Hello,
I am trying to create a wall with holes for windows. I know I can simply Boolean a couple of holes for windows, but for some reason, adding a Boolean modifier messes with my subdivision surface modifier (I’ve got a displacement map on the wall to create these beams):
If you look carefully, you can see a couple of black windowsills where the windows are. I was wondering if there’s a simple way to (in Blender) knock a couple of holes in my texture’s alpha. The way I assumed I might be able to do it is this:
Create a simple white filled rectangle to act as the main alpha channel
Create a couple of black filled rectangles to act as the holes in the alpha
Add some kind of UV map/control so I can easily position these black rectangles
Combine these to create the desired result
My current node setup is this - the UV Map and Image Texture nodes obviously need some work to tell Blender what to do with them - I’ve just thrown them in and realised I have no idea what to do next!
In the meantime, I will probably just create an alpha in Photoshop, with some back-and-forth to finesse the position of the black holes in my alpha, but it’d be much neater to create the alpha all within Blender. Is this possible?
Oooh - one final quick question - is there a simple way to force Blender to reload an image texture?
Why not add some loop cuts and simply delete the faces where the windows will go?
Regarding the reloading:
Change the color space on the node, doesn’t even need to be another one, you just need to interact with the node. I think I’ve seen an addon that adds a one click solution to reload images, but I’m not sure when and where.
Thanks @WK042 . Yes indeed - I could just add some loop cuts and chop out a hole. My question was more out of curiosity - is it possible to manipulate multiple textures (presumably each with its own UV map) on an object? I know I can create multiple UV maps, and switch between each one by clicking the camera-render icon, but is it possible to have multiple textures on one model, each with its own UV controls, active at the same time? I assume this is possible using the Texture Coordinate and UV Map nodes, but I’m not sure how I’d go about this.
I think it will be easier with bool tool.
I was trying to recreate something similar to match your setup (blender 4.0).
Bool tools works fine with subdivided object in both cycles and displace as modifier:
I’m on Blender 4.0.2. I find I get better Subdivision results if I set Cycles’ Feature Set to Experimental and use the Adaptive Subdivision/Dicing Scale options on the Subdivision; these options vanish if I add Booleans to the modifier stack - hence me avoiding Booleans. I already have Booleans there to chop holes in the outer leaf of the walls and I’d previously used those for the inner leaf (the wall with the beams etc) too, but as I mentioned, these Booleans didn’t seem to play nicely with the Adaptive Subdivision.
I see you’ve added a Displace modifier in one of your screenshots - I’ve only ever used a Displacement node; what would be the advantages of using a Displace modifier as opposed to a Displacement node?
Displacement modifier works with evee, you can affect only vertex groups, displacement node woks only with cycles and as a part of material can be easly assigned to other objects. Using both gives you additional displace possibilities.
Sure, there is a UV map node in which you can specifiy which UV map you want to use as an input provided you set up mulitple UV maps for the model. Working with 2 or more UV maps is a super common practice, at least for game models.
Yes, I discovered that. But if it’s the last in the stack, it weirdly subdivides my Booleaned holes, rounding their corners and stuff. So I really need to do the subdivision first, then the booleans last. Unless I’m doing something wrong? (I’m very new to this Blender world!)
I’ve gone with the make-the-alpha-map-in-Photoshop option:
