newbie surfacing question

[MaureenD]

I've been struggling with this for 2 days now. I have a cylinder with a label on the top of it. I have a round image map that fits perfectly to the top end of the geometry, along the Y axis.

I can get it to look great on one object. But I need to have 7 or 8 duplicates of this object on the stage at once, and can't get the image to appear on each one unless I tile it, but of course the placement of the other cylinders does not match the tiling and I know this is not the right way to do this. And if I move the object, the image map does not move with it.

How do I get the image map to "stick" to the object and be able to duplicate the object and image map together? As a last resort I tried making 8 different surface names each using the same image map but this seems ridiculous.

What am I doing wrong?

[Twisted_Pixel]

I think this would be a case for UV mapping, you will only need the one surface with a corresponding UVmap.

[Surrealist.]

I think also maybe you can rethink your work flow a little because you might be giving yourself more headache than needed for this simple task.

If you absolutely must have these objects placed in modeler for some good reason then UV mapping is the way to go for something like this. But if not, you can save much hassle by simply creating one, centering it on the X and Z and then set it on the ground +Y (use Rest on Ground tool Modify/translate/more).

Then you can map it on the Y as you have. From here you can paste into as many layers as you need them, or clone in Layout. Either way with each object at center the image will stay there.

In modeler it treats the entire xyz space as the potential image area. This is why you can not simply move the object and have the image stick. The image is mapped to the xyz space in modeler. This is similar to the World Coordinates setting in Layout.

Once in Layout, by default the images will then be treated in a Local Coordinate an you can move the objects about and place them on the stage as you wish taking the image map with it.

This would be the traditional way to handle such a thing.

Hope this helps. :)

[clumsycloudy]

quick search in google:

http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/LightwaveTuts/UVMaps/UVMapPages/UVMap1-1.html

cheers

[MaureenD]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I set up a UV map and got it working. I haven't done a lot with UV so wasn't too sure how to do it.

And yes, I should be doing more work in layout. For some reason I find that I like working more in modeler than in layout and realize that I need to rethink this.

Anyway, here's an example of the kind of thing I'm doing at work this week.

[Surrealist.]

Oh, is this similar to what you were doing with the other cylinders?
If so I can understand that it would be a modeler workflow.

It just depends on a case by case basis.

If you are working on a model that is one congruent piece, stay in modeler. But if you just have elements that need placing such as barrels around a warehouse or cans on a table, use layout. When you said cylinders on a stage that is more of the picture I got.

Very nice work by the way. :)

[MaureenD]

Yes the cylinders are the little "transister" -like doohickeys that have a tiny label on the top of them.

Thanks for the verification on my workflow then. I'm making 3 of these blades that will go inside of a case and will animate sliding in and out. So each blade and the case are being constructed separately in modeler and then will be put into layout to put them together and animate them.

Appreciate the compliment too!

[Twisted_Pixel]

Glad to see you got the issue sorted.
Will follow suite with Surrealist and agree nicely done work.

[druitre]

As a very quick how-to for if you've got a kazillion transistors on your card-object and you want each one to have the same image mapped to it's top (even if not all the transistors are facing the same direction):

1 - select all the polygons that are the 'top of the transistors'
2 - create a new UV map, whatever map type, whatever axis will do
3 - select 'poly maps > polygon normal UVS', check 'automatic size'

done! 'polygon normal UVS' is a command that attempts to place UVS on a per-polygon planar axis.

The main drawback is that it does this on every single polygon - so your transistor-tops need to consist of just one poly each.

[Giacomo99]

How do I get the image map to "stick" to the object and be able to duplicate the object and image map together? As a last resort I tried making 8 different surface names each using the same image map but this seems ridiculous.

Well, making eight different surfaces is the way I'd do it. Remember, there's the "automatic size" button that--as the name implies-- automatically sizes the image map to fit the polygons of the surface. You won't even need to mess with UVs--just use Planar mapping.

If you don't want to do it in Layout, the eight-surface approach is probably the way to go. (If you had a hundred transistors, however, rather than just eight, you might need a more streamlined solution.)