Need Help On Materials For Text

[spyralcyphn]

im a newbie and i wanted to use maya to do some 3d text i have some experience with swift and right now im kind of stuck... how do i apply a material to text? i downloaded some shader but i dont know how to use them... please some show the right direction to go.. ive looked for tutorials but it seems 3d text isnt that popular...thanks in advance

[naughty]

it depends on what you mean by "3D text". 3D Text is really no different to any other constructed object in maya..
Maya has curves and surfaces. Curves are just a wire-frame outline used for construction and have no material or renderable presence. To apply a material to something it has to be a surface (either polygons, NURBS or subDivs). I'm guessing you're having noob trouble because the text you have is only curves. You need to either create some surfaces out of those curves or (probably easier) simply re-create the text in Maya but in the text options make sure you tell Maya to output as a surface (trim or polygons)

once you have a surface object (and you're viewing it "shaded" - press 5 or 6 in the viewport), you simply RMB-Click on it in a viewport and from the pop-up menu select "Apply New Material > lambert" (or whatever type of material you want to assign) how to create materials though is another topic entirely...

hope this is some help.

:nathaN

[fortner_mike]

Maya has a tool, which will convert text that you simply type in into 3d object. Thats Create-> text (for older mayas(7,6))

To asign new shader you can simply open rendering shelf where you will find a list of basic shaders. Select you object and click on a shader..thats it.

If you want to assign already made shader, you can open hypershade, select your object, and then right click on your shader and 'assign shader to selection', or you can right click on an object and you wil find materials tab near the botom.

[spyralcyphn]

I tried that stuff but i still cant get it... im using maya 8 and im using the bevel mode for the text.... i can pull up the materials window but when i have the text selected and click on the materials they dont apply....i can apply furs and hair but i can put the mental ray car paint shader... i have been messing around figuring out new things but im still stuck on the applying materials/shaders thing... if someone could guide me on this it would be much appreciated...thanks

[crimsongeneses]

As everyone here knows, I'm a total noob so I'm just throwing out the noob's thoughts but... did you press "6" to change your display mode to show materials? I know that's been suggested but if you apply materials and they don't show up it's usually just because you're in the wrong viewing mode. And also, did you try rendering it to see if the materials showed up anyways?

[spyralcyphn]

yes i have rendered the text to see if the materials have been applied... like i said i can appy fur but i cant apply other materials... i can change the color of the text but i cant apply a preset shader ... i downloaded a chrome shader from this site and i want to apply it to the text...

[fortner_mike]

what exactly makes you think you have not applied the material to that object?

[spyralcyphn]

well when i render i dont see anything applied jus looks like the default gray shader ....

here is my file http://dnamedialab.com/text.zip

please get me past this step so i can move on to bigger and better things...any help is much appreciated...
thanx

[gmask]

I downloaded your file and had no problem assigning different shaders to it and rendering it.

I don't see what the problem is.. how much ram does your computer have?

QUOTE(spyralcyphn @ 02/12/07, 10:26 AM) [snapback]259654[/snapback]
well when i render i dont see anything applied jus looks like the default gray shader ....

here is my file http://dnamedialab.com/text.zip

please get me past this step so i can move on to bigger and better things...any help is much appreciated...
thanx

[spyralcyphn]

1gb ddr ram....
well i have to be doing something wrong then...can u tell me a step by step way of applting shaders??? also was that mettalic car paint shader applied when u opened it?....

maybe if u can send the file with a material or shader applied i can examine it to and see what im doing wrong cuz im pretty sure its me messing things up here...

i tried searching for tutorials but i still have no luck...

[gmask]

No the mettalllic shader was not applied but Ihad no problem assigning it.

One of the things that annoys me about the hypershader (especially since I have been using the multilister for ten years) is that when you click on a shader it's deselects anything you had selected in the viewport.

So when you click to assign a shader in the hypershade you have to click and then choose assign shader otheriwse if you click and let go you'll just select the shader .. which is what I'm guessing you are doing.

If nothing else.. open the multilister and assign the shader through it.

[spyralcyphn]

hey thanks it worked.. it was the right click thing..... now all i have to do is find out how to get a crisp render...are there any particular setting i should be using?

[gmask]

What do you mean by crisp?

I guess you could turn off the filter in the render settings.