Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
This is the end of the first stage in creating the finished material, but you're not quite there yet. The material
you'vecreatedhereisnotthefinalmaterialyouwillusetorendertheimagebutratherasortofinterimmaterial
that will be used to create the final seamless textures, as you will see in the next section.
Smoothing the Seams with Texture Baking
The 2D-to-3D mapping shown in
Figure 2-30
looks pretty good, but there are some obvious problems. The
biggest problem is the visibility of seams, where the 2D texture meets itself and does not match. In this section,
you will see how to eliminate such seams. Astute readers might point out that actual sheet-metal smokestacks
are generally not composed of seamless whole surfaces. In fact, this is true, and in many cases, seams can and
should be hidden by matching them with real-world seams or hiding them out of view. However, real-world
seams do not always match up perfectly with the best places to cut your meshes for UV mapping, so it is im-
portant to understand how to create seamless textures when necessary. In this example, ironic as it may be, I
ignoretheexistenceofreal-worldsheet-metalseamsandconcentrateonexplainingthemethodologyofcreating
seamless textures.
