Shape of textures?

Hi all, did a quick search and didn't see anything - so I'm gunna ask this really n00b question::

If I make a generic square texture, will it change the shape of it - or only use part, when I apply it to a triangular surface?

Both. Well, that is to say, either.

If you want the texture to remain square, meaning the triangle will only use part of it, use planar mapping.

If you want the texture to distort to match the shape of the triangle, use default mapping. Just be aware that the distortion is not going to happen the way you probably think it will. The distortion happens in accordance with how the actual polygons that make up the prim get bent and squished to form the triangle, which if you're new to 3D, can be a little confusing. It's entirely predictable once you get what's going on, but in the beginning you may be scratching your head for a bit.


Also, be aware that it depends on what type of triangle you're talking about. A tapered cube behaves differently from a prism. Play around with these things in-world and you'll see what I mean.

Yup. What Chosen said.

As a side note--if you want a texture to match up to an unusual shape, here is a quick technique to practice:

1. Zoom in on your shape (the face you want to texture match).

2. Take a snapshot, and then open this in Photoshop.

3. Crop the shape as best you can.

4. Now you have the exact dimensions of your 3D shape (face). You can now paint in a new layer (or what have you) in PHotoshop to match how you want the face to look when the texture is applied.

5. After you're done, you can choose to alpha-out the outer bits of artwork, or you can make them a color that best matches the general object color for blending purposes.

6. Now, apply your texture to the face of the object. You may have to do very little tweaking, you may have a lot of tweaking to do. The more you work at this technique, the better you'll become at creating 2D textures that map on 3D faces.

I hope this simple tutorial made sense.

Cheers.

ok, thanks guys. I'm trying to make a kind of lattice work for now which goes on a flat prim between others. I'll give your advice a go tonight (I'm SLT+15) and see how I go~