nybt-forum-threads Seraf's Atelier

[darn42 1,268]

 

 

I have a question, how do you make the bricks over arches? Is it modeled or a custom texture to fit uvw mapping? If it's a texture, would you mind showing us how to make a texture like that.

 

Just gotta say I love when you have updates 'cause everything you do is impeccable, it's a shame you don't have more time.

[Vlasky 1,803]

That fountain is gorgeous! You can be nicknamed THE FOUNTAINHEAD :O ZOMG r u like republican?? :P

[edwardjeria 503]

I can not help my friend

darko could ask or bipin, sorry

moreover, this a great job or performing any

ps, happy new year

[Seraf 1,238]

edwardjeria - Thank you, and I'm still working on Maine Memorial but I didn't forget about it.

darn42 - Thank you About bricks over arches - it's just a texture, I can't model each separate block/brick (even if it would make texturing easier) because my computer would have hard time handling the scene. And how I make it, it's simple, really You need two textures, the first one is in color and it is responsible for colors of bricks/blocks. The second one is black-and-white at it's practicaly an elevation drawing of a wall (or part of it), you put the second one as bump map and the first one as diffuse map and voila!

When you put black-and-white map over color map in photoshop or other graphic program it should look like that:

 

Hope it helps. If you need any more explanations please just ask!

Vlasky - Thank you The Fountainhead... I think I like it ;P But I'm afraid I don't understand second part of your post ^^"

I think the fountain is finished... hope it looks good It's HD render and it will be exported in HD Time for nightlights

 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I think the fountain is finished... hope it looks good

It's... uhm, acceptable, I think. Yes. *faints*

[darn42 1,268]

Ok, so I understand how the material works now, but I'm still having trouble imagining how you would make the bricks over the arches as an image. Get a reference of the building to photoshop to use for making the bricks in the right spot... do you render out a normal brick template (or something similar) then replace the stuff over the arches with bricks you draw yourself?

[Seraf 1,238]

T Wrecks - Thank you Can I assume you like it?

darn42 - So, if I understand correctly you are asking me how I divide space above arches? It's simple too It's just geometry (and maybe a little bit of classical architecture). You take the photo of the building where you see the arch, in this case this photo will do nicely:

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/University_Club_of_New_York.jpg

 

You need to divide height of the wall into 18 parts (in this case), one of them is clearly bigger than others but I think they all differ about inch or two (depends where it was convenient for architect). You need a little practice with proportions here but after a few tries you should get it right (remember, nobody is going to check if your model is the same as actual building in every inch - took me some time to learn that ). After that you need to divide wall vertically, look at the photo where separate blocks have beginning and end. The centre of the window is pointing one dividing line, in term of whole elevation the centre of the entrance is pointing another, every window of thrid floor has two lines by its sides and so on. You should get much of the lines just by looking at the actual building. Now, the bricks/blocks around extrados (outer line of arch). Usually arch is divided into equal parts and then the angle lines of blocks are just extension of them. The lines usually ends with first line of blocks above them but there's no rule for that I'm afraid.
When I'm reading this now it doesn't seem so easy at all... anyway, is that what you were asking?

 

And the nightlights:

[Parisian 549]

libellibicus - Thank you, it's always nice to hear something like that

As I said in TimesSquare thread, I almost finished modeling of Maine National Monument.

I'm thinking about exporting it in HD for more details so here's two versions; HD and below it - SD size for comparison. Just need to add sculptures and then I can make textures

 

 

I also think about exporting a second version - rotated about ~45 degrees so it would fit very nicely in corner entrances like the original on corner of Central Park. Tell me please what you think

 

This work is absolutely gorgeous. :D

I m really into urban elements these days. And fountains are part of it.

Bating buildings is good, but thank you very much for thinking to what also make New York : Fountains, monuments and statues. 

 

Btw, In my memory, someone was realizing the Bethesda Fountain (is that you?), I strictly don't remember and too lazy to check everyone's topics. :S

 

Just thank you for this very promising fountain.

 

ps : Your University Club is also a very well Bated building (texture and modeling)

[darn42 1,268]

Yea, that helps, thank you so much for taking the time to explain that for me.

 

Also, the nightlights on the fountain, I'm not sure I like how the streams are illuminated. It looks like they are glowing, and they wouldn't glow like that without some sort of powerful light under the water. I think you should switch to transparent water if you aren't already and add some light objects under water with a self-illumination material put on them. 

 

Btw, for the water, use refraction at max difference in the "advanced rendering options" menu to set the color, and in the same menu, check the "solid" checkbox under glass/translucency. even though the water is just a simple plane, the way that max calculates refraction, you get accurate bending and colors with that checked. This will make lights you place under the water render really nicely.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

T Wrecks - Thank you Can I assume you like it?

Yes, just to avoid misunderstandings, the word "acceptable" was quite the understatement.

 

As for the night lights, I agree with darn42. I have the impression that both of them (the spotlights (?) for the water jets and the lamps in the corners) are too limited to the object itself and don't really seem to cast any light on their surroundings.

[Seraf 1,238]

Parisian - Thank you! Its so nice to "hear" that I envy you, you live in the city with so many beautiful monuments And yes, I started making Bethesda Fountain and Terrace in 2009... and I'm still tweaking it from time to time. When I finish it I think it will be kinda like a crown jewel in my BAT collection

 

darn42 - It's nothing, really. I'm glad I could help You're probably right about water from jets... I took fountain from UN building BAT as a reference but there is more light around it than in my scene. I don't really want to put any kind of ilumination in main basin, I don't see anything like that in RL except on one photo and it isn't very nicely done. I actually thought about disabling jets for the night view.
But thank you very much for other hints!

 

T Wrecks - I thought so, I was just joking
I tried to improve the lights, pleas tell me what you think now

 

I think it looks better now...although the amount of time it took for rendering this small view is just ridiculous...(around 45 min)...

 

[darn42 1,268]

That looks perfect. Soooo much better.

[edwardjeria 503]

o my god

I can not stand such beauty and details

 

I can not wait

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Great!

 

Oh, and I know you got my comment right, but a while ago I posted an obviously sarcastic comment (well, I thought it was obvious) somewhere, and another member (not the one "affected" by my comment!) totally misunderstood my post and reprimanded me. That's why I have become more careful.

[Darknono35 3,137]

Oh my god, it's gorgeous

I hope to see them on the game very soon

[Delecto 941]

I think it looks better now...although the amount of time it took for rendering this small view is just ridiculous...(around 45 min)...

 

Yeee... particle system isn't really a friend of time gained.

 

Love this fountain.

[PBGV103 729]

From what I understand, the particle system has to generate geometry while rendering, so it may be beneficial to convert the streams to polys before rendering. Then again it may make no difference, or even make it worse. Your view port would definitely slow down a little. You would just need to play around with it and see what works best.

[darn42 1,268]

I forget if particle systems can be converted straight to geometry. I know that you can do so with the "mesher" compound object. 

PBGV you are technically right (the best kind of right) but it's not during rendering, it's right before it during the translation period. It will increase rendering time by being lots of geometry to calculate refraction for. But it tells you two different parts at the bottom of the screen, rendering time and translation time. If the translation time is very long, it is worth converting to a mesh, if it's the actual rendering time then a rethink of the materials will probably fix the problem. Potentially using a simpler water material for the spouts could help. 

 

Btw, if you ever have lots of geometry, convert to an editable mesh rather than a poly. The way it stores the information and renders it uses less computing power and speeds up both renders and viewport performance, but if I remember correctly, it raises ram usage, not positive about the ram thing though.

[Seraf 1,238]

darn42 - Thank you

edwardjeria - Thank you

T Wrecks - Thanks! And I totally understand, sometimes (all the time?) I'd speak and tell my opinions in very characteristic, sarcastic manner and not everyone gets it. And then I'm usually taken as not really nice person

Darknono35 - Thank you! And I should be ashamed of myself that I haven't exported it yet I promise I will try to do it as soon as I can.

Delecto - Thank you, and yes. The materials probably aren't helping either

PBGV103 - Thank you for the hint!

darn42 - Thank you again You are much better than me in this whole 3D bussines


So, I didn't have much time in January, and then I was sick most of the February (I still am a little)... but I managed to do a few small things. Although I'm totally displeased with myself, I was here no longer that 2 days ago and the Trixie nominations were still on. But since my head was spinning and I couldn't put one sentence together I thought maybe I'll just do it the next day. I wanted to do it now and what? They're over Damn.
But well... I cannot do anything with it now so there's no point in whining. Anyway, as I was saying I managed to get something done;

Texture for alley on University Club Building and also texture of its roof pavilion:

 

And a little teaser (I know, I shouldn't...but you know how it is)

 

[Vlasky 1,803]

Manhattan Municipal Building :O

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Great job!

It's looking really good!

[edwardjeria 503]

Manhattan Municipal Building :O

think alike

[Girafe 1,729]

I love the fountain, you could give a small touch of glare and reduce the yellow a little bit. The rest is sublime  

[Jack_wilds 550]

luv the work, the progress, the expert modeling...   :bunny:

[Seraf 1,238]

Vlasky - that's correct ;D

 

Schriefer - Thank you

 

edwardjeria - Thanks

 

Girafe - Thank you And add glare to what? I just hope not to the water - I'm afraid it would take even longer to render ;D

 

Jack_wilds - Thank you

 

So, here's a small update on University Club where I started a little ... tweaking The roof pavillion is made from latticework now as it should be, I fixed the entrance arch (and also managed to delete columns in process so don't worry about that black spots), I also modeled stonework on corner pillars and around the windows (pillars look much better in my opinion now) and now I'm considering modeling the rest of the stonework on 5th ave and 34th street elevations instead of just putting texture there. Also I modeled again the seals (rectangles between small balconies) on the right side of the first floor and you can compare them with the old ones. Yeah...I think that's all for now, next update should show complete model with textures

 

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Wonderful work on the details.

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Wow! It will be a great BAT! Nice job.

[PBGV103 729]

Looking good!

[Vlasky 1,803]

It really looks amazing

[SimCoug 5,972]

Just wanted to let you know I'm really looking forward to the university club. the details look stunning.