Texture Mapping, UV Mapping/Unwrapping, and Materials

So, what the heck is this stuff and why is it so important? Well, you want your models to look great, right? Let's begin our discussion with something we are familiar with: blaster turrets. To simplify things, we are just going to focus on the turret base.

Fig. 5.14 – The textured turret base and its geometry overlaid in wireframe

Texture mapping is the process of adding visual detail to a mesh with one or more 2D images (textures). You are well aware that our lovely turret is actually composed of many vertices, edges, and faces. Texture mapping describes how different parts of a mesh are visually affected by different images. Because we were working with a premade model, all the texturing work had already been done for us, but when we create our own models, that task falls to us.

Procedural textures

Okay, yes, all you know-it-alls out there, there is a thing called a procedural texture...