I have been using AM for just over a year. I still get things confused when people talk about the different ways to make the models come to life.

What is the difference in a displacement map, decal, texture, material, bump map?





Steve

Displacement map: Usually a greyscale image which is used to displace the surface of the model. Black=indented, 50% grey= neutral, white= raised. Everything inbetween represents a small step.

Bump Map: Just like a displacement map but much more subtle and doesn't actually displace the surface of the geometry.

Decal: An image, (TGA, jpg, bmp, mov, ???), which is stamped onto the patches of your model.

Material: A procedural method of generating surface textures and/or geometry. (Fur, blobbies, streaks, waves, colour patterns, textures)

Something like that

Thanks Paul

Straight to point. Thank you. The only thing I have been doing is decaling the surface of the model. So texture map, displacement or bump is applied in the same way?

Steve

Hi, Steve.

Decals can be used for applying the following types of maps:
Color, Transparency, Bump, Specular Size, Specular Intensity, Diffuse, Reflectivity, Ambiance Intensity, Cookie-Cut, Displacement, Fractal, Next Map Factor (don't know what that is), Normal and Other. 'Other' covers things like driving hair colour, length and direction. Most decals are instantly visible, if decals are turned on, but it does depend on the type. Bumps for instance are only visible when rendered.

Decals can be stamped repeatedly on your geometry and then tweaked afterwards by double clicking the stamp and moving CPs around. Look for William Sutton's tutorial for more in-depth information on mapping with decals.

If you expand an image in a decal you will see a 'Type' field, which is set to 'color' by default. Click on 'colour' to show the other options.
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Procedural materials are dropped onto models or groups, rather than stamped, and are not visible until rendered. They can produce some stunning results but are an art in themselves which requires mixing various variables to get the effect that you desired. They are slower to render than decals and can produce undesireable scintillation in moving shots. They are great for generating texures which can then be screencaptured or rendered and used as the starting point for a decal.
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I'm enjoying watching your dalmation come to life!
You should try doing a Google search on 'Muybridge' or 'Animals in Motion' for references. Muybridge spent many years during the mid to late 1800s photographing animals and people in motion and his work has provided a useful reference for animators ever since. His books are still available today.

Here is a link that I found quite quickly. Not exactly dalmation references but still useful:
Assorted animal locomotion #1

I searched for more dog references but it seems that many of the sites that provided access to Muybridge's work in the past now just point you to books or posters that you can purchase.

Thanks Paul

I have been around graphics programs one way or another for about 10 years and I still have trouble keeping it all clear. Thanks for all the help and I am going to order Will's tutorial disks.

The dalmatian came to life with the big help of David Simmons. He has helped me a great deal lately and I hate to say I have taken a great deal of his time in order to get my projects completed. He has helped me rig the models.

The dalmatian has been fun and I am working on the poses so I hope you guys don't get tired of the dog of the next few weeks.

Steve