Question about textureing and lights

Support Materials and Textures
#1

Hello, i figured it would make more sense to post 1 thread with all of my current questions, rather than post multiple threads each with a different one. The questions are as follows:

Texturing

  1. Is there a way to position a texture over another texture or material?
    -For example, if you have a human mesh and want to add a tattoo. Or a metal container (using an allow material) and want to add a warning label on it.
  2. Is there a way to preserve alpha from a photo document?
    -For example, the tattoo, if it is not completely solid and has a cutout in the middle, or a celling texture, with cutouts for lights.
  3. Can a texture be an animated file?
    -For example, a computer screen, or a computer console that would require interaction updates over time. If not, then what would be the best way to do that?

Lighting

  1. If i wanted to light a computer screen, or a console, what would be the best way to do that?
  2. I tried playing around with texture settings, and lamps, and have not had any luck on this one. I am trying to model a warp core to be used in an animation. It requires a transparent object with around a 75% diffuse with a light inside that would produce a glow effect, as well as light up the object. This would be done using animation, but the point is it needs to look on and off. Attached is a picture that shows what I am trying to produce.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Attachments


#2

Texturing:

  1. This is called decalling. Here is a video tutorial for it:
    http://www.blendernewbies.com/tutorials/swf/decaling_basics/decaling_basics.html
  2. In Shading Context>Texture Subcontext>Map Image Panel, there is a button to labeled Use Alpha.
  3. Yes. Choose Image as the texture type and load a video (or a sequence of image by right clicking each that you want in the File Browser).
    Lighting:
  4. You could use a texture for on a light, corresponding with a texture you put on the screen. Or you can use an Emit value (in the Shaders Panel) on the screen object (make sure you set the texture to affect the Emit in the Map To panel).
  5. This one is tricky. You could use the compositor or maybe Halos.
#3

thanks for the reply, though could you clarify a few things

would that work for any images, or a specific file format? for example, i would most likely generate the texture in Photo Shop with alpha. how would i proceed from there?

could you be a little more specific, how would halos work? keep in mind, it must produce light, and not just illumination. i will most likely have some scenes where the warp core is the only light in the room. as for compositor, i have no idea what that is, so if you could point me to a link that talks about it and it’s functions, please do so. Once again, thanks for the reply.

#4

would that work for any images, or a specific file format? for example, i would most likely generate the texture in Photo Shop with alpha. how would i proceed from there?
Any format that Blender can read that supports alpha (.png .tga)

could you be a little more specific, how would halos work? keep in mind, it must produce light, and not just illumination. i will most likely have some scenes where the warp core is the only light in the room. as for compositor, i have no idea what that is, so if you could point me to a link that talks about it and it’s functions, please do so.

Halos on spots:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Volumetric_Halos
Halos on objects or particles:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Halos
The compositor is built in to blender and you could use it add a glow affect.
General link: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Compositing
continue to the pages after that one.

#5

there’s also a glow plug-in to the VSE inside Blender.

#6

For the glow, you could turn on radiosity and animate the emit level of different materials assigned to glowy bits in an IPO.

For something like that, I would probably see if I could do something like a neon tube inside of a fuzzy translucent glass thing, which is I think how they did some of the ST warp cores more or less.

#7

that’s basically what I’m trying to do, however i don’t think that halos or a glow added after will work. Since it not only needs to look like it is lighting up, it also has to light up the room, so if i had a short clip of it in engineering, i would have the lights off, and the ominous glow would light up the room. How would i best simulate that in blender?