Adding your own Textures

[Allan Chesney]

TFP allows you to add your own textures by right clicking in the Materials List and clicking Add Material. You can then browse to an image of the texture you want to use. Getting the texture right so that it spreads across the surface properly is the critical factor. Hopefully the tips below will be helpful.

The main trick with your own materials is to make sure that the two side edges and top and bottom edges match each other.

Use as an example a Brick texture: Resize and crop your photo, so that you have an even number of bricks (eg 4, 6, and the side edges have a half brick each side on one row and full bricks on the next. TFP will then join the edges and the half bricks will join and spread across the surface. 

Make sure that the two bricks that are half bricks are the same shade of colour otherwise the joins will show. This is critical if it is a smooth texture such as carpet.  If the image is slightly darker on one corner that the others then it will look like a check pattern instead of smooth. It is best to take just a section from the middle of your photo as many cameras get darker towards the corners and it is easier to get the lighting even if the photo is taken in full sunlight. 

The images you use should not be very big or it could lead to a memory problems. Most TFP textures are between 128 and 256 pixels square while wood or 'long grain' textures, are usually twice as long as they are high (eg 128 x 256 pixels).  Some are slightly smaller or larger. Obviously JPG images have a much smaller file size than BMP but both will work OK. 

You can use the "Overide Tile Size" setting in TFP to get the final size to match the true size.  To get the brick size correct, make a piece of wall to a specific height, count how many bricks on your real brick wall there are to that height and adjust the "Overide Tile Size" until you have that many bricks on your wall in the preview, then 'save' the texture at that size.

"Rotate allows you to turn the texture around if necessary (eg Wood grain on a vertical timber) and "Position" allows you to move it around on the surface, so that the texture meets the edge when necessary (eg Ceramic tiles come to the edge of the surface, rather than have half tiles around the edges).

Have fun. It is quite thrilling to see your own lounge suite in the room!! It is amazing what the right texture will do.

Allan

[Doug.S]

Good tip Allan, 

here is a bit more info to add to your thoughts about matching edges on texture images.

To make "seamless" textures, you can either find them free on the web or make your own.  Most images are NOT seamless.

Photoshop has a "filter" to relatively easily make seamless textures but there is some manual blending along seam lines

There is a "tile" texture auto feature in Ps but it does not make seamless images.

If you want more info on doing so in Ps, ask, and I'll write up a small tut.

[Allan Chesney]

Doug,

I always use the 'tile texture' option in PaintShop Pro, so you can easily see before hand if you will get a checkered effect. I then just lighten the dark corner for example and try the texture again.  Once it is right and seamless then I import it. Only takes a few seconds.

Allan

[Doug.S]

Yes, very true that a texture will look blotchy and with light/dark lines where tiled seams align and then don't look realistic spread across a larger area.....and care must be taken or repetitive patterns show up like bad wallpaper.

Using Photoshop (or similar type program) to get perfectly seamless textures eliminates the problem even tho some color/brightness variation across the image exists and is realistic....as long as the aligned edges when tiled align/match perfectly...which is how seamless textures are generated.

In essence an image is divided into quarters and exchanged positions so the inside edges become the outside edges...so when later placed edge to edge they are exactly matched on all four side in every direction.....then the inside edges need to be fixed to remove any mismatches by using the healing tool or cloning tool to blend/erase interior mismatches.

I'm guessing Allan you already know this but I'm sharing thoughts for any other readers new to 3D rendering.

[Allan Chesney]

Whatever did we do before they came up with the clone tool ?

Allan