Week 5 Class Practical: Part 3 - Bitmap Texture Mapping

Next in the practical is texture mapping. This is the process of defining a texture to be placed over the model. This allows you to apply greater detail and realism to an object without adding to the complexity of the geometry. The 2 fundamental types of maps are bitmaps (a flat 2D texture that wraps around a 3D object) and procedural mapping (generated by a mathematical formula with a number of parameters that influence the appearance of the map).

To begin with we will try applying a bitmap to a polygon cube. First, I made a polygon cube and assigned the "lambert" material to it. Next to the "Colour" common material attribute there is a small checkerboard box, clicking this brings up the "Create Render Node" window.

From here we have to select "File" and then navigate to a texture I have predownloaded. Once this texture is selected I apply it to the cube as a material and make it visible by hitting the "6" key on the keyboard. This makes the texture visible.

After this I had to repeat the same process on a sphere, cylinder, torus, cone and pyramid to see how the bitmap interacts with those shapes. Maya is pretty good at applying a 2D bitmap to a 3D shape however it does struggle when it comes to matching textures up on edges on shapes such as the pyramid.