SenFlores - Backyard WIP

[Draise]

Hello all, this is the continuation of my miniseries for South American kids Television.

I am now starting to work on the world where blue guy lives (a latin backyard). So I started a new set. Using some of trueSpaces trees and Parva's pack of scenes with trees.. I quickly slapped up this backyard.

I was a bit overwhelemed but the complexity of the world, cause in some areas I need the worlds detailed enough for the view of a bug. So everything inside the backyard has much detail, including the pool and other garden elements I have not yet made.

So I started with a general idea of everything, large and general to small and specific... it's the best way to go.

I had trouble learning the LE system of hierarchies and parent/child relationships and\or ownermatrix-s. It's a weird concept, but little by little I'm figuring it out (including ways to have encapsulated objects within clinton's layers ok). I'm also learning how to encapsulate and un-encapsulate cleanly (a weird thing that happens is an unparented object looses it's owner matrix and keeps it's old former matrix, thus displacing it once un-encapsulated - annoying as you've made changed to the sub object according to the whole.... Sometimes freezing it before un-encapsulating helps, but I am yet to figure it out for sure. ) Every program has a strange parent/child relationship, and it seems they are all different. But TS is especially different...

I am only using some quick pre-default textures for now, as I will do most UV's and textures elsewhere. But for creativity sake, some soft shadows, lights and things.. it certainly aids with the creativity!!!!!!

I also found the weight painting to be very good, easy and intuitive. I just miss the "blow up" tool and the "pinch" tool sometimes. But for weight map painting, it's very good. This program still has modelling leverage for sure

Enjoy. Keep having fun, keep living.

[Steinie]

Draise,
I am curious if you are concerned with the poly count when you model? I never see the polys displayed in your work.
Also what you do to maintain quads vs tri's when moving from trueSpace to another application.

I remember you stating that you loose the UV mapping when importing from Scuptris to trueSpace?
I believe all you have to do is reapply the texture, the uv is not lost. (or did I read this wrong?)

[Draise]

I try keep poly counts quite low, and usually I clean my meshes by hand to make sure I have no Ngons. I also run the mesh through Mudbox which tells me if I have a mesh error, ngons or other mesh related issues. It's very helpful, then in TS I fix the object and re-export. I usually keep my scenes to a max of 30K-50K polygons, which isn't much really...

I subdivide everything later if needed, in TS or in other programs. I work with subdivision A LOT. Truespace is hacking the polycount so far. For renders, I'd subdivide everything like crazy, but just for work and modelling it doesn't matter too much.

So sculptris *.obj's preserve the UV's? OH YEAH! It does too! My head experiment was perfect!!! I need to experiment more! I guess the obj export of some programs vary with their results. (softimage's obj's do not preserve the UV's.. lame.)

To preserve quads, I use LUUV polygon export (which is very accurate), or even this workspace OBJ export plugin which is also a good alternative (I prefer this one, tho slower, keeps some shaders and other things and is very accurate). Also, when you export and import to a program, set the autofacet to OFF, then the import should preserve the mesh with quads as it was.

But the main trick is... well make clean meshes, avoid Ngons, triangulate on purpose if needed (alternative to an Ngon) and make sure your quads are clean. Then export with autofacet OFF and import likewise.

Like my roof tiles:

I made a simple mesh with quads and tri's I made on purpose BEFORE exporting. I made sure the mesh was clean with no Ngons (a face with more than 5 vertices, I think that's what they are called.. ) Then I'll export and import with no problem at all.
I live by SubDiv, so the mesh is simple. If I have a long shot, I cut the subdivision (off even), if I have a close shot, I increse it. I try to keep my meshes with only the necessary loops for SS to look about right at SD level of 1 in any program. Then other levels will usually follow it.
Sometime SS in other programs use different algorithms, but generally you don't loose overall shape.

[Draise]

Update. It doesn't look like much, but I've added much more detail. I am about to start working on the foilage, but there needs much more work to be done. Enjoy the updates.








Updates:
Fence, walls, Veggie Garden, Guttering, Roof deformations, Window Layouts, Compost, Flower Boxes and other smaller adjustments. Feels like I didn't do much, looks like I didn't, but really it was something.



Once it's done, it would be awesome to make some cool lighting and effects just for fun, subdivide everything and see how far I can push this computer in TS. I wish TS was 64 bit! I wish I could buy it and develop it. It's a fun program.

Till next time!

[theuns]

looks great D, you're moving fast with the modeling, hey?

might wanna do a cube UV on the walls to even out the stone texture a bit

[Draise]

Lol, yeah.. a better UV would be nice. But with time....

Gosh I'm tired. I'm going home, eat, nap, drink some mojitos, then wake to party and chill with my friends. THE WEEKEND IS HERE!

So today had VEEEERRRRRYYYYY SLOOOOOOWWWWW progress. I used this Ivy generator, and had fun. Had troubles importing clean meshes, figured it out, did it, and then imported them into TS. I also made a little sandpit, and made the cobble stones as finals. It's shaping up. Also had a look into how to make foilage in vue, and how to import them into Softimage or truespace. Figured out a way of how to do it into TS. So that's cool.

But next week.. I'll work on more plants. i have eyt to make some character flowers, and to garnish the rest of the garden. I think that most of my modelling work in TS is done, and now I can start exporting and importing to my professional program. Sigh.. Right now I'm tired and sleepy.

The ivy leaves don't have alpha, and the UV's are still not done... tho I need to do them all. Little by little.

[theuns]

lookin good! how did you make the pond rocks and stepping stones?

i got Vue 8 Pioneer but haven't spent much time on it yet...

[Draise]

how did you make the pond rocks and stepping stones?

Lol, thanks thanks =)
For the pond rock, I made about 7 different rocks in Vue (just clicked on "make rock"), exported them with a dummed down quality as *.obj's under "file/export object". I then imported them into TS and resized, translated, copied each into place.

The footpath stones were... actually polydrawn faces, then copied with pushed and pulled verticies, made each and everyone unique and to fit together. I later extruded these faces, beveled them twice, then moved and rotated them into place. I use the polydraw tool a lot. I later subdivided them.

To polydraw is WS...
1. get a plane
2. activate the polydraw tool and begin drawing your shape on the plane (like drawing with bezier curves, except it's strictly linear and you have complete control of how many vertices you need, a good alternative to curve drawing on MS).
3. Draw like a 9 vertice irregular shape loop on the plane
4. Copy the polyface, move it up
5. Cut out geometry
6. Copy geometry and push and pull verticies into a new shape when needed.

Then do what i did above. It's not hard, just took a little time, but not too much.

I did a quick search on making flat stone paths and cobble stones, but then i'd have to learn a complete program, how to install plugins, learn how to use the plugin, and really.. couldn't be bothered. So did it by hand.

An alternative is drawing your path with white stones on a black background in a 2D program (if needed, over a mesh with markers from your 3D world) by (maybe even adding a bit of noise) using a similar system of vectors, and then running a displacement map generator in TS or another program. Later, using weight painting or deformations, deform to shape or path in 3D space. Buuuut I chose to do it directly in 3d. Running a displacement map based cobblestone path requires much more steps, tho doing this achieves much better quality stones according to your drawing.

[Peter]

This is awesome
Keep it up.

[Draise]

Here… Finally finished most Macro modelling for the scene. Also, added vines (a free ivy generator, just set up, click and grow! Download free http://graphics.uni-konstanz.de/~luft/ivy_generator/), cleaned most meshes, and finally imported them into Softimage to run through UV’s and textures in Mudbox/Paint.net among other programs. I will add more geometry and objects when needed (obviously built in TS and exported later, it’s easy there), and will also work with Vue for more foilage. Most backgrounds are actually being made by hand/painted and will be projected through different cutout type background layouts.

The sky I will probably make a few 360 maps from Vue, and throw them into half spheres.

I will also freeze the trees, as you can integrate Vue to Sofimage, but I am not sure how the renders will be.

Tutorialwise.. I need to start cramming in knowledge of hair, grass, foilage, textures, geometry painting, etc. I also should start learning ICE in softimage, which looks incredibly powerful!! But littly by little, no rush. It’s Christmas season, and the year’s work is over.. just take it chill…….

Oh, concerning Polycount, so far I'm within limits. I'm at 600000 tris, or like 300000 quads. This is lacking subdivision, so I'm not doing so bad. I think I can spare another 200000 tris for the final renders.