's an extra tool on your box when the other texture mappers aren't behaving. It is generally a pain to work with, however, unless you have a good tiling texture. To sum up, if you have a very strange object, or one which the other mappers can't handle, give APPLY a try--if you are using a tiling texture.

TILE MAP

Last of the standard methods, but not least, is TILE Mapping. The main power of TILE map is the fact that it can repeat an image over all the different faces. Let's say you had a disco sphere object: you know, the type that spin around and reflect stuff. What if you wanted every different face on that 100+ face sphere to reflect the same texture? You could pull out your trusty Project mapper, and map each separate polygon. (Pack food and supplies for 3 months) Or you could TILE map it. Once you've mapped one polygon with TILE, it automatically applies it to every polygon. This can be used in a myriad of ways. If you just modeled a cube into the outside walls of a house, you could TILE a brick texture on one of the walls, and it would be applied to all the others. Everyone seems to find their own personal preferred use for TILE mapping. It is as versatile as Project when applying to a broad surface such as a single polygon surface such as an endless plane. I don't want to steal from the power of Project, but TILE is definitely an often-used method of mapping.

OTHER MAPPING METHODS

To Wrap up, (he-he-he) lets briefly cover one other method of texturing: 3D Procedural, and the Pseudo-Environment, and Auto-Environment mapping.

3D Procedural is a wonderfully simple mapping method. I recommend it for beginners, and cut my own teeth on it. It mathematically generates its own textures uniformly with random patterns over any object. Note the word "any." I have never met an object I didn't like -- I mean that 3D Procedural can't map. Raw power. It's only big drawback is that it usually doesn't have the texture you need. That special bump map, that Arabian painting, that aquarium texture...sorry. It has a good library of staple textures such as marble, wood, clouds, etc. which are sometimes handy. (They usually are not as photorealistic as an actual image though) It also lets you edit your own 3D procedurals in order to custom make your own. A nifty method if you're satisfied with medium-good textures in a limited category.
Pseudo-Environment is a way to make it look like your object, (teapot, vase, sunglasses, etc.) is in the middle of a detailed scene. It allows you to use an outside texture, (such as a picture of your room, or a sunset) to make it look like the object is reflecting that scene.
Environment Map is self-explanatory. With this, you reflect your scene on an object. A word of caution however, is to watch how many of these suckers you map in one scene. For each one you map, it practically has to re-render your picture. This is obviously very useful on objects like mirrors, shiny objects, glass objects, metal objects, and many others. The mother of all stereotypes for 3D art is the reflective sphere over the white and black checkered plane. If you are a beginner in 3D, my plea is this: Please don't add to 2 trillion+ renders of that generic scene! Use your imagination. TOPAS is certainly ready to handle any object you want to model.

With Topas' powerful mapping methods, you can make the any scene look downright beautiful. It takes some diligence, but remember:

"Veni, Vedi, Velcro". (I came, I saw, I stuck with it.)

The Rendering Times: Design and Copyright © 1997 -- DCS & WorkForce Graphics. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without the express written permission of DCS and/or WorkForce Graphics is prohibited.