Attached Link: 3Ddoodling

In the image at the link, I've created a couple of picture frames using C3's spline modeller... each is one object. The problem I have with the way I have them textured is that the grain of the wood is correct on the horizontal "pieces" of the the frames; but is, naturally, 90 degrees off on the vertical "pieces". What would be the best/easiest way fix this? Shader domains? or UV mapping.... and can you use UV mapping with C's procedural shaders? Have tried interpretting the manual, and I feel like I'm getting close to understanding how to do this... then I get a headache and things get kinda blurry. Will continue trying to figure it out, but I was hoping that maybe someone could put it in simple English for me. Thanks in advance.

That is a nice render! I think shader domains would work well. Convert to a vertex model, select the top and bottom and create a new domain for that. Give your object a layers list shader. Put the original texture for the overall shader and rotate the texture ( or build it horizontally ) and put that for the new domain which should show up in the layers list. Patrick

I think the 45 degree angles at the corners of the frame will be a problem. I had to start in the vertex modeler to deal with this. I think uv mapping is the way to go with a bitmap created in PS or some such. I would be very interested in hearing how you finally do this. BTW congrats on a fine rendering!

I think I got it figured out. Did just like Patrick said... converted my spline model to a vertex model, selected the faces on the two "sides" and created a new shading domain, then set up a layers list shader (this is what took me the longest to figure out how to get right). Now, of course, there's no visible joint at the corners where the two "pieces" would have been mitered together, but at least the grain is going in the proper directions... and perhaps the maker of this particular frame had some laser guided, diamond tipped miter saw and the joints are just soooo perfect that they're practically invisible... :) Thanks for the help Patrick.

Looks great! I guess I'm just a pessimist! Thanks for passing it on.

Thanks for the tips. This works great!

I woke up last night about 3am wondering how FWTempest made that frame in the spline modeler. Having given him bad advice on texturing, I was reluctant to ask how he had done it so I resolved to try it myself. The results might interest some.

First I drew a cross section of a moulding shape in the spline modeler and then chose "torus" from Geometry>Extrusion Preset.

If you click on the blue circle you see 4 curve points. Convert these with the convert point tool. You get a lopsided square frame. Hmmm. This is going to take some work!

Click on the 1st (and only) cross section and Select All and Copy. Click Sections>Create 3 times to give a cross section at each corner. Click on each cross section in turn and Select All, Delete, Paste to change all cross sections to the original. This gives a nice square frame you can stretch to any aspect ratio you want. Convert to a Vertex model and create the shading domains.

The final frame. I wonder if this is how he did it?

For some reason the image of the rendered frame will not download so you'll have to take my word.. it looked ok.

I never would have thought to do it that way... but if it works, it works. :) What I did was simple enough... using the front view, I drew a freehand shape. Back in director's view, I checked the proportions and such, and made sure that the extrusion method was set to pipeline and that the cross section was centered...

doesn't look like my images are gonna load, either.... hmmm?... guess I'll try to finish this without them...

anyway... switching to the top view... I used the corners of the working grid as reference points, and moved the points on the extrusion line down to the "bottom" of the grid... left point on the bottom left corner of the grid, right point on the bottom right... Then, making sure that the right (2nd) point is selected, use the pen tool to "connect-the-dots" to the other two corners, and finally back to first, closing the square... switch back to the director's view and you should have your frame.

darn... and I went through such trouble to build another frame from scratch and get screen shots during the process.... that'll teach me to be efficient. :)

A shame about the images but thanks for the explanation. I will give this a try. I think its interesting to see how many ways there are to do someting so simple. I found 3 different ways to make a frame plus yours makes four and I learned a lot in the process.