Mixing materials and textures ?

Mr. Bean

Good afternoon,

Is it okay to apply materials to some parts of a model, and textures to others? I'm creating a high-quality metronome, and it would be great if I could just apply a metal material to some parts, and only texture three of the parts (like the wood). Is this okay to do and still consider it a good quality model?

Thanks a lot.

DarthNater

I think you're confusing the two:

Materials are just a combination of textures (Diffuse, Spec, Normal, etc...).

You can have different materials in the same texture and still create 1 single material for the whole object.

Mr. Bean

Yes, I do know that. By "materials," I mean solid colors - not unwrapping the model, just applying a solid color material. So, for the metronome, a yellow metal material,a silver metal material, and then I would unwrap a couple parts that need detail in the texture.

Did I explain that better? I can try again; unfortunately that term is used a lot for many different things...

DarthNater

Well, is this in a game engine or your modeling app?

MoP

If it's for a game engine you will have to apply textures.

If it's just for an offline render in your app, you are free to use whatever mix of materials, textures and procedurals you want.

DarthNater

MoP why can't I be smart like you and just answer both scenarios :P

But what I was going to add is, could just create a single color material in UE3 without texturing, kinda stupid but it works...

Mr. Bean

Thanks guys, that normally would answer my question...but here's the problem:

I'm going to sell the metronome on Turbosquid. So I don't know who's going to use it for what.

Now what?

DarthNater

texture it.

Mr. Bean

DarthNater wrote: »

texture it.

Even the parts that don't need any metal texture? If this were a production model for, say, Pixar, then they'd use realistic metal materials, but they'd have to also texture some parts like the wood.

Is your reason because Max's materials may not be compatible with other apps?

DarthNater

You have to make a texture even to give it color, unless its just staying in your 3d app. Post a screenshot of your model so I can see what you're talking about.

Will Faucher

Your best bet would be to make a flat color texture, and use gloss and spec maps to make it shiny or whatever you want to do with it. It doesn't have to be a detailed texture. (For the metal)

Mr. Bean

I don't think there's a need to post a picture of the model; I get what you're saying.

Prophecies wrote: »

Your best bet would be to make a flat color texture, and use gloss and spec maps to make it shiny or whatever you want to do with it. It doesn't have to be a detailed texture. (For the metal)

I like the sound of that. I think that's what I'm going to have to do; it's just that I was hoping to save time by not having to unwrap some of the complicated parts. Not because I'm lazy, mind you , just because since they wouldn't need a detailed texture I wanted to avoid unwrapping those parts unless it was necessary.

Will Faucher

If it's just a flat, single color texture, then you shouldn't need to unwrap them. If you are going for a chrome-looking material, then you could try out a flat grey texture, with a white spec and gloss map, and a reflection map. I've never done chrome before, but it's worth a shot.

Mr. Bean

Prophecies wrote: »

If it's just a flat, single color texture, then you shouldn't need to unwrap them.

Oh, I get it. So you mean just make a 512X512 texture and make it completely red or yellow or whatever, and even though it would tile randomly over the model it wouldn't matter since it's just a solid color. That's perfect.

Thanks a lot everyone for helping me out with this.

Will Faucher

That's exactly what I mean. I've never done this personally, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

DarthNater

Mr. Bean wrote: »

Oh, I get it. So you mean just make a 512X512 texture and make it completely red or yellow or whatever, and even though it would tile randomly over the model it wouldn't matter since it's just a solid color. That's perfect.

Thanks a lot everyone for helping me out with this.

If it's going to be a completely solid color, just make it 2x2...

Mr. Bean

I've never done it either, but I'll give it a try. I also really don't see why it wouldn't work...

DarthNater wrote: »

If it's going to be a completely solid color, just make it 2x2...

Haha, yeah I thought of that too


Thank you all for the help!!