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Pure Bits & BATs

Started by puresim, January 12, 2010, 12:00:05 PM

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puresim

#20
Thanks to all for the feedback :thumbsup:

thingfishs I appreciate you taking the time to find those photos, they were helpful!

gottago that's a nice tile, if you don't mind I might use that for another building (or even try it on the Engine Shed over the weekend).

I allowed 100 years of British weather to do this:

[screens removed to help load times]

thingfishs

It's by far my favourite so far. :thumbsup:
Although to me it jumps out at you a bit much, particularly the grooves. I suspect you may need to lower your contrast by a fair bit. (but it may be something else, I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be through soon enough...) Good progress.

mightygoose

agreed, lower the contrast and maybe darken it a tad.
NAM + CAM + RAM + SAM, that's how I roll....

gottago

#23
This is the best version so far, but two things stand out--it's way too overscaled--each tile is nearly as big as a window--and there's too much contrast. It would help to lower both saturation and contrast at least 15%, saturation more.

puresim

#24
Here's the last update until the weekend - Tiles are much smaller. Contrast and saturation reduced 15-20% each.

[screens removed to help load times]

Have a great day/night all :)


thingfishs

Now you're talking :thumbsup:
Probably a little washed out, could do with some darker patches. But looking much better.

(have you learnt to do whole custom textures yet?)

mightygoose

just a little bit darker and we are spot on XD
NAM + CAM + RAM + SAM, that's how I roll....

puresim

It will be done :thumbsup:

Quote from: thingfishs on February 03, 2010, 04:53:44 PM
(have you learnt to do whole custom textures yet?)
For models or base/overlay textures? I model using Blender where I have one square UVmapped texture - then when finished I stick the model into gmax and import the UV and texture. If you meant base textures, no I haven't created one yet, but I will try over the next few days.

thingfishs

No I meant model textures, so you can have a texture that covers the whole length of the building. This will allow you to add little dark patches of grime etc. will helps to give a realistic look that a uniform raising or lowering of brightness levels will never be able to.
It's quite easy once you know how. I primarily use the dodge and burn tools in photoshop (or similar) to darken and lighten areas, it works well. The way I've been doing it (which is probably slightly incorrect) is taking the length and width of your largest roof/wall section. Say it's 20 by 10m. I've just been multiplying each figure by 10, but as pixels. So in this case I would make an image in PS that is 200 by 100 pixels. Then take your texture and copy/paste it enough times to fill the area. Then with dodge & burn and the clone tool I will make the seams between each piece blend in and will add some "dirt" for variety. If you start out with a bigger texture then you don't need to do do many copy & pastes.

You've probably already seen http://cgtextures.com/, check it out if you haven't. But there are others. I've found many of my textures via a custom google image search.

I will also copy over the more accurate (presumably ;)) instructions that gottago gave me at one point:

Quote from: gottago on November 18, 2009, 05:19:44 AM
You've got your ur texture, a rectangle representing corrugated metal. Make it big enough to cover the largest element you have (I assume that's one of the large roofs) without tiling at the correct scale. It looks like your texture is already large, but if it's not big enough, you can use the PS rescale function to scale things up without blurring. Check the dpi and the image dimensions and note all that for later. Let's say the roof is 20x 40 m in gmax and your texture is 300 x 600 px @ 72 dpi, just to have some figures to explain with. Now, you have to make a different version of that texture for each piece of the building it's going to be applied to.

Say you want to make a texture for the smaller shed's roofs. Get the dimensions of one of them from gmax; say its 10 x 15m. Do some basic math and use a ratio to figure out how big the new texture should be. In this case, we know that 20 m = 300 px, so the new roof texture should be 150 x 225 px.

Click on your PS crop tool and set the resolution to the dpi you noted and the width & length to 150 px & 225 px. When you drag the crop tool it will automatically make a window of the proper dimensions. Double click and voila, you've got your base texture for the small roofs at the right scale. Rinse and repeat as needed, saving each version under a new name.

Now you can go back to each one and apply gradients and weathering as you see fit. Use layers until you're happy with the result, then merge the layers and save under a new name and keep the originals as .psd files with the layers because you'll undoubtedly have to go back and tweak various layers several times to get things right.

Remember to invert one of your paired roof textures in your uv map rollout so the gradients are mirrored. Obviously, don't use tiling with this method--apply them 1 to 1.

That's pretty much it for basic textures, thus ending my first tutorial  $%Grinno$%

puresim

That's all very new to me, the way I texture for models in Blender is completely different. What I have is 1 photoshop file, usually 1024x1024, that contains all the textures of my model. I save this as a flat PNG file that I import into Blender - Then the process of manual UV unwrapping begins. So all my textures are in 1 photoshop file (multiple layers) and can be adjusted easily. I'm not sure I could use Gmax's way of texturing very well, it's so different to what I'm used to. The most annoying part of the process is having to import the model, texture, and UV map separately into Gmax for the BAT export.

Started working on a custom wall for the lot, so no new screenshots today :)

puresim

Engine Shed update:








And introducing my Small Traction Maintenance Depot

An I-M industry for servicing and maintaining trains.




thingfishs

looking good puresim :thumbsup:

And we've got another one; I think these are a great idea and I look forward to installing them over my rail.

Personally I'm not a fan of your tyre track overlay textures on the first one, such perfect alignment of wheels (whether those marks are representing grooves or marks) is unrealistic... but it's not a big deal.
With the depot I don't like the overlay texture where it meets the street at the entrance. I'm not sure if there's a transition texture between the wider street & the thinner driveway but if there is, use it. The textures of the depot also need work, certainly the roof and probably the walls. What kind of surfaces are you emulating with that one? (I'm guessing also that you've learnt to do whole textures?)

Are you using timed props with these to give them some vibe of activity?

puresim

Thanks for the feedback thingfishs ;)

There is a bit of activity at the Engine Shed with timed props, and I'll work on the base textures to see what I can do.

These are the textures I'm using for the TMD (Traction Maintenance Depot):



I'll work on the TMD driveway and maybe do what you've done with your sports field entrance instead.

cubby420

#33
Hey, your doing some great modeling here.

I do have some questions though, and they're more logistical than technical. If these sheds are engine repair stations (maybe I'm wrong) shouldn't there be a small break from the main line passing through? I mean, if they work on the engine while it remains on the line, won't that impede traffic? I tried to imagine somewhere inside where the line splits and an engine could detach and move out of the way, but the buildings seem too small to have room for that. Just a suggestion. Take it or leave it.

Your making excellent and useful stuff here, so keep up the good work!

EDIT: Maybe you could make the shed a terminus for a spur. That way distressed engines can go get work done without gumming up the works.

thingfishs

hmmm...I agree with cubby, although the photo may be misleading. If you had a line branch off and into the depot it would make sense (and wouldn't have to be widened).

"Maybe you could make the shed a terminus for a spur"

After rereading cubby's edit there I think they were suggesting the same thing, but I can't be sure as I don't speak railwayese. ;)

As for your textures I think there's still a way to go. To me those bricks are distinctly too green, however I'm no architectural expert and for all I know bricks are that shade somewhere.
The roof I think is too bright more than anything, try lowering it down a bit. Last but not least (actually, least) is the flora. Your whole LOT will get a lift from using something a bit more interesting from a prop pack. (I used a lot from the SG & MJB mega packs on the winery which I think came up pretty good)