[DrMerman]

looks like everyone is catching on to the Architectural Sheet concept.

I just need all the help i can get And thanks mate. Yeah I'm working on the paths now, as I've just got my hands on a version with the correct contours. I'll post an update later tonight. The trees are this old xfrog model I had from another project, and I was pretty surprised how nice they looked when converted to Maxwell.

Thanks mate,
Dr Merman

[w i l l]

Yeah last one is niiiiice. Reminds me of snowy places.

[michaelplogue]

Looking good so far Doc! One thing you should ask the architects is what kind of nails will be used for the cedar siding. If they plan on using the old-fashioned, zinc galvanized nails, you should try to simulate the streaking they make on the wood (which I really like!). If they plan on using stainless nails, then you needn't worry about that. Personally, I'd go with the galvanized nails. I think it really adds character to a building.

[DrMerman]

Thanks guys

Here is just a quick update. I managed to get my hands on a copy of the plan with the contour lines intact, so have changed the respective heights of the cabins to conform with this. The pathways linking the cabins, and the ground-plane itself are now both following the contour lines of the site aswell (although it is not particularly clear from this angle,) and texturing it is among the next few things that I'm going to do. The slate material is very temporary, as I just wanted to get an overall idea of the colour. Oh and there's now a hedge My computer is coping ok at present but I'm dreading figuring out how to make the grass look half decent whilst still being able to do anything else in the scene

Michael : Re-texturing the wood is actually the next thing that I'm going to do. I'll try and find out from the architects on tuesday because I agree that it would be a really nice detail, and one that I'd probably have forgotten, so thanks for that!

Cheers,
Dr Merman

[lebbeus]

what about mapping the site plan to the topo (that shows the topo lines, etc.)? That way it still gets the project's concepts across, but is also a hybrid npr-photo. . .

[DrMerman]

Hey guys,

Right, well I've been busy on a few things for a week or two, and thought I'd post some of my updated images. I've come to notice 2 things :

1) woodland scenes are DIFFICULT!
and 2) in order to get sufficient results I'm not putting enough time into material creation, resulting in a very CG-looking image.

The following are WIP shots made for the architects. The 1st, 2nd and last shots were the ones that I initially submitted, and then they requested the other two. Oh, and the path/grass is fairly temporary. I'm determined to get this looking as good as I can, so again any comments and crits are more than welcome.

Cheers,
Dr Merman

lebbeus: This is exactly what I was thinking, but the client is pretty set on making this 'realistic', whatever that means

[JCAddy]

These look fantastic. The grass line is a bit too blurry right now, but could definitely be a great effect if toned down.

Are you using onyx trees? If so, can you please chime in on my new thread in the maxwell forum. I'm having some trouble with them.


Nice update.

[DrMerman]

Thanks mate I agree, the grass/path combo is looking fairly nasty, but it was just a quickly produced weightmap which is going to change pretty soon. The tree is actually from X-Frog...i think. I've been using it for a fair while now, so can't be entirely sure. I'll reply in your other thread

Cheers,
Dr Merman

[JCAddy]

How did you use the weightmap with a shape such as that?
Did you unwrap all the grass peices and make it that way?

[DrMerman]

I planar projected the entire ground plane object, and then used the planting scheme images I have to help create an overall weightmap. I always like to try and combine my mats if I can, just to keep things more straight-forward.



Cheers,
Dr Merman

[leoA4D]

DrMerman, the lighting, topography, grass and models make image 2 amazingly real looking. I am really impressed! It would be a great help to many of us if you would make a tutorial of your topo/grass/path methods for this project. Please think about it.

Very nice! Congrats on a successful foray into archviz.

[yves]

I second that! By the way, how big is your weight map, must be quite big I guess...?

[DrMerman]

Thanks Guys

leoA4D : Thanks mate, I'm glad you like it. It's still got a way to go, but if I'm careful about choosing the right angles, things begin to look a bit nicer!

yves : Thanks again. It is fairly big, at 2048x2048, but as you are not picking up alot of detail from it, it need not be any bigger than that

A VERY brief over-view of the topology method :

I luckily had access to a site plan, which detailed the varying heights of the area shown. I then used that to place locators at specific locations, (the base of the chalets, the tops/bottom of the smaller paths and a few in other more general places.) Using Maya's curve tool I then joined the locators and then played with the resulting curves until I had something that looked like it was about right. From there it was just a case of filling in the polygons.

Alot of it is fairly rough, for instance the area by the entrance of the chalets, but you just have to keep tweaking until it works If you want a more detailed method than that, let me know and I'll whip up a few pictures.

Cheers,
Dr Merman

[Matthias Wirth]

Hi DrMerman,

the last renderings looks very nice - Wow

We have you the transition grass too way build ? The looks very good

thx

Matthias

[x_site]

yes that is great stuff! and a tutorial would be great!!!!!