Clip Map Tutorial

[Ibontxu]

Hi khongten. Here´s the tutorial.

I have a very bad english but i wish you understand...

CLIP MAPPING A TREE.

1- You have to get your tree image with transparent background and with it's alpha
It's more usual to find *.tif images with transparent background in internet, but if you use that kind of images you'll need to convert this image into another vray supported format later.

In this case i`m going to do with the *.tif image, so i will use:

- (Tree Image).tif (optional)
- (Tree Image).png, bmp, jpg, jpeg or tga.
- (Tree Image Alpha).jpg



2- If you don't have the alpha image, you can make it with photoshop (go to Channels and copy the alpha).

3- Import your (Tree Image).tif into SketchUp as an image, scale and position it where you want




4- Explode it

5- Select the image an make it component. The component must have enabled "Allways face camera" option, and it will be necessary to assign the axes of the component again.




6- In V-Ray Material Panel, Add a new Vray linked material. Your image now is a texture since you explode it, so it will be in the list. select it.




7- In Diffuse Channel, click on "m" that is close to "Color" an select:

Type: Bitmap. Go to "M" that is close to "File" and search in your hard disc your (Tree Image).jpg image.




8- In Diffuse Channel, click on "m" that is close to "Transparency" an select:

Type: Bitmap. Go to "M" that is close to "File" and search in your hard disc your (Tree Image Alpha).jpg image. Don`t forget to activate "invert" and "invert Alpha".




9- In "Maps", click on "m" that is close to "Background" an select:

Type: Bitmap. Go to "M" that is close to "File" and search in your hard disc your (Tree Image Alpha).jpg image. Don`t forget to activate "invert" and "invert Alpha".






10- Remove the refraction channel that vray has added to your image's background.




11- Render!

Sky Dome:




Phisical Sky:




I'm not an expert at VRay so if anyone knows a better way to do it please tell me. I'm sure there are a lot of easyer methods, but i only know this way.

Note: It seems that if you delete your tree image or you move the skp model or the image, it doesn`t work anymore, so you have to keep into the same folder the model and images.

[Ibontxu]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

But as you have seen there are some strange colors around the plant.We can correct it if we use a black front and white background alpha, and not switching on "Invert" and "invert Alpha".



All we have to do is to follow previous tutorial's steps but applying these settings to Transparency" and to "Background":




Sky Dome:




Physical Sky:

[Nuder]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

how much different is it to do this in Rhino?

[Ibontxu]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

I don't know anything about Rhino, but i think that it must be very much easyer, so you could make it following the manual's steps.

The problem in sketchup is that for some reason you can't modify the main sketchup texture -(Tree Image).tif- with Vray material editor, so we must make a little cheat applying the same alpha in background channel.

I don't know how does Rhino geometry behave and if it's possible to assign transparences in the normal way. (only putting the alpha image into transparency channel)

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

Woh, Woh, woh...you guys are making this way more complicated then it needs to be...really.

1. Set up you're normal clip mapped tree in SU
2. Make a linked mat from the SU mat
3. Add a layer w/ the texture and the alpha map
4. Go back and set that transparency of the SU material (in the SU layer) to completely transparent.

I don' know what putting in the background map does, but thats just not needed. Again, don't over complicate things that don't need it.

Besides, the new SR clears up most of these clip map issues anyway. The way we handle materials is much better, so things like this are much easier.


In Rhino, its easy as mapping a layer as normal...if you want more info, look at Micha's decal tutorial.

[LUISC]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

thanks, i apreciate your help i will go foward... and try it.

[LUISC]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

HEY, WOOWW... IT WORKS PERFECTLY, THANKS FOR THE TUTORIAL..
HERE'S THE SAMPLE TEST.

[Ibontxu]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

You're welcome. glad to be usefull

[Free Agent_cg]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

clip maps been working for me with filling in the background slot, i attempted to try what Dalomar suggested but cant figure it out, perhaps a screen shot would help?...

do you mean add an extra diffuse layer? and what do u mean by SU layer?

[thomthom]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

I tried dalomar's method which worked initially when I only had a single group with the texture mapped. However, when I converted it into a component and cloned it the transparency didn't work any more. But ticking Background made the transparency come back.

[dcauldwell_cg]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

free agent

is this what you want

http://asgvis.com/index.php?option=c...20669#msg20669

david

[Yanman]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

WOOW... thanks you for tips ;D ;D ;D

[Jackson_cg]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

Yanman,

This thread is almost exactly 1 year old, the way V-Ray for SU handles materials has changed a great deal since this thread was created.

To create clipmapped materials in VfSU SR1.5, simply load the clipmap into the transparency slot of the material diffuse layer in VfSU's material editor; it couldn't be simpler (until the next release ).

Regards,
Jackson

[dcauldwell_cg]

Re: Clip Map Tutorial

Jackson

Thanks for spotting that. I must have been asleep to let that one get past me. I have still been turning the SU transparency to zero! Its now so easy!

David