For Blender: 2.33 - Version française disponible(fr) - Artykuł dostępny po polsku(pl)

::Reminder on how to use texturing::

Start Blender, or reset it (CTRL X) in order to get back to the default scene (the lonely cube at the center of the scene). Select the cube, and then in the Shading menu, (F5 key), delete the current material with the cross-icon on the side of its name. Then add a new material by clicking on the Add New button.

add-new-material

Toggle to the Texture buttons menu (F6 key). Select the first empty slot, and add a new texture by clicking on the Add New button.

add-new-texture

As Texture type, choose the Image option. Browse your hard disk up to the location of the picture you want to use as a texture.

Come back to the Shading menu (F5 key). On the right end, you will find three tabs that helps you control how Blender manages the textures you just have set.

The first tab, Texture, lets you choose anyone of the ten textures allowed; in order to activate one, you just have to click on its name.

texture-tab

The second tab, Map Input, is more subtle. More precisely, it lets you choose between many kind of projections (Flat, Cube, Sphere, Tube) of the texture on your object, but also sets the dimensions of the texture (SizeX, SizeY and SizeZ) and the offset of texture versus its origin (OfsX, OfsY and OfsZ).

map-input-tab

The last tab, Map To, lets you choose which channel of the Shader is effected by the selected texture. Most of the time, your texture will effect the color (Col) of your object, its roughness (Nor) or its transparency (Alpha), among many other options. In this pannel you will also find a very well hidden button: Stencil.

map-to-tab

::Using a stencil texture::

As we just saw it, we can add up to ten textures for a Shader. What is meaningful to notice is that these textures stack over each other. For example, if you have two textures absolutely not transparent (Col 1.0 and Alpha unchecked), the second texture (starting from the top of the list of the ten space available) will mask the first one (at the top of the list).

But perhaps you would better like to see the second texture showing some "holes" so that you could see, on some spots, the texture set before it (from the top of the list). In order to do so, you will have to insert, between these two textures, a third texture, the Stencil texture.

example-texture-tab

  • Hint: if you have already inserted two textures in the first two empty slots, use the buttons to copy/paste to/from the buffer in order to sort them: select the second texture (from the top of the list), and click on the small arrow going upward. Now, select, the third space (from the top of the list), actually blank, and click on the small arrow going downward. Now select the texture from the second slot (from the top of the list) and press Clear in order to delete it.
    texture-buffers

Now, select the texture that should do the Stenciling job, which should be located between the first and the second texture. Toggle to the Map Input tab, de-activate the Col button and activate Stencil button. That's it!

example-mapto-tab

The next picture shows the three textures used, and the way they interact in order to produce the final picture.

stencil-final

::Interesting uses::

You can also use, as a Stencil texture, bitmaps picture in grey tones, or Blender's procedural textures, particularly the Blend type, which works very well with this kind of use.

  • Hint: If you use a bitmap image as stencil texture, think about activating the No RGB button.

bitmap-example