So far in this series I showed how to bring in an image to use as a texture, and how to adjust the image’s size.

For this post, I thought I’d relate all of this to Thanksgiving. How, you ask? By showing how to use image import to decorate a Thanksgiving table model. (And I realize our readers in the US won’t see this for a few days – too busy at their actual Thanksgiving tables. But you can use this technique to decorate for the next holiday 🙂

Here’s a lovely model I found to get you into the holiday mood:

Click the “3D Warehouse” logo at the bottom right, if you want to open this model’s download page.

This is what I want to showcase in this model: the serving dishes full of food. How is this done?

(If you download this model, be sure to also check out the “face-me” turkey.)

Model a Thanksgiving Dish

In my family I’m always assigned the old standby – green bean casserole. So that’s what I’ll add to this festive table.

Here’s a picture I found online:

I went to the 3D Warehouse and downloaded a serving dish model.

Just below the top of the serving dish, I added a rectangle. This is the face that will be painted with casserole.

To get the actual face to be painted, I right-clicked on the rectangle and ran Intersect Faces / With Model. With the dish hidden, I can see the intersection edges.

I trimmed the face and brought back the dish (Edit / Unhide / All).

Paint the Food

I used File / Import to paint the casserole picture on the trimmed face. Not quite right in how it tiles.

So I ran texture positioning on this face. The green pin does all the work – making the image the right size and rotating it to fit.

After the image was adjusted, I scaled the serving dish and its painted face to fit the table. I then moved it to join the peas and stuffing and mashed potatoes.

And the best part – you won’t get sleepy after finishing this project 🙂

Enjoy your Thanksgiving!