adding a material the the ground

[bighop]

I was trying to add a materal to the ground without any luck.

 

1. I dragged the materal to the ground in the object menu

2. The ground darkened, but did not change.

 

I also noticed that when I add a materal to an object, it doesn't show until I render it. I have a Mac, with a 733 processer. Am I missing a setting or something?

 

Thanks for any help!

 

Andy

[robcat2075]

most Materials are "combiners" and need to be rendered for all the detail to show up. (This can be very slow, BTW)

 

A plane like the ground may only recieve one thin slice of a material so it may not give the result you expected. Scaling, moving or tilting the origin of the material (see its properties) may be necessary.

[phatso]

Which leads to the impatient animator's golden rule: if an image (applied as a decal) will give passable results, don't even think of doing a material.

 

Just for future reference.

[bighop]

As I use this program more, I start asking more questions! So are you better off to just decal instead of Bump map or will the Bump map look better? (I can see the results with a decal, I have to render the model to see the Bump map)

 

Also, when I start making animations, will a model with a decal render faster then a model with Bump Maps? I hate to finish a model to find out ..I should have done this....

[robcat2075]

As I use this program more, I start asking more questions! So are you better off to just decal instead of Bump map or will the Bump map look better? (I can see the results with a decal, I have to render the model to see the Bump map)

the real-time display can handle "color" decals, that's about it.

 

Bump maps are a decals too, they just do different stuff with the image information. There are several other kinds of decals.

 

I guess there is a way to make a material that will do bumps. I just haven't done much with it.

 

 

Also, when I start making animations, will a model with a decal render faster then a model with Bump Maps? I hate to finish a model to find out ..I should have done this....

 

"Materials" have the advantage of not taking up much memory, but may render slowly.

 

Decals can be painted to precisely fit your model, but take up more ram and I suppose anti-aliasing them may take up render time too.

 

 

Generally, decals are faster than complex materials, but they only look as good as you paint them.

[bighop]

Thanks. I've been looking through the models that come with AM. They use some Legacy Bump too. I think I'm looking for the exact rule, and there is none, it's whatever works!

[phatso]

Decal if you can, material if you have to. Only a render test will tell you for sure.