Texture/Material problem

[fredrick-fasse]

Hey there,
I was hoping someone can help me with my problem before I rip all my hair out

I've modelled a sub-d character and would like to texture it mainly with materials except for a couple buttons for the pants.

I can select the polygons and add a few materials to them over and over again. Coloring the skin black, the pants red, the gloves white etc...

But when I go to add the button texture, It always ends up being underneath the materials. I learned that the hard way testing out my texture on a primitive sphere.

Is there a specific way I should be adding the texture? am I missing a node or using the wrong projection?

I'm very new to XSI texturing/materials so any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[atyss]

Bonjour Fredrick,

There are certain things that you can check:

• When you apply the button textures, do you add them by doing Render > Modify > Texture > Add > Image?
  This should place the texture above the others.

• If you add them through the Render Tree, how do you connect them together?
  You should use a mix2color/mix8colors node. You can also use the diffuse_blend/ambient_blend (they act as mix8color node).

• After you add the texture, do you define the right projection?
  In the texture ppg, in the Texture tab, at the bottom you have Texture Projection. If you click on the drop down menu you can choose a projection that you already use for another texture.

Hope this helps
Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

[fredrick-fasse]

I don't seem to be getting the buttons to show up yet

Here's what I've been doing so far.

If it helps you visualize what I'm trying to do, I'm making a Mickey Mouse character. Because he's a cartoon character, I want him to have a somewhat flat look. So what I did was "Get/Material/Lambert" while I had the polygons selected via raycasting. I would do that for the hands, body, head, feet, legs etc... Each time I would add a material, I would do the same thing, "Get/Material/Lambert."

I did not add a texture map or projection while adding the materials to him.

I did try what you mentioned, doing a render/modify/texture/add image yet I was unable to get anything to show up in the renderview.
I didn't add the mix2color node because the diffuse_blend/ambient_blend was in place allready.
For texture projection, I was using UV spherical xy and I even scaled it down and translated it to the area I was going for.

I'm a powerhouse when it comes to Softimage but the texturing differences between the 2 are out of this world

I'd really REALLY appreciate it if you could help me walk through this.

If you find it easier, I'm available as well on Microsoft messenger at ffasse@hotmail.com or ICQ at 5682277

Thanks for your help so far. It's been only 1 week for me with XSI

[nohairmonk]

As far as what I understood, you have one single polygon mesh, and then created several clusters on this mesh, in order to texture those clusters separately, right?

[fredrick-fasse]

Correct, the body/head/hip/arms are one polygon mesh.

I did not create several clusters however XSI might have automatically when I selected the polygons and assigned them a material.

Could this be my problem?

[atyss]

If you're in component mode and you have polygons selected and apply a material, XSI automatically create a cluster.

Have you tried to create polygons only for the button and apply the material/textures to these polygons?

Bernard

[fredrick-fasse]

I did try an old approach to this. I tried creating a button out of a sphere and then constraining it to a cluster.

I got it to constrain fine however the orientation did not work as I had expected. There's an option in the cluster constrain properties that allowed me to adjust it's rotation however it would not stay constrained in the position I was hoping for.

I may have to "fudge" it for now unless anyone else has any option for me to play with. At the moment I just parented the buttons to one of the spine bones. It's not working that great, however I am left with no choice as I have a deadline I need to make. ( Someone wants to see my tape)

Thanks for all of your help thus far. I know will eventually solve this!

Fred