Decal Mapping?

[Anadin]

Once you have the material mapped to the Sphere, click on it's tag in the Object Manager if you are using R8 and check it's mapping type - you will want cylindrical I would have thought.

If you are using R7 then double click the tag.

Then select the tag again and click on the 'texture' menu in the Object manager and choose fit to object.

Now, look down the left hand side and click on the chequerboard, now you will see a blue cylinder wich is the mapping, you can scale it up and down.

Also make sure you untick tiling.

[Kotayus]

it didnt work, here is the logo and what it does when i try putting that logo on.

[Anadin]

I'm sorry, I am a bit tired working on a deadline, I have made a file for you which shows how to do it, give me an email address and I will post it to - it is R8 though.

[Kotayus]

brandon@xenodesigns.com

[Anadin]

Just in case you are not using R8..

[Kotayus]

yes, thank you i got the file...although i see it, i still dont understand HOW you did it. I see that the logo is an alpha, but i dont know how you did that either, as i have never used alpha channels. But that is exactly what i wanted to achieve. Can you explain it to me like im 3?

[tjbeseda]

i kinda know what anadin is getting at...but here are my thoughts. just do a poly selection and appply the logo material to those selected polys. not sure how to do it? tell me, and i can explain in more depth.

[DeathCarrot]

you can untick tile in the attrib manager, set the number of tiles to a larger amount (not necessary if using flat projection), set the projection mode to flat or cylindrical and use the texture axis tool (below texture tool / above object tool by default in r8) to move the texture about... [ADD: you could also use the texture tool which anadin used] too complicated?

[AdamT]

RTFM section on decal mapping. It's explained pretty well there.

[Anadin]

Hi, I am a little less tired now.

OK, I took the logo into Photoshop and selected the black area.

Then I went into the channels pallette and clicked the button which is a square with a circle in it. This creates an alpha channel from the selection.

Saved the file as logo.psd (Cinema supports .psd)

Into cinema - made a new material - put the logo.psd in the colour channel (click the image button), then put it in the alpha channel (you will have to go into basic parameters and enable it). Also tick invert on the alpha channel.

This makes a material with the black bit cut out.

Now, make a sphere (I then made a black base material and dragged it onto the sphere).

Now drag the logo material on the sphere (the order is important).

Click on the logo material tag next to the sphere object in the object manager.

In the Attribute Manager change the mapping to Cylinder. Then click on the texture menu and choose fit to object.

Now in the attribute manager un click tiling and then change the y and x scale %'s until the logo is looking right. (If you click on the chequerboard on the left of the screen first you will see the mapping object which will help with your understanding).

I also had to move the mapping object down in the Y.

Hope this helps more - feel free to ask more questions.

[Kotayus]

ok...ive read the manual, ive tried using the texture tool...i tried getting the poly selection, and im still not getting it. I must be missing a step. In XL7 you can name the selection...i cant seem to find where to name the selection in R8.

As far as the mapping goes, thats just a mess...i really hope im not THAT dense.

[Kotayus]

i KINDA got it...after messing around a bit. Could someone perhaps explain the process with the texture axis tool a bit more? cause i didnt really get that. And the top of the logo is a bit jaggedy...has artifacts, any thoughts on why?

[kiwi]

If your logo is red on a white background,just select a hue and saturation shader in the alpha channel,now go back to the color channel and copy your color channel,paste it into the hue and sat shader in the alpha channel.In the hue and sat shader just desaturate the red out of the image,click ok after selecting your mapping and invert the alpha and you dont really need to go back to Photoshop at all this way.



Stu.

[Anadin]

The texture axis tool is just like the axis tool for geometry. If you think of the axis as a centre of gravity or a rotation point.

The axis tools let you move the actual axis itself independant of the object or mapping. This is usefull say if you have a flat texture and you want it to project on the outside of a sphere whilst spinning around it.

You put the mapping/texture near the surface of the sphere and then move the axis to the centre of the sphere, now you could rotate the texture using key frames etc. and it would revolve around the sphere.

[Arrias]

Kiwi:

Or you can drop it into the colouriser shader, remove the middle knot and make the last knot white if it's just a flat colour :)

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.