9

Bitmap 2D Map 1631
These controls appear on the Noise rollout for
many 2D maps:
On—Determines whether the Noise parameters
affect the map.
Amount—Sets the strength of the f ractal function,
expressed as a percentage. If the amount is 0 there
is no noise. If the amount is 100 the map becomes
pure noise. Default=1.0.
Leve ls —Or iterations: the number of times the
function is applied. The effect of the level is
dependent on the Amount value. The stronger the
amount, the greater the effect of increasing the
Levels value. Range=1 to 10; Default=1.
Size—Sets the scale of the noise function relative
to geometry. At very sma ll values, the noise effect
becomes white noise. At large values, the scale
can exceed the scale of the geometry, in which
case it has little or no effect. Range=0.001 to 100;
Default=1.0.
Animate—Determines whether animation is on the
noise effect. This param eter must be t urned on if
you intend to animate the noise.
Phase—Controls the speed of the animation of the
noise function.
Bitmap 2D Map
Material Editor > Maps rollout > C lick a Map button. >
Material/Map Browser > Bitmap
Bitmaps shown in Material Editor sample slots
A bitmap is an image produced by a fixed matrix
of colored pixels, like a mosaic. Bitmaps are useful
for creating many kinds of materials, from wood
grains and wall surfaces to skin and feathers. You
can also use an animation or video file instead of a
bitmap to create an animated ma terial.
When you assign t he Bitmap map, the Select
Bitmap Image File dialog (page 2–1635) opens
automat ically. Use this dialog to specify a file or
sequence as the bitmap image.
TheBitmapmapcansynchronizetheframesofa
bitmap sequence to the age of particles to which
the map is applied. With this effect, each particle
displays the sequence from the start when it is
born, rather than being assigned whichever frame
is cur rent. This is achieved by turning on the Sync
Frames To P article Age check box.Also,when
using Particle Flow, assign the material containing
the Bitmap map to a Material Dynamic operator.
For more details and a procedure, see Material
Dynamic O perator (page 2–191).
Note: To save loading time, if a map with the
same name is in two different locations (in two
different paths), it is loaded only once. This poses
a problem only if your scene includes two maps