Problem With 3D Models' UV Mapping Materials

Question

Hello community!

I'm puzzling about a few things related to Element 3D and the use of 3D models. Since I'm kind of new to AE and compositing, I'm not familiar with all the technicalities of 3D modeling, like UV mapping for example.

I'm doing a project where I want to add 3D models of a performing stage, TV, and a motorcycle. I found free 3D models for the purpose. I know I need to look for obj or c4d files to run into Element, and I also need texture files for the UV mapping, as I see models are imported white/blank initially. The problem is, there are quite some models that don't have their material photos labeled properly, plus they either have 1 material with 1 mapping file that i guess I need to place for Diffuse, Glossiness, Reflectivity, Illumination, Normal Bump, Occlusion, or they have a lot of materials created and not enough mapping texture files that aren't named properly and not only don't I know which one to use for which material, but I also don't know what to use for each material's Textures section. Sometimes, when I load a model, there seems to be even a piece missing from it (like a puzzle), which is also strange.

I'm attaching a few examples of the described query above and I'd be grateful for any insight as to how I should go around this in the future, what don't I understand, and what am I doing wrong:

Mylenium · Answer

You're not necessarily doing anything wrong. The only surefire way to find out what's going on is to open the models in the program they were originally created and check. Different 3D tools use different shaders and texture models plus of course you can layer textures inside a single property, some of which simply can't be re-created in E3D. Same for actual values like intensity/ amplitude of bump and normal maps for instance. Unfortunately there is really no simple answer to your conundrum. You have to experiment and tweak stuff, possibly even merge multiple textures into one in Photoshop and so on. Verifying the models in the source program would really save you a lot of trouble. You could at least see how it's meant to be set up and also fix issues like baking your own maps.

Mylenium

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