Learning 3D, Questions Options

[Sir-Kill]

if I was not so busy with RL I would have gotten back to ya hours ago.
grass? you got a PM

oh and I also pulled in the chamfers on the one tower I edited

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Oct 7 2008, 02:51 AM

[Valiant]

Yep, SK is right, boolean operator and some chunk object - the most easiest way... also you can try to create some deformations without it, like meshsmoothing some part of object (few polygons are enough), and the move vertices the way you want them... Because Boolean method does not always work the way you want it to be deformed...

[HERD]

Everything works, except for the SpeedTree (failed to install properly)
After running the first (.exe) file, the second one (or the CAB folder) doesn't appear.
n/p
Doing trees manually, the difference between 1st and 2nd take gives me hope!
(as I understand so far, the leaves can't be in shape of leaves to scatter well...?)

 T1.png ( 453.11k ) Number of downloads: 12

detached the polys that made the window grates to its own object

How do you do it? By choosing all the polygons, or there is an easier way?

After removing the chunk from the wall, I should cap it and put texture over again, right?
Thanks, everybody, for your help and SK for all the fixes in the bulding!

[Sir-Kill]

speedtree is the way to go if you trees are to have leaves.because they use a 1 poly panel of leaves instead of a group of many polyed leaves.

select polys one by one or you can use the grow and shrink buttons. you can hold down Ctrl to continue to add to your selection or Alt to remove from you selection.

after use the detach button you can detach to element but in this cast I detached to object.

[HERD]

Having fun with plants
Q: What tool/modifier to use to make garden ground and edges random (distorted)? Displace?

 strawb.png ( 601.57k ) Number of downloads: 17


Almost died, but scaled/rendered grass.
Is this the right height?

 02_DL.png ( 931.54k ) Number of downloads: 18


This post has been edited by HERD: Oct 13 2008, 10:46 PM

[Sir-Kill]

nice tomatoes, the plant part should not concern you so much since you are not close enough to really tell the difference. my thinking is make 3 plants rotate rotate them 33 degrees and then you have 9 fairly random enough then add or remove some fruit.
and if anyone can tell the difference tell them to learn 3d and do it better.
however I would shrink the tomato plant in the house pic to about 40% of it current size

I would not be the least bit surprised that your comp almost died. that model is totally not to be used as a model but to make maps with, with alpha channels, and other bits of trickery. it is a bit of 'faking' that is acceptable since the polygon count would kill even the best super computers if everything was 'exact'.

but it looks good on the hight near the house but not on the main, since edging has not been perfected in the dark ages as it is today\

I like the mullions in the windows

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Oct 13 2008, 11:45 PM

[HERD]

I would shrink the tomato plant in the house pic to about 40%

I made them bigger, so you could see, those are strawberries

And my question about the soil...
Q: What tool/modifier to use to make garden ground and edges random (distorted)? Displace? Noise?

[Sir-Kill]

ah I see strawberries now.

so you want the soil to blend with grass?
I would not count on geometry for this.
I would use a mix map with the soil in one channel and the grass in the other
then make a grayscale map in 2d with aprox. dimensions of the soil ant that goes into the mix channel. The closer the ratio of length to width the better it will look on the model. the larger the map the better detail, however it does not have to be a big map at all could be something like 16x64

[HERD]

Mix map, mix channel sounds too difficult, without tutorials will be lost.
To make houses look worn out like this:
 StoneBroken.png ( 25.53k ) Number of downloads: 14

Should I use the same method
Compound Objects --->Boolean---->Subtraction A-B (only thinner)
or is it done with special textures?

I know, you can't have windows like this in BG, but I like the glass' reflection

 05_DL.png ( 1.99mb ) Number of downloads: 15

[Sir-Kill]

is that mine? if so I just made a 2d texture using layers and cutting out portions. but then I used normal map plugin to make it look like it is bumpy. then added the beams

you can have reflective glass in bg look at iron throne building

your chamfers are looking much smoother much more realistic

if you use repeating textures you might want to make sure that they are seamless, I know psp can make them easily so I'd guess that ph can too.

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Oct 14 2008, 09:35 PM

[HERD]

is that mine? if so I just made a 2d texture using layers and cutting out portions. but then I used normal map plugin to make it look like it is bumpy.

Yes, will try

if you use repeating textures you might want to make sure that they are seamless, I know psp can make them easily so I'd guess that ph can too.

Usualy I make sure they look good (was too lazy to fix it here, there is so much more interesting stuff in 3D), but I do it by hand.
There is a tool?

[Sir-Kill]

tool for what? making seamless textures? best I can figure is that you do it in image ready (why does photoshop make everything so difficult) you might have to ask someone else that knows ph

[HERD]

Found tutorial, not exactly a tool, but still
posting link for ref, if somebody ever needs it
http://www.freeseamlesstextures.com/textur...rials/index.htm

[HERD]

Dosn't look old yet, - looks like a cow with spots, but for now I am very happy with it

 05wornout_DL.png ( 1.79mb ) Number of downloads: 16

[Sir-Kill]

it is coming along nicely.
did you use a bump map on the windows to get that effect? looks cool

on your brick layer in ph you can scuff up the brick add some paint

slightly off topic
you can assign bitmaps different channels.

here is how:
take a globe and assign a bitmap to it.
under map channel you can assign 1 to 99
then just add uv coordinates (UVW Map) pick planar, box, what have you.
then under channel of the modifier change that to whatever tou made it on the material editor.

[HERD]

Yes, bump on glass, love them
Now collecting nice ones, - something other than prison fence.

As for material editor, there are so many maps and then their maps, - already got lost inside couple of times.
But if I follow your instructions precisely, usually get it from first take, thanks (and for the new word - mullions, eh!)

The only thing that I have no idea how to make, before seriously starting with DL's area, is the terrain itself (hills and pits)

[Sir-Kill]

are you using raytrace for the reflections? if not tell me how you are doing it, if so that uses a lot of comp power, once you have the glass set to how you want it you can uncheck the raytrace until final render, that will save a lot of time rendering.

hehe there is a lot of stuff in3d and a lot more.
I use a lot of those maps because I am not an artist, if I were, all I would use is bitmaps. I do generally stick to bitmaps, noise maps, and maybe smoke or cellular, jsut for some randomness. oh and in almost every scene I use multi sub-object.

tut to follow.

[Sir-Kill]

look in to displace (WSM), displace approx, and displace. for more info.

what I like to do is to create a grayscale map in 2d black/dark gray background.
paint on with white opacity set at about 10-30% and just draw out some places where higher elevations will be (the lighter the higher) don't make this to complex for you first go round.
then since some times that is 'to perfect' I take a small smudge brush and smudge some of the elevations so there are streaks.
save and use that as your displace map.
now the more dense you map the higher the detail but it is going to cost you a bunch of wasted polys if you do not create you mesh correctly.
if you take a plane and give it 100 length and 100 width segments that will a fairly dense mesh depending your render size you would be at 20,000 polys and it will not be detailed enough where you need it.

we will make a (dry) river bed
so lets start out with a plane with 1 and 1 segments.
load your map you made in the diffuse channel and add that material to your plane. make sure you have the 'Show Map In Viewport' depressed.

under "edit geometry" in either object mode or sub-object mode (vert. edge, poly) you will find a cut button depress that and cut new polys where you need elevation changes. 2 lines should be good for now, on either side of the river.

if you look at the image the purple lines are the original edges.
Red are vertices
blue are the first lines you cut
the green are the connecting lines. to create these go to vertice and select 2 vertices you want to connect and click connect. repeat as needed.
select all edges that have the pink dashes and hitting the box next to connect (you chose the number of connections (3 should be enough) the connect button will remember your last choice). these are the light blue lines.
finish off cutting in (pink lines) making good quad sided geometry. (we are just roughing in for now)

now add a 'Displace' modifier.
in the image area under bitmap a button says none click it and load you displace map that you made. you can skip the none button under map.
to make the geometry show elevation change the strength to what to you seems correct.
It is real rough now, so lets click edit poly in the stack (under displace modifier) under the 'Subdivision Surface' rollout, uncheck 'Isoline Display' and click 'Use Nurms Subdivision' make iterations 1.
render and the geometry should be much smother.
still a little rough? then uncheck the Nurms. and cut in more geometry.
you can add in more, represented in orange, note the oval shape cut if you do something like that is is good to remove the edges with orange dots to again keep everything quad sided
since most of the excitemint is at the edges of the river bank you might want to add more geometry there (dark red line).

you just keep adding geometry as you see fit. if you hit the 7 key it will show a poly count for the object you are working on try to keep the plane to <1000 polys.

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Oct 15 2008, 03:01 PM

[HERD]

Thanks!
Yes, I am using Raytrace (actually this is the material you made when we were making crystals)
Will uncheck in the Map list.

Q: Is it better to scale everything in max, or to do Image Size in photoshop?
How many percent do you usually change model's size to match game size?

[Sir-Kill]

there is a way to make the raytraced material a regular bitmap. just render the windows themselves and anything that gets reflected and make a map that way it is not as clear but old glass probably should not be but it is probably more of a pain in the ass than just unchecking the map.

well you can't scale up in photoshop (other 2d software) well. I try to make everything to scale the first time that way even when scaling down it still looks right. it kind of gets fuzzy when scaling down.

edit: you can make everything in proportion to each other and just zoom in or out the camera to fit and /or change the render size

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Oct 15 2008, 08:11 PM