#3D Studio help
10 messages in this thread
I made a 3D drawing of a subway station with two subway cars and two tracks
using AutoCAD with Advanced Modeling Extension and imported it into 3D Studio
for rendering. How can I make a realistic rendering of a subway station? I
don't have a scanner or a CD-ROM drive that can read Photo CDs. How can I apply
materials with bitmaps to the walls, floor, and ceiling of the subway station?
Please look at SUBWAY01.3DS file that I uploaded into the library in
SUBWAY01.ZIP file. Jeffrey.
Dear Jeffrey,
Without a CDROM you're going to have to make all the textures yourself. You
might consider finding a friend with a CDROM and copying several of the
textures on the World Creating Toolkit CD to disk. This is the quickest way.
If you have to make your own textures, you'll just have to bite the bullet and
draw the texture and bump maps yourself. For an idea of how these maps work,
read the appropriate sections in the 3DS manual. Also look at some of the
materials that come with 3DS such as BUMPY BROWN BRICK. If you look at the
texture and bump maps that make up this texture you'll get an idea of how they
work together.
Drawing texture and bump maps doesn't take all that long, but if you have to
make a lot of them, it can be time-consuming.
Michele
PS. Be careful not to oversaturate your texture maps, which is a classic
AutoCADder's mistake in 3DS. Think _subtle_.
Dear Michele, I may have confused you in saying that I don't have a CD-ROM
drive that can read Photo CDs. I have an older Creative Labs single-speed
CD-ROM drive that can't read photo CDs. Materials with bitmaps are hard for me
because they require mapping coordinates and more work than simple materials.
Let's say I want to put a material with a bitmap of tiles on the walls of the
subway station. Since the walls are big rectangle boxes, is it easier for me to
turn on "FACEMAP" button in Material Editor? I have Z-Soft Photo Finish for
Windows program but I don't know how to use it for making texture and bump
maps. Jeffrey.
It is not usually good to turn no facemap for tiling walls, unless you want
triangular tiles on your wall, and you're sure that the faces that make up your
wall are the right size.
You'll be much better off using the mapping co-ordinates: for a wall, just
make the planar coordinate the size of the tile you want (assuming the bitmap
equals _one_ tile), place it in a part of the wall that you think will look
good, and 3DS will automatically tile the texture map for you. If you don't
like the way it came out in the rendering, then you can study the image and
move the mapping icon to approximately where you think it'll be better.
Texture, etc… mapping is quite time consuming in some cases, but as you are
discovering it makes the ultimate difference in the final image. I've seen
animations where the geometry was not terribly exciting or accurate, but the
maps were fantastic, and the overall look was great because of this.
John Tissavary (LUNA cie, inc)
Dear John, I tried turning on the "Face Map" button in Material Editor but it
didn't work. I wish I have a 35 MM camera so that I can take pictures of real
subway stations and trains. I wish I have a desktop scanner so that I can scan
photos into Photo Finish, touch them up, and use them as bitmaps in 3D Studio.
I don't have a camera or a scanner and my CD-ROM drive can't read Photo CDs.
Have you heard of Elastic Reality? There are pictures of a Dodge pickup truck
in the advertisements for the program that show the truck being morphed from
when it had an accident into a brand new truck. Jeffrey.
I made a typograpical error in my message to you: facemapping is NOT good for
walls and such – my type made it sound like facemapping might work but it
almost never will unless you want triangular tiles.
I have seen the Elastic Reality truck animation. It is quite good!
I don't have a flatbed or slide scanner either, but I do have a 35mm camera.
Usually I send slides to a service bureau (pre-press or desk top publishing
type) and have them scan it.
I have found that many of the CD-ROMs out there have superb texture maps on
them that just need a little adjusting – I use Photostyler and Fractal Painter
to accomplish customized maps from CD-ROM texture collections.
Also, there are lots of photo libraries on CD-ROM and not all of them are Kodak
format – you could check into some of those, too.
John Tissavary (LUNA cie, inc)
Dear John, The subway station's walls are about 2000 inches long and about 200
inches high. I am not sure about creating a bitmap in Photo Finish that is 2000
pixels long and 200 pixels high, and turn on "Face Map" button. I worked on a
3D drawing of a four-door sedan similar to 1980-1984 Oldsmobile Omaga using
AutoCAD and 3D Studio. The car is about five feet tall and people are about
five feet and six inches tall. If I make the camera and target five feet off
the ground, the car is too low in the camera view. If I move the target down so
that the camera is looking down at the car, vertical lines at edges of camera
view are not vertical. How can I solve this problem? Jeffrey.
It's ok that the camera's lines are not vertical – you should adjust the camera
so that the view looks pleasing and appropriate in the camera viewport. If you
need to adjust the angle of tilt, then the camera's ROLL option can do that.
Just roll the camera one way or another untill things look right.
The best way for you to do the subway wall is to create a much smaller texture
map, one that can tile well in the dimensions you mention. This could be one,
or four, or eight tiles square, and then use either jonas' suggestion about
setting u/v tiling in the materials' editor, or adjust the mapping icon in the
3D Editor, then render and adjust untill it is to your liking.
John Tissavary (LUNA cie, inc)
Dear John, I saw a subway station in a movie. The tiles are 12 inches except
for signs identifying streets. How can I create the signs and put them on top
of tiles? Jeffrey.
>>How can I create the signs and put them on top of tiles<<
To do this you can create a plane the shape of the sign, apply the sign's
texture map to it, and then place it where you want it on the wall.
John Tissavary (LUNA cie, inc)