Tutorials

 

Getting Around in trueSpace 5 and 6

Page 5

Quick-jump to topics in this tutorial:

  1. Help is available!
  2. Selecting views
  3. Finding the tools and options
  4. Creating a primitive
  5. Drawing curves with the drawpanel tool
  6. Selecting faces/edges/vertices
  7. Grouping and ungrouping
  8. Texturing (Texturing, Textures, Layers, Light emitting textures, Animated textures, Applying the texture)
  9. Lighting
  10. Animating (Animation Control Group and Animation Parameters, Keyframe Editor/Scene Editor, Rendering the Animation, Animation Paths)
  11. Simulations 
  12. Rendering
  13. Layers in trueSpace 6

 

8. Texturing
When you're ready to texture your object, first select it, then click on the Material Editor (Fig. 8.1).

This will bring up the material window. If you click on the little blue triangle on the right side, the material window will expand (Fig. 8.2). 

Fig. 8.1

Fig. 8.2

 

If you click on the little red arrows of each window, the material windows will expand, letting you change parameters. The first window shows a preview of the texture and has the controls for applying the texture to your object. The second window (Color) lets you choose a color,  procedural shader, or image file. The third window (Bump) is for bump maps/shaders and the third (Reflectance) is for the reflectance maps/shaders.


For the color or pattern, you can use either a procedural shader or an image file (like a photo or a painted texture in formats like .jpg, .bmp, etc.). The procedural shaders are based on mathematical formulas. They can simulate a lot of different textures and  are resolution independent, but they take longer to render. You can also have several layers in your Material Editor, and mix-and-match shaders and image files, add bump maps, reflectance shaders, transparency maps, etc. All these together make up the material, which you can apply to your object, and which you can save into the Material Library. Then, whenever you want to use the same material, you can load it from there.


How to load a procedural shader or an image map  

You can choose a material from the Material Library, choose a procedural shader from the  Shaders library, or load an image file for your texture. (Fig. 8.3)

 

Fig. 8.3

Fig. 8.4

 

To load a procedural shader, either

1. Click on the Color Shaders icon in the library panel
2. Or Right-click on the color icon in the Material Editor
3. Or Right-click inside the Color window. 

This will bring up the same Color Shaders library. Click on one of the shaders in this library and it will be loaded in the Material Editor. (Fig. 8.4)

To load an image file, either 

1. Click on the Material Library, then  click on the Caligari icon (Fig. 8.5) (If you have a different material library loaded than the one pictured here, right-click in the Material Library window, scroll down to "Load" and choose "materials".)
2. Or open the Color Shaders library (Fig. 8.6), then navigate to the Caligari icon and click on it (Fig. 8.7). (See "To load a procedural shader" above on how to open the Color Shaders library.)

 

Fig. 8.5 

Fig. 8.6

Fig. 8.7

 
Now the Material Editor window will show the Caligari icon. You can either click on the Caligari icon in the Color window, or on the button titled "Caligari". (You need to have the window expanded to see the button.) This will bring up the Texture Browser. If the image file you want is not in this folder, then click the Open Folder icon and navigate to the folder where your image file is stored. Then click OK. Choose your image file, and double-click on it. Now this image file is loaded in the Material Editor. (Fig. 8.8)

 

Fig. 8.8

 
3. Another way to load an image file is to click on the Image Browser icon in the Libraries panel. This brings up the Texture Browser. Find your image file, then drag it into the preview window of the Material Editor. 
 

To tile a texture, enter the U Repts and V Repts values in the drop-down box. (Fig. 8.9)

Fig. 8.9

 

Previous

Back to Top

Next

 

 

 

Copyright ©  2002-2012 by Susan Lee.