Unwrapping procedural textures?

[malleus_46]

you can right click on the material window and go "render map"
is this what you mean?

[Gilgamesh]

close.....
Procedurals are so cool because you don't get stretching. I was hoping to create a procedural on a complex model, add a UVW modifier, and then "unwrap" and render the material so that I can alter it and re-map it without any stretching. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a way to do this that I am just missing, but I can't seem to figure it out.
If you add a UVW modifier and then UVW unwrap, I am able to see 2d materials like bricks and checkers because they are mapped like an image (I guess). But if I try unwrapping cellular, or some other 3d material, nothing shows up. I want to unwrap a 3d material as a 2d texture.
I hope that made some sort of sense.

[malleus_46]

Ah i see,
No, it's not possible with vanilla max.....one of the guys here said there miiiiight have been a plugin to do this a while ago.

[kandyman]

I developed a workflow to do this with the free TLUnwrap plugin by mankua:

-Say UVW1 is your bitmap channel.

-Add a XYZ to UVW for UVW2 and set your procedurals to use UVW2 in mat editor.

-Use TLUnwrap to unwrap the mesh using UVW1 and render the map with TLunwrap. All other map channels will be spread out with the mesh.

-Import to photoshop and comp with your bitmap.

This is a great way to bake procedural bump maps or skin structure into a bitmap. I use it all the time :)

Hope this helps!

Marin

[kandyman]

BTW; there seems to be a plugin from mankua that "automates" this workflow, but from what I've seem it's a lot easier to do it with the free plugin.

marin

[R.R]

Hey, why not use Chilliskiner?

[bombyx]

There was something awesome to do that with 3dsmax3 called global map .It made a scan of the mesh in smooth+higlight using a gizmo (box, cylinder........). It was the best way ever to texture a head, but it never showed up in 3dsmax4.......Well if that still exist, could somebody please tell me where I can find it cause it was really usefull, and it would have been perfect for clean unwrap of procedural mapping...........

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