Texture Overlay

The penultimate step is left and our BMW will drive in the game! But for this we need to apply our texture well!!! If the texture is made at a high level, it can smooth out the flaws of the car's body! But if the texture is made disgustingly, then no one will want to place our BMW on their web-site! We will be applying a good texture, so there's nothing to fear! =)


First, let's try how to actually apply a texture. Let's create a new file for a simple test. In the new file we'll make a surface (Flat), you know how to make it, and try to apply some image to it!


First, the image must be in bmp, tga, or tif format.


Second, to apply the image you need to: select SelectSingle "faces" and press Ctrl+A to choose the texture.


Third, choose the SurfaceMappingAssign UV tool, press space and click on the selected "faces".


And lastly, switch to the UV Mapping view, our picture will be displayed there. By moving our plane in it, we'll make the texture lie well!


This is the mechanism of applying a texture I've described, so we'll work with the mechanism!


Let's start with the first. Choose any image of the format written in the plan. Then, in the program select a couple of "faces":





Now click on
- this is the material editor. A dialog box will appear:





1. This is the list of textures currently loaded into the program. 2. The name of your material. It's advisable to always enter it, so that later it's easier to find your material. 3. The button for loading the main texture. 4. The button for loading chrome.


Now check the box next to button number 3 and choose our texture and click Ok. Then press Ctrl+A, a dialog box will appear:





1. Choose ours from the texture list. Click Ok.


Now choose the SurfaceMappingAssign UV tool and click on our selected "faces" (you need to press space before this!). Now switch the view to the texture (Mapper), that is, the same way you switch to the front view, but from the list choose UV Mapper.


The "faces" that were selected will display some fragment of the texture:





The plane highlighted in green is the plane that was selected. Now, for the texture to be applied well, we need to move it where we need it. And you can move it with ModifyMove:





The figure clearly shows that the green surface corresponds to the image in the 3D view! On this seemingly simple example, I explained how a texture is applied! =) But don't think it's that easy, on the contrary, if you want to achieve good car quality, then you need to work on the texture most of all!!! Now, when everything is more or less clear, we can start texturing our body.


Let's load our file with the BMW. Let's load this texture into the material editor:





Now in the right view (Right view) let's select all the faces shown in the figure:





To do this you can do the following:



  Choose the tool SelectQuadr, press the right mouse button and drag to the side

  Press space and then Ctrl+A, choose the texture and click Ok.


The following image will appear in the 3D view:





Now let's switch to the Mapper view:





And we see that the texture is smaller than the grid:





To make the grid smaller you can use the following tools: Move and Scale, they are all in the Modify section.


Let's use them and get the following:





Now we need to make it so that nothing sticks out, the red and black arrows show where you need to be more careful or move it back!






In the end you'll get something like this:





Now it remains to do the front and rear. They are done similarly to the side, you also need to select the "faces" that need to be textured and move them in the Mapper view! The texture is applied to the wheel in the same way!


Now, when the texture is successfully applied, we need to make the second half of the car! This is much easier than applying a texture! =)


Let's use the tool CreateObjectCopy. But first: let's switch to the front view and set movement along the X axis! Now click on one half of the body and move it to the side. After we release it, a dialog box will appear where we must enter the name of the second half of the body:





But these two halves are identical!!! One of them, namely the one that was copied, needs to be changed:


1. Choose the ModifyReorient tool

2. Then choose the ModifyMirror tool, and movement along the X axis must be enabled!

3. And make the two halves as shown in the figure:





Done!!! Well, not quite, because we need to merge these two halves! =) This is done like this:


Switch to Points mode and choose the SelectQuadr tool and select as shown in the figure:





...then invert the selection, SelectInvert, and hide the unnecessary points with the DisplayHide tool, if you do everything correctly you'll get the following in the side view:





Now, to merge the points you need to: choose the CreateObjectUniteSelect and SelectQuadr tools. Zoom in to select the points more precisely and do this with all the points as shown in the figure. Having selected a point with the right button, immediately press the left one, and so on for all points:





The final result:





But for a more realistic look you need to apply chrome! Again load the material editor and, as was written above, under number 4, you need to load the chrome texture there:








On the left is the material editor, and on the right is the chrome texture.

After you load chrome the car will look like this:





Some people like the car chromed like this too, they say it's more realistic! But I don't like it that way and it seems to me they're mistaken! =) To chrome the car properly you need to:

1. Switch to the Points level.

2. Select all points (SelectAll)

3. Choose the SurfaceNormalsProjection tool and in the front view click on the car! =) At the same time: the XY axis must be enabled and the space key pressed!


If you did everything correctly, then the final result of the car should turn out as follows:





Yeees, this is cool and beautiful! =) Now try to make something of your own, son! =)