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WIP that needs some help!
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WIP that needs some help! // Work in Progress
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 10, 2007, 2:56pm
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Thanks Jack! I'm not going with the wood anymore, though... I think I'm going to try to do something similar to the building as the path, using glass (frosted glass), and metal.
I'm going to put a "median" in the middle of it with some trees and bushes and flowers; what's the easiest way to make these?
I don't think glass slabs come that big either, so I'll take your suggestion of making some seams in it!
I'll do the same with the railing, etc...
Thanks!
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by Jack Edwards // Jul 10, 2007, 3:54pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Dunno why I didn't think of glass and steel! Sounds like it's going to be really cool and that'll be way easier to texture. :)
Here's a tree tutorial Tiles did a few months ago:
http://reinerstileset.4players.de/handshaped_3d_treeE.htm
-Jack. |
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 10, 2007, 4:11pm
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Thanks a lot Jack! I skimmed through it (I'm kinda busy with other stuff...), and it looked very helpful!
I'll read it more in detail later tonight or tomorrow! I hope it works; my computer is already beginning to lag with all of the stuff I'm putting in the scene....:(
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by Jack Edwards // Jul 10, 2007, 5:15pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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You may want to save out parts of your scene separately and only combine them back together when you are ready to render.
It's also helpful sometimes to work on each new part in an empty scene, then import it into the full scene later.
-Jack. |
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 10, 2007, 5:19pm
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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That's what I've been doing with this building. I made everything inside in a seperate scene, I'm making everything outside in a seperate scene, and I'm making the tree in a seperate scene (the tree isn't finished but it's coming out pretty cool looking! Thanks for the tutorial!), which I'll finish tomorrow hopefully...
Oh, and btw, my computer froze and crashed so I lost my glass boardwalk, but I'll redo it and post it here! :D
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by Dragneye // Jul 10, 2007, 6:59pm
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Dragneye
Total Posts: 602
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First... HAPPY BIRTHDAY trueSpaced !
^5!!! Nice building!!
As you may (sadly) know, with any large building project in the real world, politics enters the scene... there are hands to be greased, and... airtime required for good workmanship in completing it, so... as far as a name goes, many large buildings are dedicated/ aquire the name of famous people in the community.
How about you dedicate it to your mom? -wink wink, nudge nudge :D
Ummm... and if anybody asks where the idea came from... I don't know notin! ;) |
Post by Nez // Jul 10, 2007, 11:02pm
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Nez
Total Posts: 1102
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Thanks Jack! I'm not going with the wood anymore, though... I think I'm going to try to do something similar to the building as the path, using glass (frosted glass), and metal.
I'm going to put a "median" in the middle of it with some trees and bushes and flowers; what's the easiest way to make these?
I don't think glass slabs come that big either, so I'll take your suggestion of making some seams in it!
I'll do the same with the railing, etc...
Thanks!
-TrueSpaced:banana:
You're right - glass 'plates' are ususally limted to about 2m x 3m maximimum - you can occasionally get them bigger, but it's very expensive. And obviously the joints have to be supported - it's not the same as a timber floor... Let me know if you'd like more info on 'structural glass' - I'm sure I can dig some up easily as we have to deal with it on some of our projects.
With regards to the median/plants - trees/plants etc tend to be very high poly and could slow things down massively. They are also usually hard to get to look natural - particulalrly as each should be different. And they're time consuming to make! I know you've started a tree, but my suggestion would be that you consider instead using some 'street furniture' (benches, lamp-posts, banners/flags, maybe some form of canopy) and/or some sculptures in the median - it's sometimes called 'public art' over here. This could be an extension of the internal gallery concept, extending your exhibition outside. Would be quite easy to knock up some funky abstract sculpture models - and they'd be alot less memory hungry than all that vegetation, and potentially more in keeping with quite a modern 'hard' building. Just a suggestion though... |
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 11, 2007, 4:24am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Lol, thanks guys!
Dragneye: Thanks for the Happy Birthday, and that might be an idea dedicating it to my mom.... She probably wouldn't want her name to be that public, though; she doesn't even really like me on the forums.... Thanks for the reply!
Nez: Thanks for the glass plates info, and I'll work on it and post what I have here, and if you see something wrong or unrealistic, you can let me know; thanks for the offer! :D I'm so stupid that I didn't even think about "street funiture"! I might have a little combination of the "street furniture" and maybe two or three trees here and there, and then maybe some palms on the islands (I don't think palms would be as high poly.... Idk, though; anyone have info/ tutorials on that?). Hopefully it won't make it too crowded by putting both... I like the idea of the abstract art thing, and that's right down my alley, too; if you've ever seen any of my works in the gallery, they're all abstract or fictional in some way. Thank you for the reply, too!
If anyone else would like to suggest anything or critique it, please feel free to! I'll remake the boardwalk, and post it as a seperate render from the building, and a render of it in front of the building.
Whew! This is the biggest project I've ever done!:D :jumpy: :banana::jumpy: :D
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 11, 2007, 6:35am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Okay... Having trouble with a frosted glass texture... Can anyone help?
I'm still working on the design itself, I'll post it when I finish.
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 11, 2007, 7:25am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Here's a rough render of the walk. I need to add a lot more lights if people want to be able to see here, and I'm going to change the light posts on the side (they're just from the object library; I put them there so I could have some light).
Does the frosted glass look right? Or do I have to render it brighter to be able to tell?
Thanks,
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 12, 2007, 3:13am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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I know I'm posting in this thread a lot more than I probably need to be, and I know this is probably a dumb question.....
I came up with a few bench designs, but I don't know which one to use...
Which would be most practical? Or are all of them bad?
I promise I'll try to do some of this project on my own! :rolleyes:
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by Momaw // Jul 12, 2007, 3:38am
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Momaw
Total Posts: 21
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I know I'm posting in this thread a lot more than I probably need to be
Eh. Don't worry about that. Everybody has diffrent levels of feedback that they like. Personally I find that pushing out frequent updates help keep ME interested. It's all too easy to put a project away and keep meaning to get back to it, then you turn around and it's a year old. So post away. :)
I came up with a few bench designs, but I don't know which one to use...
Which would be most practical? Or are all of them bad?
It's a little hard to make out what's going on with that lighting...
But it looks like the left-most one is the most reasonable. The one in the middle looks like half a bench; you'd have to bolt it down to stop it from falling over if somebody sat down on the unsupported side. The one on the end would stay up just fine, but I think you'd have people tripping over the ends of the arches as they get up and turn to walk. |
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 12, 2007, 3:48am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Ha, good points, thanks! :D
Ya, I need to hurry up if I want to finish this... My summer vacation is coming kinda quick (going to Alaska :D)...
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by Ambrose // Jul 12, 2007, 6:57am
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Ambrose
Total Posts: 261
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Like Momaw says last one you will fall over.
The other two are both well done, think the first though would be the most realistic one.
SeYa/Ambrose... |
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 12, 2007, 7:17am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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First of all, congrats to Ambrose for his 100th post! :banana: :p ;) :D
Second, I'm using that bench design; the basic one that is on the left of the picture of the benches.
Third, I rendered what the building looks like now with the walk in front of it and the water around it.
Fourth, I added some lights specifically for this render because it was too dark near the front of the building (you literally couldn't see anything), so that's why the walk looks like snow.
Fifth, I still need help on the frosted glass texture...
Sixth, I attatched the render here.
Seventh, ....... I don't have anything else to say...
Hope you like it!:D
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by W!ZARD // Jul 12, 2007, 11:10pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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..... I hope it works; my computer is already beginning to lag with all of the stuff I'm putting in the scene....:(
TrueSpaced:banana:
This where the Layers system on the model side is invaluable as you can hide all the stuff you are not working on at the moment and thus get a much better performance from your machine.
You have definitely selected the best bench model - I like how the arched supports echoes the arched structure of the gallery.
Re 3d plants you can google 'free 3d plants' and do some searching online for vegetation that you can adapt to your needs - or go with the abstract sculpture idea which would fir very well with the gallery theme.
Re the lighting - I'd suggest that you expect to spend at least as much time on the lighting of the scene as you do on the modelling and texturing combined - especially if you're doing a night scene with lots of individual light sources. Even a straightforward daylight scene will require a significant amount of time and trial and error to get the best results.
With this in mind you may be better off at this stage to start to work on the lighting and texturing as you can always add more geometry (trees sculptures signs etc) once you've got a lighting arrangement you like.
One tip I can recommend - have at least two different light setups on their own layers - one for simply working in the scene, with simple shadow settings that allows quicker renders and another high - quality setup using full transparent shadows and IBLs or HDRI or Skylights or lots of local lights as required - this second setup is the one you will use to produce your final 'art quality' renders.
There will be plenty of people here willing to help you if you get stuck. Good luck and keep up the good work. |
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 13, 2007, 3:45am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Thanks a lot W!Z! Ummmm...... How do you work the layers again? :o I've never made a scene large enough that I've had to use them....
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by W!ZARD // Jul 14, 2007, 9:30pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Thanks a lot W!Z! Ummmm...... How do you work the layers again? :o I've never made a scene large enough that I've had to use them....
-TrueSpaced:banana:
You're welcome TS.
The model side layers feature is incredibly useful - any time spent with the manual and learning how to use this feature will be very worthwhile IMO.
Here's a quick screen grab to get you started. Note that I usually work in wireframe view as it's so much more responsive plus the wireframe colours help to keep your layers sorted out.
There's an infinte variety of ways to work with layers but as a starting point, if I were constructing your gallery scene I would have a general working set of lights with basic shadow settings on layer 1. Layer 2 would have a set of lights close to what I'm intending to finalise the image with - thus somewhat higher settings - this layer would have all transparent shadows on shadow casting lights and any slow to render light setups - IBLs, volumetrics and so on.
Toggle these two lighting layers on and off as required.
Layer 3 would have (for example) the gallery building (or a portion of it) which could be hidden whilst working on the causeway or the seating.
With simpler scenes you can have each model on it's own layer - with more complex models you can have parts of the model on individual layers as required.
You will find it helpful to get some idea of the use of the Scene Editor as well as this is where you can assign models to layers and manage the whole scene. I have the Scene Editor hotkeyed so I can invoke it quickly as needed.
HTH |
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 15, 2007, 1:33pm
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Thank you so much W!Z! I think I'll experiment with it in a smaller scene to get the hang of it first (so I don't completely destroy my gallery scene).
Thank you very much for the help!
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by Nez // Jul 16, 2007, 12:16am
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Nez
Total Posts: 1102
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Quite difficult to see the bench designs - would be useful to show them in an empty scene with default lighting to be able to see them properly. The first one with the arched support would probably be OK provided the legs are actually fixed to the ground - but otherwise the legs might just 'spread' when weight is placed on top! Think you can get away with that though (although you wouldn't want them fixed to the glass - you might need to provide a different material under the benches).
As someone else pointed out, the legs projecting beyond the bench-top is a trip hazard and may lose you some health and safety points ;)
Re frosted glass (or etched glass) - usually has a very slight green tint. More importanatly, you wouldn't use a smooth finish glass on the ground as it is a major slip hazard, especially wet. Normally some sort of roughened texture on the surface to give some grip - can be a very fine roughness, or distinct bumpiness (like grooves or grid arrangements). These will affect the reflectiveness of the surface, breaking up the reflection somewhat depending which route you take.
I realise you've used a stock lamp as a temporary measure, but reckon you definetly need something more modern or funky instead of those as they don't really suit the building that well.
Overall, this is coming along really nicely and you've got some great ideas. Keep at it - wish I had this amount of time to dedicate to modelling projects! |
Post by trueSpaced // Jul 16, 2007, 2:18pm
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Thanks a lot Nez!
This project might unfortunately be slowed down because I just got a summer day job, so I won't be home all day anymore...
I'll try to work on it all I can, but I can't guarantee anything great anytime soon...
My mom is on the computer all night, and I have a job now, so almost no time now unfortunately...
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
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