Research Assignment: Texturing
Introduction
When texturing an object, the object has to have a material on it's surface. The material properties define the appearance of the object and has parameters which are for example, diffuse colour, specularity, transparency, reflectivity and many more (JuniperMedia, 2008). By setting these parameters in certain combinations, a rendered object becomes a recognizable material such as plastic metal or glass. These parameters apply uniformly to the entire surface (JuniperMedia, 2008). To create variation on a surface, a “map” or “texture” needs to be placed on top of the material (JuniperMedia, 2008). The texture and underlying material are able to blend together even though it seems as though the texture covers the material (JuniperMedia, 2008).
2d texture and 3d Texture Mapping Techniques
“3D maps” refers to procedural textures (JuniperMedia, 2008). 3D procedure texture mapping maps the object’s 3D location in space directly into colour using a C language procedure. A single point can be mapped to millions of different colours (Whitepaper, 2008). By using 3D procedures, playing with the panels in SoftImage creates variations in materials (JuniperMedia, 2008).
“2D maps” refers to 2D image mapping which applies bitmap images to a surface using (u,v) texture coordinates (Whitepaper, 2008). The bitmap acts like a rubber sheet that stretches over a surface (Whitepaper, 2008).
Default Mapping Procedures
Texture projection is a method that “maps” a bitmap to the surface of an object (JuniperMedia, 2008). The image is mathematically projected on the object and assigns mapping coordinates (JuniperMedia, 2008). A planar projection is the same as a texture projection (JuniperMedia, 2008).
Reflective Qualities
The reflective qualities for a material depend on ambience, diffuse and specular (Segal, 2008). Ambience fills in shadows that are too dark. When used with diffuse, it controls the contrast of an object (Segal, 2008). Diffuse controls the intensity of reflected light on an object. Specular controls the intensity and colour of reflected light. When specular is white, it reflects all the light hitting it and when it is any other colour, it changes the colour of the light hitting it (Segal, 2008).
Conclusion
What makes a model appear realistic or just visually interesting is a combination of textures, how they are placed, use of reflective qualities, the level of transparency and whether bump maps are used or not (Segal, 2008). Depending on the objects surface, there are limitless options for creating textures with 2D mapping, 3D procedural mapping and bump maps.
References
(Author Unknown) JuniperMedia. 2008. “Texture Mapping basics”.
Available: http://www.webreference.com/3d/lesson54/
Accessed: 23 April 2008
Segal, N. “3D in depth: Materials, Pt 1”
Available: http://www.webreference.com/3d/column9/
Accessed: 23 April 2008
(Author Unknown) Whitepaper. 2008. “2D and 3D Texture Mapping Support”
Available: http://www.okino.com/new/toolkit/1-11.htm
Accessed: 23 April 2008
