TEXTURE MAPPING

Blender Animation

Overview

Texture mapping is a technique for adding detail to 3D geometry (or objects) by using an image. Surface texture, Colour, Transparency, http

://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texture_mapping

Bump maps

Bump mapping is a method of simulating bumps and wrinkles on to the surface of an object. The surface of the underlying object is not actually changed.

Normal Mapping

Normal Mapping is the most common variation of bump mapping used. It is a technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents.

A common use of this technique is to take a low resolution model and using tricks to make it look like a higher resolution.

Parallax mapping

Parallax mapping (also called offset mapping or virtual displacement mapping) is an enhancement of the bump mapping techniques .

At steeper view-angles, the texture coordinates are displaced more, giving the illusion of depth due to parallax effects as the view changes.

Displacement Mapping

Displacement mapping is an alternative technique that uses using a height map to cause an effect where the actual geometric position of points over the textured surface are displaced.

It gives surfaces a great sense of depth and detail, permitting in particular self-occlusion, self-shadowing and silhouettes;

It is the most costly of this class of techniques owing to the large amount of additional geometry.