Texturesharing problems

[sonne]

I'm doing a keyboard and I want to bumpmap it with a 3d texture that all the keys share AND a (not shared) 2dtexture with the letters, numbers etc. on TOP of the 3dtexture, mapped seperately on every key. This would be a piece of cake in SI, but I can't figure out how to do it in XSI.

Pleeease help!! This is very, very urgent.

Peter

[wolfinger]

What exactly is your problem?

There shouldn't be any problems creating something like this, but it's a lot of work to texture each key separately. What did you mean with a 3D texture though? You would probably use normal bitmaps for everything...

Are the keys separate objects?

It so, then what you would do is first create a texture support that's common for all the keys, and connect all the keys to that support. Then create the basic material and copy it to all keys. Then create a new texture support separately for all the keys, and then edit the materials so that you composite the text on top of the base material.

Now what I would rather do is put all the text (letters, numbers etc.) in one file, and with the texture in another file you can texture all keys with the same material, and if you're lucky then with just one texture support. Much simpler, much faster. I wonder if that's what you meant?

[sonne]

Well, first of all the keys are seperate objects, and second, the reason why I want them to share the 3d texture (procedural) bumpmap, is that I want to be able to adjust it simultaneously on everything in order to get the right look.
Third, I want to use a 3d texture because it won't give me any mapping problems (stretching).
I want as few controls as possible.

Thanx,
Peter

[wolfinger]

can't you put all the key labels (the text) in one bitmap?

That way you would only need one material that would be shared for all keys.

Another way to do it is give all the keys a common material, and put all 105 individual key textures in that material, and just place them so that each key texture only maps one key. You'll need a separate texture support for each key, and each keys should have all the texture supports, and they should be named the same so there's no "conflicts".

I'd really recommend putting all the keys in one texture, much simpler.