Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
that you positioned to get the grain just right, so you need to group the texture node
under the axe's top node. When the axe moves, the texture will stick with it, main-
taining its orientation with the axe.
12. Rotate the axe back to 0 in
Z.
Select the place3dTexture2 node from either the view-
port (it's the green texture you scaled to fit the handle as you see here) or the Out-
liner. Be careful not to use the Env Cube's 3D placement node you used for the axe
head ref lection. In the Outliner, MMB+click and drag it under the axe's topmost
node, as shown in Figure 7.28.
The file
axe_texture_C.mb
, in the
Scenes
folder of the Axe project on the CD has the
final textured axe for your reference.
Now you have a fully textured axe. Because you used a Layered shader, you didn't need
to build another piece of geometry to represent a metal tip. You can embellish a model
a lot at the texturing level. Although you may first consider using geometry, you can
accomplish a number of tasks by using simple texturing tricks, such as those you used
for the axe handle and its metal spike. The more you explore and experience shaders and
modeling, the better you'll be at juggling modeling with textur-
ing to get the most effective solution.
You'll begin texturing the red wagon from Chapter 6,
“Practical Experience,” later in this chapter and then go into
more detailed texturing with the decorative box, which you'll
then light and render in mental ray. For even more practice,
try loading the locomotive model from Chapter 4, “Beginning
Polygonal Modeling,” and texturing it from top to bottom.
A great deal of independent geometry needs textures, some
of which must be carefully placed with 3D placement nodes.
Experiment with as many different ways of shading the loco-
motive as you can figure out.
Figure 7.28
Group the place-
ment node for the
handle under the
axe geometry's
group node.
Textures and Surfaces
Texture nodes generate maps to connect to an attribute of a shader. There are two types
of textures: procedural and bitmapped (sometimes called maps).
Procedural
textures use
Maya's own nodes' attributes to generate an effect, such as ramp, checkerboard, or fractal
noise textures. You can adjust each of these procedural textures by changing their attri-
bute values.
A
map
, on the other hand, is a saved image file that is imported into the scene through
a File texture node. These files are pregenerated through whatever imaging programs you
have and include digital pictures and scanned photos. You need to place all texture nodes
onto their surfaces through the shader. You can map them directly onto the surfaces' UV
values or project them.
