Grass roof

[Koper]

Yello

 

So, I am looking to model/displace to create a grass roof, it must be very realistic.

 

The method, we'll,

1. I can either use spilens and make them renderable, (computer is probably gonna crash)

 

2. Hair and fur, stil thinking about it, I'm not to keane on that.

or

3. Displacement (It will be rendered with vray)

 

and I am thinking about (if i model) to render it in a seperate pass (poly count not a concern then) or create a vray proxy.

 

If I use the hair and fur then i can leave it as a parametric which is good as

3DAS explained the reason in the Viz Insider

 

So I am just wondering if anyone have any ideas/tips, other methods that I'm not thinking about ect ect. I am capable of doing them all but am just exploring possible posibilities and-so-forth.

 

I haven't seen any real realistic grass roofs done in 3D. Maybe someone knows of some.

 

Thanx all

[afterglow]

It's understandable being from holland you'd want "smokin' grass" ...BAM! (sorry, it's late here).

 

For stills i somtimes prefer to do grass in post (p'shop) as I find displacement grass often looks too rendered and uniform. it's pretty easy if u can get some good high-res photos of grass. distort it to fit, colour correct and use a good brush for variation and the edges.

[Munz]

here is a grass roof done with hair and fur within 3ds max. Rendered fairly quickly...though the scene is very simple. I can't say it is better then the other techniques, but I think it looks nice.

[Koper]

hehehe, ok steve, your time wil come on wednesday , hehehe

 

i do have some time to do it and photoshop is only a last resort.

 

Munz, yup, when i search google for refs I also get the 'green pitched lawn grass roofs'.

 

I have attached an image of the grass roof, pilfered from some website found by google. but i think i'll give myself an hour to start it in hair and fur, otherwise i'll just get stuck in all the different buttons and thingamagingies, the only prob is then that i'm not sure how to handel hair and fur with vray, probably can convert it to a mesh then, but then i lose to parameter algorithm

 

 

thanx

[Macer]

Can't really help with the tips (not enough experience) but if you want to see a realistic example checkout the bionatics website: www.bionatics.com and click the yellow animation and video NatFx button, select Max, click on the Gallery button on the left, select Architecture, and finally look at:

 

KREACTION - FranceKerénoc Hills

 

Hit play for the animation!

 

Might be a bit long winded, but worth it for a good grass roof.

[Koper]

thanx Mark, will look at it tonight, just got some client feed back on a previous ongoing project that just don't seem to get finished

[antonio_frias]

hehehe, ok steve, your time wil come on wednesday , hehehe

 

i do have some time to do it and photoshop is only a last resort.

 

Munz, yup, when i search google for refs I also get the 'green pitched lawn grass roofs'.

 

I have attached an image of the grass roof, pilfered from some website found by google. but i think i'll give myself an hour to start it in hair and fur, otherwise i'll just get stuck in all the different buttons and thingamagingies, the only prob is then that i'm not sure how to handel hair and fur with vray, probably can convert it to a mesh then, but then i lose to parameter algorithm

 

 

thanx

 

 

 

Looks more like a thatched roof to me!

[Darkling]

Eeeuch, the bane of my life, thatched roofs.

 

I am doing viz work in a town where thatch is mandatory, a real nightmare, but I have found that if you have some really good reference pictures, you can get a very good effect even if you dont use displacement.

 

I am working on a thatch roof right now, will post some pics later if you are interested.

[carlangas]

Eeeuch, the bane of my life, thatched roofs.

 

I am doing viz work in a town where thatch is mandatory, a real nightmare, but I have found that if you have some really good reference pictures, you can get a very good effect even if you dont use displacement.

 

I am working on a thatch roof right now, will post some pics later if you are interested.

 

Hi Mark, I am interested in your technique. I do a lot of thatched roofs and can never get them to look right.. would you mind giving us a brief explanation of your approach to thatched roofs?

[Darkling]

No problem Carlos, I will post a quick overview of my method a bit later (its getting really late here).

Mine dont always turn out perfectly, and I am still mastering the art, but I think that with just a little tweaking, Im going to start nailing the thatched roof conundrum.

 

Unfortunately, Autodesk hasnt seen fit to include a "Convert to thatched roof" modifier... *sigh*

[Koper]

thatched, thatched, thatched, ........... ok got it:D

 

we'll I didn't know that, hehe, now i'll probably get much more refr. pics.

 

Hey Mark, welcome the the site!! unfortunately autodesk also didn't include a setting - 'make very realistic'

 

yup would be nice to see how you do it

 

cool

[Darkling]

I come bearing max files...

 

Rather than go into a long winded explanation of each step involved in making a thatch roof, I just quickly made a quick scene with nothing collapsed, and the texture file included.

 

Koper: Thanks for the welcome, I thought that if I just jumped right in, noone would notice me

You wont find many reference images for thatch roofs on the internet, but I have dozens of pictures for you. I will upload them to photobucket or somewhere and post links.

 

If anyone does still need an explanation of how I do thatch, just let me know and I will give the step by step.

 

btw, the scene was created in Max 9, so I dont know if it will open in 8.

 

 

edit: I am a noob, so dont expect this to be some work of art, its functional, thats all.

[Koper]

cool thanx Mark.

 

you have got some nice smoothe modeling.

and the texture map will certainly come in handy, as well as any refr. images you have got, thanx man, i have noticed that there aint that many on the internet.

 

how do you deel with the ends where the straws are particularly visible?

do you have any refr. pics that are close-ups straight onto the straw ends (such as the image attached, but mine is low rez)

 

i just received another project to go onto quickly so it might take more time before I sink my teeth into the roof, bummer.

[Darkling]

Here are a few ref images of the edge of a thatch roof. Sorry for the fringing, I had to take them with the sun directly behind the roof. You should be able to get something from them anyway.

 

http://www.pixel8studios.za.net/archimg/

 

If you need any more reference images, let me know. I have taken all of these from my office deck, 3 meters away, and my camera tells me I have space for another thousand pictures roughly

 

Also, I usually just map the edges with a texture I created from pics similar to the ones I have uploaded. I then just add a bit of realism to the edges by cutting tiny imperfections into them and adding a bit of noise.

 

I should also mention that there is a great way for creating depth maps for things like this right in Max, I think I will have to post a small video showing the method later if anyone is still interested.

[Koper]

that is perfect Mark, thanx allot, I am starting to think that i should displace with a noice map using vray (about 3 meters or so), then convert it to a mesh to have the actual polys and model from there. We'll see

 

I'll also give an update when I get the time to do it, currently it is going extremely bussy here, the season just started here as the sun is shining here in holland, hehehehe

 

and tommorow im taking half day for the World Cup, yeeeha:D

 

cool choma

 

p.s. 1000 images? if not why not;)

[Keylitho]

I think that the best route for you is to box model that roof then make a texture with just mabey a mild displacement map. thoes roof's look so dense that if you displaced the whole thing then converted you would have thousands of polys that you really don't need. Photoshop is your friend.

 

Just my 2-cents

 

~Erik