Texture projection

Is there any kind of built-in functionality to texture an object with projection rather than UV coordinates?
Thanks,
Michael

There are two ways to approach projections in Touch, both a bit different.

1 - Use the Texture SOP and set Texture Type to Perspective from Camera. This will give your SOP geometry UVs based on perspective from camera.

2 - In the Light Component, there is a Projector Map parameter which lets you project a texture through the light. This however will project the texture on all geometry that the light is rendered with.

Try each and see if they get you the results you are looking for.

Hi Ben,
I think there’s some step that I’m missing. To make this work, I created (inside a geometry COMP) a piece of geometry and a phong MAT and connected the geometry to a Texture SOP. I set the Texture SOP’s display and render flags to ON. I also turned on the camera perspective. Up a level, I set the geometry COMP’s material to be the phong MAT inside of the COMP. I also created a camera and referenced it from the Texture SOP within the COMP. Now I don’t see any texture on the geometry at all.
Thanks,
Michael

Hey, here’s a sample file that does what you want using a Texture SOP. Not sure why your setup isn’t working right, are you using a Render TOP to try and view it? The camera would only be used in the Render TOP, not the Geo component viewer, so it won’t look right in there.

Using the Projection Map feature in the lights is a faster way to do this though (performance wise).
proj.toe (4.45 KB)

Thanks. I got what I was trying to do to work with the “Camera Projection” method. I haven’t had as much luck with the light projection. I’m sure it’s just something I’m not understanding, but the projector’s “throw” seems off… like the focal length is huge… even when i adjust the “projection angle.”

HI Michael,
it might just be a matter of using a separate light for the projection then moving the light in a bit closer. I had similar problems using a movie of water caustics to get an underwater effect. I ended up tiling and mirroring it a few times to cover the scene without the projection becoming giant-sized.

rod.