#mapping for decals
5 messages in this thread
Once again I enter the nether world seeking aid………….
I am trying to apply a "NAME" to the side of a spaceship i just finished
making. After creating my text via font (black letters against a white
background and then saved as a .gif) I then proceeded to the 3deditor-chose
"region fit" to map out the area i wished this simple name to be placed in and
then chose the font material to that selected area.
Result? The name is smeared and foggy and not super sharp as i HAD ONCE HAD
BEEN ABLE TO DO AND UNBELIEVABLY ON THE FIRST TRY. I cannot recreate this
despite pouring over all sorts of info in the texts. What am I doing wrong???By
the way…..the spaceship was already mapped using spherical mapping….perhaps
it may help someone……thanx!!!!!
I'd suggest selecting the faces of the spaceship that you want the name to lie
on, make them an element of the spaceship object and apply separate (planar)
mapping coords to the element. This method WILL require you to paint a
background in your NAME map to match the ship's main map.
A variation would be to select the faces and clone them, setting them just
above (outside) the surface of the ship a minute amount. Then, apply the NAME
map w/ planar coords to the "floating" panel, along with an opacity map to make
all of the panel except the letters transparent.
Without knowing the exact geometric nature of your ship, it's hard to say more.
As far as WHY does the NAME look blurry and distorted, if you remember the
mapping tutorial, using spherical mapping on a sphere, if you move the mapping
coords away from the exact center of the sphere, you distort the map. The less
like a sphere any given area of your ship is, the more the map is going to be
smeared, blurred and distorted.
Dave
Hi there, I didn't get the beginning of this thread, but I guess it's about
blurriness when mapping. I have run into this problem a couple of times myself,
and some- times it was because i had several coinciding faces (duplicates,
often as a result of boolean subtraction… <G>). One way to find out, if
that's the case is: HOLD your scene; SELECT one face with blurry mapping;
DELETE face selected; REDRAW viewport(s); SELECT that face again; If you can't
anymore, FETCH the HOLD-buffer ==> no more duplicates; If you could select the
face again, RE-RENDER and see, if the mapping is OK. Repeat as necessary, until
you are sure there are no more duplicates. Hope, this helps. -Christoph-
> Smeared, and foggy and not super sharp…
Well, for smeared, I'd check to make sure that 3DS isn't trying to
stretch your map across an area you don't want it. Maybe mark the corners of
the map and make sure that they are where they belong.
For "foggy", I suppose it could be the blur settings for the material.
What color are your letters, black? That could cause a problem in
transparencies…
Not super-sharp… that could be the blur factor again. Try switching
from Pyramidal map-whatever to Summed (or vice-versa). Also note that if you
get it fairly close to sharp, you can utilize a paint program / filter to bring
out some more sharpness. One really lame cheat is to use Fractal Design
Painter's "Apply Surface Texture" using Image Luminance… this has given me
some unbelievably quick, painless, sharp images… If all else fails, zip up
your project file and send it to Jonas (or whoever, I might even be able to
help… I ripped my hair out doing an Absolut bottle last year, took me almost
5 weeks to get the text right.) (I didn't work all day everyday <g>).
THANK-YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE. I will attempt your suggestions.
scz