Creating Pavement Markings

[jar73186]

Does any body know how to create pavement markings. The attached picture is what I have to work with so far. Somebody I work with told me that you can use a rendering from the top and import it into photoshop then add the markings there and bring it back in as a material. So if anybody knows about that or has any tip for creating marking that would be great.

Thanks

Adam

[mbr]

Yeah, you can do that. I prefer to model them. That way they don't ever have problems rendering.

The resolution of the image that you make can be an issue with closeups, too.

[STRAT]

to create markings i usually model them to.

 

once i've modelled all the markings i hover them about 10 mm above the road surface, make them semi translucent, and exclude them from shadow casting.

 

but you could texture them in too being as your road layout isnt massive. i've just done this on a job now -

 

render a plan view of your model with JUST the road showing. then render it again with the rest of the site switched on. this will give you a road layer and a general layer. render them at a high res, say 10000 pixels wide if you have the resources to do it.

 

then take the images into ps and paint in all your markings and road textures in there. once done, switch off the general site image and save out just the road layer, then just map it to the road mesh. works great with some practice.

 

you could even applie the road dirt and tyre marks and markings as an opacity map.

 

[ihabkal]

thanks strat. great advice. I model them too, but at my new job they do a lot of roads and bridges, and they paint them, annd they paint so much detail in I think I'll switch to painting...

[jucaro]

but at my new job they do a lot of roads and bridges, and they paint them...

 

In that case, You could also make a template in PS and put the road elements in individual layers, turning ON or OFF the layers on a need to use basis.

[STRAT]

yup, jucaro's advice is most similar to how i work. very effective and the work flow is most ecconomical.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

thanks strat. great advice. I model them too, but at my new job they do a lot of roads and bridges, and they paint them, annd they paint so much detail in I think I'll switch to painting...

 

can you post a clipped image of them?

[jar73186]

So far I kinda get what you are saying and kinda don't understand that I know only a little in photoshop and I am still learning it. When you make the renering of the plan view does the higher res allow you to keep the detail in the asphalt or do you lose that. Also can you go into more detail, how are you applying those are you just using a material and uvw mapping it or is there a trick to make it line up? So far I have modeled the markings and that works well and all but I would like to learn how to use photoshop to get the markings if for no other reason than self education.

Thanks

Adam

[Jeff Mottle]

These could be of some help as well:

 

http://www.hyperfocaldesign.com/road_textures.htm

http://ambientlight.co.uk/component/page,shop.product_details/flypage,shop.flypage/product_id,50/option,com_phpshop/Itemid,35/

[jophus14]

does anyone have the "ambientlight" texture bundle pack? If so, what do you think. It'll be around $60US for the full bundle pack. Is it worth it?

[STRAT]

So far I kinda get what you are saying and kinda don't understand that I know only a little in photoshop and I am still learning it. When you make the renering of the plan view does the higher res allow you to keep the detail in the asphalt or do you lose that

 

i normally render the road plan out at 16000 pixels wide. this is a heavey size to play with in photoshop, so i'll scale it down to 10000 pixels wide. this res is more than enough to retain the asphalt small details.

 

 

Also can you go into more detail, how are you applying those are you just using a material and uvw mapping it or is there a trick to make it line up?

 

i'll apply or paint on the detail in photoshop. any dirt, tyre/skid marks, oil deposits etc etc is painted on over the top in photoshop. i'll just use or make photoshop brushes for this effect, and apply them very subtly. this part of it is down to artistic ability and experience.

 

 

here is my example -

 

here's the original road and markings modelled up in acad -

 

 

 

 

that was rendered in plan using this bitmap -

 

 

 

 

and i then made an alpha map (opacity map) up of the over layer dirty oily bits (scaled down version, rotated 90 degrees) -

 

 

 

i just mapped the rendered photoshopped road map back onto the mesh using a flat style mapping icon. the opacity map was laid over the top about 5 mm or so over the road map.

 

you might also want to consider an ambient occlusion or dirt map shader pass to help aide in the gi effect for comping in photoshop later on -