cologne cathedral - kölner dom

[Almoe]

wow!
i was thining of modelling this too, but i was too afraid of all theses details :D
i have been last week to cologne, if you have posted it a week earlier i had made some photos, i´ll be searching my archives to see if i have some nice pics of the dom :)

i will be following this thread, keep it up !

[davidbasalla]

looks great! first image looks like a woodcut of the cathedral. keep going with the details!:thumbsup:

[linen_umbrella]

You're doing a great job, don't forget to update with more angles and shading to get better critiques :)

[Loulu79]

Yikes!:eek: :eek: :eek: You're trying to kill me with awesome stuff?!?

Man that looks soooo cooool! :buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock: I don't have any crits but to say this: Continue with the process so that I can critique the finishings of it! Man I can't wait to see the finished product.

You say you want references for the front? The best ones I have seen thus far for extreme detail is in pict books at your nearest library...or Barnes & Noble (wait...you're in Germany...any book store with tons of books of all types). Have you tried www.google.com (http://www.google.com/)? Cuz they can give you many samples of such cathedrals as the one you're doing.

btw: What software are you using? Is that 3D studio Max?

Keep up the good work!:applause:

[grau]

thanks guys

@almoe - thanks for the effort, mail me if you find something

@Loulu79 - I've been in the library and searched google before. Now I've got about 500 more or less usefull pictures but since the cathedral has turned so black it's hard to see some of the finer details.
It's max by the way.

[magnumstar]

Wow nice work. I really like the lighting inside the cathedral and out....Mmmmmmm.....

[ysvry]

great modeling , what else can i say , amen.

[ThomasMahler]

I'm really hard to impress when it comes to architectural design, but this here looks awesome - I'll keep watching it! :)

[grau]

thanks for the comments
I'm still looking for better reference but here's some progress

http://img235.exs.cx/img235/156/graukdwip503dz.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

[MacAndre]

hi grau!
your first pics are very impressive to me. you have to do a hugh job, if you want to model "all" the detail. i think you maschine will explode :argh: ...
i wish you all the best for this projekt. i will watch you :eek: .
good work ;)

[Crackjoe]

WOW the kolner dom was my favorite when I visited germany we walked up the spiral stair case to the very top and then my legs shook for 30minutes when we got back down, it got me set for the rest of trip. This piece is gonna be amazing when complete keep it up.

[kogh]

damn dude. this is AMAZING. EXCELLENT modeling, man. I'll be following this.

[RandalGreen]

thats sick man, beautiful work!!!

[metamesh]

really nice, keep posting! i guess it will be a pain in the ass to texture it :D

[hype2006]

The cathedral looks great man. Can't wait to see the final product.

[FlexGiddy]

That's just damn sexy. I like the lighting set up too.


Ed

[Peddy]

grrr. its bittersweet looking at church/cathedral works here. im in the process of making one for my short film, and yours puts mine to shame. keep it up, im looking for moody volumetric lighting!

[uljanov]

wow, looks great so far.

i'm sorry i can't help you out with reference pictures, my digicam is broken :banghead:...
can't wait to see the progress, i'm sure it'll kick ass!

p.s.: if you wan't it to be REALLY realistic, you'll need tiny models of doves and tourists :D

schöne grüße aus köln.

[grau]

thanks for the comments
I'm sorry for not posting for so long, but I've been very busy (and will be the next few weeks)
anyway, here's what I got so far

http://i158.exs.cx/img158/6545/graukdwip580et.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
http://img91.exs.cx/img91/5302/graukdwip58b1rc.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

[Largo39]

just for my curiosity (the cathedral looks awesome btw), whats ur poly count so far? it must be pretty high for all that detail, so how are you keepin your viewport times respectable? instancing? layers?

what are your comp specs (for reference to mine)

[Abyssis]

Hey Mathias-dude, this is perfect, especially your lightning (such I preffer too) :thumbsup:
I will with pleasure watch your continued process, man...

(btw, welches proggi benutzt du, renderings sind fantastisch:thumbsup: )

[Star-Scream]

oh my god, it's awesome, great work can't wait to see it textured or something *g*

[satch919]

Those details are unreal. This is going to be amazing when its finished.

[grau]

how are you keepin your viewport times respectable? instancing? layers?

what are your comp specs (for reference to mine)

right now it's about 1 million polys of non instanced geometry and works without problems with my usual way to work, which includes layers and isolated selections for modelling
but I will use vray instances for finished parts once it gets too slow

(btw, welches proggi benutzt du, renderings sind fantastisch:thumbsup: )
3dsmax + vray

it took me some time (had to work on other things) but here's an update
http://img79.echo.cx/img79/723/graukdwip726st.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

[wybl]

hopla, now, you have a nice rating. Man, this is very impressive. I know the lighting might be temporarly but i love it as it is now. How to handle such an amazing level of detail?

[mr.23]

the dom catheral, i was there last year, if you need photos i can send you what i got, hopefully its very helpful. but if you want it just gimme your email address and i can send you the photos of what i got. anyways i was wondering whats your vray lighting setup? its sooo perfect specially the soft shadows.



Cheers

[lhnova]

woah bloody hell...now thats detailed....awesome stuff man...very impressive and the lighting is to die for too...:thumbsup:

Keep it up I want to see a flyby of this thing when its finished...:buttrock:

Nova

[grau]

i was wondering whats your vray lighting setup? Cheers
the lightning setup is very basic just a yellowish direct light with a distance of 400m to the cathedral, no decay, vray shadows, multiplier of 1.2, area shadow from a 10m sphere plus a blueish environment light with a multiplier of 0.7

[Gremlin]

Nice work!
What computer you runnin' this on? I had some relatively dense architectural models before, and with any type of dynamic lighting (hdri, gf, gi, etc) it totally just crapped out--with some memory error.

It looks fabulous... modeling, and rendering (even if the lighting setup is simple) it still looks fantastic bro, keep it up.

Cheers,
:beer:

[TheThidMan]

Thats absolutely incredible! no crits here at all. Its amazing!

[Markuss]

Wow, your insane! That is really impressive! It must take a lot of dedication and patience to take on a project like that!? :)

[niki]

soo beautiful ... really really well done!
which software are you using? and which renderer?
keep it up

[yonathangz]

wow man you're crazy!!! that's amazing, must see wires!

[Grugi]

That must be a lot of work. Great job. I´ve found some ref pictures here

http://www.chempage.de/bildmaterial/sonst.htm

I will follow this thread,I´m really curious about how this will look in the end .:thumbsup:

[grau]

thanks again for all the replies
What computer you runnin' this on? I had some relatively dense architectural models before, and with any type of dynamic lighting (hdri, gf, gi, etc) it totally just crapped out--with some memory error.
athlon64 3200+
1 gbram (will upgrade soon)
radeon9600

if you're using vray I could give you some tips to avoid memory problems

It must take a lot of dedication and patience to take on a project like that!? :)
I always wanted to do it and couldn't get it out of my head, although I was afraid of all the details
I had to do it or it would have haunted me all the time.

which software are you using? and which renderer?
max and vray

That must be a lot of work. Great job. I´ve found some ref pictures here

http://www.chempage.de/bildmaterial/sonst.htm
thanks they will come in handy when I'am doing the "Querschiff"
I´m really curious about how this will look in the end .:thumbsup:
so am I

wow man you're crazy!!! that's amazing, must see wires!
http://img191.echo.cx/img191/8241/graukdwipwire012qa.th.png (http://img191.echo.cx/my.php?image=graukdwipwire012qa.png&bgc=333333&fgc=555555&bor=999999) http://img151.echo.cx/img151/6199/graukdwipwire023po.th.png (http://img151.echo.cx/my.php?image=graukdwipwire023po.png&bgc=333333&fgc=555555&bor=999999)

[lightwell]

WOW!

Wonderful model and lighting.

[Gravity]

Everything here is just amazing. Details are on higher level. I would kill my machine if I want to render something like that.

[lowkey]

Wow, that's more than impressive!! Can't wait to see it finished, maaaan! :thumbsup:

[Vittorius]

Dude that is CRAZY!!!
Great work with the details 5 stars from me :applause: ,
keep it up mate :thumbsup:

[newellteapot]

It's lovely!
So many clean details...:thumbsup: Very good job!

I propose you the next challenge: the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. I've visited it a couple of months ago and couldn't stop thinking that that's a veritable modeller's nightmare.

My Master and Servant challenge entry:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=233738 (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=233738)

[TwitchyHamster]

Beautiful, detailed so well! I am currently tossing around the idea to model the Vatican and you are an inspiration.

[Ducimus]

Very Impressive, I have always wondered the approach you would take to making such architectual wonders...

May you be so kind as to post a shot of the wires?

Cheers...

[robin]

Hhmm i love this, if i would critic something it would be the blur, yes the blur keeps me from really seeing all the details you modeled, this however is only my selfish persona, there's obviously nothing wrong with the blur you used. :D


-R.

[Juzz]

With this amount of detail, it will lool like a photo when finished!

Nice!

[KaDDD]

very impressive details , amazing job , how may time far all this !

[Unique-X]

I'm shocked:thumbsup:

two weeks ago I had a trip to cologne for one week with my class.
I visited the Dom several times and I thought how it would be to model that beast, but I figured out that I'd be dead before I'll finish it:scream:

How are you going to deal with the windows?

[viiltaja]

Indeed great amount of detail. Textures + background and this is winnerstuff. Model is amazing already.

Great job. Just keep doing this!

[grau]

I propose you the next challenge: the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. I've visited it a couple of months ago and couldn't stop thinking that that's a veritable modeller's nightmare.not before they finish it :thumbsup:

May you be so kind as to post a shot of the wires?look a few posts above yours

how may time far all this !I can't really tell because I couldn't work on it continually but I started in february.

How are you going to deal with the windows?not sure what you're asking for

little update:
http://img179.echo.cx/img179/4728/graukdwip812im.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

[Crackjoe]

my jaw drops everytime u give us an update. Awesome work man.

[jdsb]

looking very nice:)

[touNy]

impossible :eek:

[BlackNull]

Maybe you should review the connection between the pecs and the deltoids and....errr j/k:D
That is some fine work, never got into architecture and seeing this make me want to give it a shot. It's really spectacular with very nice rendering and insane details. Congrats man :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[JonasNoell]

This amount of detail is amazing! Good look to your great project!

[archerx]

thats amazing! texturing it must be a nightmare though and the lighting is pretty nice too

[thearchitect]

Great work. Details are incredible. What kind of render times are you looking at? Keep the good work up I look foward to seeing it finished.

[Unique-X]

@windows: I mean are you going to put some texes of the colored image-windows in there or what are you gonna do with them?:)

[Hypergolica]

Damn dude.................this work is most noble! Psychotic detail! Can't wait to see it textured. Good luck.......hope you walk away with your sanity!

[Elmo1980]

AMAZING MODELING. GREAT WORK. COMPLIMENTS

:eek:

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=240800

[Identity3D]

detail detail detail i love it, love the lighting u have aswell works really well and some of the camera views a stunning felt like i was standing right there cant wait for final image, keep up great work detail detail detail :P

[ktxed]

Respect man!
First I thought it was a photo.Very detailed.Looks massive ;)
Keep working! :thumbsup:

[OptimusDinkus]

Holy shit man, well if your looking for critiques I sure cant muster any, dunno if its possible too, theres just an insane amount of correct detail. how many polies?

[JesusLove]

athlon64 3200+
1 gbram (will upgrade soon)
radeon9600

if you're using vray I could give you some tips to avoid memory problems

i use Vray too. but i have a problem which include memory crash with very many polygon like you have.

i want to know a bit a tip. could you teach me about that?

[grau]

thanks for all the nice comments

What kind of render times are you looking at?I don't really remember but I will post them for the coming images

@windows: I mean are you going to put some texes of the colored image-windows in there or what are you gonna do with them?:)The colours are barely visible from the outside but I guess I will use textures as you said

how many polies?about 3 million (partly instanced)

i use Vray too. but i have a problem which include memory crash with very many polygon like you have.

i want to know a bit a tip. could you teach me about that?-make vrayproxys out of finished parts - so max won't store the geometry - also speeds up viewports
-if possible use qmc instead of irradiance maps - and look into the qmc sampler to kill the noise
-use adaptive qmc instead of adaptive subdivisions - again look into the qmc sampler to get rid of the noise
-decrease max tree depth in the system rollout - can slow down rendering
-increase the Face/level coef - can slow down rendering as well
-try dynamic memory for geometry - will load and unload geometry while rendering

a little statue (well it's larger than life actually):
http://img280.echo.cx/img280/8779/king017hq.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
not sure how many of them I will model with this amount of detail since they are only really visible in close ups

[rastko]

Your work is really awesome.
Good luck with your work.

[PyRoT]

You could make the statues more detailed and use normal maps I guess. It looks quite good though. Im planning on doings eomthing this big scale one day..though something more ROman or Greek as i'm not to much of a religious person to doa cathedral with motivation :P

[MaryamNademi]

ur modelling is really good,the details are excellent.the textured image would be crazy.keep it up man.

[Admiral_GM]

That's rather incredible detail - nice!

[blindsleeper]

awesome stuff, gonna be a pain in the you know what to map though...

[Totyo]

Impressive work! thank you for the tips for the rendering... I can't imagine working with 3millions polygones in a viewport !

[Zodiac]

I thank you and congratulate you in the name of all architects worldwide. You are doing something of a real high value here. I think what you are doing here is beyond modeling (I dont mean that other models that are done in these forums are unimportant please dont get offended) because this piece can also be used to file a masterpiece of architecture in a way that doesnt get old or corrupted.

I dont know if you plan to share your model with architecture faculties or to sell it as a cd but this could give opportunity for future generations to wander around it, to see it , to work on it and to examine it in a virtual enviroment. And this is a priceless culture transfer.

I worked with some restorators in the past and they are really desperate about the way that the historical places are protected and filed worldwide. They would cry if they knew what you are up to .:)

If only we could have digital models of Colossus of Rhodes, Babylon's Hanging Gardens and such.

So you have my full support in this .
And keep up the good work.

[JensDenker]

holy shit man thats awesome, i live in cologne for 22 years now and know the "kölner dom" very well. it looks so perfect to me.

keep the great work up!!

[learner88]

Lovely modeling.The lighting is simply stunning!good luck for the texturing!

[imagesociety]

Very good !!! Excellent ! 5 Stars !

Is everything modeled ? or do you use some displacements maps ?

[grau]

first, thanks for all the replies
Im planning on doings eomthing this big scale one day..though something more ROman or Greek as i'm not to much of a religious person to doa cathedral with motivation :P
I'm not religious either and from what I read about the people who build it their main motivation was to get a share of the pilgrimage tourism.

I think what you are doing here is beyond modeling (I dont mean that other models that are done in these forums are unimportant please dont get offended) because this piece can also be used to file a masterpiece of architecture in a way that doesnt get old or corrupted.
Thanks for the big compliment. I share your vision of conserving such masterpieces for the future, but I doubt this project is even close to preserve everything that should be preserved, after all my model doesn't contain more information than the images I used as reference.

i live in cologne for 22 years now and know the "kölner dom" very well.
Do you happen to have a digital camera and some spare time?:)

Is everything modeled ? or do you use some displacements maps ?
everything modeled

right now I only have a few hours per weekend to work on it but this is what I got so far:
http://img278.imageshack.us/img278/6992/1021220b8kg.th.jpg (http://img278.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1021220b8kg.jpg)
rendertime was 12h20m at 3000x4390px

[JensDenker]

it looks like everythinks modeled.

[webhead]

The amount of attention to detail in this piece is just mind-boggling! How you do that? :bounce:

[pokoy]

insane detail + great perfection = i like it!

[Igo]

How much longer do you see this taking you since your Feb start?

I really wanted to do an environemental piece such as this for my demo reel, but struggled a bit too much with it (perfect ahrd bodies) and decided to stick with my strengths until I (hopefully) get a job, a piece like this is very inspiring and great motivation.

Can we get some closer shots of the wireframes on some of the finer detail? It gets a bit flooded. And soem wires on teh statue would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a ton for sharing this man, and curious how much further you plan on taking the environment around it?

[p.lustig]

hui, großartig, was du da zauberst!
dickes lob, weiter so!

[bhushan]

superb work and along with it i would really appreciate your patience.once again great job

[luciferous]

I apologise in advance for the language I am about to use but... **** me that is insane... so much detail... How does your system handle it? if it handles it without losing too much of its speed then... I want your rig... gimme!

love it dude

[Bleen]

:eek: OMFG :surprised

I so love when insane people do 3D... look what they can do!!! I wanna be insane too! :p

Jokes aside, this is awesome, I admire your attention to detail and dedication...
Finish this, and you'll be in the front page for sure!

Keep it up! :thumbsup:

[MrPositive]

You must have more patience than anyone on the planet. All I can say is keep going! I must say that the big fear for me would be the textures, but once you get one area completed you should be able to use that map in other areas by redoing it.

[raduo]

I'm speachless...you don't see a pice of work like this every day. Keep going !!!

[RyanKnopp]

:applause: Absolutely astonishing detail, accuracy, and dedication. May I ask what kind of references you're using at the moment? You must have hundreds of them. Great work!

[JensDenker]

ja ich habe eine digitalkamera, was brauchstn für ansichten?

[grau]

ja ich habe eine digitalkamera, was brauchstn für ansichten?
Sorry I'didnt answer to your generous offer. It kind of slipped my attention as the last post resulted in lots of pm's and emails and I backed off from this thread because it took to much time to answer every request.

I started texturing and it's fun as hell (literally). As this is my first serious attempt at texturing please don't hesitate with critiques.

http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/6532/1602pu.th.jpg (http://img93.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1602pu.jpg)http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/6787/1633nj.th.jpg (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1633nj.jpg)

May I ask what kind of references you're using at the moment? You must have hundreds of them. Great work!
Mainly real photos from the internet + some I did myself when I went there last year. Only recently I wrote to the Dombauarchiv and they were kind enough to send me high res scans of some original drawings.

How much longer do you see this taking you since your Feb start?
It's hard to find time to work on it but I hope to finish it as soon as possible because it has already taken so long. Right now I'd rather do something else, like spacecrafts or a character, something more simple and quick.

Can we get some closer shots of the wireframes on some of the finer detail? It gets a bit flooded. And soem wires on teh statue would be greatly appreciated.
I don't really want to show wireframes of the statues as they look pretty messy:). There are about 50 statues and doing them the clean way would have taken too much time for such a little portion of the whole image.
http://img344.imageshack.us/img344/4775/wire017ra.th.jpg (http://img344.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wire017ra.jpg)



how much further you plan on taking the environment around it?
Not sure yet but I don't have much time and motivation to spend on the surrounding buildings.

[VanDerGoes]

I'm speechless...

[infi]

I'm sorry I have to say that... but you sir are completely insane :eek:

[OptimusDinkus]

good grief, who cares if the geo aint perfect on the statues, everything else is!.

[Loulu79]

Wow!:buttrock:

So much time...so much patience! You'll come around...I also I'm slow with my WIP!:rolleyes:

[learner88]

Very good texturing.the doors are odd but i think that you didn't finished them yet.I 'd love to see a rendering with the the sunlight like the previous ones,but this time with textures.

[JSlotosch]

Really great work, love that cathedral!
Wanna see a final picture of it! :)
Greeting,
FHawk

[lehthanis]

Dear god man, that is insane! I'm am floored by the stunning detail of this thing...wow.

Will there be interior as well?

[WhiteLynx]

:eek: Wow! I am speechless!
Very detailed work! Top level, man!

[grau]

Wow, so much time since the last update... again.
I worked on the textures and lightning:
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/8286/1956qj.th.jpg (http://img180.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1956qj.jpg)

rendertime was 6h at 1750x3000

[learner88]

unbelivable!this is insane.

The only thing i notice it's that maybe it's a bit too dark,and i'ts hit by the sun.
But maybe the real look of the cathedral in sunny day is just like this..

[Traxx.org]

Wahnsinn, aber irgendwie unrealistisch ohne das ständige Gerüst! :D War letzte Woche noch mal oben und hab mich glatt erschreckt was für Engel die jetzt am Turm vom Mittelschiff haben. IGITT! So moderne abstrakte Engel. Schlimm. Ich mein vorher war´n da andere!

Anyway! Great work and respect for your paticence and endurance! Keep it up!:thumbsup:

[sootin]

Quite simply beautiful! :)

cheers sootin

[Wingless]

:eek: Wow, this is probably the most detailed model I have EVER seen. Perfect all the way through! :applause:

[rawwad]

WOW! It looks incredible, fantastic detailed model and textures, i like it very much. :)
Keep on rocking mate!

question: How many faces has this model? :D

[ts-falcon]

*thud* jaw drops to the floor. wow, can you say details much? very impressive, love to see this much effort and dedication in cg work. absolutly amazing. honestly there is nothing i can crit....brethtaking!

[flegos]

I cant say anything, its fantastic! Congratulation! :applause:

[grau]

thanks for the cheering

@rawwad
about 30million including all the instances

I'm getting closer to something finished, but I don't really like it as it is now. Any Ideas?

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/7181/forum01vg8.th.jpg (http://img96.imageshack.us/my.php?image=forum01vg8.jpg)

[JensDenker]

dont like the camera angle. your model and your textures are very neat, looking very close to the real dom tho.

[carmelhadinosaur]

That is so amazing, almost completely perfect. Superb work for sure! Can't wait to see it finished!

[AndrewHwang]

Hi Mathias, first off i love the modeling and texturing, they are really excellent by themselves, but about the last image, i think adding in steps to lead up to the cathedral might give a nice foreground element, and maybe playing around with some different camera angles, some more buildings in the background and maybe some sort of lampposts or street elements or vegetation to help the cathedral fit in better to the environment might help out. i love this work and wish you the best of luck :)

[grau]

Thanks for the suggestions, this really helps.

I'm thinking about putting this guy in front of the cathedral for size comparisons:
http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/2414/robert09ckh4.th.jpg (http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=robert09ckh4.jpg)

[Drowned-Fish]

Yeah you should do that!, Great idea man..and after that add a women with her child standing in front of the church looking to it! :bounce:

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