[ekrantz]

hey all
I would like to apply a "label" I created in Photoshop to a shampoo bottle I have modeled in C4D. My scene is set up and my maxwell materials are ready to go except that I am unsure how to apply the label to the bottle. In C4D's native texture system I would just create a layer set, import the psd file into my material and apply it to the selection set. However, this doesnt seem to work in Maxwell. Can anyone point me to a tutorial that might cover this?

Thanks and sorry if its a silly question
-Elizabeth.

[Bubbaloo]

Use a black and white map (in the shape of your label) in the layer weight map slot. Create another layer and put that map in it's weight map slot too, but invert it. Now you have one layer for controlling the background and one to control the label.

[ekrantz]

Unfortunately your suggestion is not returning any results for me. After setting the image as a weight map and then adding a second layer where I do the same thing only inverted, all I see is a white material when I render. Any ideas?

thanks
-E

[ekrantz]

Getting closer, my image map was black on white but when I converted it to white on black in photoshop it shows now, Just need to figure out how to scale it correctly.
Thanks
-E

[JDHill]

Here's a bit of a tutorial, using a material with three BSDF layers: one for the logo, one for the base, and one for gloss.

1. The first BSDF (logo) uses a b&w mask in the weight map to clip away everything that's not part of the logo. It then uses a striped color map in the reflectance 0 channel to define the color of the logo:




2. The second BSDF (base) uses the same b&w mask in the weight map, but inverted so that it excludes just the logo area. This BSDF uses a solid blue color in reflectance 0:





3. The third BSDF (gloss) uses no weight map, because I want to give reflectivity to the entire material. It does, however, re-use the same b&w map for a bump map:





Here's a link to download a zip with the material and maps. To scale things, I think it's best to:

1. leave the tile & offset parameters at default in the plugin's texture editor
2. adjust tile/offset values by selecting the texture tag and using Cinema's attribute manager

I hope this is helpful, just write back if you have any other questions.

Cheers...

[stu.dio]

I also use logos/straplines/details in Photoshop format, as it allows creation for colour, alpha and bump and others all from the one file, not 2 or 3. Does anyone know if PSD file format will be implemented for the plugin/render? Some of my files have 50+ materials that use PSD layered files, that is potentially 150+ separate files that need organizing and keeping up to date.

BTW the tutorial helped thanks

[JDHill]

Well, Maxwell doesn't currently support PSD, and it's outside the scope of a plugin to try to add that type of functionality. So you'd be best, as I'm sure has already been done, to put that on the Maxwell wish list thread, because it should be done once in the application, rather than trying to duplicate it several times in individual plugins. This plugin does translate alpha-based maps into b&w for Maxwell when they're used in Cinema materials (and vice-versa for showing b&w weightmaps used in Maxwell materials in the Cinema viewport), so you can already use more types of files with the plugin than you can with other parts of Maxwell.

[ekrantz]

Thanks for all the wonderful info guys!
-E