View Full Version : Meta: Textures
JT Fox
09-28-2008, 02:29 PM
This thread is for any with a question on using textures inside Meta.
JT Fox
09-28-2008, 02:37 PM
I am working towards completing a model which I hope will be good enough for the shop.
I have completed the Meta 3D design phase and have started the texture and colouring phase.
As this model with be for sale I thought it best not to use the original scans I had from a magazine as they are clearly labeled with copyright and the artist name.
So decided to draw my own line drawing. This done for the port side I applied it a a texture to the 3D model. However the vertical line on the side of the rear fuselage distort as they pass from one face to the next.
I load my model in Pep and now they seem OK.
Any ideas on how to get the Meta view to look correct?
Cheers JTF
cgutzmer
09-28-2008, 06:08 PM
That looks really good - I know nothing about Meta but it might be my next step too - kinda waiting to see what kind of decent tutorials I can find on here, zealot or papermodelers.
Chris
The Orange
09-28-2008, 06:26 PM
You know what, I've been working with only the default textures in MEta ever since a year ago when I first started.About Last Year in December, I was able to use Custom Textures and they appeared in Pepakura. Now it won't show up, what do you guys do?
nothing
09-28-2008, 08:16 PM
jt you might need to change the view settings from software to either direct 3d or open gl.
@soaring i dont understand the question.
The Orange
09-28-2008, 08:56 PM
It's like this. I make a model in Meta, and no, I only use the materials given. You know, like varients of the rainbow, red, yellow, blue...
When I want to add more than just that, like shadowing, and other things, I make my texture in a Paint program. After, I map it in Meta. Here's where the problem comes in, the Texture appears to be locked in Meta, however, when I open up pepakura the texture doesn't show.
nothing
09-28-2008, 09:03 PM
thats puzeling. do you create material asign color then set material to face? if you could send me an example i might better see waht is going on.
The Orange
09-28-2008, 09:55 PM
I'll post a picture tomorrow
JT Fox
09-29-2008, 03:04 AM
jt you might need to change the view settings from software to either direct 3d or open gl.
That works to a degree. The lines now look OK but one or two go missing. :o
I'll play around some more.
Cheers JTF
nothing
09-29-2008, 06:55 AM
one thing to think about is that meta is not that powerfull an app(relativily speaking) on ocasion i get the same thing but it has to do with program and not the textures. even though you get some distortion it doesnt mean the tetxture is messed up. if you rotate and look from another perspective you see it straighten up. i hope that made sense. i havnt seen that problem in a while. it might also have to do with the quality of the texture used.
Barry
09-29-2008, 07:32 AM
Texture in Meta is not that great you will find if you rotate the model it gets better looking at some angles.
I am useless at texturing but I found that if you use meta to get the texture approximately right and then transfer to Pepakura you can modeify the pattern in your Paint package and keep swapping in and out of Pepa to improve the look in the model window.
The sad thing is that the colours are printed in very washed out manner and can really only be used as guidelines. Pepa says it has a better package for acheiving crisp colours and edges but I am not prepared to spend a $150 for it.
I am inclined to use simple shapes squares and circles in meta using either the knife to give me an indication of where features are or if you have the analogue cutting routine from the registered version you can use that to be totally accurate in placing effects.
You will end up having to work quite in pepa removing all the extraneous lines generated but its ability to recolour lots of lines at once using the square technique (point at a line the move the mouse to cover more lines) helps a lot.
I gues this really says there are ways of getting around things just experiment.
A last comment it IS worth geting the full version of Meta.
JT Fox
09-30-2008, 02:33 AM
As I view my model from other angles the texture rights it's self as you say so I guess it's the software.
Would this improve if I paid the money and upgraded from the free?
The plan is to have a full textured model to unfold in Pep and then do any re-colours in Photo shop using the original unfold as a guide to letter positioning and angles etc.
Cheers JTF
nothing
09-30-2008, 06:34 AM
i have the registered version and still at times get that distortion from time to time. it appears mostly on curved surfaces.
JT Fox
10-09-2008, 04:57 AM
I have applied a texture to a several faces and in Meta it looks fine.
When I then load into Pep the textures is all black.
Any Ideas?
Cheers JTF
nothing
10-09-2008, 06:31 AM
what format are the texture files?
JT Fox
10-09-2008, 07:03 AM
They are saved in JPEG format via Photoshop using Max quality setting.
Size is 1480 by 213 pixels. The Model Meta is around 1500 by 210 units. The surface in question is a boat type deck with around 7 faces, practically flat.
Cheers JTF
nothing
10-09-2008, 07:41 AM
without looking at it one of 2 things comes to mind. a) the texture file is too big or in meta material you have a color assigned as well as the texture. or the material settings are wrong.
JT Fox
10-09-2008, 08:39 AM
Some screenshots.
Cheers JTF
nothing
10-09-2008, 09:25 AM
are you using a texture image or are you just applying a tan color to the material?
JT Fox
10-09-2008, 10:12 AM
Texture image.
JT Fox
10-09-2008, 11:24 AM
Being playing with size, it does matter.
I've reduced the maximum size down to 512 px and it now works in both Pep and Meta.
At 512 it just look shite. Can Pep take a larger size texture?
Cheers JTF
JT Fox
10-09-2008, 11:50 AM
I've switched to bmp and now save and show up in pep at 1500 px so problem solved I guess.
Cheers JTF
nothing
10-09-2008, 12:15 PM
pep maxes at 1024, pep 3 will auto resize o 1024. above that you need to buy peps hi rez program. its 98$
JT Fox
10-10-2008, 07:24 AM
From what I can tell the old Pep also re-sizes.
Switching from JPEG to BMP has also cured my distortion problem as metioned earlier in the thread.
Cheers JTF
nothing
10-10-2008, 07:51 AM
yea i have switched to trying to use bmps as much as possible.
The Orange
10-13-2008, 11:52 PM
Haha! You guys rock! I just figured out [Thanks to Nothing and JT Fox] that I should've been using BMP files for textures! Now they show up in Pepakura! Rock on guys!
About the distortion, have you tried rendering in Meta? Sometimes the texture appear distorted in the 3D view but comes out alright when rendered, just a software artifact.
Barry
10-16-2008, 06:15 PM
A small hint always make sure your texture sizes are divisible by 8 Meta does not like odd numbers
nothing
10-16-2008, 07:52 PM
nice tip. thanks
JT Fox
10-17-2008, 03:57 AM
Lex, barry.
Thanks for the tips I shall check my texture sizes when I get home from work and look into the render option. I have never used that before.
Cheers JTF
JT Fox
02-10-2009, 02:01 PM
When creating a texture do you.
A) Put all textures on one file, like a skin in a flight sim.
or
B) Have several files, top , port side, tail fin etc.
Just wondered.
nothing
02-10-2009, 03:21 PM
i use seperate textures. havnt figured out how to combine them into one. in this application it doesnt matter as the final digital 3d doesnt need to be streamlined. gaming models it is needed for performance of the game.
JT Fox
02-16-2009, 05:48 AM
I’ll take my thinking a little further.
Let’s say we have a 3D model with 4 sides, top, bottom, port side and starboard side. In Meta we would create 4 “materials” in the material box. Each material is set to a selected side. Nothing new here I guess this is how we all do it.
The part I suggest that would only be one file is the .bmp file that the “materials” in Meta reference.
The file referenced is a multi-layered Photoshop, (or equivalent), file with each layer having specific information. In fact we would have layer sets (folders) each with several layer sets/layers inside.
For example:
Colour Layer Set
Desert Camouflage 1943
Tunisia Version 1
Underside Blue/Gray
Topside Dark Sand
Tunisia Version 2
Underside Blue/Gray
Topside Dark Sand
Topside Camouflage
Western Front 1943
Specific Group 1
Specific Group 2
In this way if your 3d model was coloured in Desert Camouflage 1943/Tunisia Version 1 and you wanted to switch to the Version 2 then simply switch Version 1 “off” and Version 2 “on”, then save over the .bmp referenced by Meta.
As you have not changes the file name when you open your model in Meta it will load with the new colour scheme. Save this file over previous .mqo files. If you have
Pep 3 then reload the file so you do not have to redo the unfold and you have a re-coloured, un-folded model ready to go.
Cheers JTF
nothing
02-16-2009, 08:30 AM
that would work. i use close to this method for changing textures.
JT Fox
02-17-2009, 10:12 AM
I'm converting the textures I've used so far on the Me 109 design to use the single bmp file idea.
Here's what the file looks like.
Cheers JTF
JT Fox
09-07-2010, 04:34 AM
One useful function in Rhino was the abillity project "lines" onto the surface of the 3D model. Realy useful after unfolding as this gave guide lines to colour against in photoshop.
Can this be done in Meta without the need to create and attach textures?
Cheers JTF
eric_son
09-07-2010, 05:08 AM
One useful function in Rhino was the abillity project "lines" onto the surface of the 3D model. Realy useful after unfolding as this gave guide lines to colour against in photoshop.
Can this be done in Meta without the need to create and attach textures?
Cheers JTF
I'm afraid not. :(
The closest thing I could find is Meta's paint function which allows you to spray paint directly on the actively selected object from the 3d view. This will in turn update the bitmap file associated with the assigned material.
To some extent, this does help a bit in marking out the key locations.
JT Fox
09-09-2010, 11:54 AM
Thanks eric, I though as much.
You could also do a grid texture and use that for reference.
Cheers JTF
nothing
09-10-2010, 10:23 PM
one way around that could be to take screen grab from your top and side views and overlay the blueprint on it to create a guide line texture.
JT Fox
09-11-2010, 03:33 AM
I know that textures have to be a maximum size of 1024px x 1024px or they get re-scaled in Pep, but what size are the background images you model over?
Cheers JTF
nothing
09-11-2010, 07:35 AM
for me the scale of the 3d model doesnt matter as the model scale is determined by the unfold. so as long as my plans fit in the grid i dont worry about the size of the viewport images.
JT Fox
09-11-2010, 08:59 AM
I'm finding I'm having to stretch my textures to fit my 3D model which results in a poor surface texture.
My current model is about twice the size of the grid.
Cheers JTF
nothing
09-11-2010, 03:34 PM
i always model inside the grid.for me 3d scale is not important. try putting the image in and rescaling the model to the image.
JT Fox
09-12-2010, 12:56 PM
I think I may have found something out I hadn't considered before.
I bring my design images into Meta in the following manner.
As each point in meta equals 1mm and 1 px if you want to design in real size then a 180mm length model like a 1/72 plane would need a size of 180 px. As that is a bit small I multiply by 10 and have an image 1800px by 1800 px with a resolution of 300 dpi.
When I rescale the image to 1024 to use as a texture I don't change the dpi therefore the physical size reduces. When the texture goes into Meta it's less than 100mm and needs to be stretched over twice it's size.
I've played around adjusting the dpi to 72 and keeping the physical size the same, it seems to help.
Cheers JTF
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