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So… you know how to load "surface files" and render golf balls… what if you want to make your own surfaces look the way you want? It is often useful to begin by loading a surface file, and then modify it to suit your needs; for this to work for you, you need to have a pretty good idea of what the different features do -> they are explained in detail in the Lightwave Reference Guide, and are also explained in the Lightwave Power Guide. To get started, here are a few tips on using textures effectively…

In order to add more complexity and depth to surface appearances, Lightwave offers a wide variety of image and algorithmic texturing features. "Image Maps" are surface textures which you create by applying an image you created in a paint program, video captures, or any other digital image or picture you have laying around (many file formats can be loaded, but "Targa" and "Iff" are Lightwave’s favorites – I also use "jpeg" a lot). "Algorithmic Textures" are surface textures which alter the appearance of a surface without the use of image files; they involve software "algorithms" which adjust the appearance of your surface by adding (or subtracting) colors and shades to the surface you have defined. For more information, see below.

We will look into the specific functions of the different fields and gadgets in the panel in the following pages, for now, refer to the figure on the preceding page, and become familiar with the general layout of the panel.

Please note that the Texture Panel is divided into six or seven parts, from the top down (see image on preceding page):

1. The Name of the Panel (ie. Color Texture for "SpaceFighterGuns")
2. The Texture Selection gadget, where you may flip through the different textures which have been applied through the current panel (ie. if you are in the color texture panel, this will toggle through color textures only) by choosing "Previous" or "Next" (or "Add New Texture", which adds another one). It is often useful to apply more than one color texture, or more than one bump texture, or whatever. (For instance, on a spaceship, you might have one color map which represented a decal on the wings, and another color texture to fake some flaps on the wing – you might wish to apply them as separate image maps).
3. The "Texture Type" and "Opacity" settings, where you specify which of the many types of texture you wish to apply (ie. image map or algorithmic texture), and how opaque (ie. the opposite of transparent) that texture is (the lower the opacity, the more of the surface color will show through).
4. This part changes depending on what you choose in number 3.
5. This part changes depending on what you choose in number 3.
6. This item disappears completely for many algorithmic textures. The "Texture Antialiasing" toggle enables a special filtering process which will smooth out jaggies (ie. ramping, or aliasing, effects) in the image, and prevents thin lines from "breaking up" when the mapped surface is far from the camera. Texture Antialiasing may cause some images to appear blurry, and is only really necessary when: a. you have a crummy looking source image, or b. the camera will be getting so close to the surface that the pixels in the source image will each comprise more than one pixel in the finished animation, or c. the camera is going to be far away from your surface, and the surface has fine lines appearing on it.
7. "Use Texture" = Ok, I’m Done, and I like what I did.

"Remove Texture" = throw the texture settings I have created away.

We will look at how to apply the different types of map in the following pages; feel free to experiment with applications (and press <f9> for a quick look at what you’ve done). There is no practical limit to the number of texture maps which can be used on a given image, though each additional texture (esp. algorithmic ones) will mean that it takes that much longer for Lightwave to render your image, and textures can be used to achieve almost any imaginable surface appearance or effect.

This refers to the use of images (ie. bitmaps, pictures, etc.) to give texture to a 3D surface. Images can be applied to 3D objects in many different ways, and can be made to do many different things to the object. For instance, a color image of a soup can label can be wrapped around the can to make it look like a can of soup -> at the same time, a simple black and white (or greyscale) image can be applied to the same can, to make the label area look like it is raised up off of the can ever so slightly, and a noise image or algorithm could then be thrown on to make the whole thing look a little beaten up.

1. If you have not already done so, load an object ("Load Object" in the "Object Panel")
2. Open the "Images Panel", and load the image "P:\Newtek\Images\T-Juice.iff" – to do so, click on the gadget marked "Load Image", and select the file you want to load…

Fig 2. The Images Panel. Note that the loaded image appears in the little preview window.

 



 

3. Open the Surface Panel, and select a surface (preferably one which covers a lot of the object, so we can easily see the effects of our actions)
4. Choose the button beside "Surface Color"
5. Note that the "texture type" gadget defaults to "Planer Image Map" (this is what we want this time, so leave it alone). "Planer" means that the image will be applied flat (all in one plane), like a piece of paper lying on a tabletop, or pasted to a wall.

6. Once you have selected the type of image, you can proceed to the gadget below, select the gadget marked "Texture Image", and pick "T-Juice.iff" from the list

7. Now you need to specify which side (axis) you want the texture applied to. To apply the image to the front of the object, select the "Z Axis" button (since the "Z" axis goes in and out of the front of objects), to apply it to the top of an object, choose "Y Axis", etc.
1. Now select "Automatic Sizing". You will now want to click on this gadget -> it causes the image to be scaled to exactly fit the surfaces you have selected. (Unless you have built your object to an exact specification (say a 10 meter cushion floor) and you want to apply a tile texture to exact specifications you already know (say a three tiles per meter, so set the "X" and "Z" sizes to 0.33333m each).)

That is it! Press <f9> to see how the texture looks on your object.

Image maps can be applied as "planer" maps (projected straight along one axis – on the object’s local x, y, or z) as in the example above. They can also be applied as:

• "spherical" maps (wrapped around a spherical shape and projected "inwards" to the center of the sphere and "outwards" to infinity),
• "cylindrical" maps (wrapped around the surfaces on one axis {ie. like a cylinder} and projected inwards to the center and outward to infinity),
• "front projection" maps (ie. projected as if from the camera’s viewpoint – very useful when you are working with video).

As well as loading many different types of images, the Image Panel also allows you to load a "sequence" – ie. a series of images (such as a captured video sequence) – via the "load sequence" button in the images panel – these are applied exactly as a normal still image map is.

Aside: "Sequence" does NOT mean an animation file (such as an AVI, MOV, or FLC, although these will sometimes work too); "sequence", in this context, means a series of images with names like "file001.tga, file002.tga, file 003.tga, etc. A "sequence" can be applied just like a regular image map, and will "play" through the available source frames once before stopping -> there is an option in the surface panel marked "Loop Sequence" which will cause it to loop, and another marked "Frame Offset" where a positive frame offset of "10" will cause the sequence to start "playing" its tenth frame in frame 1 of the animation, and a negative frame offset of "-10" will cause it to start playing frame one of the sequence in the tenth frame of the animation.

The preceding example used a "color" texture, which has the most obvious function. A color map applies the colors (up to 24 bits) of the image directly to the surface, whereas a diffusion map, transparency map, specularity map, etc. uses the "luminosity" values found in the color map to alter the diffusion, transparency, specularity etc. of the object’s surface (ie. only 8 bits); thus a "greyscale" (256 color, 8 bit image) version of the bitmap is normally used instead of an actual color map for those image mapping. Commonly, full color image maps are used only for actual "color" mapping. {There is absolutely no reason why a color or greyscale image may not be used for any type of image mapping, but if you only need 256 colors (as in the case of bump mapping, which only uses 256 shades of gray) then you don’t want to load the additional 16 bits for nothing!}.

24 bit imagescolor maps

8 bit imagesdiffusion maps, specular maps, reflection maps,

For an explanation of the different types of surfacing characteristics (ie. diffusion, transparency, etc.) see the handout "Surfacing", or refer to the Lightwave Reference Guide or Lightwave Power Guide.

Algorithmic textures

This refers to texture effects which are not dependent on "bitmaps" – ie. textures which can be made to appear on the surface of an object because of an "algorithm" or mathematical function supplied by the software manufacturer or a third-party developer. Why are these used? One reason is that since they do not require you to load a bitmap (image) into memory, more RAM is available when you render than would be available if you used a bitmap; moreover, they take up very little hard drive space. As well, they allow you to create surfaces with ease, without needing to use a paint program. Another advantage is that they appear to repeat random into infinity – ie. that they can be applied to a very large surface, and no "tiling" effect occurs. These may be applied as any type of texture (ie. bump, color etc.) although some algorithms are only available for certain types of application (ie. fractal bumps can only be applied as a bump map).

Each individual algorithmic texture has its own settings, and these are too many to quote in this small space, but suffice it to say that they offer enormous control over appearances -> experiment! RTFM.

It is generally the case that all textures in Lightwave, both (algorithmic textures and image maps), offer the following features:

"Texture Size": This is the size of the texture in meters, or in the case of some algorithmic textures, the size of the average detail, or the size of the space between grid lines, etc.

"Texture Center": Simply put, this is the center of the texture -> very important in some algorithmic textures.

"Texture Falloff": This enables the diminishing of the texture value over distance. The value you enter represents how much of the texture’s opacity is lost for each meter traveled outward from the center of the texture.

"Texture Velocity": The direction and speed of travel of the texture across the surface. (Usually = 0). This is good for flames, clouds, waves, etc. where you want the texture to appear to move across the surface.

c. 1997, 1998 Tony Gilchrist