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The Output Amount value controls how much of the map should be mixed when it is part of a composite material. You use the RGB Offset value to increase or decrease the map's tonal values. Use the RGB Level value to increase or decrease the saturation level of the map. The Bump Amount value is used only if the map is being used as a bump map—it determines the height of the bumps.

The Enable Color Map option enables the Color Map graph at the bottom of the Output rollout. This graph displays the tonal range of the map. Adjusting this graph affects the highlights, midtones, and shadows of the map. Figure 17.7 shows a Color Map graph.

FIGURE 17.7

The Color Map graph enables you to adjust the highlights, midtones, and shadows of a map.

The left end of the graph equates to the shadows, and the right end is for the highlights. The RGB and Mono options let you display the graphs as independent red, green, and blue curves or as a single monocolor curve. The Copy CurvePoints option copies any existing points from Mono mode over to RGB mode, and vice versa. The buttons across the top of the graph are used to manage the graph points.

The buttons above the graph include Move (with flyout buttons for Move Horizontally and Move Vertically), Scale Point, Add Point (with a flyout button for adding a point with handles), Delete Point, and Reset Curves. Along the bottom of the graph are buttons for managing the graph view. The two fields at the bottom left contain the horizontal and vertical values for the current selected point. The other buttons are to Pan and Zoom the graph.

Bitmap map

Selecting the Bitmap map from the Material/Map Browser opens the Select Bitmap Image File dialog box, shown in Figure 17.8, where you can locate an image file. Various image and animation formats are supported, including AVI, MPEG, BMP, CIN, CWS, DDF, EXR, GIF, HDRI, IFL, IPP, FLC, JPEG, MOV, PNG, PSD, RGB, RLA, RPF, TGA, TIF, and YUV.

Note

Video sequences saved in the AVI, MPEG, and MOV formats can be loaded as a map. •

FIGURE 17.8

The Select Bitmap Image File dialog box lets you preview images before opening them.

The name of the current bitmap file is displayed on the button in the Bitmap Parameters rollout, shown in Figure 17.9. If you need to change the bitmap file, click the Bitmap button and select the new file. Use the Reload button to update the bitmap if you've made changes to the bitmap image by an external program.

FIGURE 17.9

The Bitmap Parameters rollout offers several settings for controlling a bitmap map.

The Bitmap Parameters rollout includes three Filtering options: Pyramidal, Summed Area, and None. These methods perform a pixel-averaging operation to anti-alias the image. The Summed Area option requires more memory but produces better results.

You can also specify the output for a mono channel or for an RGB channel. For maps that use only the monochrome information in the image (such as an opacity map), the Mono Channel as RGB Intensity or Alpha option can be used. For maps that use color information (for example, a diffuse map), the RGB Channel can be RGB (full color) or Alpha as Gray.

The Cropping/Placement controls enable you to crop or place the image. Cropping is the process of cutting out a portion of the image, and placing is resizing the image while maintaining the entire image and positioning it. The View Image button opens the image in a Cropping/Placement dialog box, shown in Figure 17.10. The rectangle is available within the image when Crop mode is selected. You can move the handles of this rectangle to specify the crop region.

FIGURE 17.10

Viewing an image in the Cropping/Placement dialog box enables you to set the crop marks.

Note

When the Crop option is selected, a UV button is displayed in the upper right of the Cropping/Placement dialog box. Clicking this button changes the U and V values to X and Y pixels. •

You can also adjust the U and V parameters, which define the upper-left corner of