'Afternoon all, I have been trying to get this information from Vue 4's tech support, but trying to get anything from them has been like pulling teeth from a toothless person. I couldn't find any info anywhere else either, so I figured I would try here. 1st, I may as well tell you that I'm new to Vue d'Esprit, as I've only had it one week. My question is: I thought I read somewhere, ( prior to purchasing ), that you could use "Masks" in Vue 4? I'm finding nothing pertaining to this subject anywhere. What I would like to know is, can I apply a different Material or Texture to different spot areas of an object, with the use of a "Mask"? If this is not possible, is there any other way of doing this task, in specific areas on an object? I hope I didn't make a mistake by purchasing "Vue 4", instead of maybe "World Builder"? I've been using ZBrush for about nine months now, & I'm used to being able to "Paint" on different Materials & Colors, on different areas of an object. Thanks in advance for any information or suggestions & have a good one . . . Mark.

I am not aware of anything like this. The only way to do this would be to edit your 3d object with a modeler (amapi or even poser) and assign different groups or materials to the areas you want to use. Then back to vue, you can set the materials you want using the material summary.

It depends on how many parts your model has... Most models consists of various parts... these can all be assigned a texture.. You bring in said texture as a jpg file for each part... The other headache is mapping... If it's a very precise texture, one that outlines the shape or curvature of a particular model part, you have to use something like UV mapper to map that texture to that part of the model... When you say you can paint on different areas of an object in zbrush, are you saying that you can import a model and then paint it?? Can you then export it with the textures you've painted?? Cause that would solve your problem right there...

Thank you both for your suggestions. I'm already aware of the texturing different parts of a group object, but that's not really what I had in mind. I guess I should have been more specific. 8 ^ ) Let's say I had a terrain in Vue, & I had one of the native blended textures applied to it. Now, I would like to maybe mask off a small section or two, or maybe three & apply an area of rock texture or sand texture or maybe have a separate section of grassy texture on a sandy terrain. I hope I have explained my question a little clearer this time? Anyway, if it's not possible to use a Mask in Vue 4, I wouldn't know of any other way to this. Tradivoro, yes you can import an object into ZBrush, paint it completely with a different texture or material, in different areas & export it. Unfortunately, textures & materials don't export with the object, the materials & textures with in Zbrush, are native only to Zbrush. What I had in mind was more like using the native rock or grass or whatever type materials from within Vue. Plus, if I were to do your suggested procedure by applying different materials to different parts of the group object, I would be left with sharp borders from the different materials. That's why I was hoping to use a "Gradient Type" mask to blend as well as apply the different materials. Again, I thank you both for your suggestions & have a good one . . . Mark.

Mark, I have certain hesitations in saying this, but I don't think that what you're asking is possible in Vue. Let me get this straight: You want to , in essence, be able to assign a mask to a certain region within a previously-mapped object? I don't really understand, but if I read you right, you woukld have two choices. Within Vue itself, I believe it would be possible, though probably very dificult. You might play around with the "Origin" setings in the material editor... But it sounds more like you want to UV map specific regions, like UV Mapper would do, but within the program itself. That's a tough call. I know that Vue has a different mapping scheme for it's own primitives than it does for polygon meshes..... I would recommend UV Mapper for what you want, and even better, UV mapper Pro, once it's released. In essence, Vue doesn't have many limitations to how it deals with materials, but it cannot set up new material groups on it's own.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=352452

***Let's say I had a terrain in Vue, & I had one of the native blended textures applied to it. Now, I would like to maybe mask off a small section or two, or maybe three & apply an area of rock texture or sand texture or maybe have a separate section of grassy texture on a sandy terrain*** Well, you can absolutely use different materials on the same object, like a terrain in your example. Vue has a simple setting for "Mixed Materials" and that's where you'd begin, then make adjustments for altitude and slope. You can put a sandy shoreline alongside a forested wood that leads into a rocky precipice. Or you can use the same technique to create snow-covered tree branches or algae-covered rocks or to put moss on the north side of tree trunks. Some while back, Mike posted some great images to illustrate the basic process, at the URL. Also, check the Vue free stuff for a material called "Whole Mountain" by Bloodsong. You can download it and apply it to a terrain and see the process in action. :)

Attached Link: http://www.multimania.com/arte/beginners.html

Please have a look at my tutorial # 11 on this page :-)

It sounds like what Mark wants to do is what we call, "decal-ing" in Truespace. This is where you take a "masked" image, that is an image with a transparency mask, apply it over the top of an existing material, size it, then slide it around the surface of the object till it lines up correctly. A typical use for this function in Truespace is to put decals on the surface of an airplane, hence the name, "decal-ing". I really don't think that Vue has anything similar to that, at least as a tool with realtime feedback. -SMT

'Afternoon all, First I want to thank - Varian & Gebe - for their posted links, which explained a lot to me, in the use of Materials in Vue 4. Like I stated earlier, I am new to Vue 4, so I'm still searching for tips & tricks to make my learning process a little quicker. I really appreciate the pointers. 8 ^ ) Hi Smallspace, Actually, that's not really what I had in mind. I have & use TrueSpace 5, so I am familiar with what you are describing. I guess to simplify what I was looking to do, was to take a native Material in Vue & apply it to different sections of a terrain, that already has another Material applied to it. The Masking part of my question, was to be used for the smooth blending of the different Materials. In ZBrush, you can use several different Materials on one object, just by selecting the Material & painting it on the object in any location you want. I'm sure as I become more familiar with Vue 4, I'll be able to use the common sense that I was born with, & use my brain to figure these things out. I guess at times I get a little lazy, & look for the easy way out for learning a new software package. Ha Ha Ha. ; ^ ) Anyway, thanks to you all for your help & the time you took to answer my question. I hope some day, I may be able to repay the favor. Have a good one . . . Mark.

heyas; i think you're confusing people by using the word 'masking.' what you want to do is used mixed materials in vue. you can mix two (or more) different materials and use a function and/or slope/altitude/azimuth to determine which material goes where. i believe all those tutorials they sent you to explain all that. ;) now, if you want to mix like a glass material and the label on a bottle (like this decal deal) that'd be a lot trickier. but it uses the same principle. you can paint or use an image as the mixing function (the same way you can for transparencies, etc), so you could paint a custom mixing mask for your objects. now when you mix materials, look down on the lower right for the 'blending' amount slider thingy. if you want one material to fade into the other, turn that up. if you want sharp deliniations, turn it down. also check the different mixing methods (cubic bump, flat colour, etc). the bump kind of mixing sometimes give dark black edges to materials -- this occurs when one material overshadows the other quite a bit. you can get rid of that with the blending amount, or switch to a flat mix.

Ok! Actually you can get a lot of crazy stuff using the transparency functions in addition to those that bloodsong mentioned. -SMT

Fun with functions. :D