Need help with UV mapping

[robmack]

I've tried for two whole days, I've been watching tutorials, and if I follow the downloaded material from the tutorial my UV mapping seems to work, but when I try it on my own 3D meshes and planes all I get is a black object.

I'm using Blender 2.63, and using the Cycles engine working with a Mac with OSX lion, and while I'm an experiences graphic designer/illustrator, I'm a fairly new Blender user. I have no problem with meshes, but adding images to meshes has me stumped.

I'm trying to add a sky image to a plane and have it enlarged in the background. I have a white (emission) plane aimed at the plane for light, but it only renders as solid black.

Is there a good tutorial out there that can help me or can anyone give me a tip on what I might be doing wrong.

Here are the steps I've used on this BG plane.

1. I added the plane & sized & rotated it and moved it the furthest back;
2. I put the view into Edit Mode and hit the "U" key and UV Unwrapped it;
3. I opened a new view and changed it to UV/Image Editor;
4. I clicked back on the first window in the Edit mode and select the plane;
5. I click the material icon/new, Surface: DiffuseBSDF, Color: Image Texture/then I added my image;

The image shows up ONLY in the UV/Image Editor Window...

At this point, every tutorial I watch the material is instantly added in the 10 shade preview render , but I only get that solid black plane, and it is still black in a full render.

Thanks,

--Rob

[marksism]

In the 5 steps you've outlined there's no mention of applying the texture to the UV coordinates, which is done through the Vector field on the Materials panel. Any help?

[robmack]

In the 5 steps you've outlined there's no mention of applying the texture to the UV coordinates, which is done through the Vector field on the Materials panel. Any help?

Thanks for this information... I knew there had to be a small step missing. Everything now is working fine, and I'm quite enjoying the power I have adding textures to my meshes.

--Rob

[codanatic]

5. I click the material icon/new, Surface: DiffuseBSDF, Color: Image Texture/then I added my image;

Hi I am new to blender. Using version 2.66. Doing exactly the same you described I am not getting a selection like Surface: DiffuseBSDF.

Adding a new material doesn't offer any selection. There's only Preview, Diffuse, Specular, Shading, Transparency and others.

How do I get a Surface > DiffuseBDSF selection?

So many tutorials are using this feature, but I can't select it!

It's confusing...

---Jens

[neonzg]

5. I click the material icon/new, Surface: DiffuseBSDF, Color: Image Texture/then I added my image;

Hi I am new to blender. Using version 2.66. Doing exactly the same you described I am not getting a selection like Surface: DiffuseBSDF.

Adding a new material doesn't offer any selection. There's only Preview, Diffuse, Specular, Shading, Transparency and others.

How do I get a Surface > DiffuseBDSF selection?

So many tutorials are using this feature, but I can't select it!

It's confusing...

---Jens

You need to switch to cycles render mode