Q: ...I am trying to create a cheesy house, and, on this house, I have a cylinder tower. I would like for the tower walls to be one texture and the roof another. I have been reading the manuals, but, as I am new to this, I can't seem to figure out what they are trying to say. BTW, I am using 3DS4...

A: 1. If you use only Basic materials (no texture mappings) you need no mapping coordinates. In this case you may assign many materials on Face level. It goes this way:
  • Create two or more Basic materials - these don't make use of Texture Maps, Opacity Map, Bump Map, Self illum. Map, etc. (but you may use Reflection Map or any .SXP texture anywhere in the material slots)
  • Make the first material current (Press C, type a name)
  • Go to 3D Editor, Surface/Material/Assign/Object
  • Go to Select/Face/Quad and select the faces that have to get the other material.They become red.
  • Go to Material Editor, select the second material, press C,
  • Go back to 3D Editor (you may click on the upper right corner of the screen to change between the last two modules)
  • Use Surface/Material/Assign/Face and hit the spacebar to activate [Selected] Click in a viewport to assign the material only to the selection set.

    2.If you have textures, and you can use the same mapping coordinates for all materials, do the same as in 1. and apply cylindrical mapping coordinates. On a cylinder's top you might get strange distortions if you use this technique :o(

    3.In some cases you may turn [Face Map] ON in the Material Editor and do the steps described in 1.

    4.If 3. looks bad, and you need separate mapping coordinates, you have to detach the faces first. An object can have more than one mapping coordinate sets, but you cannot assign them to a part of an object directly.

  • Go to 3D Editor
  • Go to Select/Face/Quad and select the faces that have to get the other mapping coordinates.They become red.
  • Go to Create/Face/Detach, hit spacebar to activate [Selected] and click in a viewport. You will be prompted for a new name. You have now two separate objects. You may apply mapping coordinates and assign any material on the Object level to both of them.
  • If you are happy with the mappings and need only one object, you may use Create/Object/Attach. The different mapping coordinates and the materials will be preserved, but you cannot edit the mapping coordinates anymore.

    5. You can, of course, create two separate objects for the tower and the roof directly in 3D Editor or Lofter - it would be easier ;o)

    Addition:

    Point 1. applies also to materials that use only .SXP textures and no bitmaps in slots other than Reflection Map.