the best way to apply("write") 2D texts on flat surfaces??

Support Materials and Textures
1

Hi,

I’m trying to ‘write’ some 2D texts on the faces of my low poly model.
So far, the only way I came up with is to UV unwrap each faces and edit the text in Gimp…then export back in Blender. But as I have a lot to ‘write’ a lot of texts on a lot of faces, the process becomes very long, and also, as my Blender skill is very newbish, it’s difficult to UV unwrap in a way that my 2d texts aren’t distorted…

I was asking myself, since it’s just a simple 2D texts on flat faces, maybe there’s a way to do that in a easier way? some kind of hidden function or a script that allows me just write texts on face, just like apply simple color shader on the faces, all inside Blender?

If there’s such a way, can you please share?

And if there’s not, can somebody please direct me to a good tutorial/tips/resources where I can learn fast/effective UV unwrapping and applying texts kind of 2D graphics on the flat surfaces??

I’m using Blender version 2.63 with Cycles render.

Thank you!!

2

The only thing I can think of is making all the text in the layout you want with GIMP, and then treating that texture like a normal UV texture, and just make sure all the faces line up. I thought this video was very useful to teach me how to UV unwrap and apply “decals” to the models. Use it to get the idea of how to do whatever you need to do specifically. Also, on CG cookie, there is a good video on introduction to UV Unwrapping, and might be worth looking at to get the whole idea of UV wrapping in your head.

Applying Decals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3gJ2upgPk0

Intro To UV Unwrapping: http://cgcookie.com/blender/2011/01/21/intro_uvmapping/

3

so, there’s no magic!! :wink:
thanks for the links, I’ll check out tonight.
btw, I don’t really understand this line:

then treating that texture like a normal UV texture, and just make sure all the faces line up

did you mean that I just import text layouts and assign as UV maps in the material properties window? (instead of unwrap first and export them?) if that’s what you mean and if it works in that way, it’ll surely save a lot of time.

thanks.

4

you could try the warp function

but you an also add a displacement modifier to your text to make it 3D!

salutations

5

I meant, If you make your words and ‘textures’ in photoshop, and save it as a png or similar, you can treat that picture as a normal UV map. You’ll see in the tutorial on UV Mapping decals how he sets the faces he wants the picture to be on to the words and pictures in the texture. . Its quite hard to word correctly. I think what you said is what I mean :stuck_out_tongue: I hope this helps clear it up

6

yep!

I’ve checked out the tutorials and now it makes much more sense.
finally patience and practice are all that takes…:slight_smile:

thanks!

7

Glad I could help :slight_smile: Im also just getting into it, and thanks to the great community here, I’ve been directed to some great tutorials. Only fair for me to share my knowledge!