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acc9340
05-18-2005, 06:39 PM
I'm working in MAYA, doing an outdoor scene where the ground plane has a very nice photo-file pumped into it's color channel. The file looks great as a stand alone image. But when applied to a plain that is nearly horizontal to the camera it looks really, really bad. This is bad and I am working on it but here's my question?

How, with a bump map can I evoke a real sense of terrain?

All I have is a mottled crudy plane that looks like I slapped a texture file onto it (think first season beastwars...). Sure I could bump map it, but with what? The ground is basically a grassy/rocky texture. I don't have the resources to use paint effects or even convert to geometry. Is there a way to fake good terrain or am I just stuck with the Evil Hideous Boring Ground-plane of DOOM!

I'd show examples but I'm not allowed to yet.

Anyone out there who could help/commiserate-I'd love to hear from you guys

Thanks.

AC

PS NO offense intended to beastwars. I thought it was great. I own all 3 seasons. Mainframe rules! Please don't flame me...
StuartVarrall
05-18-2005, 06:59 PM
Sounds to me like you need a displacement map. I doubt a bump map will be what your after because at a low angle you'll still see a flat plane, whereas a displacement will tesselate the geometry at render time and create the detail out of the mesh.

Digital tutors have a couple of tutorial videos on displacements [http://www.digital-tutors.com/digital_tutors/display_video_category.php?vcat=mren]but the best I've seen is part of the Gnomon mental ray training DVD set.

good luck,

stu
wes
07-06-2005, 04:10 PM
Most importantly, the plane need not be flat. Variety is the antidote to evil hideous boring visual arts.

Obfuscate, hide, break up, and compose things to bamboozle the viewer :)
(That's an industry term, isn't it?) Design basics will give you some ideas not related to technical wizardry. The composition of your scene and contrast between elements will help alot.

Changes in terrain will allow you to 'roll away' the ground plane before it becomes a ponderous and flat seascape of doom..

Physcally deform the plane subtly in large areas. You'll add visual interest while cheating the view to hide any textural repetition.

Even if you're scene is a "grassy plains" scene, then varying height will still help. Few places on Earth are flat, much like "there are no straight lines in the human body". Nature loves curves, especially subtle ones. Even if the ground is very flat, then the features on it can vary. Grass heights, stones, tree clusters, lizards..... y'know.

With broad, but subtle displacement deformations done by hand (or some fractal noise, baked in!), then additional displacement-mapping or bump-mapping will go farther.

Adding some depth-of-field to the shot could allow you to de-focus (effectively blur) out the middle and/or distant background while, again, hiding any textural repetition.

Rambling Man

wes
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07-06-2005, 04:11 PM
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