Hello and welcome to this introductory tutorial on texturing with Cycles in Blender!
In this Blender tutorial Jonathan Williamson gives you an introduction on setting up your material shaders with textures for Cycles in Blender.
What you’ll learn:
Through this tutorial you should gain a solid understanding texturing with Cycles in Blender, including how to take existing texture maps (diffuse, spec, bump) and use them in material shaders to create the various surfaces you require for your project. You will learn how to set up the textures through both the Material Properties and the Node Editor while being shown distinct advantages of each method.
Along with texture map setups, you will also learn how to set up and HDRI environment texture for the lighting and how to use node groups for easy reuse of existing node setups.
Awesome! Just what I needed!! Thank you!
I’ve watched tutorial after tutorial and read several guides. Explaining the node layout and selecting the color to image FINALLY answered my question. Thank you very much.
When I add a image as a texture it’s just one color.
Well the color changes when I change the image, but you can’t see the image. You just see one color and that’s it.
I tried for example to add a black leather texture, but rendered it was just a light black color.
Then I tried to add a wood texture, but when I render it it’s just a brown color.
What can I do so I can see the image?
You have to unwrap your object so the texture will be mapped to the UV Map.
Hey Jonathan, just a tip that will save you some bandwidth.
Instead of “Download Source Files” that includes the mp4 (which in this case is 642Mb and the largest part of the download), have two separate downloads, the blends/ textures and such, and one separate for the movie file. I am probably like most and am okay with just watching the movie on Vimeo., but would like to download the textures.
Hi,
I’m trying to follow this tutorial as a beginner..but have been stumped in the early stages by the part where Jonathan explains “I have added a basic ground plane..very simple!” I can’t find any option to add a “ground plane” in my version of Blender. I can add a flat plane…but can’t see any reference to a curved “ground plane” like the one shown in the video. Have tried googling this..but haven’t had any success here either. Can someone explain how this is done? Thanks:)
Hi there,
The “ground plane” I’m using is an extruded plane. I have a tutorial on how I generally create these here: http://cgcookie.com/blender/2010/04/05/tip-creating-a-simple-studio-backdrop/
I hope that helps!
Cheers,
Jonathan
Thanks so much Jonathan…I thought maybe there was just an “add ground plane” button or something I was missing! That tutorial explained this aspect well. Thank you:)
I’m sort of new to blender but I think I understand the nodes. The only thing I’m wondering is when you download textures from wherever does it come with the seperate files? spec map bit map bump map? also when you open the new window for nodes in blender It won’t let me add any what do I need to do before I start adding nodes?
hi Jonathan, i got problem to insert hdri image. to added that it must be .hdr files or other file type like jpg? thanks to answer me
Hi Diaz,
You can use any image format, the only requirement is that it be either a equitangular layout or a mirror ball. However, to get the best quality you’ll want to use an HDRI file as it will contain the multiple exposure levels and such needed for the high quality lighting depth. A JPG (or other flattened format) will only contain the color values.
Hello, do you know if we can or will can use and manage multileyered images in blendercycles’s nodes in near futur.
I’m a C4D user but, i have to say that blender is quite cool in many ways like UVunwrap and Cycles with is nodes and is photoshoot friendly interface too. I’m from the print and packaging world and i export multilayered psd from indesign or illusrtrator to cook my materials in C4d because it can open and manage multileyerd psd actualy to isolate the different print process for a pack or tube, but i would love to do that directly into blender too.
Thanks for this tutorial, very useful.
Awesome tutorial. Cycles is amazing thing for Blender and with this tutorial the importance of Nodes is explained perfectly. Thank you.
Hi Jonathan,
I’m sorty, but I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. I don’t even have same buttons like you (in your video time 5:30). Look here http://twitpic.com/c853lb
Can you help me?
HI Lubomir, you just need to switch your render engine to Cycles from Blender Render: http://cl.ly/NI5Z
Jonathan,
Just out of curiosity what is the make and model of your GPU? I am going to be buying a new one soon and liked how fast yours rendered in this tutorial when you switched over from CPU to GPU.
Thanks,
Marcus
How do you make the bump and spec map?
CrazyBump is one program that will do it.
Hi,
I’m learning blender for a class in High School and am a beginner i was wondering about some of the options when you are on the material menu you have a tab called “Surface” I don’t see that on my screen is there a setting i need to change or what?
Can you tell me what GPU you used for this tutorial? I’m shopping for a new computer and I’d like to find out the best gfx board for the money (to run Blender) – do you have any recommendations?
Hi jay, I was using a GTX 580. It’s a great card and I highly recommend it! Personally I would go for an EVGA branded one.
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned that I’m looking for a mobile card. Do you have any hands on experience with either the GTX680M or the GTX675MX? Do you know which GPU feature contributes most to Cycles performance, i.e., CUDA cores, clock, etc.?
Thanks again for the reply!!
j.
hi i’m having a problem with my practicing, when i put the put de “UVmaps” my sphere looks like this:
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/3518/screenkus.png
how can i make my sphere be like in the preview?
i already resolve the problem =D
I have this exact same problem, and I literally have no idea how to solve it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Ryan,
I am thinking you should check to see how you did your UV unwrap.
If you choose the first option at the top of the list which simply says “unwrap” it will cause the image to repeat over and over on the sphere.
Try to unwrap again and use “smart UV project”.
This should spread your texture image out over the sphere.
Hope this helps until you get a better answer!
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for all the great tutorials.
Are you still using the GTX 580 GPU? I hear that the newer GTX 600 series are not as good. Do you have any experience with newer GPU’s?
Thanks.