Texture map a "shoe lace"

Rhino Rhino for Windows
1

I’m trying to work out the best approach to map a texture onto a long loop surface, the intention being to make it look like a ribbon or shoe lace. I’ve watched the texture mapping video tutorial, which gave me some ideas to try but I’m still struggling to make it work.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Many thanks.

2

I am sorry I don’t know how
This is why I wanted “Natural” mapping: V6: The Case for GTKRadiant texture mapping and Nodraw

3

MisterB, can you post a file with the object, or send to tech@mcneel.com, to my attention (Pascal)?

thanks,
-Pascal

4

Because you’re essentially dealing with a repeated pattern traveling along a continuous cross-section, you’re going to want to consider a tiling texture approach, rather than unwrap the whole thing into the 0-1 UV space without overlap/repeats.

I’d suggest finding a flat fabric texture that works for you and then lay your UVs out such that the geometry is proportionally extending in either the U or V direction, depending on your fabric pattern.

In other words, if you “unwrapped” your lace like a candy bar wrapper, where there’s a seam down the middle of one side and it’s effectively a tube of film, then the flattened film might be 1x the U space, but ~50x the V space, so the V-axis tiles along the length across the whole object. I recommend putting your wrapping seam right in the center of the flat part of the ribbon to minimize distortion, and then somewhere along the loop you’ll have a seam going around the lace as well, so make sure that’s in a flat-ish area where it won’t be overly visible in case your tiling isn’t perfect.

Good luck :relaxed:

5

Thanks everybody for your replies. I’m quite relieved that I haven’t overlooked a really simple way of achieving what I need, having previously only used simple planar and box mapping. Brian’s excellent mapping video tutorial openned my eyes to what is possible so I thought I’d try to crack this one.

Brenda, I’ll read the thread about natural mapping you linked to. Thanks for your help.

Pascal, I’ll email a file as soon as I’m back in the office.

JKolodner, thanks very much for your suggestion. That approach, and your explanation, makes perfect sense. I’ll give tiling a go ASAP. Thanks again.