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2. Open the Material Editor (or press the M key), and double-click on the Standard material in the Material/Map Browser. Name the material NASA Logo. Click the Diffuse color swatch, and select a white color. Then double-click on the Bitmap map button in the Material/Map Browser. Locate the NASA image from the Chap 33 directory on the CD, and click Open, then connect the Bitmap node to the Diffuse channel of the Standard material. The bitmap image loads, double-click the new node to view the Bitmap parameters display in the rollouts. In the Coordinates rollout, enter a value of –90 in the W Angle field. The letters rotate vertically. Then, in the Bitmap Parameters rollout, select the Image Alpha option.

3. Select the lower white section of the rocket in the viewport, and open the Modify panel. At the top of the Modify panel, click the Modifier List and select the UVW Map modifier. Select the Cylindrical Mapping option, but don't select the Cap option in the Parameters rollout.

4. With the cylinder section selected, open the Material Editor again, select the logo material, and click the Assign Material to Selection button or drag from the material's output socket to the rocket cylinder. To see the applied logo, make sure the Views⇒Show Materials in Viewport As⇒Shaded Materials with Maps or the Realistic Materials with Maps menus are enabled.

Tip

When a bitmap is applied to an object using the UVW Map modifier, you can change the length, width, and tiling of the bitmap by using the UVW Map manipulator. If you enable the Select and Manipulate button on the main toolbar, the manipulator appears as green lines. When you move the mouse over the top of these green lines, they turn red, and you can drag them to alter the map dimensions. Use the small green circles at the edges of the map to change the tiling values. As you use the manipulator, the map is updated in real time within the viewports if you have enabled the Show Map in Viewport option in the Material Editor. •

Figure 33.2 shows the resulting rendered image.

FIGURE 33.2

You can use the UVW Map modifier to apply decals to objects.

UVW Mapping Add and Clear modifiers

The UVW Mapping Add and the UVW Mapping Clear modifiers are added to the Modifier Stack when you add or clear a channel using the Channel Info utility. More on this utility is covered in Chapter 34, “Creating Baked Textures and Normal Maps.”

UVW XForm modifier

The UVW XForm modifier enables you to adjust mapping coordinates. It can be applied to mapping coordinates that are automatically created or to mapping coordinates created with the UVW Map modifier. The parameter rollout includes values for the UVW Tile and UVW Offsets. You can also select the Map Channel to use.

Map Scaler modifier

The Map Scaler modifier is available as both an Object-Space modifier and a World-Space modifier. The World-Space version of this modifier maintains the size of all maps applied to an object if the object itself is resized. The Object-Space version ties the map to the object, so the map scales along with the object. The Wrap Texture option wraps the texture around the object by placing it end to end until the whole object is covered.

Camera Map modifier

The Camera Map modifier creates planar mapping coordinates based on the camera's position. It comes in two flavors—one applied using Object-Space and another applied using World-Space.

The single parameter for this modifier is Pick Camera. To use this modifier, click the Pick Camera button and select a camera. The mapping coordinates are applied to the selected object.

Using the Unwrap UVW Modifier

The Unwrap UVW modifier lets you control how a map is applied to a subobject selection. It also can be used to unwrap the existing mapping coordinates of an object. You then can edit these coordinates as needed. This is accomplished by applying a texture map to an object. By selecting each face of the object, you then use the UVW Editor to move and orient