How do I make image planes in Blender?

I know you can add a background image in Blender but how do I add multiple planes? In Maya, you can assign image planes to different views. I’ve tried to map file textures onto poly planes as I prefer this to image planes because I could manipulate them easier than image planes.

(I need more than one plane at once because I have done some head modelling and I use at least 2 profile images.)

However, when I mapped an image texture onto a plane in Blender, it didn’t show until I rendered the image. Is there a way to show image textures in the real-time 3d view? Procedural textures seem to preview ok but I can’t get image based ones to show.

You can make your textures visible without rendering – check out Texface and texturemode (potato mode) in the docs section at blender.og

Also each view can have it’s own background picture. To create more views place the cursor in the view you wish to split, move to the border and press the right mouse button. A menu appears to split the view. Then from the view menu you can set the background picture for each view independently as in Maya.

Hope this helps
GreyBeard

I tried the potato mode and my planes just look white. The face mode is just for selecting faces and assigning images, which I’ve already done. I read in the docs that textures are only visible in real-time 3d if they are multiples of 64 in size (though I think it said that Blender could handle any size) so I tried resizing the textures but still I just get white images.

if you want to put an image on a plane for a background image, just load it in textures as normally, and set the material to shadeless. if you want multiple materials on the same object, use material indices. if you need to know how to use them check the docs or do a forum search.

TexFace may also work (if you UV mapped it)

Ah, I see what you mean now by the Facemode, thanks guys. I think it’s called UV face select mode too. I just go into this mode and assign an image. I was having trouble getting the renderer to reflect the changes I made in the UV editor too, but that was because I had the input mapped to orco instead of UV.

Now, when I rotate the plane in the 3d view, it isn’t visible from the back despite the plane being double-sided. Is it possible to show the reverse image on the other side or perhaps map the back with another image? I don’t have to have it showing anything but I’d like to know it’s there at least.

Also, is it possible to get the plane to resize to the mapped image aspect ratio automatically? I mean, I could open the image in an image viewer to get the ratio and scale my plane manually but it would be better if I could automatically do it.

You can also have a different background picture (and size them) in each 3D pane you create. There are several tutorials out there which use this method. I think if you search for ones building a car you’ll soon find at least oneo f them.