Mapping Images with Nodes

In this chapter, we will learn to correctly apply images, textures, and materials to objects. This is an important part of texturing and gives us more control over how a texture appears on a surface, which will allow us to texture more complex objects. By the end of this chapter, you will understand how Blender projects images onto objects, how to control image projection, and how to map textures correctly on some basic shapes.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Understanding image mapping
• Using the Node Wrangler add-on
• Mapping textures to 3D models

Technical requirements

The prepared resources can be found in the Chapter03 folder within the book’s downloadable resources folder, available here: https://packt.link/mA1OU

Understanding image mapping

We will first discuss how Blender projects images on 3D models, and how we can control this. Let’s look at how a texture appears on a cube by default over the next few steps:

1. Add a new material to the default cube.

Figure 3.1 – Adding a material to the default cube

2. Using the skills we learned in Chapter 2, Introducing Material Nodes, add an Image Texture node and load or generate an image for the material.

Figure 3.2 – Adding an image texture to the material

3. Open the UV Editing workspace from the bar at the top of the screen.

Figure 3.3 – Opening the UV Editing workspace

You have now split the screen into two windows. On the left, we have the UV Editor, and on the right, we have the 3D viewport where we can see the object.

Figure 3.4 – The UV Editing workspace

The UV Editor...

Using the Node Wrangler add-on

We will now learn to use Node Wrangler, a simple add-on that will help us quickly map textures onto objects in just a few clicks. First, let’s activate the add-on.

Over the next few steps, we will learn to browse and activate add-ons in Blender:

1. In the top-left corner of the screen, open the Edit menu and click on Preferences....

Figure 3.14 – Opening the Preferences menu

2. On the left side of the menu, click on Add-ons. This will open a large list of the add-ons available in Blender by default.

Figure 3.15 – List of add-ons in the Preferences menu

3. In the search box, type node wrangler to find the add-on.

Figure 3.16 – Searching for an add-on

4. Check the box to the left of the Node: Node Wrangler result to activate the add-on, as shown in Figure 3.17.

Figure 3.17 –...

Mapping textures to 3D models

We will now learn to use Node Wrangler to quickly map textures onto any 3D model. Typically, it is best to map textures by manually UV-unwrapping the model, but that is a slow and tedious process that can often be avoided simply by using the Node Wrangler add-on. We will learn about UV mapping later, as it creates better results than Node Wrangler, but is more difficult to learn. So for now, we will learn how to apply a simple texture to a complex object in just a few steps:

1. Add the Node Wrangler nodes to the Principled BSDF node in a new material.

Figure 3.27 – Adding the Node Wrangler nodes to a new material

2. Load an image into the Image Texture node. By default, the Texture Coordinate node is set to UV. Since we did not UV-unwrap the model and Blender does not know how to correctly unwrap this model without our help, the result will be a complete mess.

Figure 3.28 &...

Summary

In this chapter, we learned how Blender projects images onto objects via UV mapping and with the help of the Node Wrangler add-on. We learned to correctly map textures onto some basic shapes and how to automatically project a texture onto any object. This allows us to map textures quickly and easily onto objects with just a few clicks, saving us time when texturing simpler materials and assets.

In Chapter 4, Achieving Realism with Texture Maps, we will learn how we can use albedo maps, roughness maps, and normal maps to improve the quality of our textures.