UVW mapping? Who's doing it?

[jinsley]

I need to speed up my work flow... I am considering doing simpler models and uvw mapping them as much as possible and only modeling the parts that require detail or that can't be mapped convincingly.

 

I don't do a lot of animation or close-up detail renders, mostly just context image or aerials. I look at a lot of sites like:

 

MIR - http://www.mir.no/#/projects

 

or Luxigon - http://www.luxigon.com/images

 

and it seems to me that they use a lot of simple geometry with very well done maps.

 

Am I way out of the ballpark on this? I know there will be a learning curve but I don't have much time to figure out the process completely... Can anyone provide any insight or feedback on their experience with uvw mapping and arch vis...

 

Thx in advance!

 

-JI

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Both of those guys also do a lot of post work. Color grading, glares, overlay's, etc... As well as a lot of compositing in post.

[jinsley]

Both of those guys also do a lot of post work. Color grading, glares, overlay's, etc... As well as a lot of compositing in post.

 

That's what I figured... I don't mind doing the post work in Photoshop and some digital painting etc... this might be a good opportunity to steer away from doing detailed models for every project and nit-picking through all the little things.

 

I have been noticing lately in the office and at the city halls that people are getting more and more focused on the details of a lot of projects when they are still in the design phase. Would be nice if people could stop counting mullions and focus on the character and design of the building.

[Devin Johnston]

I have been noticing lately in the office and at the city halls that people are getting more and more focused on the details of a lot of projects when they are still in the design phase. Would be nice if people could stop counting mullions and focus on the character and design of the building.

This is an issue I've been dealing with for a while, the problem is that during design development the Designers don't want the client focusing on details like brick or wall color or what kind of bushes or trees are in the landscaping. This always happens though because we basically only produce one kind of rendering which is photo real. We've tried using photo shop filters and Pirainesi to create more sketch like images but either people don't like ti or it's more work than we originally thought. So far I haven't found a good answer to the problem, any suggestions would be welcome.

 

On to the topic I think UVW mapping is a great way to get more detail onto a model that doesen't have it. The question is which is faster, modeling the detail or painting it? Since I'm not a good photoshop painter I'd probably have to say for me modeling is faster.

[jinsley]

I completely agree with you on how hard it can be to find a balance in creating an image that can be shown to everyone... we have been trying to take sketchup models to the cities for presentation but it seems that we always get a call back asking for more detail on the facade... etc, etc...

 

Then we get into the tight space of how much do we show? what are the logistics of creating what they want to see and how does it impact the future flexibilty in design of the project? if I was self-employed modeling and rendering for some of the projects I constantly work on, I could be looking at many, many months of steady, reliable work. Unfortunately I work for a firm full-time (should be read as 24/7 and also not as a bad thing. I am very happy to be employed! ) and having to constantly revise and update renders kills budgets and my time to get onto other projects... and ultimately spend time with my son and wife. Which has lead me to investigate uvw mapping.

 

...

 

On to the topic I think UVW mapping is a great way to get more detail onto a model that doesen't have it. The question is which is faster, modeling the detail or painting it? Since I'm not a good photoshop painter I'd probably have to say for me modeling is faster.

 

I also am not the most proficient at painting and texturing in PS, but with practice I will get better and hopefully this will help me to shave some time off my work-flow. I would consider myself to be a fairly quick modeler, but having to constantly update facades and shift building elements around is tedious because in some cases a revision basically means starting from scratch.

 

Some of the resources I am currently checking out for some education as far as PS and portraying architecture...

 

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/299/From-Speedpainting-to-Matte-Painting

 

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/57/The-Techniques-of-Dylan-Cole-2

 

and anything to do with Andreas Rocha: http://www.andreasrocha.com/

[easy3dsource]

I've always wondered this myself, but based on the fact that time is always an issue, here's something to think about:

 

If you create custom UVW maps, you're definitely going to end up painting detail into the unwrapped UVW's in pshop or similar software. However, let's say you paint some texture or grunge into your UVW map, and the client decides they don't like it, you'll have to go back to pshop and change the map, and then re-render the image (or at least the affected areas). If you were to apply those details in post in pshop, then you won't have to spend the time re-rendering the image.

 

This is under the assumption that you are only producing stills. I think custom UVW maps are most beneficial when you are dealing with animation, since you can't make fine details as previously mentioned to every single frame.