What is the relation between the DPI of an texture map and the dpi of the final output? If my texture map is 72dpi and my output is 300dpi then the map will either be resampled up to 300 or scalled down to fit (at least this is what photoshop does). Is it better to bring in a map with the same dpi of the final output? ANyone know a good tutorial on the issues involvig using Carrara for print? Thanks for the help

Hi site_tester:-) The bigger map, the better results. But 3d apps think in pixels not dpi. Usually for the biggest projects for print i use 4096x4096 maps. It's difficult to have a project that need a bigger dimension. BTW for every additional help i'm here:-) -TOXE

The image above uses the same texture map on all three spheres.

A) If like sphere A, your texture map is really close to the camera, the dpi of your texture map needs to correspond to your final output. For example, if the final render shows 1 square inch of the texture map at 2 square inches when rendered, then the texture map dpi should be 600 because is rendered twice as large in the final render. You can see on this sphere that the texture map is pixelating because there isn't enough information when the camera is close.

B) Sphere B shows the same texture map further from the camera. To me, it looks a little "soft" so I might increase the resolution of the texture map to compensate - but maybe not.

C) Using a 300 dpi map on sphere C is a waste because it has too much information. Carrara will slow down when it gets to this sphere if the texture map is 300 dpi because it has to process the additional information.

So, to answer your question, if your final texture map shows up in the final render at 1:1 scaling, it needs to be at 300 dpi if your output resolution is 300 dpi. If the scaling is greater or less than that, the texture map should be adjusted accordingly.

Hope this helps.

Mark

Message edited on: 11/02/2004 10:07

Message edited on: 11/02/2004 10:09

Is there a way to adjust the resolution on texture map? If not then ask Julia to make a new plug in that measures the distance and resolution.

Simple algorithm to make it possible is (resolution/distance) The plug in should be named as R/D

I use Photoshop for changing resolution. For lower resolution maps that need more resolution, within Carrara you can select the Interpolate option in the texture map portion of the shader tree. But that will only help a little. It's always best to start with a high resolution texture map and then reduce the resolution, however. If it's a really low resolution map to start with, there is nothing you can do. Actually, I'm waiting for a plug-in that simply makes Carrara do what I'm thinking instead requiring me to do all the work. I'd pay good money for that.