Colors, Materials and Textures

Changing Object Color

Change the color of an object, by selecting your Object :toolbar_objectmode: or Sub-object :toolbar_subobjectmode: and tap on the Color :toolbar_colour: button on the toolbar.

This will display the color gradient.

Tap or drag your finger over this pallet to find the perfect color for your object.

If you want the colour to be the same across all Steps hold down on the Colour :toolbar_colour: button until the Replicate Flower pops up.

Here you can copy the colour attribute across all steps by pressing the Across All Steps :replicate_allsteps: button on the Flower.

Add materials to your objects

In order to make your Models appear more realistic you can now add Materials.

To edit this, select by tapping on the object you want to edit, and then press the colour pallet :toolbar_colour: on the toolbar.

Tapping on the material option will open the material menu, where you can scroll through and select a material.

If you want to edit the colour of this material you can do so in the colour menu.

If you want this colour across all steps you will need to copy this attribute using the Replicate tool.

You can open the replicate tool by holding down the pallet symbol :toolbar_colour: .

Pressing the infinity symbol :replicate_allsteps: will copy the colour across every Step of your Jig.

Using transparency

Making objects transparent in a Jig is a powerful way to explore hidden internal components of a 3D model.

To make an object transparent, tap the Colour :toolbar_colour: button on the toolbar and then tap the colour option.

Here you can drag down the transparency slider on the right, allowing you to achieve different levels of transparency. In order to make an object completely transparent, you can tap on the Visible :visible: icon and the object will become invisible.

If you want to make an object opaque, simply tap on the Invisible :invisible: icon again and it will become visible.

This transparency feature can be used for making things semi transparent to help you discuss internal components while staying conscious of its place in the machine.

Transparency can also be great for smoothing out the transitions of your Jig presentation,
allowing you to fade out an object as you bring in the new focus on your next Step.

Using the Eyedropper

The Eyedropper :toolbar_eyedroppe: in Jig Workshop is very powerful, not only can it grab colours but it can also grab materials and textures from any sub-object.

This is extremely useful if you want to copy the same visual properties from another object in your scene.

To do this:

  1. Select the object that you wish to change
  2. Press the Color Palette on the toolbar, and open the Color Menu.
  3. Select the Eyedropper in the bottom left corner. A larger eyedropper will be displayed over the Color Pallet to let you know it’s active.
  4. The next object you tap will have both its color and material properties copied to your current selection.

If you accidentally tap on the wrong object you can press the undo button :menu_undo: to reverse the changes.

The short video below demonstrates how you can use the Eyedropper to copy colours, materials and textures from one object to another, making the creation of Jigs fast and easy.

Adding and Removing Textures

While making a Jig presentation you may wish to import your own 3D models and add textures to them.

There are three types of textures that you can add to an object in Jig Workshop.

  • Diffuse map - mainly used for color information
  • Normal map - used for bumps and details.
  • RMA map includes three maps: Roughness, Metalness, Ambient Occlusion


    Texture slot

Be aware that only .Obj file format supports UV import.

Adding Textures

To add textures to an object you have to be in the object mode. A blue outline on a model shows that it is in object mode, while green is in the sub-object mode.

You can also check the object’s toolbar. If you can see the :toolbar_objectmode: icon, it means that your object is in the object mode, so if you see the :toolbar_subobjectmode: icon then click on it to change modes.

Textures only show up in the Standard material. This should be the default on import, but if you have something else selected you can go to :toolbar_colour: in the toolbar and select the material tab. Make sure you have the Standard material selected.



Material slot

After that, you can tap and open up the Texture tab.

Before importing texture to JigSpace make sure you have them in your device. Here are some ways to bring your texture into the device.

  • Send them using email.
  • Send them to your iCloud, Google drive, etc.
  • Download from the Internet.
  • Send them using chats (for example Slack)
  • Send them using Airplay, Bluetooth
  • Download from your computer using a cord.

Removing Textures

To remove texture from Texture slots, go to :toolbar_colour: select texture tab and delete texture maps using :toolbar_bin:.

While textures will apply to your whole object you will still be able to change the colours of sub-objects individually using the colour tab. It can be a good idea to have any flat coloured sections on your objects textures as white if you want the ability to add in and customize this sub-objects colour in the Jig Workshop.

Make your own RMA textures

You can import your very own custom textures and add them to a 3D model in JigSpace. Below we’ll run through the different textures currently available and take a detailed look at RMA textures and how you can make your own.

Diffuse Texture

Is simply the texture that sets the base colours of your objects before lighting and colour tints are applied to you object.

Diffuse texture on the gramophone model with no lighting

Normal Texture

Is a texture that helps add in more detail to your model by bending the lighting on your model. These textures are mainly a purple colour but also contain many other colours. Below is an example of how a Normal texture adds in extra detail.

Gramophone before and after a normal texture is added.

You can quickly make your own normal map using: Normalmap-Online (http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/) and adding your own greyscale image.

You can also make more complex Normal textures using many other programs, such as Substance Painter by Adobe: https://www.substance3d.com/products/substance-painter/

RMA Texture

Breaking down the texture’s name RMA stands for; Roughness, Metallic and Ambient occlusion. Roughness and Metallic are two important elements for physically based rendering or PBR for short. Both of these properties help define the look of your material. Both roughness and metallic use greyscale values to control their properties.

Roughness
A roughness value of 255 will have no shine but a value of 0 will look very shiny.

Metallic
For non-metals use a value of 0 and a value of 1 for metallic objects.

MetalExample

Ambient Occlusion
Ambient occlusion textures simulate the soft shadows that occur naturally when light rays fail to reach a surface. Baking and adding an ambient occlusion texture will add form to your models making them look more realistic. Without an ambient occlusion texture your model will look ‘flat’, particularly when the model is in a shadow.

Making an RMA texture in Photoshop

Default images in Photoshop are made up of 3 ‘Channels’. Red, Green and Blue.
To make an RMA texture, simply copy and paste each texture type into the correct channel as shown:

  • Red is Roughness.
  • Green is Metallic.
  • Blue is Ambient Occlusion.

The final image will look a bit abnormal but they will show up correctly inside Jig Workshop if you follow the instructions above.

Making RMA textures in Substance Painter

Substance Painter was designed around making textures with the PBR workflow in mind. As you use the program you’ll already be making roughness and metallic textures.

Texture export settings

By default, the texture export settings will export roughness, metallic and ambient occlusion textures separately which is not what we want. Luckily we’re able to create our own export settings to avoid haven’t to manually combine our RMA textures.

To start, press Ctrl + Shift + E to open the Export Settings.

At the top of this window is a tab named Configuration, click on this.

On the next window you’ll see a list of preset on the left, above them is a + Icon, press this.

This will add a new preset called new_export_preset double click on this and rename it to JigWorkshop.

In the middle panel, up the top, you can Create different combinations of textures: Grey, RGB, R+G+B, RGB+A, R+G+B+A.

Click on RGB+A twice.
Then click once on R+G+B+A.

You will now have 3 Output maps, name them as:

$textureSet_C

$textureSet_N

$textureSet_RMA

Output map setup

Next to your 3 Output maps drag the **Input maps** into the slots, show below.

$textureSet_C’s RGB: Base Color (RGB Channel)

$textureSet_C’s A: Base Color (A Channel)

$textureSet_N’s RGB: Normal OpenGL (RGB Channel)

$textureSet_N’s A: Base Color (A Channel)

$textureSet_RMA’s R: Roughness (Grey Channel)

$textureSet_RMA’s G: Metallic (Grey Channel)

$textureSet_RMA’s B: Ambient occlusion (Grey Channel)

$textureSet_RMA’s A: Base Color (A Channel)

The final export settings will look like this:

Note: Colours may differ when you setup the export settings.

With the setup complete, click on the Export tab.

In this window you can see Cofig with a dropdown box to the right. From this box pick JigWorkshop.

You’re RMA textures will now be setup correctly to work within Jig Workshop when exported.