Hello. Having finally gotten my hands on a decent HD digital camera I have been having fun taking photo's with the hope of using them in Vue.

I have some that I would like to use as .mat files for grass, bark textures etc and some lovely cloud pictures to use as skies but have no idea how to change the format.

I tried just loading them 'as-is' but as expected they don't work! They are .jpg files straight from the camera and my paint shop pro program doesn't have a save as .mat option.

My plea then is how do I turn my photo's from .jpg to .mat?

Really frustrated here!

Many thanks

RubyDancingmoon

Hello!

You cannot "convert" a photo to a "mat". However, you can use your photos to set up tiled materials. To do this, you need to first turn your images into seamlessly tileable ones. This can be done in a number of programs, for example photoshop and there are also some specialized ones that make it easier (for example Genetica). Once you have a seamless texture tile, you can load it into vue and use the material editor to set up highlights, bump, etc. and then save it as a .mat for use on any model.

It is very important, that your photos are free of shadows, obvious highlights and other artifacts. Otherwise they will make poor textures.

Ciao

TD

Are these photos of blades of grass?  With the proper alpha mask applied to them, you can paste them on billboards in Vue an populate for long shots.

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG

Thank you for your replies.

Firstly no, they are not individual blades of grass but more macro shots of sections of grass and bark on trees. I also have some lovely shots of cloud formations that I want to use for skies in Vue.

I can seemlessly tile my pictures in Paint Shop that is no problem but what format do you suggest I save them back out as? There are quite a few options with that program. Do they still need to be .jpg or .bmp maybe?

I am not very confident with the material editor yet but will certainly give it a go.

Thank you very much for the help.

Hello!

Any image format that is readable by Vue will work. I would recommened a format that doesn't lead to a lot of loss due to compression, though. I frequently use TIFF (.tif) for this purpose. PNG is another good option.

Once you have the tileable image saved, I would recommend the following work flow:

Go to Vue and load a simple sphere or cube.

Load a Vue material that is similar to what you want to set up

Now open the material editor and go to the color tab

set the coloring mode to mapped picture and load your tile.

Now you need to adjust all parameters until it looks like you want

then save as a new material and you are set.

 

Pay special attention to the scale and tiling options. They will make a big difference. For the bump setup you could initally just use the color image.

Ciao

TD

Thank you I will certainly give that a try later tonight when I have the time to concentrate fully.

Do you have any suggestions as to how I can use the cloud formation photo's for skies? I am assuming that if I tile that one it will look awful!

All I can think of at the moment is that I create my landscape without a sky (or just black sky) then take the finish rendered image into my paint program and layer the photograph onto it. That's a lot of work and I know it wouldn't look anywhere as good as it would if I could use it directly in Vue.

Sorry to be a pain but this is what happens when you try to combine two hobbies!!!

Thanks!

Personally, I would not recommened to use the cloud images. You can get much better results directly in Vue.

However, if you want to try, you can use your photos directly in in Vue by selecting the camera and then selecting the "Backdrop" button (in camera options). There you can set your image as a backdrop. You probably need to also select "ignore atmosphere", otherwise it will look funky. Note that the photos need to be of very high resolution to be truly usefull, otherwise the background will look pixelated in any decent size render. You also need to carefully match the lighting in the scene to the cloud image.

Ciao

TD

Thank you I gave that a try and got loads of funky stripes instead of my clouds! :(

I know I am probably missing the obvious here but can you tell me how to find the 'ignore atmosphere' you mentioned? I looked everywhere ... but obviously missed it!

Thanks

"Ignore atmosphere settings" is a checkbox in the "Camera backdrop options" (where you load the photo).

I don't think the atmosphere is the problem if you are seeing "stripes". Sounds more like a scaling issue. Can you post a sample render and the original cloud image? Based on that I might be able to tell what is happening.

 

Here is an example using this technique. The sky is an old photo (not the greatest quality and resolution).

 

Ciao

TD

Here's a very simple sample render. It also shows where I load the backdrop into the camera - no 'ignore atmosphere' setting??

Once I get this to work I will create a 'proper' scene.

Original photo to follow.....

Ok so the file size was too big, the photo will definitley be too big too as it is still at full size at the moment.... will fiddle and post ....

Trying the render again

Here's the photo I was using. I have had to resize and compress it to place it here

so not sure on the quality now.

That photo is great! Cool clouds.

There is definitely something wrong with the scaling. Have you tried to render using "Final" quality?

Which version of Vue is that? Mine is Vue 9.5 Infinite and it has the "ignore atmosphere" on the same dialog. In any case I do not think that is the problem.

 

Ciao

TD

Thanks, I thought it was an awesome picture which is why I am so desperate to use it.

I am using Vue 7 Xstream. And I can't find an 'ignore atmosphere' option anywhere!

Not tried a final render yet... will give it a go and see what happens. Maybe it is because I was trying to use the full size HD photo that I took? Any suggestions on how to scale such a large picture to suit Vue? I kind of assumed that if I used the full quality HD photo that it would be better.

Maybe that's the error?

Looks like the "override atmosphere" option was added in 8 or 9.

I can use HD resolution images without any issue. I have used a 4000*6000 pixel space background before. How much memory do you have? It could also be an issue with Vue 7. Not sure.

You could try to use a different image format to see if this changes the look. Or try to save the image at a reduced resolution and see if that works. There are some HDRI images included in vue (in the bitmaps folder). Try to use one of those and see if it works.

Good Luck

TD

Does it happen with any old JPG or BMP for backdrop?

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG

Try this: In the material editor, set the image to object-parametric. What's happening is that Vue is trying to map the image 'flat' if seen looking down at the top. The stripes are caused by Vue 'extruding' the image like playdoh through one of those presses. If you were to slice the image at any point horizontally and look from the top down, the image would still be there.

It happens to me a lot, as I like to use images (rain streaks, clouds, etc) on alphaplanes, and Vue forgets how to map my images every once in a while it seems. It so common (to me) that part of my workflow is to make sure that I have the image set to Object Parametric for all my Alpha planes.

Also, I prefer billboard style alphaplanes over background settings shown above for cloud pictures, as they are always 'square on' to the camera, and I have more control where to place the image in the scene. The other tips are all very god tips (ignore atmosphere, etc) But I also increase the Luminous slider up to 90 or so, and drop the other sliders (contrast, ambience) to near 0, disable cast/receive shadows, (Under the effects tab in the material editor)

Hope this helps.

...Insert some witty or thought provoking comment here...

Ruby,

I played around with your image as backdrop.  The image's ratio needs to match your rendering camera's ratio.

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG

Thanks to all your wonderful tips I finally managed to get my cloud photo into a scene. Please ignore the lanscaping, it is just to have something other than clouds in the scene to show you.

I ended up using the alpha plane approach - with object parametric selected - as advised and it seems to have worked! I need to work on things like lighting etc but this is a great start. At least the stripes have gone!!!!

When I loaded the picture into the alpha I didn't load a negative image alongside it and wondered if I should have, although this seems to work on it's own?

As for my other photo's I have made seemless tiles of the bark and grass pictures I took and they too seem to work although they all appear to be a little 'stretched' or not fine enough detail as materials at the moment. I know I need to spend more time tweeking and adjusting and will do that a little later.

I REALLY appreciate all the hints and tips you have given me - with a little more practice I can see my photo's becoming a feature of my Vue from now on!

Many Many thanks to everyone! x

You won't need the other bit for images like this. That alpha channel is used to make parts of it transparent, which is not what you want to do with a background image.

As for bark textures and the like, adjust the scaling of the image in Material Editor to make it 'tile' properly, and to reduce the stretching. Lots of options there to play with to get what you want. Square images work best to prevent stretching problems.

...Insert some witty or thought provoking comment here...