how do I use an image in blender as a material in luxrender

[ashinms]

I'mtrying to do a luxblend render where, in blender, I have a surface where the material is a jpeg. When I click convert all blender materials, though, I still only get the gray material in luxrender upon export. Is this a common problem? How do I work around it?

[J the Ninja]

You need to attach your texture to a channel so Lux knows what to use it for (this is similar to the "influence" section in Blender). If you want to affect the main color of your material then you probably want the "diffuse color" or "reflection color" (depending on which material you are using). Click the T button next to the relevant channel and select your texture in the field that appears.

[ashinms]

Okay, lets back up a bit. I'm new to both Blender and Luxrender (I suppose I should have mentioned this in the original post). How do I go about attaching a texture to a channel? I've looked all through the documentation and tutorials, and I can't seem to find an answer.

[B.Y.O.B.]

Follow these steps:

• Create a new material for your object
• Go to textures tab and create a new texture
• choose "image texture" in the "Luxrender texture type" section
• add in the path to your texture
• go back to the materials settings
• press the "T" right of "diffuse color"
• choose your texture from the dropdown menu there

[SATtva]

I'd also recommend you to go through Blender documentation to familiarize yourself with UI basics.

[ashinms]

I knew I'd eventually get a RTFM post.

[Eros]

You frown but, even with a tonne of experience with 3d and being confident in computing, and having an ability to generally click around and figure stuff out yourself, when blender is concerned reading a tutorial or seven is actually very valuable.

Plus, its possible to learn tips and tricks also, along with how the material system works in general as tutorials often cover many subjects.

[VeraLapsa]

Is there a way to do this via a python script?
I have a scene that has over 100 meshes in it that I imported from a obj file.
They all have textures set but I need to set the material to Matte and set the Diffuse color to use the texture that's already there.
I'm trying to familiarize my self with Blender's API but LuxRender has, as far as I can see, very few ops I can run.

[Abel]

Is there a way to do this via a python script?

Sure, but someone would have to write it first.

I have a scene that has over 100 meshes in it that I imported from a obj file.
They all have textures set but I need to set the material to Matte and set the Diffuse color to use the texture that's already there.
I'm trying to familiarize my self with Blender's API but LuxRender has, as far as I can see, very few ops I can run.

I'm glad I'm not the only one in this situation; I would really like LuxRender to treat the first texture that is found on existing materials as the diffuse map. And talking about the way LuxBlend initializes materials, I'd also much prefer a glossy material with reasonably high roughness instead of matte - in practice I end up changing all materials from matte to glossy at some point, losing the assignment of textures to the diffuse channel in the process.

[J the Ninja]

Is there a way to do this via a python script?

Sure, but someone would have to write it first.

I have a scene that has over 100 meshes in it that I imported from a obj file.
They all have textures set but I need to set the material to Matte and set the Diffuse color to use the texture that's already there.
I'm trying to familiarize my self with Blender's API but LuxRender has, as far as I can see, very few ops I can run.

I'm glad I'm not the only one in this situation; I would really like LuxRender to treat the first texture that is found on existing materials as the diffuse map. And talking about the way LuxBlend initializes materials, I'd also much prefer a glossy material with reasonably high roughness instead of matte - in practice I end up changing all materials from matte to glossy at some point, losing the assignment of textures to the diffuse channel in the process.

About the second point, you can just use the glossy coating function. Just flip that on over the base matte material. Not a perfect solution, but it's something.