Mirror Texture Problem

[Pauls]

Hi,

I'm making a GWR Platform Bench in 3D Studio Max. I've made the planks and one leg - however when I try to mirror the leg to put on the other end the GWR cast iron logo gets mirrored as well - I can flip the uv's upside down, left to right and mirror etc - however nothing works - if GWR shows correctly the leg sides are still wrong because they are not symmetrical - I somehow want to project texture and the UV's from behind the polygons rather than from the front - anyway I can do this without totally re-mapping the bench leg ? - I don't want to use a second texture for resource reasons. - I also don't want to make the textured bench leg smaller and have a mirrored texture to keep the high definition.

Thanks.

Regards
Paul

[eyore]

Not sure I completely understand your problem, as I don't see why you are flipping the UV maps. A couple of pics would help.

If you use the mirror tool on the leg object and select the correct axis it should work, but you may have to reset xform on the new clone, as mirror can do strange things, like inverting polys. Have you tried symmetry in the tools roll out, as this often works better than mirror.

[Pauls]

Hi Phil,

I'll do a screenshot to show what I mean - basically the letters GWR are coming out mirrored on the mirrored bench leg - I've tried the symmetry modifier as well which gives the same result. I'll try and post something up tomorrow.

Many thanks.

Regards
Paul

[briyeo]

Paul could the GWR monogram be a separate part of the model so you don't need to mirror it? Is it a solid modelled GWR or cut out with an Alpha layer?

[Pauls]

Hi Brian,

There is a GWR both sides of the leg - one is on a separate polygon and one is part of the leg - I know - I've been an idiot I should have had them both as separate polygons. The lettering should be raised cast iron - I will do them as a bump map though - this is why I didn't go for an option using decals.

I've been having computer problems with my other computer but hopefully I will be able to post a screenshot later.

Somehow I need to project the textures onto the back of the polygon rather than the front of the polygon so that they show correctly. I will be adding a shadow map so the inside of the legs will have a greater level of shadow so I can't just do a straight copy of the leg - anyway - hopefully my screenshot later will show the problem.

Cheers
Paul

[Pauls]

There is a Projection modifier - I wonder if this might be of help ?

Perhaps the texture mapping on the visible side of the right leg could somehow be projected onto the back of the visible polygon on the left leg ?

Cheers
Paul

[Pauls]

The projection modifier projects from one object to another. You can see from these screenshots that it projects normally onto a facing polygon and projects onto the reverse side of the polygon facing away which should be useful for the GWR seat legs - famous last words ! - what could possibly go wrong ?

[Pauls]

I think the Projection modifier will have its uses in the future - however it didn't want to work on this SVR/GWR Platform Seat - anyway I rebuilt the legs of the seat and applied a shadow map to the whole thing.........



I might have a play around with bump maps tomorrow to see if I can improve its appearance - I want the cast iron legs to have a bit more depth and the paint to have some depth and shine...

Cheers
Paul

[Pauls]

A bit of subtle bump mapping some shine in the bump map alpha channel and a little bit of specular applied in the Max Materials Editor using TrainLightBumpSpecMask.fx .......



I've tried to keep the specular shine and bump as subtle as possible without these qualities disappearing. ( The phone box in the background is a bit overdone )

Cheers
Paul