About Step by Step
Terrain Mapping
Terrain Mapping II
RenderCow
Indoor Radiosity
altTerrainBuilder
Creating a Gradient Material
Making a Tire- Part I: Text Model
Mapping Notes
Fog and Haze
Adding DOF in Photoshop
Understanding Smoothing in Vue
VueTools
Making a Tire- Part II: Textures
This tutorial focusses on adding different types of texture maps to objects. Many already know about using a program like UV Mapper to apply textures to .obj files for importing into Vue. This is probably the best approach for creating maps for objects, but is very time consuming requiring much iteration with Photoshop and Vue, and it requires you export models from Vue to UV Mapper, then back into view, which can be problematic at times. By using various mapping techniques, you can overlay different textures to create a very realistic image. Demonstrated below is the use of a procedural textures with cylindrical and flat texture maps to create a realistic TIRE.
Terrain Mapping
Terrain Mapping II
RenderCow
Indoor Radiosity
altTerrainBuilder
Creating a Gradient Material
Making a Tire- Part I: Text Model
Mapping Notes
Fog and Haze
Adding DOF in Photoshop
Understanding Smoothing in Vue
VueTools
Making a Tire- Part II: Textures
This tutorial focusses on adding different types of texture maps to objects. Many already know about using a program like UV Mapper to apply textures to .obj files for importing into Vue. This is probably the best approach for creating maps for objects, but is very time consuming requiring much iteration with Photoshop and Vue, and it requires you export models from Vue to UV Mapper, then back into view, which can be problematic at times. By using various mapping techniques, you can overlay different textures to create a very realistic image. Demonstrated below is the use of a procedural textures with cylindrical and flat texture maps to create a realistic TIRE.
The Rubber Material
This one is easy as there's already a preset for it. Just look in the Basic collection and select the Rubber material.
Now, you'll need to make it a bit darker, so adjust the overall color in the colors tab a bit darker. Also, because we like our tiires shiny, I add a bit more highlight as the settings below show. Note the difference between the regular Rubber texture and the new one we just made.
This one is easy as there's already a preset for it. Just look in the Basic collection and select the Rubber material.
Now, you'll need to make it a bit darker, so adjust the overall color in the colors tab a bit darker. Also, because we like our tiires shiny, I add a bit more highlight as the settings below show. Note the difference between the regular Rubber texture and the new one we just made.
Adding the Tread
Now we're going to add a bump texture to our tire to create the tread. Here's the effect we're looking for.
Now we're going to add a bump texture to our tire to create the tread. Here's the effect we're looking for.
The Bump Function
You'll need to set the mapping to OBJECT-PARAMETRIC
Here's what the procedural bump map function looks like.
First we add a Noise Node: Math Patterns: Sine Wave. We use the settings shown.
You'll need to set the mapping to OBJECT-PARAMETRIC
Here's what the procedural bump map function looks like.
First we add a Noise Node: Math Patterns: Sine Wave. We use the settings shown.
Now we need to apply a filter to the Noise Node to sharpen the stripes. The filter is shown below.
Lastly, we use the default bump settings. Notice this map fits perfectly on our tire. For some objects, we may need to rotate it, which we can do in the Global Transformation: Rotation setting in the Effects tab. More on that later.
Adding Tire Sidewall Map
Here is the final material applied to the tire. To do this, we need to put some text on the side of the tire. This is fairly straightforward if you follow these instructions.
You can use Flat texture maps to create many texture effects to objects in Vue. Read on and you'll learn all about how to add Flat maps to objects.
Here's the big picture of what we want to do.
First we need to create a transparency map of the texture on the side of the tire. Then we need to apply that transparency map on top of the existing tire texture.
Here is the final material applied to the tire. To do this, we need to put some text on the side of the tire. This is fairly straightforward if you follow these instructions.
You can use Flat texture maps to create many texture effects to objects in Vue. Read on and you'll learn all about how to add Flat maps to objects.
Here's the big picture of what we want to do.
First we need to create a transparency map of the texture on the side of the tire. Then we need to apply that transparency map on top of the existing tire texture.
Creating the Map
First, we need to create a quick template for our tire map. Expand the front view and select the tire object and zoom so that it fills the view. Then do a screen capture (press the Prt Sc button on the keyboard). Next open Photoshop and create a new document and paste. Next, crop your image so it looks like this one.
First, we need to create a quick template for our tire map. Expand the front view and select the tire object and zoom so that it fills the view. Then do a screen capture (press the Prt Sc button on the keyboard). Next open Photoshop and create a new document and paste. Next, crop your image so it looks like this one.
While in Photoshop, set the opacity of the layer to 50% and then add a new text layer. Here we typed in the text:
RADIAL GT VUE-I
using Eras Bold. Make the text BLACK.
Then, with the text tool selected, choose the Warp text tool.
After clicking the Warp tool, you can choose a Warp Style and setting to position the text perfectly on the tire sidewall.
Create more text and apply. You may have to rotate it 180 degrees for the bottom.
Then hide the original layer and save as a maximum JPG. Here's the image map (no black outline).
Applying the Map
Now that we have our transparency map, we will need to apply it to our tire.
First, in order to use a transparency map, we need to create a transparent light gray material, then place the existing tire material UNDER it.
To do this, right click on the existing tire material we've created and COPY it. Then load a new material for the tire. Use the flat white material under the Basics collection. This basically erases our old Tire material, but, remember, we do have it copied to our clipboard!
Before doing anything else, go to the Transparency tab of the newly created white material and check the box "Underlying Material." Then PASTE the original Tire texture there.
Next set the Global Transparency slider all the way to 100%. Also, make sure the material mapping is set to Object-Parametric.
Now that we have our transparency map, we will need to apply it to our tire.
First, in order to use a transparency map, we need to create a transparent light gray material, then place the existing tire material UNDER it.
To do this, right click on the existing tire material we've created and COPY it. Then load a new material for the tire. Use the flat white material under the Basics collection. This basically erases our old Tire material, but, remember, we do have it copied to our clipboard!
Before doing anything else, go to the Transparency tab of the newly created white material and check the box "Underlying Material." Then PASTE the original Tire texture there.
Next set the Global Transparency slider all the way to 100%. Also, make sure the material mapping is set to Object-Parametric.
Now it's time to apply the transparency map.
Check the box "Variable transparency" and then control-click the Transparency Production gray sphere to go to the function editor.
Here you'll need to add a texture map node and load the texture JPG we just created. Also, be sure and set the UV Coordinates Mapping Mode to Flat (vertical).
So now we have our basic flat white material, which is 100% transparent EXCEPT for the part which is BLACK in the texture JPG file we loaded.
In otherwords, everywhere it's black in the transparency map, it will be opaque in our material, and because the material is white, it will render our sidewall letters white. And..because we chose to have an underlying material, everywhere it's transparent (the whole thing except the sidewall letters) our original tire material will show through.
While that's all good, there's a simple problem in that our orientation of our flat transparency map is not correct. So, what needs to happen is we need to rotate the map. This is the most difficult part, but as you'll see, I've done most of the hard work for you already! I've already figured out the proper rotation settings for each of the 3 views: Top, Side and Front. Check out the section on 'Mapping Notes' for more information about all of these.
Since we've created this tire object in the front and we want to map it from the front then we need to go to the Effects Tab, check the Rotation box and set it to:
x: 90
y: 180
z: 180
Now the map will be correct. You may wish to darken the white color of the texture a bit to a light gray so it isn't so strong on the tire.
Adding the Chrome texture to the Wheel
This one's easy. Just select all the wheel parts and add the Chrome material to them. That's it, then render!
There's a lot of power by combining transparent decal textures on top of existing parametric materials. Hope this stimulates your imagination!
(You can click the image to download the scene file for this tutorial).
This one's easy. Just select all the wheel parts and add the Chrome material to them. That's it, then render!
There's a lot of power by combining transparent decal textures on top of existing parametric materials. Hope this stimulates your imagination!
(You can click the image to download the scene file for this tutorial).
