Now that you’ve textured your objects, you can start adding the kind of detail that brings them to life. How do you do that? With more textures, of course!
You can use textures to precisely control a variety of your objects’ attributes, from bumps and ridges, to transparency, reflection, and environment. Using textures to drive these attributes lets you clearly define where they are applied and to what degree. The texture acts as a map that the attribute follows.
The type of map that you use depends entirely on the aspect of the image that you want to control.
• If you want to create bumps and ridges, you can simulate them with a bump map or create real, self-shadowing reliefs using a displacement map.
• If you want to make specific parts of an object transparent, use a transparency map.
• If you want to make specific parts of an object reflective, use a reflection map.
• If you want to simulate an environment that gets reflected by your objects, use an environment map.
You get the idea.
Autodesk Softimage v.7.5