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Zebra stripes: mapping

Question asked by Kevin De Smet on Aug 7, 2009
Latest reply on Aug 7, 2009 by Matt Lombard

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I'm busy reading Matt's Surfacing and Complex Shape modeling book (which is excellent by the way!) and came to the discussion about zebra stripes. And I've always wondered something, that isn't covered in much detail.

What's the mapping all really about?

So I know about mapping the black & white texture spherically or planar on 6 sides (cube); but which of those gives you accurate results, with what geometry should you apply one of the other? I notice cube mapping isn't even available without a realview supporting card, is this correct?

I've also picked up somewhere that a spherically mapped zebra, nomatter how poor the continuities, will look perfect at some point in space, is there any truth to that?

Cheers,

Kevin

1-4EQZK9 Aug 7, 2009 2:39 PM

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Kevin,

You're assumptions are correct and that's why we supply you with both. I favor spherical zebra stripes because I do more "swoopy" stuff than "boxy" stuff. For me, generally speaking, I favor spherical mapping zebras because when my surfaces are curved the single wall of the cube map environment does not span far enough along the surface that I'm trying to analyze continuity and have to do a lot more rotation of my view.

Regards

Mark

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1-4EQZK9 Aug 7, 2009 2:39 PM

Kevin,

Regards

Mark

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Matt Lombard Aug 7, 2009 2:52 PM

To add to what Mark said, I like the spherical mapping best usually too, because the box is interrupted along all 12 edges, but the sphere is only interrupted at the 2 poles of the pattern on the sphere. I think that makes the spherical mapping easier to look at. In addition to being able to rotate the part within the reflective background, it would also be useful to be able to rotate the background while the part stands still.

You can really get the same effect by using a very busy background on a highly reflective realview appearance. Zebra stripes is really just the realview type reflectivity idealized for analysis. With the reflective realview stuff, I find myself using zebra stripes less and less.

SW has provided some decent tools for analysis of shapes. But, today I was lamenting the poor quality of the curvature display option, to be able to visualize small dimples or ripples on a surface that waffles between concave and convex, but I think that is the worst of it. It would be nice if SW could improve the display of the curvature display option.

Thanks, by the way for the comments about the book. That one is by far my favorite too.

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1-4EQZK9 Aug 7, 2009 2:39 PM
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Kevin,

You're assumptions are correct and that's why we supply you with both. I favor spherical zebra stripes because I do more "swoopy" stuff than "boxy" stuff. For me, generally speaking, I favor spherical mapping zebras because when my surfaces are curved the single wall of the cube map environment does not span far enough along the surface that I'm trying to analyze continuity and have to do a lot more rotation of my view.

Regards

Mark
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Matt Lombard Aug 7, 2009 2:52 PM
Mark Correct
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To add to what Mark said, I like the spherical mapping best usually too, because the box is interrupted along all 12 edges, but the sphere is only interrupted at the 2 poles of the pattern on the sphere. I think that makes the spherical mapping easier to look at. In addition to being able to rotate the part within the reflective background, it would also be useful to be able to rotate the background while the part stands still.

You can really get the same effect by using a very busy background on a highly reflective realview appearance. Zebra stripes is really just the realview type reflectivity idealized for analysis. With the reflective realview stuff, I find myself using zebra stripes less and less.

SW has provided some decent tools for analysis of shapes. But, today I was lamenting the poor quality of the curvature display option, to be able to visualize small dimples or ripples on a surface that waffles between concave and convex, but I think that is the worst of it. It would be nice if SW could improve the display of the curvature display option.

Thanks, by the way for the comments about the book. That one is by far my favorite too.
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