Mapping seems convoluted??

[CGIPadawan]

Well, my method is to UV Unwrap the mesh, and pull the UV vertices around. Then export the UV Layout as a Targa... Then I also bake an AO Map....

Both of these are exported as 4,096 x 4,096 images.

If you have the AO Map and Targa as layers in Photoshop.. you should have a very clear guide on where to paint. And as long as you don't move anything around.. nothing should get "warped" or "convoluted".

Except for Procedurals, I haven't really used the simple Cylinder/Cube/Sphere stuff as I've looked at UV as a "do all" solution that delivers the best result in any situation.

What do you need exactly when doing "Motion Graphics"?

[Ran13]

Explicit UV mapping is what you use when you want total control of how a texture is mapped to a 3D surface (using the UV editor).

If you just want to plop a texture onto a mesh using default mappings (Flat, Cube, Tube, & Sphere), then you can use the "Map Input" panel (hotkey "F5" over the buttons window to bring up the Material buttons and look for the "Texture" tab).

"Map Input" tab should be right next to the "Texture" tab... look for the buttons labeled Flat, Cube, Tube, & Sphere (oddly enough :D )

[fxgogo]

What do you need exactly when doing "Motion Graphics"?
With Motion Graphics, I find my 3D work is often quick and simple. So a bunch of rotating squares making up a logo for example, so the texturing needs are simple as well.

I did find the flat, cylinder and sphere mapping options, but I was hoping there was a way to see the mapping co-ordinates in the 3D view and to be able to interactively move them around. It sounds like I must just learn the UV unwrap route, not the end of the world.

[Nevroptere]

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Textures/UV/Unwrapping_a_Mesh
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Textures/UV/Managing_the_Layout

Be sure you are in texture mode in your 3D view, and when you have split your screen to add the UV/image editor panel, activate the little padlock button right in the toolbar to update in real time.

Pay attention to the "UV calculation" panel in editing mode and try both "conformal" or "angle based", quite useful depending of what you unwrap.

[Ran13]

When you enter UV mapping mode (object in Edit mode, Press "U"), you have the option of using LSCM mapping, or cube projection, or cylindrical projection from view (you need to set the view prior to entering map mode). When you do this, the resulting UV coordinates for the cube or cyl. mapping ARE visible in the UV edit window for further manipulation.

[dAfTiE]

I'm assuming he means getting the widget things you get in C4D that lets you move/rotate/scale a texture using spherical etc mapping directly in the viewport, like http://tinypic.com/r/2u5bzn6/3.
And no, as far as I'm aware, there's no way of doing that in blender.

But then, I'm still too used to my SLA shaders so I tend to run back to cinema every time it comes down to doing materials.

[sundialsvc4]

With the latest releases you can also "paint onto" an object directly, e.g. if you need to make a straightforward change and if this turns out to be the most intuitive way of looking at it.

Yes, some of the "projection" possibilities you're speaking of are available now. (The rule seems to be, "have you taken a look at Blender this week?") :)

UV mapping is an art -- no question -- and you'll spend quite a bit more time at it than you might imagine you'd need to. But it looks really good in the end.

[CGIPadawan]

Ok ok.. I think I got it.


I think he wants to be able to edit Texture Space without using full UV Mapping.

Try:

Press "T" - Texture space mode. The position and dimensions of the texture space for the selected Objects can be changed in the same manner as described above for Grab and Size mode. To make this visible, the drawing'flag EditButtons->TexSpace is set ON. A popup menu asks you to select: "Grabber" or "Size".

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Reference/Hotkeys/Object

Hope that helped.

[hvanderwegen]

You can actually add an empty and link that to the uv mapping for a similar effect as Cinema4D (I had the same problem a while back)

1) add an empty (any object will work, by the way)
2) create a new material for your object and add an image texture
3) check the Map Input pane - switch to "object" and add the empty name to the Ob: input field.
4) scale, rotate and move the empty to control the image texture on your surface.
5) in the Map Image pane (texture buttons) change to Extend, Clip, ClipCube, Repeat or Checker for additional control. Clip works best for stencil like effects.

Remember to change to flat, cube, tube or sphere mapping according to your wishes. Each texture layer can be controlled individually that way and mixed. A bit more work than Cinema4d, but it does work quite well. Remember to make use of alpha channels for better looking layering effects.

The only niggle I have is that for some reason the actual texture effect is not shown in the viewport - I must render after each change to see the effect or use the render preview.

[dAfTiE]

You can actually add an empty and link that to the uv mapping for a similar effect as Cinema4D (I had the same problem a while back)

1) add an empty (any object will work, by the way)
2) create a new material for your object and add an image texture
3) check the Map Input pane - switch to "object" and add the empty name to the Ob: input field.
4) scale, rotate and move the empty to control the image texture on your surface.
5) in the Map Image pane (texture buttons) change to Extend, Clip, ClipCube, Repeat or Checker for additional control. Clip works best for stencil like effects.

Remember to change to flat, cube, tube or sphere mapping according to your wishes. Each texture layer can be controlled individually that way and mixed. A bit more work than Cinema4d, but it does work quite well. Remember to make use of alpha channels for better looking layering effects.

The only niggle I have is that for some reason the actual texture effect is not shown in the viewport - I must render after each change to see the effect or use the render preview.

This is awesome, thank you.
I really need to just sit down some time and spend a weekend digging into the whole materials and texture workflow in blender instead of just tucking tail and running back to cinema and bodypaint every time, heh.

[hvanderwegen]

I know, the one aspect of Blender that scared me off back to C4d was the material editor. However, I've grown to LOVE the node based material editor/texture editor. Way better than all those dialogs in C4d, but you have to put some time into nodes. Although c4d has a crazy number of built-in shaders...

Here's hoping more texture node shaders will be included in Blender in the future.

And for some real texture creation power, try the free mapzone - brilliant tool, though at the cost of a steep learning curve.

http://www.mapzoneeditor.com/

[dAfTiE]

That looks incredibly useful, thanks again.
Going to have a play around with that in the morning for sure.

I've ordered the venom's lab DVD, from the teasers I've seen that's got some really good stuff about all three node editor workflows, can't wait to get stuck in.
Mainly though, I really think I just need to make up a silly little project and just force myself to actually complete it for once, instead of doing the usual thing and getting distracted by something shiny (learning python, playing with the game engine, etc) halfway through and basically not learning anything, haha.

[fxgogo]

Thanks for all the feedback people.

CGIPadawan - yeah I know about that tool, and it is almost perfect except it does not do rotations. Hopefully it will soon

hvanderwegen - I have thought that is the best option for my simple needs. I do think I will need to jump onto UV unwrapping eventually though.

On a unrelated note, I have been playing with fluid dynamics...WOW....Nice.

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