• General Info
• Basic Steps

• Applying Basic Surface Properties
• Applying Color Maps
• Applying Bump Maps

• Key Light
• Fill Light
• Ambient Light

• Preliminary Setup

• Option Settings
• Rendering Methods

Applying Basic Surface Properties

1. Open the Surface Editor panel: select ACTIONS tab Surface Editor (Fig. 2).
2. Select a surface to edit from Surface Name list.
3. Adjust the various surface properties (except Bump).

Applying Color Maps

1. Open the Texture Editor-<select Surface Name>-Color panel for the selected surface by clicking the [T] to the right of the Color setting item (Fig. 2 & 3).
2. If a surface color was specified in the Surface Editor panel, set Layer Opacity to less than 100% or the color will not show (try 75%).
3. Start with these general settings:
   Projection = Planar
   Image = <select/load a color map>
   Pixel Blending & Texture Antialiasing = <off>
   Texture Axis = Z
   Reference Object = (none)
   World Coordinates = <off>
   Other settings may be ignored for now
4. Click the Automatic Sizing button to see how it affects your surface (it may stretch it) and Adjust the Scale tab settings (only X & Y) until tiling is acceptable.
5. After all settings are acceptable, type "C" on the keyboard to copy these settings for transferring to bump map (see next step).
6. Click the Use Texture button.

Applying Bump Maps

1. Open the Texture Editor-<select Surface Name>-Bump panel for selected surface by clicking the [T] to the right of the Bump setting item (Fig. 2).
2. Type "V" on the keyboard to paste all the previously copied color map settings to this panel (Fig. 4). This is important in order to keep the color map and bump map coordinates aligned.
3. Change only the Image setting in this panel to a coordinating BUMP MAP file.
4. Other settings may be ignored for now or procedurals may be experimented with (select from Layer Type setting) to further modify the surface.
5. Click the Use Texture button.

• For texture building, spotlights are usually best for most scene lighting requirements.
• Additional lights may be added by selecting ACTIONS tab Add Add Light Add <select Light Type>
• A texture map scene generally uses three lighting systems:

1.  Key Light

• The dominant lighting in a scene.
• Position this light to the front and above the object.
• Overshoot the object to avoid a harsh spotlight edge.
• General Property Settings (Fig. 5):
  • Current Light = <select a light>
  • Light Color = <try soft, warm -- ivory>
  • Light Intensity = 100%
  • Intensity Falloff = Off
  • Affect Diffuse/OpenGL = <both on>
  • Affect Specular/Caustics = <both on>
  • Lens Flare/Volumetric. = <both off>
  • Light Type = Spotlight
    • Cone Angle = 30 degrees
    • Soft Edge Angle = 15 degrees (or about ½ of Cone Angle)
    • Projection Image = (none)
  • Shadow Type = Ray Trace
  • Ignore all other settings

2.  Fill Light

• The light that will simulate core shadows, which, in real-life, are caused by light reflected from adjacent surfaces.
• Position this light from below and to the front of the object.
• Overshoot the object, as with key light.
• General Property Settings:
  • Current Light = <select a light>
  • Light Color = < try muted, cool -- medium blue>
  • Light Intensity = 50% (or about half of key light)
  • All other settings are same as Key Light

3.  Ambient Light

• The general lighting in a scene.
• It has its own settings panel -- click the "Global Illumination" button in the Light Properties panel (Fig. 5) of any light to access the settings.
• General Property Settings (Fig. 6):
  • Ambient Color = < try saturated, warm -- reddish orange>
  • Ambient Intensity = 5% (anything less than 10%)
  • Ignore all other settings

Preliminary Setup

Use the following General Property Settings for your camera in a texture map scene (Fig. 7):

• Current Camera = <select a camera> (there is no need for multiple cameras when building texture maps)
• Resolution = Custom (ignore; this word automatically appears when Width & Height are modified)
• Resolution Multiplier = 100%
• Width = 512 (preferred setting; keep square, i.e., same as Height, below)
• Height = 512 (preferred setting; keep square, i.e., same as Width, above)
• Pixel Aspect Ratio = 1.0
• Limited Region = <off>
• Zoom Factor (selected from pop-up - do not use other items from list) = 50.0
• Aperture Height = 65 (or use default)
• Antialiasing = Off (for quick renders) or Low (for final renders)
• Soft Filter = <off>
• Adaptive Sampling = <on>
• Threshold = 0.1
• Ignore all other settings

Adjust placement of the camera 'view finder' by getting inside the camera (5 on number pad) and aligning the dotted vertical lines with the finished edges of your texture object.

After your surfaces, cameras, and lights are properly set, you may do intermediate and/or final test rendering of the scene.

Option Settings

Select ACTIONS tab > Render > Render Options and use the following settings (Fig. 8a):

• Render First Frame/Last Frame/Frame Step = all 1
• Auto Frame Advance = <off>
• Frame End Beep = <either>
• Show Rendering in Progress = <either> (<off> gives quicker renders)
• Render Display = Image Viewer
• Enable VIPER = <either> (See "Rendering Methods")
• Rendering tab
  • Render Mode = Realistic
  • Ray Trace Shadows = <on>
  • Ray Trace Reflections and Refractions = <off if not specified in the Surface Editor >
  • Extra Ray Trace Optimization = <off>
  • Ray Recursion Limit = 16
• Output Files tab (Fig. 8b)
  • Save RGB = <on>
  • Type = Targa Format (.tga)
  • RGB Files = <click and type a file name>
  • Output Filename Format = Name0001.xxx
• Ignore all other Render Options settings

Rendering Methods

There are 3 rendering methods:

1. Render Current Frame (F-9 on keyboard or ACTIONS tab Render Render Current Frame), for quick renders. Be sure that Antialiasing in the Camera Properties panel is set to OFF. Quick rendering takes around a minute.
2. Render Scene (F-10 on keyboard or ACTIONS tab Render Render Scene), for final renders. Be sure that Antialiasing in the Camera Properties panel is set to LOW. Final rendering takes around five minutes.
3. VIPER, for almost real-time rendering of surfaces. To activate VIPER.
   1. Set the Enable VIPER setting in the Render Options panel (Fig. 9)) to ON
   2. Click the VIPER button in the Surface Editor panel (Fig. 2)
   3. Run an initial quick-render of the scene (F-9 on keyboard)
   4. Click the Render button in the VIPER panel

Now each time you make a change to the scene, the VIPER panel will update to reflect it. (Viper will not represent all rendered elements, such as cast shadows, reflections, etc.)

Basics Points

• Don't hesitate to use reference material.
• The goal to building textures in 3D is to make them look like they weren't built in 3D.
• Texture models need not be built clean nor single mesh since they will merely be photographed. They only need to look good.
• Begin by setting up a simple 2-D background template at the proportions of your final texture tile as a guide.  For tiling textures, this will normally be a perfect square.
• For texture building, you will be building primarily in the "Z" window.

Creating Color Maps

1. Open Corel Painter.
2. Create new document of 512 x 512 pixels, or multiples thereof, and click OK.
3. Select a paper texture surface.
4. Create a color map/texture.
   1. Keep overall value of the color map in medium range for flexibility in lighting.
   2. Use the Watercolor tools to create under-painting tones.
   3. Use the square chalk tool (Dry Media tools) to pull out more paper texture (remember to dry the watercolor layer if lighter chalk tones need to be seen).
   4. Try using Liquid or F/X tools to distort areas.
   5. Experiment with other tools.
5. Save the final color map in .tga format.