Grand Canyon!

[Tommy L]

I have to model and render the grand canyopn. Its for a still shot, will see quite alot of canyon.

Anyone happen to have seen any decent tutorials / projects that would have been relevant? I kind of know how I would approach it, but Im just looking for someone who has made the mistakes before as this would be a tight deadline.

Thanks,

Tom.

[alias_marks]

I haven't done this before, but had a thought. You've probably already considered this, but the grand canyon is one of the most detailed sections on google earth. Might try bringing in sections of the mesh through sketchup. then draping a quadded mesh over it in max to clean things up, then use the poly paint deformations in max or even zbrush/mudbox to sculpt in spots with more detail.

 

Would be curious how a pro landscape modeler would tackle this as well. Looking forward to other responses

 

M-

[cupsster]

I would go google for dem data.. US should have some nice topographic data on that free for download.. Doesn't know about how much should be detailed but I think some manual work will be required for sure. Other than that you then can use that data in some terrain sculpting software.. Keep out of Vue, and I mean it.

[Pechara]

Have you considered just using a pro photographer from a helicopter and "insert" the 3D part into it? I recently had a similar project. It was a far cry from a complex model such as the grand canyon but why re-create the perfection of nature when you can photograph it for a few hundred $. Seems like a quick option on a tight timetable and budget. Here is my example, boring project but its a real one!

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[Speaker]

I don't think that a helicopter and a pro photographer fit under just "a few hundred $", and it seems like a huge overkill to me. Insted I would sugest using an aerial photography service, so you would rent a small model plane or a helicopter rather than a real one

[Pechara]

I don't think that a helicopter and a pro photographer fit under just "a few hundred $", and it seems like a huge overkill to me. Insted I would sugest using an aerial photography service, so you would rent a small model plane or a helicopter rather than a real one

 

I contacted 2 companies in the Portland OR area to get costs. One photogrpaher uses a real helicopter and flies to location, the other used a mini remote control unit. Both could do it in my time frame but the mini remote control was 2x more (700$) while the real helicopter / photographer in the sky was about $300. I have done this 3 times last year, 2 times in Oregon and once in California. All 3 used real helicopters and cost at or below $300. I consider that cheap if you think about the prospect of modeling the grand canyon.

[Speaker]

I guess the price is quite location dependant and it would differ more when you consider how much you spend $/h. Finding a helicopter near the grand canyon should not be too hard, so that could be the best choice for some quick shots of the area. A friend of mine does aerial photography for a hobby and by judgeing what he says, it would be a no-brainer to chose remote control over a real one in my area (considering that you can count the number of helis on two hands in my country

[design_geek_83]

I've used 3dvia Printscreen to take an entire downtown from Google Earth, you might give that a shot. The only issue is that it comes out as an 3d xml file, there's a MaxScript out there somewhere (I can't think of the name at the moment) that can take it into 3ds Max.

[design_geek_83]

Ahhh...it's 3dsMaxConvertXml written by Koichi Senada and can be found here: http://www.4shared.com/dir/5807782/1c394251/KoichiSenada.html

[jsf]

Here is a link that explains a method for importing a Google Earth mesh, and its corresponding image map, into Autocad. Once the mesh is in Autocad you can move it into 3ds max (if that is the software you use, of course).

 

http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/qaID.asp?tip=5593

[neil poppleton]

How about ''Vue'' software Ideal for such terrain / environment modelling. Not used myself but I hear its reasonably simple to operate.

[Stephen Thomas]

Found a DEM here: http://gfx.moonwolfs-lair.com/2009/02/grand-canyon-dem-and-vue-files/

 

You should be able to import it directly into max.

Edited February 9, 2011 by stef.thomas

[Camby1298]

While working for a Landscape Architecture Firm few years back I had to model texture a section of the Grand Canyon, and I did so by importing .DEMs (which can be found for free) they are very accurate (and pretty large initally file size) and import into Max directly. For texturing I used groundwiz (http://www.gugila.com/). From what I remembered my computer drag trying to generate the mesh from the .DEM, but that was with a 32 bit machine with maybe a gig of ram (like I said this was a few years ago). Nowadays, it will handle the file just fine.