I have two main mesh objects in my scene. Each mesh object has a UV mapped texture. No bump maps ect. Just a 512 x 512 png. I want to export them for use in Aurasma 3d. It is suggested to have only one material per mesh. In the properties editor there is a separate material and texture tab. When I load my image in the texture tab, it creates no material. Do I also have to add a material to my mesh? What if I didn't want to? Could I still attach the png image to the mesh and have it show up? Or would that not work because it needs materials to light it up somehow?
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$\begingroup$ You create a material for your object, then you go to the texture tab and add an image. Then handle UV unwrapping, etc. It doesn't go the other way around. $\endgroup$– GlidermanCommented Aug 7, 2016 at 0:23
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$\begingroup$ So then...no....it wouldn't work...? Besides being the incorrect procedure? $\endgroup$– animationprofessorCommented Aug 7, 2016 at 0:29
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$\begingroup$ Also, in this case, being a very basic and raw cartoony image [not going for photo realism in this example] would there really be any point to using nodes if it was in blender internal? $\endgroup$– animationprofessorCommented Aug 7, 2016 at 0:32
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$\begingroup$ I would only use nodes in your case if you are unable to edit something you need that couldn't be done without nodes. For basic colors you shouldn't need nodes because you can select single colors on the material. $\endgroup$– AnimatoringCommented Aug 7, 2016 at 3:08
1 Answer
Whatever material you currently have on your mesh is the default color that object would be. Something like this:
Go into Edit Mode, and Unwrap your object (I used Smart UV Unwrap):
Open up your image in the UV Image editor, and align your UVs to where you would like. Little inconsistency I accidentally put in, move the little group of squares outside of the image, this is required for the clipping:
Now go to the texture tab, and set the mapping to UV (from Generated) and select the UV Map you want to use for that image (don't forget to open that image in the texture tab). I set it to Clip instead of Repeat for the texture mapping:
I set the diffuse color of the material (back in that tab) to be red, so now the scene has a cube with the texture used on one side of it, but the color red is used on the other parts, resulting in something like this (in the rendered view):
All of this combined shows you how to add a texture to a model already built, and maintaining the material for the other portions. It will be affected by the specularity of the material if you have adjusted that.