You can apply image files to your surfaces by using maps.You can assign a map to
every material component. In addition you can also use a background and a bump
map. A backgound map is actually a color map, but instead of using an image file
it uses the pixels of the active layer. A bump map allows you to disrupt the smoothness of a
surface. A Map completely replaces a material component when you set its amount to 100% and Alpha Channel Output to opaque. |
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Invert Map inverts the map when checked. |
Image Alpha as RGB replaces the RGB values of the image with the alpha channel values ( disabled if the image has no alpha channel ). |
Amount controls the amount of the map being apllied to the material component. |
Apply to specifies to which surfaces you want apply the map. |
Mapping specifies how the image file is mapped to the surfaces. see Mapping below. |
Alpha Channel Output specifies how the alpha channel for the map is generated. see Alpha Channel Output below. |
Mapping
When you have checked Show Mapping you can see how the image file is mapped to the surfaces. You can control this mapping with the following options:
Custom allows you to transform the map manually with the map tool, see The View > Using the Map Tool.
Fit stretches the map so that it will fit the selected surfaces.
Tile keeps the original size of the image and puts it at the top left corner of the selected surfaces.
In addition to the options above you can also link the mapping to another map. This is useful when you have the same image file in different maps. You can link mapping settings in the same way as materials. Just select the map you want to link to in the mapping combobox. You can unlink a mapping by selecting
custom, fit or tile in the combobox. Mapping is disabled when the map is a background map.
Alpha Channel Output
Every map can have an alpha channel. With an alpha channel you can mask areas of the map. when an area of the map is masked it will not be apllied to the surface. You can use the following options to generate an alpha channel:
Image Alpha uses the image's alpha channel ( disabled if the image has no alpha channel ).
RGB Intensity generates an alpha channel based on the intensity of RGB values of the image.
Opaque makes the alpha channel completely opaque.
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