TheAllusionisst Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 Hey everyone, Here is a WIP of a project I am working one. Some textures, entourage and sky are just place holders. My question is this, I need to do reveal/control joints on the Dry-Vit portion and since this model is basically 3D faces, I can't bolleen subtract them. I was thinking of unwrapping the appropriate geometry and creating a bump map for it. It would be the first time I tried that method and thought I would ask if there was is some kind of trade secret for that kind of thing that I am not aware of, before I get into unwrapping and making custom UV maps. The model was done in DataCAD and brought into TrueSpace (I haven't mastered SoftImage yet) for rendering. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Warner Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 The technique I use most of the time is to create 2d lines where I want the Joints to be in CAD, and then make them renderable inside of the rendering package...I don't know if truespace will do this or not, but the alternative is to make skinny boxes in DataCad that act like the reveals, but are actually sitting on the surface. In most cases, this technique works like a champ, and the distance you are from the model, I'm sure it will work. -Chad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 Yeah, you can simply add polygons at the right size in Datacad, just have them sit 1/2" in front of the surface and cast no shadows. So the joints are geometry, no maps needed. If you do want to map the lines you do not need to worry about UV maps, just use ortho/planar maps. An easy technique I use is to place a few OA rectangular polygons in Datacad aligned to the major elevations, made to easy sizes (like 200' x 50') with the polys a little larger than the elevation. Do a screen capture of the elevation view with the poly visible. Now paste it into a photoshop doc and crop to the exact size of your polygon. You now have a map that will fit your model faces by applying the mapping coords of that polygon. You later turn it off or delete it. Anyway, the map shows the model, so make a new layer with any lines, color, whatever you want to add to the facade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAllusionisst Posted December 29, 2004 Author Share Posted December 29, 2004 Chad & Ernest, Thanks for the techniques. In this scenario the model was done around 4 years ago based on the design at that time. Now the project came back to life with the same foot print, so I used the DXF I had made from DataCAD years ago and imported it into TS and made the modifications there, that is why I am not able to easily to the reveals, but I think I will try a snap shot of the elevations for the closest portion and maybe some small rectangular boxes for some of the far away stuff. Thanks again, and now that I think about it, this was the first WIP I have submitted here and I got some responses very quickly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Alexander Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 Russell, Does it have to be done in the modeling/rendering program? Photoshop the reveals? Would look much better a couple pixels wide at full rez, hehehe. WDA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAllusionisst Posted December 30, 2004 Author Share Posted December 30, 2004 William, how's it going? Yes I could do it in PhotoShop on a separate layer and render from the same POV all the time, but I am trying to figure out a good solution so that I have flexibilty in the presentation. The way it usually goes, is that all sorts of changes are requested and different angles, I would rather be able to point and shoot and not worry about post processing all the time. But I may end up doing just that in the end! LOL Hey, if you had done a little better matching the perspective with your version, I would have used it! Good chatting with you again. Russell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DelfoZ Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 are you using 3dsmax ? mm i think not, im just read it.. in max. u can convert all walls in poly, select the faces u want instert the joints ... then use the slice plane to divide the facade in squares, then select that faces, use the Insert cmmd (like 1 cm, the size of the joints). after that use the extrude cmmd to extrude just the new polys. that all. also u can use only the bevel cmmd after slice the polys http://www.prodigyweb.net.mx/delfoz/portafolio/maquila.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAllusionisst Posted December 30, 2004 Author Share Posted December 30, 2004 DelfoZ, Yep something like that. I use trueSpace and I am learning SoftImage XSI. I am looking for a way to do it without modeling since sometimes I am using old models in DXF format and just giving them a facelift and adding to them, in those cases I am not dealing with solids, so I either add geometry planes with gaps (tedious to say the least) or in this case I was looking at using a bump or displacement map to fake it. I thought I would pick peoples brains incase there is an elloquent solution that I was just to dense to think of You have a nice site and some nice work there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DelfoZ Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 tnx for that i think the fast way is using textures.. just render the front view and work in PS the same for the side view, im not good making textures... good luck with that work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAllusionisst Posted December 30, 2004 Author Share Posted December 30, 2004 Thanks, I am going to try a few things, one will be to use UVmapper on the geometry for a base image to create a bump map. I will post any positive results I may achieve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Alexander Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 Hey Russell, Didn't know I was being crit'd for accuracy, LOL Would have blown it up, used vectors and shrunk it back down:p Guess I'm of a mind with DelfoZ, without the poly insets and bevels...... Don't know much of anything about truespace or XSI, however your working with polys that have been bastardized by the DXF format, I'm assuming. Is there a slice command with any decent control? Ideally if you make 3 slices (edges/center of xjoint), you have 3 edges. Of which you can select the center edge/s or verts (not so ideal) and just recess it, looks like a dryvit gap to me from 3 blocks a way . Max, C4D, Modo, FormZ..... all have decent expand edge selection commands that make this faily easy, would think XSI would have something similar. It's an additional thought maybe it can help, if you don't have the bump maps made already WDA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAllusionisst Posted December 30, 2004 Author Share Posted December 30, 2004 WDA, I was just kidding you on the accuracy! LOL I haven't found a great way yet, I am playing with UVunwrappers, but it is a learning process. I wish TS had a decent shell routine, I would just shell it and subtract the reveals. Call it a challenge on my part and a learning experience. I might separate all the faces and apply the elevation drawings as bump maps! LOL But yes you are right the geometry is bastardized by the DXF process! Thanks again and take care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 I might separate all the faces and apply the elevation drawings as bump maps! You are making this harder than it needs to be. Regular old planar maps for the two elevations you will see is all it will take. As for adding the lines in Photoshop, you do not even need to match the perspective the hard way. Just prepare the lines, light and dark, as an elevational orthgraphic image. Overlay mode on a layer above and use image adjustment>perspective or distort to make it fit. And it will fit. Clean up occluded portions and you're done. But mapping onto the model is more versatile, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAllusionisst Posted December 30, 2004 Author Share Posted December 30, 2004 Ernest, You are right, I am probably making this harder than it has to be, one of my many character flaws! I was just thinking that since all these game artist do wonders with UV maps, it should work well, but the whole process hasn't been clean precise lines due to the pixelation, etc. If I was a stronger graphic artist this probably wouldn't be much of a problem. Thanks I will try your methods as time permits. But wouldn't that be cool to have a program that easily let you draw precise bump maps for this type of application? LOL Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Alexander Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 But wouldn't that be cool to have a program that easily let you draw precise bump maps for this type of application What about.... "BodyPaint" or similar/compatable app for your main modeling texturing program/s. Real time, 3D or ortho view port painting of texture/bump maps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAllusionisst Posted December 30, 2004 Author Share Posted December 30, 2004 Yes, but they are expensive and I want to make sure I can do what I want to do with them before I spend $800.00 or so. This is kind of an experimentation project for me, just playing around, hoping to stumble across a really cool solution. Does anyone here have experience with BodyPaint or Deep3D? If so, what is your opinion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 Does anyone here have experience with BodyPaint? Yes. I works wonderfully, but you do not need it for what you are doing. You are making this harder than it needs to be. Who said that? Simple planar mapping from elevations or elevational views of your model. Simpler still to add a few strip polys in 3D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAllusionisst Posted January 3, 2005 Author Share Posted January 3, 2005 Bowing down to Ernest's superior experience I just threw some geometry on the model for the time being. I still plan on investigating, but for now it gets the work out the door for review. Thanks everyone for your suggestions and advice. Happy New Year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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