Mapping a single box to look like planks of wood with gaps.

[matt318]

Rather than model each individual plank of wood for the cladding of a house i am rendering i thought there must be a way of mapping a single box with the thickness of a plank of wood so it appears as though there are gaps in between each plank. I have a nice laminate wood floor image which i am using for the diffuse along with a bump i made. i created an opacity map by putting black where i want the gaps to be and applied the standard material to the box. No matter what i seem to do i just end up with what is essentially a hollow box, the opacity works on the front and back, you can see through as if there was a gap between the planks, the problem is that there is no material in the sides of the planks.

 

these images show the problem, does anyone know how i can solve this issue?

 

this one is from inside the box

this one from the outside looking through

[Corey Beaulieu]

Kinda seems like your opacity map is inverted. That said, you shouldn't need an opacity map at all. The bump will create a decent looking gap as long as the gaps in the bump map are black and if you are really close you may need to displace it or just model it.

[matt318]

Kinda seems like your opacity map is inverted. That said, you shouldn't need an opacity map at all. The bump will create a decent looking gap as long as the gaps in the bump map are black and if you are really close you may need to displace it or just model it.

 

Thanks for help, opacity map is correct, I was trying to make it so you could see the building material below the planks rather than use a bump map. saying that i may end up just doing bump instead if i cant find a solution.

[Peter M. Gruhn]

There is no thickness because... there is no thickness. You box is just flat polygons, one here and one way over there. When you say "make this part see through" that part is see through. There is no solid material that you are cutting in to. You maybe remember the solid textures in Bryce which could do that.

 

Your opacity has got fuzzy edges. You probably want to turn off blur and maybe sampling for that.

 

To get thickness, you can combine displacement with opacity and get results... that you don't want to get too close to.

 

Displacement is going to be more expensive than just making the geometry anyway. Opacity can be more expensive too under some circumstances. The pictures you've shown just don't have that many planks, so I'd just make them. If there are dozens, use straight up geometry. If it's starting to get into hundres, maybe renderable splines instead (which still create geometry). If they're far away and way many then opacity and a bump or normal map.

[matt318]

Thanks for your help. Yeah, there are hundreds, i have modeled all of them pretty much but i was looking to see if there was a faster way of doing it in the future.

[RyderSK]

There is, instead of opacity, if you want thickness, you can use "water level" at Vray displacement. What it does, it cuts the lowest part at desired height. That way you will have thick planks, but also space between them.