The January 2012 Tutorial Discussion

[Big Frank]

But if you broke rule No. 10...

[Gare]

Oh.

Yeah.

Your proverbial Mobius strip of a conundrum.

Better unplug your computer for a while, Frank.

[wizard509]

This came to me via some email from a vendor of 3D media.

I think this list a little severe and a tad immature, but interesting and overall I'd have to agree with most of it.

An artist who cannot accept things in shades of grey has fewer colours to play with!

Attachment 86882


—g

I think Frank's rule #10 should be added to the list.

[Big Frank]

I think Frank's rule #10 should be added to the list.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[Gare]

Here’s a little info on bump-mapping and how you can make them look better in Xara if you’re willing to spend $20 (or go the long route for free and use a command line—yuck!):

The concept of using an image to produce a convincing bump effect on images and 3D models was invented by James Blinn at the University of Utah, which graduated an awful lot of modeling and animation people in the 1970s, including a fellow named John Warnock who went on to co-found Adobe Systems.
The idea behind bump-mapping is to use brightness information in a bitmap, to render highlights and shadows on a different image, strongly suggesting that the target image is bumpy or has an emboss on it.

The thing that separates bump-mapping from true distortion of a surface in 3 dimensions is the silhouette of the target shape in the bitmap. If you bump map a sphere, its silhouette as it faces the “camera” (your point of view) will be perfectly spherical and smooth. To really mess up a sphere at rendering time in a modeling program, when it’s supported, you use Displacement and not bump mapping. Here’s the texture I used and here’s a rendered example of bumping compared to displacing a surface. Notice that the shadows on a displaced surface also interact with the surface. Nice.



Xara doesn’t support displacement mapping, but there is something you can buy that will at least make your 3D embossed bump maps look a lot more photorealistic and attractive. It’s called ShaderMap Pro and their website is shadermap.com. Don’t run right out and pay $20 quite yet. I believe this program will be of extremely good use to Xaraist who also dabble in 3D modeling, and it’s of secondary importance to artists who just want to make really good bump maps in Xara.

What ShaderMap Pro does is take a color map (a texture), and intelligently builds a corresponding displacement map (which is also a really good, if somewhat “soft” bump map), specularity maps, normal maps (to direct modeling programs which side is facing outward and how much bumping and displacing is wanted), and occlusion maps for determining the darkest parts of a surface where a texture is used.

A lonnnng time ago, I used to blur an image I wanted to use as a bump map, and got better results than just a straight image because bump-mapping makes details when there is a gradual transition between colors. This was also trial and error, quite unpredictable, and most of us already realize that when you blur a bitmap to make a good bump map, you’re going to see an edge if you try to tile the image. So one solution creates another problem.

You can get the same problem with Shader Map Pro, but I find I’m less likely to, and the neat thing about Shader Map Pro is that you can control the shadow and midtone regions manually, and the resulting file you can use as a displacement or bump map contains some blurry areas, some sharp ones, and some areas that look to have a diffuse halo around them. Okay, forget this phenomenon, and just try the image out as a Live Effect target for 3D Emboss in Xara. I think you’ll make designs that have a lot more intricate detail that you and your client will be happier with.



And before anyone asks, no, I have absolutely no affiliation, nor make and advertising revenue from any program other than Xara that I mention on this forum.

[angelize]

I find this really quite interesting. I actually have been thinking of spending the $20 on Shadermap. I also use another program that I paid about $25 (CDN) for called Seamless Factory to eliminate the edges that show when you use embossing or blur an image for a bumpmap. Seamless factory can be used quite easily and it has brush tools that can be used to selectively blur, sharpen and more specific areas in your image too. I have found that Xara and Seamless factory make a great combination.

[stygg2003]

Well I've not got any photo realism in my effort Gary, I just wanted to have a go has you said, at a bit of shading and texture with transparency, nothing fancy, just had a go but I must admit I'm a bit pleased with my first effort, nothing like the great drawing by Frances but who knows with a bit more practice( who am I kidding, a lot more )

Stygg

[angelize]

I like your drawing Stygg. I can see that you experimented a bit with using fractals to create a cardboard texture as I did and that's great! experimenting here may lead you to an idea you may put to use for something else. And I for one have learned a thing or two from this thread. I hope we will see more boxes

[stygg2003]

Thank you for your kind words and encouragement Frances, I did learn a few things and I'm hoping to learn from those texture tuts you said you would get around to doing after the doughnut and depth tuts., no pressure I assure you!!

Stygg

[angelize]

Oh those texture tutorials have not been forgotten.