This how to goes a step further in refining the polygonal tower object constructed in the lesson How to Build a Polygon Tower. Specific approaches to texturing the tower used here incorporate methods of Texture Assignment, Unitizing UVs, Copying/Pasting, and Painting Vertex Colors. The existence of UV information is essential for texture assignment on any polygonal object. As the tower built previously was created as a Polygon Primitive (Cylinder), it already carries with it appropriate UV information for a cylindrical surface.

STEP ONE Open the Tower.ma file saved in the How to Build a Polygon Tower lesson. Download the project files for your platform: NT - poly_textures.zip IRIX - poly_texture.tar.gz You will now assign a texture and Unitize UVs. Import the file Shaders from the scenes directory. These Shader files contains shaders with textures intended for use with this lesson. With the perspective window active, press 6 on the keyboard to view the Tower in shaded mode. Using the Middle Mouse Button, drag and drop the Rock shader from the Hypershade Window onto each surface of the Tower, Tower Arm, and TowerArm1 in the perspective window.

STEP TWO Notice that the texture placed on these surfaces is not yet very representative of actual rocks. The texture is currently wrapping once around each surface as a result of the initial Polygon Primitive Cylinder's UV information. The TowerArms adopted the Tower's UV information at duplication time. The texture itself however, was designed to appear on a smaller scale and repeat many times over each surface. To place the texture on each face singularly, as opposed to across the surface as a whole, make sure faces are selected from the component pick mask and draw a bounding box around all objects at once; Tower, TowerArm, and TowerArm1. With all the objects' face centers displayed together, redraw a bounding box around all the faces to select them and then go to Edit Polygons > Texture > Unitize UVs. Notice that now the texture is applied to each face separately as desired, creating the intended effect.

STEP THREE The next step is to texture the roofs. With faces selected from the component pick mask; select only the faces that make up the roof of the Tower, TowerArm, and TowerArm1. This is most easily accomplished in the front window by drawing bounding boxes around the desired faces and using the following hotkeys; Shift + Selection = Adds/Removes to/from current selection Ctrl + Selection = Removes only, does not Add to current selection Ctrl + Shift + Selection = Adds only, does not Remove from current selection Once the faces are selected, open the Window > Hypershade and Right Mouse Button over the Shingles shader and choose Assign Material To Selection. Since these faces were already unitized in the previous step the Shingles texture is being mapped to each face and is producing the desired effect.

STEP FOUR Place the Window texture on portions of the Tower body. With faces selected from the pick mask, select a few faces from around the Tower body that are to serve as windows. From the Hypershade window Right Mouse Button over the Window shader and choose Assign Material To Selection. A single image of a window is applied to each of the selected faces.

STEP FIVE You will now Copy/Paste the Window texture to TowerArm. Textures may be copied and pasted to other surfaces and/or faces. The Window texture applied to the body of the Tower will be copied and then pasted to a few faces on the TowerArm that points upwards. Select a face that has the Window texture already applied to it. Choose Edit Polygons > Clipboard Actions > Copy. From the TowerArm that points upwards, select a few faces to serve as windows and then go to Edit Polygons > Clipboard Actions > Paste. The window texture has now been pasted to these selected TowerArm faces.

STEP SIX Select the bottom row of faces on the Tower body and then Right Mouse Button over the Algae shader from the Hypershade window and choose Assign Material To Selection. The Tower now seems to have algae forming at its base.

STEP SEVEN You will now paint Vertex Colors on the Tower. By utilizing the Paint Vertex Color Tool it is possible to have models inherit color information at the vertex level. This functionality enables a surface to not only have textures assigned to them but to have colors affect the overall look of these textures as well. In this case, the desired effect is to simulate the Tower as existing within a toxic swamp that emanates a green glow onto its surface. Go to Display > Custom Polygon Display > Options and make sure that Objects Affected is set to All and that Color in Shaded Display is checked On. The model becomes black which indicates that currently no color information is associated with those vertices. In Select by Object Type mode, select the Tower and both TowerArms and select Edit Polygons > Color > Paint Vertex Color Tool - Options. In the Tool Settings window, make an appropriate brush size by editing the Radius(U) and Radius(L) fields. Under the Color section, click on the color swatch and choose a bright green color. Paint around the base of the Tower at the vertices defining the bottom portion in order to simulate the look of a green glow emanating from below falling on the surface. Continue painting as desired, incorporating different colors in order to add variation to the model.

CONCLUSION UV information is essential for texture assignment on any polygonal object. The techniques you have learned in this lesson can be used to texture polygonal geometry quickly and efficiently.

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