[Tim Ellis]

Nice update Michael. Can't wait to see some beat up furniture in there too.


Tim.

[iandavis]

amazing work as always!

just one comment, having spent a lot of time mucking about such old ruins (I'm from Nova Scotia and they have a LOT of abandoned farmhouses in rural Nova Scotia) I would only comment the following.

a) old walls are usually made of slats & plaster. Which gets very uneven with age (lots of bumps and pits). Many houses had been plastered and papered many times, which leads to a lot of wavey uneven walls. They certainly are not flat like moder walls. Plus, in many cases at the bottom or top there are areas where the plaster has fallen off the bone (so to speak)
http://cv.iandavis.ws/maingallery/Photo ... N5928.html

b) old wallpaper was not printed using the synthetic dyes we are used to. In fact most old wallpaper is almost blank due to lightfast issues and fading, water damage, etc. The contrast on your paper is too high, the waterdamaged parts are great, but if the paper pattern were almost masked by years of fading and dirt, it would look more realistic.

http://cv.iandavis.ws/maingallery/Photo ... use02.html

sorry, it's not color, but you can see where the pattern is hidden from the sun it's pretty clear, but where the sun shines on the wall, it's almost gone.

c) The ceiling. generally ceilings are painted... unless you are talking some sort of exotic fabric coating... I've never seen a ceiling like that. The effect your are showing does happen, but the paint will fall off way before it gets to that point, so realistically you would see bare spots with large chunks of paint on the floor. Old houses often had several layers of very thick, very toxic lead based oil paint. Sometimes it would flake off in chunks at least 1mm thick!

d) Damage. One constant I have observed with abandoned buildings is the damage. Usually unless we are talking about the jungles of Brazil, many people (ie. Teenagers) have been there, and usually their frustrations with their parents or whatever is wreaked on the walls or windows. I can't remember a single ruin I've explored without these tell-tale marks. In some cases people actually lit bon-fires INSIDE the livingrooms. I'd suggest adding the presence of such vandals, with a few choice damaged sections, a few modern or not-so-modern artifacts, like coke bottles, chip bags, etc.

I don't have all my photos up right now (under development) but you are welcome to use any of my photos (that are up) as reference material.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the final render!!

cheers
Ian[/url]

[michaelplogue]

Thanks guys!

Great comments there Ian! I had been thinking to do some plaster/lathe damage, but just haven't had much time to work on it yet. Great reference photo! Looks like a pretty extensive modeling job...

I think you are definately right about the ceiling. I was basing this off of an apartment I had seen that had thick layers of latex (modern) paint on a cement surface, where water had leaked in causing it to separate in huge sheets. But that wouldn't really match an older home. I'll work on something more appropriate - to include broken plaster as well.. (sigh.... more work... )

Sunlight fading is something I hadn't considered... Should be easy enough to do - I would guess that patterns would be shaper nearer the ceiling where you wouldn't get too much direct sunlight.

Guess I got a lot more work in front of me......

Thanks again for the comments!

[michaelplogue]

Here's a test with some broken plaster with wooden lathing. Took me a while to figure the best way to handle something this. Started off trying to draw a random spline to extrude and boolean away from my wall, but the edges were too regular. I ended up putting a fractal noise modifier on a heavily subdivided box and bent it to form a sort of bowl. I butted this up next to the wall then boolean subtracted it and got much better results. Not sure if I want to tackle broken lathing as this will not really be seen close up.....

[iandavis]

dude... that's awsum!

isn't it a bi*** trying to duplicate the extreme detail in the real world.

[michaelplogue]

isn't it a bi*** trying to duplicate the extreme detail in the real world.

It sure is.... It certainly isn't as straightforward as doing nice clean renders of pristine, modern rooms. It sure as heck increased the poly count, that's for sure!

I definitely must be a glutton for punishment...

[Tim Ellis]

Great update, but more plaster between the lathing.

The edges of the plaster are really good.

Tim.

[superbad]

Fantastic. However, if you want ot really push it over the top, there are a couple things I'd tweak.

I've chipped off a fair bit of plaster in this bloody house, and I would say lath tends to be just a bit rougher cut than what you've got there. They knew it was going to be covered in plaster, so they didn't worry if it wasn't nice and straight. Most of the boards are warped and bent, and the gaps are pretty inconsistent. If you do a Google image search on "plaster lath", there are some good examples.

Also, plaster doesn't usually come off as cleanly as what you've got there. Plaster is done in two layers- the base layer is really gritty and coarse and sort of grey, and it sticks like hell in all the rough grain of the lathe. Even when you're trying to get the plaster off, little sandy bits will stick all over the lath unless you really work to scrape it all off. The top plaster layer is smoother and whiter, and it separates a lot more easily from the base layer. Usually it's just the topcoat that flakes off due to damage, leaving most of the base coat still on the wall.

[michaelplogue]

Thanks Tim! I thought of that as well. Just going to break off a couple of rough pieces and shove them in the cracks...

Thanks for the tips superbad! I'll make a texture layer of 'klingon' plaster to combine with the wood lathe texture. Plus, I'll work on getting some rougher, more randomized lathing - maybe break and split one or two. I'll also try getting a layered appearance of the plaster by just using mapping. If I can't get a decent look that way, then I won't sweat it too much. This isn't really meant to be in any close-up shots, and my benchmarks are already getting pretty low....

I'll make another "hole in the wall" for another part of the room (perhaps a whole section of wall). Then, I'll need to re-tear a few of the wallpaper panels to accommodate these sections...... I guess I also need to start thinking about how to model some broken chunks of plaster to pile on the floor........

[sandykoufax]

very nice test.

IMO, the plaster of wall is too clean.

[michaelplogue]

Thanks Sandy! I've made it a bit dirtier now. I haven't had too much time to play with this very much recently, but here's a larger broken plaster section integrated into the room, with peeled wallpaper. I still need to break a bunch of the wood lathing to make it more appropriate, plus add some plaster rubble on the floor. I also need to start over on the ceiling with some different paint peeling layers there as well. I may use the smaller crumbled plaster section that I posted earlier in the ceiling.

All of your comments have been great, and have helped me considerably in making this better. Please, keep them coming!

the really weird thing about this is that after all of this work, I still don't really know what I'm eventually going to do with this scene........

[michaelplogue]

Finally got some decent broken plaster on the floor. Had to break down and figure out how to use 3ds Max Reactor system... Here's a quick render of a close-up. I think I made it a bit too thick, but at a distance I don't think anyone will notice....

[michaelplogue]

Another quick update. Punched a small hole in the lathing here. Of course, I had to model the back side of the opposite wall to show the plaster that oozes through the lathing when it's applied..

[superbad]

Holy crap that's hot. You're right, the plaster on the ground is a touch thick. I'm not sure it would come off in big pieces like that either- it tends to shatter and crumble. But on the whole this scene is going to be just amazing.

[Tim Ellis]

The wall is looking great. Nice touch with the new plaster.


Plaster that old would just about disintegrate when it hit the floor, I agree with superbad. I think they should be smaller pieces.

Lots of dust on the skirting board from the wall too. (A weightmapped 'dust' layer would work.)



Tim.