Bitmaps are a simple but versatile way to add visual detail to scenes. When a bitmap is used to provide an object’s color, it is also known as a texture map. In this lesson and the ones that follow, you apply bitmaps to various parts of the scene (the deck, the terrain, the vase, the bottom of the swimming pool, and the arbor trellis on the upper porch of the house) to achieve realistic effects. Different kinds of geometry require different techniques of mapping, as these lessons will show.

Set up the lesson:

• Continue from the previous lesson, or open med_villa_mat_mapped.max.

Create the wooden deck material and apply it:

1. In the Camera-Hi-Point viewport, click to select the Wood-Deck object.

   The Wood-Deck overlies the Terrace object, so you might have to move the mouse around till you see the name Wood-Deck in a tooltip. Don’t select the Terrace at this point. If you have trouble finding Wood-Deck with the mouse, press H and select Wood-Deck in the Select From Scene dialog.

2. In the Slate Material Editor, drag another Arch & Design material from the Browser to the active View. Double-click the new node so you can see its parameters, and name this material Wood - Deck.
3. On the Templates rollout, open the drop-down list of templates, and choose Glossy Finish.

   The default Glossy Finish is a bit too glossy, so you will tone it down.

4. In the Main Material Parameters rollout Reflection group, change the value of Reflectivity to 0.3 and the value of Glossiness to 0.7.

   

5. Drag a Bitmap from the Browser into the active View. (The Material/Map Browser is the panel at the left of the Slate Material Editor, and you can find Bitmap in the Maps Standard group.)

   3ds Max Design opens a file dialog.

6. In the file dialog, browse to the \sceneassets\images folder. Choose the file cedfence.jpg, and then click Open.

   

   Cedar texture for the wooden deck

7. Wire the new Bitmap node to the Diffuse Color Map component of the Wood - Deck material node.
8. Click (Assign Material To Selection).

   In the shaded viewports, the Wood-Deck object turns brown.

9. Make sure the Wood - Deck node is active, then click (Show Standard Map In Viewport) to turn it on.

   

   Now the Wood-Deck object shows a pattern in the shaded viewports. However, the pattern is rather scrambled and is not quite the effect we’re looking for. To improve the appearance of the wooden deck, you’ll adjust how the material is mapped.

10. Double-click the new Bitmap node so you can see its parameters. On the Coordinates rollout, make sure Use Real-World Scale is turned on, then change the value of Width Size to 3.0m (meters) and the value of Height Size to 2.0m (meters).

    

    Now the cedar flooring is scaled to the scene correctly.

    

    This completes the wooden portion of the terrace.

11. In the Slate Material Editor, turn on (Move Children), line the Wood - Deck nodes up with the other materials you’ve already created, then minimize the material node.

Create the tiled terrace material:

For the tiled portion of the terrace, you also use a texture map, this time in conjunction with a bump map.

1. Drag a new Arch & Design material from the Browser to the active View. Double-click the new material node so you can see its parameters, and name this material Terrace.
2. On the Templates rollout, open the drop-down list of templates, and choose Glossy Finish.

   Once again, the default Glossy Finish is a bit too glossy, so you will tone it down.

3. In the Main Material Parameters rollout Reflection group, change the value of Reflectivity to 0.3 and the value of Glossiness to 0.5.

   

4. Drag a Bitmap from the Browser into the active View.

   3ds Max Design opens a file dialog.

5. In the file dialog, browse to the \sceneassets\images folder. Choose the file tile-cast.jpg, and then click Open.

   

   Left: Pattern bitmap for the deck tiles

   Right: Bump map for the deck tiles (see below)

   For the tiling on the terrace, you will use both a texture map, tile-cast.jpg, and later add a bump map, tile-cast-bump.jpg. But the first thing to do is to apply the material and adjust its mapping.

6. Wire the new Bitmap node to the Diffuse Color component of the Terrace material node.
7. Move the Slate Material Editor window so you can see the Terrace object in the shaded viewports, then drag from the output socket of the Terrace material node, and drop the material on the Terrace object.
8. On the Slate Material Editor toolbar, click (Show Standard Map In Viewport) to turn it on.

   In the shaded viewports, the terrace turns gray, but it doesn’t display the tile map the way the deck displayed the wood grain. This is an indication that there is another step you must take.

   The Wood-Deck object is a Box object. Like other boxes and all other standard primitives, it already has default mapping coordinates. The Terrace object, on the other hand, is an editable mesh. Editable surfaces such as mesh, patch, and poly do not have default mapping coordinates, so you must add a modifier that supplies these coordinates. This is the subject of the next procedure.

Set up mapping for the tiles:

1. Select the Terrace object, then go to the Modify panel.
2. Open the Modifier List, and choose UVW Map.
   TipWhile the Modifier List is open, you can press the U key until UVW Map is chosen.

   The Modify Panel now displays controls for the UVW Map modifier. Also, a version of the tile texture map is now visible in shaded viewports.

3. In the Modify panel Parameters rollout Mapping group, make sure Real-World Map Size is turned on.
4. In the Slate Material Editor, double-click the Bitmap node so you can see its parameters. On the Coordinates rollout, make sure Use Real-World Scale is turned on.

   Real-World Map Size in the map coordinate settings and Use Real-World Scale in the UVW Map modifier settings should either both be on or both be off at the same time.

   The viewports now show tiling on the terrace, but the pattern is muddled. This is because you need to set the size of the tiles.

5. As you did for the cedar deck, change the value of Width Size to 3.0m and the value of Height Size to 2.0m.

   

   Now the tiling pattern on the terrace is nicely matched to the rest of the scene.

   

   There is one small problem, however: The edges of the tiles don’t match the edge of the swimming pool. You can fix this by adjusting the tiling offset.

6. On Coordinates rollout, set Width Offset to –0.2m, and Height Offset to 0.2m.

   

   Now the tiles are aligned with the pool.

   

Add bump mapping to the terrace tiles:

1. Drag from the Bump Map socket of the Terrace material node, and release the mouse. From the pop-up menu, choose Standard Bitmap.

   3ds Max Design opens a file dialog.

2. In the file dialog, browse to the \sceneassets\images folder. Choose the file tile-cast-bump.jpg and click Open.
   NoteAs in this case (see the illustration above), an effective bump map is often simply a black-and-white version of the texture map.

   The UVW Map modifier belongs to the object: It affects both the texture map and this new bump map equally. However, you must also make sure that the bump map’s own mapping coordinates are the same as the texture map’s: Otherwise, the bump effect will be “out of phase” with the texture, and won’t appear correctly.

3. Double-click the new Bitmap node so you can see its parameters.
4. On the Coordinates rollout, make sure that the bump map settings are the same as the texture map settings:
   • Use Real-World Scale turned on
   • Width Offset = –0.2m
   • Height Offset = 0.2m
   • Width Size = 3.0m
   • Height Size = 2.0m

   The bump effect is subtle, and it doesn’t appear in viewports, so to see it, use a preview.

5. Right-click the Terrace material node, and choose Open Preview Window.

   3ds Max Design opens a preview of the material.

6. Drag a corner of the preview window to make it larger.

   

7. Close the preview window.
8. Activate the Camera-Terrace viewport, then render the scene.

   

9. In the Slate Material Editor, line the Terrace nodes up with the other materials you’ve already created, then minimize the material node.

Save your work:

• Save the scene as my_villa_deck.max.