Making sense of image texture mapping in BlenderSometimes figuring out how to map an image onto an object can be dizzying. It gets much eaiser once you get a look at your objects axis! |
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Your texture image is 2D and it has a Y and X dimensions. You can tell Blender how to project this image onto your object. You can use this image and the default cube inside blender. |
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Your object in Blender has an Axis. You can turn on the axis view in the Object Buttons>Draw Menu. |
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As I said, your object has an axis, using the default settings. Blender will project your image texture onto the side of your object corresponding to the X and Y of your object’s axis. This presumes the default FLAT mapping. Tip: If you add an object in blender, add it in the top view,(Numpad 7) then it will already be Z axis up and you won't have to correct for a strange rotation. |
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See how the Y and X coordinate of the image matches the Y and X coordinates of the object’s axis. |
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The Map Input window tells Blender how you want the texture to be projected. By default, the Y coordinates of the image are mapped to the Y coordinates of the object and so on. However, you can switch this with the buttons in the lower left of the Map Input window. Following are some examples. Note: Imagine the image is projected from the side of your objects where the X and Y axis point in the positive direction. If the image appears flipped or mirrored, you need to make your image axis Size negative 1 to flip your image along the appropriate image axis. Hopefully the examples below will clear this up. |
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Above: Default FLAT mapping. . Blender projects the image
perpendicular to the XY plane of the objects axis. |
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Above: The X and Y coordinates of the image have been switched. . Blender projects the image perpendicular to the YX plane of the objects axis. Notice the image is mirrored or flipped since Positive X has been switched to Positive Y. The projection is correct on the bottom face of the cube and continues through the cube to the visible side. Below we will invert the SizeX of the image to compensate since we want the visible side of the cube to display correctly. |
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Above: Notice that we have set the image SizeX value to negative 1 to flip the image projection. See how the arrow for positive X on the image now points negative Y along the object’s axis. |
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Above: The Y coordinates of the image have been switched to Z. Blender now projects the image perpendicular to the XZ plane of the objects axis. |
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Hopefully that all helps! Please send comments.correctons to mthoenes@yahoo.com