Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 9
Texture and Lighting for Architectural Interiors
A well-built model without good textures and lighting can waste hours of modeling as far as final presentation
goes. Setting up good textures and lights for this type of visualization can be done quickly with a little prac-
tice. The addition of these textures and lighting will greatly improve the look of your finished product. This
chapter covers the following:
• Creating textures for interior visualization
• Adding secondary models
• Adjusting lighting and rendering settings
Creating Textures for Interior Visualization
As you created the interior model in the previous chapter, you assigned basic large groups of textures (floors,
walls, molding, and so on). However, to get the right amount of control, you need to create some additional
texture groups. This process can take a few minutes to complete, but there are some techniques that can help
you make your selections faster. After creating texture groups, much of the texture work can be done very
quickly.
Making Selections
Even though this model has a relatively low polygon count, it can still be time-consuming to manually select
each polygon in a room to set a material for a wall or floor (especially when you are working with rounded
corners). A few techniques can make your task much easier and less tedious. Making lasso selections (by us-
ing the right mouse button), using the arrow keys, and using the Polygons heading of the Statistics section (in
the Lists tab) can each knock significant time off the selection task. Using all of these together will speed up
your workflow even more.
Making Lasso Selections
Most 2D and 3D applications allow the use of some kind of lasso selection. In Photoshop, the Lasso tool is
used to create a free-form selection. The image shown in
Figure 9-1
is a simple 32-pixel square image that
has been enlarged to make the individual pixels more visible.
Figure 9-1:
In this enlargement of a 32-pixel square image, the pixels are very visible.
