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Material Editor > Maps rollout > Click a Map button. > Material/Map Browser > Bitmap
Bitmaps shown in Material Editor sample slots
A bitmap is an image produced by a fixed matrix of colored pixels, like a mosaic. Bitmaps are useful for creating many kinds of materials, from wood grains and wall surfaces to skin and feathers. You can also use an animation or video file instead of a bitmap to create an animated material.
Note: To save loading time, if a map with the same name is in two different locations (in two different paths), it is loaded only once. This poses a problem only if your scene includes two maps that have different content but the same name. In this case, only the first map encountered will appear in the scene.
The Material Editor supports the following file formats:
Note: If your scene includes animated bitmaps with materials, projector lights, or environments, the animation file is reloaded once per frame. If your scene uses multiple animations, or if the animations are large files, rendering will be slower.
To crop an image:
On the Bitmap Parameters rollout, click the Bitmap button and assign a bitmap.
In the Cropping/Placement group, turn on Apply to see the results of cropping in the sample slot (and in shaded viewports, if Show Map In Viewport is active).
Turn on Crop.
Click View Image to display the bitmap in an editing window.
A virtual frame buffer appears, displaying the image surrounded by a region outline (a dashed line at the outer edges of the image, with handles on the sides and corners).
Specify a cropping region by adjusting the spinners at the top of the window, or by dragging the region outline.
To place an image:
On the Bitmap Parameters rollout, click the Bitmap button and assign a bitmap.
In the Cropping/Placement group, turn on Apply to see the results of cropping in the sample slot (and in shaded viewports if Show Map In Viewport is active).
Turn on Place.
Click View Image.
A virtual frame buffer appears, displaying the image surrounded by a region outline (a dashed line at the outer edges of the image, with handles on the sides and corners).
Move the image by adjusting the spinners at the top of the window, or by dragging the region outline.
The reduced image "decals" on the sample sphere. The diffuse color is visible around the image.
Bitmap—Selects the bitmap using the standard file browser. After selection, the full path name appears on this button.
Reload—Reloads the bitmap file using the same name and path. You don’t need to use the file browser to reload the bitmap after you've updated it in your paint program.
Clicking reload for any instance of the map updates the map in all sample slots and in the scene.
Filtering options let you select the method of pixel averaging used in antialiasing the bitmap.
Pyramidal—Requires less memory and is adequate for most purposes.
Summed Area—Requires much more memory, but yields generally superior results.
None—Turns off filtering.
Some parameters, such as opacity or specular level are a single value as opposed to a material's three-value color components. Controls in this group determine the source of the Output mono channel in terms of the input bitmap.
RGB Intensity—Uses the intensity of the red, green, and blue channels for mapping. The color of the pixels is ignored and only the value or luminance of the pixels is used. The colors are computed as gray values in the range between 0 (black) and 255 (white).
Alpha—Uses the intensity of the alpha channel for mapping.
The RGB Channel Output determines where the output RGB part comes from. The controls in this group affect only maps for material components that display color: Ambient, Diffuse, Specular, Filter Color, Reflection, and Refraction.
RGB—Displays the full color values of the pixels. (Default)
Alpha as Gray—Displays tones of gray based on the levels of the alpha channel.
The controls in this group let you crop the bitmap or reduce its size for custom placement. Cropping a bitmap means to reduce it to a smaller rectangular area than it originally had. Cropping doesn't change the scale of the bitmap.
Placing a bitmap lets you scale the map and place it anywhere within its tile. Placing can change the bitmap's scale, but shows the entire bitmap. The four values that specify the placement and size of the cropping or placement region are all animatable.
Cropping and placement settings affect the bitmap only as it's used for this map and any instances of the map. They have no effect on the bitmap file itself.
Apply—Turn on to use the cropping or placements settings.
View Image—Displays a Virtual Frame Buffer that shows the bitmap surrounded by a region outline. The region outline has handles at its sides and corners. When cropping is on, dragging the handles changes the size of the crop area. You can also drag within the region area to move it.
The VFB editing window has U/V and W/H (width/height) spinners on its toolbar. Use these to adjust the location and size the image or crop area.
When Place is turned on, dragging the region area handles changes the scale of the bitmap (hold down CTRL to preserve the bitmap's aspect ratio), and dragging the image changes its location within the tile area.
When Crop is turned on, the UV or XY button at the right of the virtual frame buffer toolbar lets you switch between using UV or XY coordinates in the toolbar spinners. Also, you can zoom out by pressing SHIFT+Z and zoom in by pressing Z.
Crop—Makes cropping active.
Place—Makes placement active.
U/V—Adjusts the bitmap location.
W/H—Adjusts the width and height of the bitmap or crop area.
Jitter Placement—Specifies the amount of random offset. At 0, there is no random offset. Range = 0.0 to 1.0
When Place is turned on, the size and position specified by the spinners or editing window are ignored. The software then chooses a random size and tile position for the image.
Controls in this group determine the source of the Output alpha channel in terms of the input bitmap.
Image Alpha—Uses the image's alpha channel (disabled if the image has no alpha channel).
RGB Intensity—Converts the colors in the bitmap to grayscale tonal values and uses them for transparency. Black is transparent and white is opaque.
None (Opaque)—Does not use transparency.
Premultiplied Alpha—Determines how alpha is treated in the bitmap. When turned on, the default, premultiplied alpha is expected in the file. When turned off, the alpha is treated as non-premultiplied, and any RGB values are ignored.
Tip: If you apply an alpha image as a Diffuse map, for example, and it doesn't decal correctly, the bitmap file probably contains non-premultiplied alpha; the RGB values are maintained separately from the alpha values. To correct this, turn off Premultiplied Alpha.
These controls let you change the start time and speed of FLIC and AVI files used as animated texture maps. They make it easier to use sequences of images as maps in scenes, because you can control the timing very precisely
Start Frame—Specifies the frame where the playback of the animated map will begin.
Playback Rate—Lets you speed up and slow down the rate that the animation is applied to the map (for example, 1.0 is normal speed, 2.0 is twice as fast, .333 is 1/3 as fast).
These controls determine what happens after the last frame of the animation.
Loop—Causes the animation to loop over and over again.
Ping-Pong—Causes the animation to be played backward, making every animated sequence "loop smoothly."
Hold—Causes the last frame of the animation to be frozen on the surface until the end of the scene.
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