Image Maps Proportions

[nyquist]

How do you preserve the height and width ratio of an image map so it does not stretch to fit?

Regards,
John

[David_Mac]

Not sure exactly what you mean by this question, John- maybe a little more info needed.

If you're exporting an image map & experiencing distortions as you import/export to/from your texture building program (ie- photoshop, gimp etc), make sure that the dimensions you're exporting are set to the power of 2 (ie- 1024*1024, 480*480 , 768*768 etc). From what I understand this is an essential step whenever creating & using a texture image.

If you're referring to distortions created by the lscm unwrap process, I might humbly suggest pinning and re-unwrapping and, if you're still left with a godawful uv map, maybe clearing the seams from your model & trying again.

If all else fails you could manually realign your uvmap to suit your needs... Have had to do this once or twice. Only really useful if you're working with a simple mesh.

*Tell me if I'm getting warm*

[nyquist]

I think my question is simpler than you think

For example, take a 640x480 image and put it on a square plane. It is squished horizontally to fit the space. I'd like it to retain the same relationship so either there is extra space on the top and bottom or space on the sides is cropped. Do I need to go to UV Mapping to achieve this?

[David_Mac]

As I'd go about it... yes. There might be feasible alternatives (and anyone is welcome to chime in if there are), but from what I understand uv mapping is the best way to obtain direct image/texture quality control.

If you're trying to apply a rectangular image to a square plane, I think you're in for some trouble. Some work-arounds might include:
i) resizing plane to suit image.
ii) cropping/resizing image in a suitable external program.

I don't doubt you've already tried these, but posting them up anyhow. :P

[nyquist]

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll look into UV Mapping.

Regards,
John

[David_Mac]

Had a little time to think about your question, John, and a little time to look around.

If UV mapping is proving a little too much work, you might try some other techniques. Blender Art Magazine 1 has a great tutorial on building a robot and, more significantly, applying multiple textures/materials. You can download it via Blender.org.

In the example of mapping a square image to a rectangular plane, you could try:

i) Subdividing or cutting your plane so that you have a central face that corresponds to the proportions of your image.
ii) Applying your TexFace material (your image) to this central face alone (effectively leaving the others blank).

I'd personally prefer the UV method (I'm a fan of photoshop), but I imagine that others might prefer this 'multiple material' method.

Good luck & hope I've been some help.

David

[Fligh]

In the MapTo tab you can use SizeXYZ and OffSetXYZ if your Texture is set to Repeat in the Image tab in F6.

%<

[Kathman]

Put an Empty on top of your object. Select your object adn go to Map Input (material buttons). Press Object and type in Empty at the right. I believe that this way your images keeps its apsect ratio. You can use the Empty to scale/move the texture over your object.

Hope it helps,
Twan

EDIT
In the Texture buttons set your texture to Clip

[nyquist]

I found a combination of your suggestions works best.

Mapping to and empty does not preserve the aspect ratio.

If you just use the size x and y then it is possible to get the right aspect ratio but makes it difficult when you want to size the image and the object.

What I did was set the size x and y and then mapped to an empty. At that point it was easy to scale the empty until I had the size I wanted.

NOTE: My image was 640w x 480h. In setting size x and y, I initially set size x to .64 and y to .48. What is needed is setting the y to .64 and the x to .48.

Thanks to all for your help!

John