Importing Images for Bump Shaders

The process of selecting a bump shader is illustrated by the following flow chart.

Select and import the image as described in Selecting the Image for Import. The Edit Image Bump dialog box opens. Specify the image-based shader properties.

Parameter	Description
Image preview	Edits to the image are displayed in the image preview
Change Image	Selects a different image for import
Flip H/V	Flips the image horizontally or vertically
Rotate	Rotates the image 90° counter-clockwise
Invert	Produces a negative of the image; useful for reversing the high and low pixels for a bump image
Bump Strength (%)	Sets the amplitude of the bump shader. Positive and negative values can be entered. A value of 10% would result in a mild bumpy appearance.
Parallax Offset (%)	Sets the amplitude of the parallax mapping. Positive and negative values can be entered. Parallax mapping enhances bump mapping by giving textures such as bricks more apparent depth, without the performance slowdown that can be associated with displacement mapping. Unlike displacement mapping, parallax mapping appears flat in silhouette.
Displacement Mapping	For realistic bump textures, displacement mapping creates texture and bumpy details with a rendering technique that appears embossed, projecting the geometry outward from the surface. This mapping applies only to Final Quality Renderworks, and to Custom Renderworks when Displacement Mapping is enabled in the render options. Rendering can be significantly slower with displacement mapping. If the image bump does not provide the desired results, try a noise bump shader.
Height	Specify a non-zero height to enable displacement mapping; large height values may result in longer render times
Detail	Sets the level of detail for displacement mapping; requirements and results vary depending on the texture and the surface’s face size. Textures without too much bump detail and a large face size, such as boards or stones, render with less detail and can be set with a lower level of detail; fine, faceted textures like grass or leaves may require a high level of detail, which also requires more rendering time. Conversely, very large surfaces, like a ground plane, may need higher levels of detail to see the displacement.
Self-Shadowing	Adds shadows to the displaced geometry, increasing realism as well as rendering time

When you use the monochromatic textures provided with the Vectorworks program, the Bump Strength parameter may require careful adjustment depending on the viewing distance from the model.

Due to compression artifacts, JPG images generally do not work well as bump images. PNG and TIF compression works well for bump images; when importing images, select PNG rather than JPG as the compression method.