terminology questions

[behestelah]

I have some questions, I'm not sure if they are primitive or not, I'm trying to understand terms that I've seen on other tutorials:

what is the difference between lazy and air brush?
What is uv window?
What are the differences between normal and bump maps?
what is brush alpha?

Thanks

[theferrymanhymn]

Sept 29, 2010 18:20:01 GMT 1 behestelah said:

I have some questions, I'm not sure if they are primitive or not, I'm trying to understand terms that I've seen on other tutorials:

what is the difference between lazy and air brush?
What is uv window?
What are the differences between normal and bump maps?
what is brush alpha?

Thanks

Lzay brush gives a usefull delay, handy for making lines. While airbrush keeps repeating the same effect even if you hold the brush still.

I am guessing the UV window is the window where you can look at the UV. I dunno in what context you came across that term.

Normal mapping is a form of bump mapping. But the terms are often used for 2 different methods. In that case Normal mapping is more refined.

Brushes often use invisible and semi invisible parts.
The terms alpha or alpha layer are commonly used when you are working with transparent things. So in computer graphics it is near synonym to transparency.

For example, for a custom brush all you need is a drawing a white/grey blob on top of black. (save as png) The more white the more weight. So the black is treated like full transparent.

Hope that helps, I am not to good at terms I usualy just click things and see what it does. ;D

[behestelah]

theferrymanhymn thanks

your answer is giving me a dim light in the darkness which is very promising. with using your answer and trying the tools I'm sure it will get more clear.

Thanks again

[theferrymanhymn]

Sept 30, 2010 16:33:45 GMT 1 behestelah said:

theferrymanhymn thanks

your answer is giving me a dim light in the darkness which is very promising. with using your answer and trying the tools I'm sure it will get more clear.

Thanks again

Terminology gets handy when you are working in a team. Or just understanding things on some distant level.

If you want "clear" answers I guess you can look things up on wikipedia. But I find, to get started, its wise to just try everything out. I used to hardly even read the things I clicked on.

For me, I often knew how to do things way before I knew the names or descriptions of them.
Its more fun and direct that way. It also makes you pay more attention to what things actualy do...rather then what they are said to be doing.

So yeah theory is great too but to get started: have some fun.

[behestelah]

I'm actually very similar to you in that way. I was trying to experiment and learn on my own till I ran into text, bump, and normal map buttons in the paint mode. I guess I was trying to continue your and my style of learning by doing rather than studying terminologies that's why I did not try to find literature on web/books on those and tried to ask to see if someone could explain them in a simple way.

I did try the bump, text and normal maps in sculptris and exported them to photoshop but there I got very little hint to move on by just experimenting. I even tried to add some text/paint on those maps in photoshop and imported them back to sculptris but then I got the impression that this is not a subject to learn by experimenting at least not without hints.
Other than that I completely agree with you.