Maestri on Multi-Sub-Object Mapping

Here are some highlights from Maestri's demonstration of multi-sub-object material mapping:

1. Open the example file chest.map, a wooden chest with metal framing.

2. Place the simple bitmap chest.jpg into the Diffuse channel of the object's material. Switch to box mapping. The results are not entirely satisfactory: texture changes scale on the smaller sides.

3. Take an alternative approach. Note that the box has basically three material zones: the exterior wood, the metal framing, and the interior wood. Change the material type from Standard to Multi-Sub-Object. When prompted, discard the old material. The switch creates a material with multiple slots. Set the number of submaterials to 3.

4. Go to submaterial 0. Name it "metal." Click on the Diffuse channel and load the bitmap called chest_metal.jpg

5. Go up to the parent level (multi-sub-object). Double click material #1. Apply the chest_wood.jpg file to Diffuse.

Apply the multi-sub-object material to the box. This must be done by polygons. Select the polygon sub-object mode in the Edit Mesh modifier.

6. Select all polygons in the mesh, then de-select all but the desired polygons.

7. Give the selected polygons a material ID. ID #2 corresponds to the wood texture. Select Show Map in Viewport.

8. Select the inverse of the current selection by choosing Edit->Select Invert. Set the material ID for this selection to 1 (metal). Apply material, and Show Map in Viewport.

9. Select all maerials of type 2, using the Select ID button in the Material rollout.

10. De-select the outside faces. Change the interior polygons to material #3.