Image Map Texture Tutorial - Simple Materials

Part 2 - Simple Materials

Walls and Floors - World Cubic Mapping

I tend to start with the most visually dominant elements in the scene. In this case that will be the wall, floor and ground textures. I may apply the same texture to several objects of different sizes so I'll use World Cubic mapping to make sure that the textures are scaled consistently on the X, Y and Z axes as well as between objects.

I've loaded the image texture and bump maps into the A component and assigned them to the diffusion and bump channels. In world cubic mapping mode it is essential to set "Scale Pict Size". With that set, think of the texture scale like a magnification. The higher the percentage, the closer you zoom in on the texture and the larger it appears on the object. If you don't have "Scale Pict Size" set the scale works in the opposite direction but there is a limit which may cause you problems depending on the size of the original texture.

This texture is seamless so I'm using "Repeat Tiling". If your texture isn't seamless, you'll use "Symmetric Tiling". The border is six inches wide so I'm going to eyeball the scale of the floor to about twice that, and align the texture to the border object. With the floor and border objects selected I can use the top view in solo mode to make it easier to align the floor texture.

I've quickly repeated the same process for the walls and ground. I've also assigned basic color materials to the branches and needles. I'm going to let the light and shadows vary the color on those. This is starting to look like what I'm after.

Questions and Comments

Send questions and comments to toad@castironflamingo.com.

Home | Tutorials