texturing large areas?

[soulburn3d]

I recommend using this technique...

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/tiling_trick/tiling_trick.htm

Use it to get a good solid layer of concrete, then you can use smaller maps to add your paint details.

- Neil

[Sinew]

Thanks for the reply Neil, but thats pretty much how I do the texturing now, often using several masks and several different diffuse textures, but with this techique I cant paint detail onto the ground.
Any sugestions?

Cheers, Dean

[leigh]

Is there any particular reason why you can't break up the object into smaller objects? That's how we tend to tackle this problem. If we're dealing with an object that is going to be seen at an extreme close up, then breaking it into smaller sections and texturing each with a high res image tends to be the most logical and practical solution.

[soulburn3d]

Thanks for the reply Neil, but thats pretty much how I do the texturing now, often using several masks and several different diffuse textures, but with this techique I cant paint detail onto the ground.

Well, use this technique to add your "base layer" of pavement. Then ontop of that layer smaller maps to add those details. Like, instead of trying to place a giant 16k map on the whole thing, paint a 2k image of a white line, then setup a uvset on your object that's maybe only 1/8th the size of your ground, but then have it repeat 8 times to give you a highres line that travels along the whole length of the object. Use the same technique for all the other details. Basically, use layering inside of max to construct a giant 16k map from lots of smaller 2 or 4k maps. You can use either the CompositeMap or Mix maps.

- Neil

[lifelikecarcass]

Create the base material of your ground plane like the asphalt or concrete that you want to paint on.
Then bake an occlusion pass of your plane with a UV guide layer from the top orthographic view.
Render it as large as you can get away with.
Open it in photoshop and add your details on new layers as needed.

[Sinew]

leigh - thanks ive tried that, and i find its just not very practical to work with in PS.

soulburn - that sounds like an interesting technique, and ill def have a go at that, although im unsure as to how versitile this method will be, especially with varying curves and organic shapes. PS love the scripts, been using them for a while now!

lifelikecarcass - this method will still mean having huge maps sadly. thanks for your input though!

[soulburn3d]

soulburn - that sounds like an interesting technique, and ill def have a go at that, although im unsure as to how versitile this method will be, especially with varying curves and organic shapes.

Trust me, I worked on a feature film that involved a lot of roads a few years ago, including plenty of organic shapes, and the technique works fine :)

Not that the technique is perfect though, Leigh's technique has advantages too, it's a little more straightforward since you can preview the final result in 2d easily, this technique requires more 3d test renders to make sure all your layers line up, and it requires multiple uv sets. There's more than 1 way to skin a cat, but this technique seemed to work the best for us.

PS love the scripts, been using them for a while now!

Thanks, glad you like em.

- Neil

[Reactric]

I recommend using this technique...

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/tiling_trick/tiling_trick.htm

Use it to get a good solid layer of concrete, then you can use smaller maps to add your paint details.

- Neil


thanks for link.

[Dtox]

lifelikecarcass - this method will still mean having huge maps sadly. thanks for your input though!
Maybe I'm not understanding right.
How exactly would you like to paint?
Paint on the image map in PS?
Or paint on the geometry in your 3D app?

I can't see how you could use small maps that will be applied to a huge object without using tiling.
And tiling doesn't look good most of the time.
What I'm suggesting is that you can at least *work* with smaller maps in photoshop, but you'll still have to generate a huge map in the long run.
You create your detail on small maps that will be much more manageable.
You'll end up with 1 large map aside from the base map that contains all your painted detail and an alpha to blend with.
Using your baked asphalt image, you isolate the small areas you want to paint on and crop the rest out, save this smaller map seperately and paint your detail.
Open the large baked asphalt again, select another area to paint on, crop the rest out again.
Repeat.
Once you have the smaller images painted and placed in relation to the large asphalt image, THEN collapse them into 1 huge map.
It seems inevitable that you'll have to use huge maps in some form.
However, you can paint your detail onto smaller more manageable maps.

This will allow you to *work* with smaller images up til the point where you have to collapse them.
Not a magical solution, but it solves the problem of having to use multiple diffuse maps and multiple masks.

The logic being that you have this 1 huge map of just the concrete surface, then you paint say tire marks over in the right corner on a seperate layer, maybe parking lines in the left corner in a seperate layer etc.
Then, you take these smaller maps and collapse them to 1 large map which you overlay on top of the asphalt.
Result=1 large asphalt map, and 1 large detail map.
Not 5 diffuse maps and 5 masks.

It doesn't seem likely that you'll find a way to texture a huge object with small maps but still end up with a highly detailed object.
The best you can hope for is to be able to minimize the hassle of using huge maps by splitting them up into smaller, more manageable parts.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.