[] Persistence Of Textures : Tutorial

 
  1. Create a new texture
  2. Look at the attributes of the texture
  3. Modify the pigment
  4. Modify the normals
  5. Modify the finish
  6. Scale the texture
  7. Render a preview of the texture
  8. Exporting the texture to a POV-Ray scene
 

The Lava Texture

  1. Create a new texture :

    • Select 'New texture...' from the menu 'File' or use the shortcut 'Alt+N'.
    • A small window will appear,
    • Enter the name of the texture : CoolLavaTexture, and then click 'Ok'.

      Note: To be valid a texture name must contain only letters (A-Z,a-z), numbers (0-9) and underscores (_). Spaces or other extra-terrestrial characters are forbidden.

  2. Look at the attributes of the texture :

    • You can now see the texture in the Textures Tree on the left-hand side of the application.
    • Each texture is composed of a sub-tree of items. Clicking on these items changes the Attributes View displayed on the right. A texture is composed of a super-item, 3 section items and 3 transformation items :
      • CoolLavaTexture : the super-item, name of the current texture.
      • Pigment : defines the attributes used to modify the color or pattern of colors of the texture.
      • Normal : defines the attributes used to modify the surface of the texture (eg. add bumps).
      • Finish : defines the attributes used to modify the final appearence of the texture (eg. add highlights or reflection)
      • Rotate : defines the vector used to rotate all the textures attributes in 3-D.
      • Scale : defines the vector used to scale all the textures attributes in 3-D.
      • Translate : defines the vector used to translate all the textures attributes in 3-D.


      Note: There are also 3 transformation items under each section item to apply particular transformations only to the attributes of a given section. These transformations are added to the global transformations when rendering is done.

  3. Modify the pigment :

    • Select the 'Pigment' item in the Texture Tree.
    • The pigment view is now displayed on the right.
    • To obtain a good lava rendering we will choose a granite pattern : select the 'granite' menu item in the menu at the top of the view.
    • To edit the color map, click on the black rectangle above 'Turbulence'
    • The color map editor pops up.
     
    • To edit the color map, select a Color Cell (the smalls rectangles under the gradient) and change its color by playing with the sliders below.
    • For the lava pattern we need to enter the following values :
      • 1st cell : Red : 1.0, Green : 0.95, Blue : 0.0
      • 3rd cell : Red : 1.0, Green : 0.60, Blue : 0.0
      • 6th cell : Red : 1.0, Green : 0.35, Blue : 0.0
      • 11th cell : Red : 0.2, Green : 0.0, Blue : 0.0
      • 20th cell : Red : 0.0, Green : 0.0, Blue : 0.0
    • If you accidentally modified a cell you don't want to see appear in the color map, you can invalidate it by right-clicking on it.
    • Once you have finished, click on 'Ok' to close the editor.
    • The color map should now appears in the pigment view

  4. Modify the normals :

    • Select the 'Normal' item in the Texture Tree.
    • Let's add some perturbations to this flat surface.
    • Select the 'granite' menu item in the menu at the top of the view.
    • Move the slider 'Value' to 1.0.

  5. Modify the finish :

    • Select the 'Finish' item in the Texture Tree.
    • Add some highlights : Move the slider 'Specular' to 0.6.
    • Add more ambient light : Move the slider 'Ambient' to 0.3.
    • Keep the default values for the other attributes.

      Note: if you want to restore the default values used by POV, just click on the button 'Defaults'.

  6. Scale the texture :

    • We want the texture pattern to be a little bigger.
    • Select the 'Scale' item in the Texture Tree.
    • Enter the value 1.5 for each dimension.

  7. Render a preview of the texture :

    • Now it's time to see the result of your work. Select 'Render' from the menu 'Render' or use the shortcut 'Alt+R'.
    • After a short period of time, a picture of your texture will magically appear on the right-hand side of the window with the POV description below it,

      Note: In the menu 'Render' you can find many customizable settings which can modify the scene rendered with your texture.

  8. Exporting the texture to a POV-Ray scene :

    • If you want to use the generated texture in a real POV-Ray scene, it's quite easy : select the textual description of the texture and drag this selection to your favorite text editor or to the desktop.


B.Théry - 2002.