How to Texture a Large Area?

# 1 26-01-2010 , 06:57 AM

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Join Date: Jan 2010

Posts: 3

I have a plane which I tweaked to look like terrain and I want to texture it, but it is large, like about 500 maya units square. The biggest texture file can only be 4096 pixels square. When I planar project it, the terrain is huge (blades of grass the size of mountains).

I figure my choices are:
1. Tile it (but then you get seams and repeating structures in the texture.
2. Make many texture files and map each one to a small area on the plane.
3. Reduce the size of the terrain so the projected texture is also smaller (but then I have to reduce the sizes of the other models in the scene, smaller than 0.1 maya units).

Are there any other choices? Which one is easiest? (I'm just a beginner).

Thanks! Rick

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# 2 26-01-2010 , 11:28 AM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

Hi
What you want is a seamless texture, you could make one in photoshop or google there are a lot out there......dave

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# 3 26-01-2010 , 05:59 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

You mean a tileable texture? That would get rid of the seams, but you'd still have repeats. A good combination might be to get a tileable texture, break up your terrain into sections, and assign a different copy of your texture to it.
Then in photoshop or something, add some variation to the interior of each copy, while retaining the edges so there aren't any seams. Then you're rid of the repetition. Just an idea.

-stwert

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# 4 27-01-2010 , 02:54 AM

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Join Date: Jan 2010

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Hi Guys,
Yes, I've seen tutorials on the seamless texture, not too difficult, but yes, I think there would still be repeats. I like stwert's idea of getting rid of the repeats - a bit of both techniques. Maybe there's a texture I can buy somewhere. I've seen a lot of free downloads, but the files are usually small (2048 pixels or less).
Thanks for the suggestions!

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# 5 27-01-2010 , 02:57 AM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

cgtextures.com is a good place. With a free account, I think you can get some decent texture sizes.

-stwert

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-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

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# 6 27-01-2010 , 03:05 AM

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Join Date: Jan 2010

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Yes, that's where I've been getting my textures! But even with a Premium account, they usually don't go above 4096. The sets are nice, but there aren't a lot of them.

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