|
| |
Main Menu
|
|
| |
MWLL Newsletter
Join the next evolution of MechWarrior - subscribe to our free newsletter
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Materials Part 3: Blend Materials and Masking |
|
Tutorials -
Texturing
|
|
Friday, 28 March 2008 |
Materials Part 3: Blend Materials and Masking
by Pete aka "Decency"
We have our Multi/Sub setup correctly and applied to the model so the next step is to actually build our material. We won't be making the glass in this tutorial, so let's move on to the label. Open up Photoshop or any image editing program and create a label. Try to crop the image fairly tight around the logo so there isn't too much empty space. The logo I created is shown below.
We are ready to import our logo, so save the image somewhere and head back into Max. Open the Material Editor and go inside the BawlsLogo material in your Multi/Sub. Open the Maps rollout, click on the Diffuse slot and choose Bitmap from the window that appears. Navigate to your logo and hit Ok.
After you have done this your logo should appear in the viewport. If it doesn't you may need to check the Show Map in Viewport button shown below. This button is found at many levels of your material, but make sure you click it on the base level of the BawlsLogo material. You can see in the image below that my material is indeed in the scene, however it doesn't resemble the logo I created at all. This is fine since we just need to see that it appears, we can adjust it later.
The logo in the scene can easily be fixed with a UVW map and will be in Part 4. For now let's concentrate on fixing it in the material editor. Double click on your BawlsLogo sample slot in the Material Editor to view your logo. For the sake of visualization I'm going to change my sample type to a box by clicking and holding on the Sample Type button shown below.
Notice that my logo is white text with a black background. Careful study of a real Bawls bottle reveals there is no black background; you simply see white text printed on glass. We already have a BlueGlass material ready, so we need a way to mask out the black background on our logo so the glass shows through. We can do this by changing our BawlsLogo material into a Blend material instead of a Standard material. Make sure you are in the BawlsLogo Material and change the material from Standard to Blend. Make sure you check the Keep Old Material as Sub-Material option so you don't lose your logo!
Let's take a second to understand exactly what's going on now. You have a Multi/Sub with ID 1 as glass, and ID 2 as a label. The label is now a Blend material with your logo in it's Material 1 slot, and a blank Material 2 slot. The reason for this is so you can mask out Material slot 1 and see Material slot 2 behind it. As of right now our Material slot 2 is empty, but as you might have guessed it should be glass. Go back to the root of your Multi/Sub and drag your BlueGlass material into an empty slot.
Now we have access to the BlueGlass material by itself so we can use it in the Blend material. Click on your Multi/Sub again and enter the BawlsLogo material. Drag the BlueGlass material you created into the Material 2 slot.
Your Blend Material is almost finished but you may notice it still looks exactly the same. We have everything setup to be masked, but we haven't made a mask yet! When you make a mask keep in mind that black blocks information and white lets information through.
I'm going to use my image to mask itself since the text is white and will show through and the background is black and will be masked. Save your mask out as any image filetype you desire and head back into Max. Click on the Mask button in the Blend material and load your mask.
You will notice above that you can see the white text of the logo against the BlueGlass material with no black background remaining. Our work in the Material Editor is now complete. In Part 4 we will fix the logo in the viewport and render the object.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
© 2008 MechWarrior: Living Legends Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.
Supported by
 |
Powered by
 |
Sponsored by
 |
Sponsored by
 |
MechWarrior: Living Legends was created under Microsoft’s “Game Content Usage Rules” using assets from the MechWarrior Intellectual Property, © Microsoft Corporation.
© 2007 MechWarrior: Living Legends
This site is a mod site run by unpaid volunteers for no commercial gain in any way shape or form. This site is not affiliated with MechWarrior, Microsoft Corporation or WizKids LLC. MechWarrior and all logos, item names, etcetera, are copyrights of respective owners and are being used here on a purely for-fun, non-profit basis. MechWarrior Living Legends make and produce all material included in this forthcoming download as a non commisioned or paid for service for non financial gain. WizKids LLC has sole ownership of the names, logo, artwork, marks,photographs, sounds, audio, video and/or any proprietary material used in connection with the gameClassic BattleTech. All WizKids characters, names, logos, and distinctive likenesses are property of WizKids, LLC. BattleTech, BattleMech, Mechand WizKids are trademarks of WizKids, LLC.
MechWarrior and Mech are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Joomla template by: Slava Markeyev |
|
|
