The Studio

Begin: image, software and material type

The first three steps of every material, choosing and cleaning up a good image, picking your 3D programs, and saying what the image shows.

Matelume Guide. Upcoming features are marked separately.

Start with a flat image you have the right to use: a scan, a catalogue swatch or your own design. Camera mode is coming, without an announced date. The app’s Photo and Choose a photo labels refer to the image you load.

Photo

Click Choose a photo, or drag an image onto the picture side. Matelume reads JPG, PNG and TIFF files.

What makes a good image

• Straight on. Use a flat image without perspective distortion.
• Flat. No folds, creases or curves.
• Evenly lit. No hotspots, strong shadows or light falling from one side.
• The whole design, at least once. For a pattern, include at least one full repeat.
• As big as you have. A bigger image gives more real detail. Matelume can enlarge a small image, but enlarging only estimates detail.

After you add an image, the panel shows its File, Size and Light: "even", or "varied" with how much the light changes across it, in percent. The step guide warns you when the image is small for a 4K material. A new image starts the later steps again, and the material name fills in from its file name.

Even out the light

Even out the light is on by default. It removes the gradual change of brightness across the image, such as one side lit more than the other. Switch it off when the shading is part of the design.

Flatten colours and Keep detail (fabric only)

Flatten colours cleans the colours of your image: fading and thread texture are removed, so each colour becomes one clean area. It's off by default. When you switch it on, Matelume says how many design colours it found, and your material is built from this cleaned image in every step after.

With it on, Keep detail sets how much fine drawing stays inside each colour, from 10 to 100 % (60 % to start). Higher keeps fainter lines, like feathers.

Leave Flatten colours off to keep your image's own colour texture. Wall art and marble never flatten colours: every detail of a painting or a stone is kept.

Your software

Pick every program you'll use the material in: Blender, 3ds Max + V-Ray, 3ds Max + Corona, Cinema 4D, Unreal Engine or Other software (SketchUp, Enscape, D5 Render, Twinmotion, Lumion, Unity and the rest). Click a card to switch it on or off. Blender starts selected, and you need at least one.

Your pick decides:

• which maps each program uses; Package it includes all eight maps;
• which how-to sheets come with the export; Other software has no dedicated sheet;
• which Send to buttons appear after the export.

The picture side lists the maps under Your material comes with. V-Ray and Corona are separate choices: each gets a material made for it, never a mix. The full list is on Export your material.

Material type

Pick what the image shows:

• Fabric: its card lists "Print, jacquard, embroidery, velvet, chenille, silk, suede, cotton".
• Wall art: a painting or print, framed, exported as a ready 3D asset. Then pick What it is: Painting on canvas, Print on paper or Print on canvas. A print on paper is flat ink, so the steps for raised paint are left out.
• Marble: a slab, with its veins and polish.

Flooring, Wall paint and Wall panel are listed under Coming soon.

The type sets the steps that follow and the object in the 3D view: a cushion for fabric, the framed artwork on its wall, or a round table for marble. If you change the type later, you pick the quality again.

Each type's craft steps have their own pages: Fabric, Wall art and Marble.

Tip: Not sure your image is good enough? Add it and read the step guide. It tells you how even the light is and whether the image is small for the quality you want.