Texturing a complex surface in Form Z

[Bwana Kahawa]

Hi,

I'm wanting to texture a cushion, so the standard cubic / spherical / etc. modifiers won't do, as it'd stretch the texture at the curved edges.

 

Anyone know a way of doing it in Form Z? Maybe something involving the UV Mapping type or Unwrapping an object? Or Decals? Any suggestions / links to tutorials would be most handy.

 

Cheers!

 

Derek

[erickdt]

Could you use texture groups?

[Bwana Kahawa]

You mean different coordinates / mapping for different faces on the surface? Could be a challenge - it'll be soft curved sufaces all over the place, so getting it to tie-up correctly would be a pain. Nice idea though.

 

I was hoping something more along the lines of being able to paint a flat texture map which could then be wrapped around the surface accurately - I guess I'd need to unfold the surface (which I don't know much about, but assuming it's simple enough to dictate where it splits it) to get a surface to paint over. It's the next stage I'm not sure about - wrapping the form back up again into the cushion shape without losing the texture mapping info...

 

Any more ideas anyone?

[erickdt]

Could I see a screenshot of the object and the texture you're trying to apply to it?

[Bwana Kahawa]

Haven't made it yet! Wanted to investigate the best way of doing things before I started.

 

I've attached a photo of the kind of thing - the square pattern doesn't stretch when the edges of the cushion start to curve round so is obviously still a grid, but it bends to follow the form of the cushion.

[erickdt]

Hmm...

 

This is a situation where I would ask myself "Is it worth it to spend alot of time screwing around with this?". In reality you'll probably be the only one who'll see the slight distortion of the squares on the pillow.

 

Personally I'd just do a planar map.

[Bwana Kahawa]

True, but I'm trying to do a visual of a small seating area, so the cushion fabrics will be pretty darn prominent. Think I'll just have to bodge my way through using UV Mapping

[erickdt]

You could make it so the squares were seperate pieces of geometry. That actually might not be to hard if you make your pillow through controlled deformations.

[Bwana Kahawa]

Not a bad plan, but not all the cushions will be a checkered grid - I just picked that photo to illustrate the problems I might have...

 

I just can't believe there isn't a standard way of apply textures to slightly more complex forms?! I mean, what do people do for texturing, say, a human head? (Apart from use different software, of course ...)

[erickdt]

Well that's just it. They use a software...

 

When it comes to modeling architecture, etc., nothing is better than FormZ IMO.

 

When it comes to texturing, lighting, etc., nothing is better than MAX.

 

FormZ just isn't that great for rendering...