Blender - Mapping Textures w/o them being FLAT

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Here is an example of a texture that was mapped to a plane. I use displacement in order to make the object actually project into 3-dimensions. You can tell from the specular highlights especially, that the texture does not lie flat on the plane.

I used ShaderMap in order to generate the Displacement map, simply from the initial texture... To use it in Blender, use one texture channel for the Diffuse Map (simple image) and another texture channel (with Color at 0 and Displacement at very low... 0.05 or so) for the displacement map.



Enjoy!

James

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Or...as a more practical example...

Compare this "tile wall" in both the flat version (no displacement) and the 3D (displaced) version. In a 3D scene, the flat tiles (usable, depending on what you're trying to create) look relatively lifeless next to the displaced version.


Flat Version - No Displacement


3D Version - With Displacement

Here's another example...


Flat Version - No Displacement


3D Version - With Displacement

Peace

James

[guyke]

Wow, again one of your nice examples on how to use Blender's features. Thanks, James

[ODdOnLifeItself]

You're welcome, Guy

It was fun to do.

Displacement mapping is such a powerful technique, I hope to somehow "inspire" (through how cool it looks, not necessarily by what I've done with it here) others to use it in their works...

Peace

James

[guyke]

I can't get it to work, James. Here's how I tried it:
- add a plane
- add a default new material
- add a texture - view/image - used one of your seamless tiles from your other recent post
- add another texture - kept clouds as default - untick color - tick displacement, with value .05
- set bump to best quality
- render - get a flat plane...

What am I missing ?

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Hello Guy,

For the displacement to have anything to "work with", the plane has to be subdivided and subdivided. (displacement merely moves vertices based on the displacement map, so if your image only has 4 vertices, nothing can really happen)

I'd use at least two levels of subdivision, with each maxed at 10.

Let me know how it goes...

James

[guyke]

Of course, James. That's what I forgot. Works perfectly. On the left without, on the right with displacement.

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Hello Guy,

Try this FILE as the Displacement image applied the same as you did with the Normal image. (ie. if you put the Normal image as 2 x 2 repeats, then same for the Displacement image so it lines up)



Take care

James

[guyke]

Wow, what a difference !

If I understand your way of working, you take a grayscale copy of the original to emphasize the displacement.

Thanks for letting me find out !



This really looks like a ceramic tile ...

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Hello Guy,

Nice job on the tile. I can see from the graphic that you quickly figured it out. Good job.

Re: Displacement Maps

Actually, I use ShaderMap CL (the free command line version from the makers of ShaderMap Pro) to generate the Displacement Map. It produces a "height map" based on the relative depth that it deduces from each part of the original image.

It will also produce Normal Maps, which are very useful because you don't subdivide the geometry (ie. increase rendering time) and still can get an enhanced 3D view.

Shadermap also makes Specular Maps to control which parts have highlights. (think of scratches all the way down to the metal on an old paint can...everywhere there is a scratch it is shiny, everywhere else is much duller.

If you go to use this cool tool, create a directory to hold the images to be worked on and stick ShaderMap CL in there. Using full paths (don't know why I'm having to do that, but on my system, I do), give it a DOS command of the form:

c:\convert\Shadermap.exe cdiff c:\convert\MyImage.png -disp (*,*,*,*) -norm (*,*,*,*) -spec (*,*,*,*)

This will give you the Displacement Map, Normal Map, and Specular Map for what it PERCEIVES as the heights (or shininess for the Specular) of various parts of the image. The Displacement Map and Specular Map can be edited in Xara to fix obvious errors (or to get creative!). The Normal map cannot be edited directly, since it uses RGB values to show height and shift. It normally has to be created. Blender can also make Normal maps. If you have something with very complex geometry, it takes a lot of polygons to define it. If you create the geometry and then Bake the Normal map, you can apply the Normal map to a Plane and have something that from a distance looks correct, but is made up of 1 single polygon.

Take care,

James