I've used FONT3D to create a 3-d font and am having trouble with

making the face and side pigments in different colors.   I've tried

using a declare statement but am not sure how to call it in the

object's description.


#declare FaceTexture =
  texture  {
     pigment { Red }
  }

#declare SideTexture =
  texture  {
     pigment { Gray60 }
  }


object {COPIES_STR
   scale <20.0, 20.0, -14.0>
    texture {                         /*  what do I put here?
    }
         finish {
           ambient 0.6
           diffuse 0.2
         }
   translate <0.0, 0.0, 10.0>
   no_shadow
}

I otherwise get a nice 3d font of all one color with the sides 

slightly shaded.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

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Richard Keuneke wrote:

> I've used FONT3D to create a 3-d font and am having trouble with
> making the face and side pigments in different colors.

First, change your understanding of textures in POV-Ray: Textures are
not "wallpaper" that is glued to some surface. You can not define a
texture for a surface. Instead, textures are more comparable to a
"material" and the objects are "carved out" of this material:
If you have for example a red plastic-like texture, don't think of it as
big red plastic sheets from that you cut out your surfaces which you
then use to cover your object's surfaces, but instead think of it as a
huge block of red plastic material, occupying all 3D space, only that
everything is chipped and carved "away" until only the object(s) you use
the texture on is/are left.

With this in mind you see, that you can not define different textures
for different faces of a 3D font.

Hey, but there is help!
Make a gradient map texture with two colors. One color occupies only a
very thin layer at the beginning of the gradient, the other color
occupies the rest. The direction of the gradient is the same direction
as the extrusion direction ("depth") of your font. Then apply the
texture to the font-object in such a way, that the thin layer of color1
colors the front face.
Here some code (not tested!) that gives you a thin layer of black
material on the x/y plane with the rest of the space in positive and
negative Z direction occupied by white material. Only remember:
Gradients are repeated after one unit, so actually you will have a black
layer at z position 0, 1, 2, ... and -1, -2, ... So if your font is
"thicker" than 1 unit, you may have to scale the texture and probably
also translate it a little to whatever position fits best. And maybe you
have to use a x or y gradient instead...

texture {
  pigment {
    gradient z
    color_map
    {
        [ 0.0     rgbft <0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0> ]
        [ 0.01  rgbft <0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0> ]
        [ 0.01  rgbft <1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0> ]
        [ 1.0     rgbft <1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0> ]
    }
  }
}


Hope that helps, Johannes.

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Hi Johannes,

Maybe you should check what you're saying first, 'cause you're only making a fool of
yourself on this one.
FONT3D is NOT POV-Ray.

FONT3D is a little program that outputs a mesh or bezier patches for use within
POV-Ray, and it allows to define textures for the sides as well as the top and I'm not
sure but I think there also is a different texture possibility for the bevel.
Problem is, when I looked at the file generated, I could not identify some of it, I
think a simple bug : the author of FONT3D must have misused a statement and one of the
textures is simply taken instead of another.
So the best advice I can give is get in touch with the author to get that sorted out.

Cheers,
Al.


Johannes Hubert wrote:

> Richard Keuneke wrote:
>
> > I've used FONT3D to create a 3-d font and am having trouble with
> > making the face and side pigments in different colors.
>
> First, change your understanding of textures in POV-Ray: Textures are
> not "wallpaper" that is glued to some surface.

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Actually, It could simply be a case of not having read the documentation on
Font3D. You need to tell Font3D to output different textures on the sides.
I have written a front-end to Font3D, that handles all this in a nice GUI.
You can find it at my website.. Unfortunately, it's Win95 only.

Twyst================================
EFnet and NewNet #povray Channel Operator
Website: http://twyst.home.ml.org
E-Mail: twy### [at] v-wavecom
=====================================

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Alain CULOS wrote:

> Hi Johannes,
>
> Maybe you should check what you're saying first, 'cause you're only making a fool of
yourself on this one.
> FONT3D is NOT POV-Ray.

Well, if making a fool out of myself every now and then is what it needs to be an
active member of the POV-Ray community, who participates in the newsgroup-discussions
and offers help as often as possible, then this is what I will do, gladly!

To the original poster Richard:
Sorry if I confused you with my reply, maybe I should have read your posting a bit
more carfully :-)

Greetings, Johannes.

Post a reply to this message

Well tried,

I read that, did that and failed - quite some time ago now - and I have your GUI,
thanks by the way for this thingy, but unless I misused it, it did not give me the
expected result.

Peace,
Al.


Twyst wrote:

> Actually, It could simply be a case of not having read the documentation on
> Font3D. You need to tell Font3D to output different textures on the sides.
> I have written a front-end to Font3D, that handles all this in a nice GUI.
> You can find it at my website.. Unfortunately, it's Win95 only.

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Hi Johannes,

I like good humoured people like you, it just tells us how humble we should be about
our big certitudes (yours or mine all the same).
Just to point out (and I should apply this to myself a bit more) that when ever we
point to someone he/she is in the wrong, to do it without looking down on that person
and without putting that person down for his/her ignorance - which in some cases is
our own ignorance.

Cheers,
Al.


Johannes Hubert wrote:

> Alain CULOS wrote:
> > Hi Johannes,
> > Maybe you should check what you're saying first, 'cause you're only making a fool
of yourself on this one.
> > FONT3D is NOT POV-Ray.
> Well, if making a fool out of myself every now and then is what it needs to be an
active member of the POV-Ray community, who participates in the newsgroup-discussions
and offers help as often as possible, then this is what I will do, gladly!
> To the original poster Richard:
> Sorry if I confused you with my reply, maybe I should have read your posting a bit
more carfully :-)
> Greetings, Johannes.

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