Images taken from my final project 2/2

Images taken from my final project 1/2

Adding Pavement & Roads

The final part of my Virtual Market Square project i had to add pavement and roads. Using a overhead map of the square i placed the buildings where they lie normally and then simply extruded slines that were outlined on the pavements. Afterwards textures were placed.

NEW COLUMNS

Good morning children, today we will learn how to recreate columns to go onto my scene as the poly count on the previous ones were far to great and i was getting irritated at the length i had to wait to open my scene. Thats 30 seconds of my day wasted each time !!!

Firstly i froze the original column and then simply made a spline outline that in turn was lathed to create the shape for the bottom of the column. Then changing this shape into an editable poly, the magic can then begin.

Due to the overwhelming amount of ploys that are really not needed for a scene like this, i cleaned it up by collapsing multiple vertex points but still trying to keep the shape as i originally planned.


Once this was complete i mirrored the shape (for the top part of the column) and made multiple cylinders for the middle part and then textured it.



I then simply removed the columns that were in place at the beginning and replaced them with my brand new (and better) columns. Below is the before and after shot. The original poly count was 97,352 and now it is 51,280. Not bad for a mornings work!

Virtual World

OK so the buildings have been created and most of them have been textured so then they had to be placed into position. For this I used an overhead map of Nottingham and simply moved and scaled my buildings on top of the map ready for the pavement, roads and market square to be modelled. Here it is…

Virtual World

Due to my short time period for my second year – as I am going on holiday early June I quickly started on the next part of my model which was the rest of the mapping of textures, I have also decided to change the majority of my windows which were actually transparent and window like, with some normal window textures. These problems occurred due to Quest 3D having a scranny and spitting out my transparent windows with a random selected colour. Dam programs that are not compatible. Ah well at least it wasn’t on a Macintosh! Here is a row of shops with the new textures placed on them.

Unwrapping UVW’s have been used a lot in my scene mainly for signs, the great thing about them is that once an object has been unwrapped the texture that I have created in Photoshop will nestle nicely on the object without having to adjust it. Saves time and looks good. Below is an example of Wetherspoons.

Virtual World

I found that adding the materials was the fun bit so far, my hair managed to stay on my head as I was doing the modelling as it can get very frustrating at times. Once again I went in and around the square (walking and keeping fit as the same time) I took various images - also some free ones on the internet and then made them tessellate in Photoshop. This is imperative so when the textures are mapped onto a building (for example bricks) they are in line and the same colour! Once again I issue a sample of textures…

On a previous post I shown my modelled council house, I placed some materials onto it since then and I have also added a couple of banners either side. As the picture I took on the day was not the best due to lousy weather conditions I found one on the market square opening website – I had to amend this a little bit as the width was too large and so below is the council house WITH FANCY MARBLE FLOOR – although you can’t see it in the picture. (I promise it is there!)

Virtual World

To get all the buildings looking somewhere like they are in the real world I went out a couple of times into the market square and took some pictures with my phone. Needless to say I got quite a few stairs as people wondered what I was doing! But all is fair in the world of 3d Visualisation I say :) Below is a sample folder of the images I took…

Virtual World

After a considerable amount of time over the last month or so i have created nearly all the buildings (a couple may need tweaking) but its ready to be mapped, most of it will be using UVW UNrwap in 3DS - i did this technique in games, its easy and i can photoshop detail onto a building that i didn't have time to model on in the first place :)

He res a screen grab for you...

Once the photoshopping is complete ill bring the image back into max and use the material editor in max to plop the texture onto all the objects that i desire. e.g below...

Well into the project now and some buildings are complete, some don't need advanced UVW Mapping and some are well i love them! Here's one i did earlier.....


...NICE!

Virtual World

Once the template was done i needed to take some pictures in and around the market square so that i can actually model the builings to look as close as possible to the real thing but cutting corners on fine detail, otherwise i will not have time with other projects or a social life. Heres a few sample pictures of the 60 odd that ive taken so far.....

Another from Live searh...

Also from a gaming influence (thanks Brad) i tooak a couple piccies of the floor and used photoshop so that they can easily tessalate and can be tiled on my scene easlily without it looking dire... they are...... (drum roll)

Virtual World

To start off with the modelling of the city i had to do a bit of image collecting, i had to get some sort of template before i started. SO i took an aerial image of Notts with Microsoft's new software Live Search ( mainly because Google Earth sucks and doesn't even have a close up of Nottingham. Below is image i screen grabbed.

I know I know, the image is a bit old they are still building the tram lines! - Why must you guys always moan!

Anyway

I then, in Max - made a scratch template of where the buildings will go and the spaces between them (shown below).

Not only this, but i found where Nottingham uses a web cam of the square and here's a screen shot - Oh yes pulling out all the contacts here!

!!!VISUAL REALITY BABY!!!

This is what i have waited for, well stumbled on to - found out what we have to do and then i shouted yay - BUT SAME DIFFERENCE! This project we have to create a VR world (realistic of course)

So for this project i am going to do a virtual environment of Nottingham's new market square and surrounding buildings (For a tourist's point of view). I want to show off Nottingham to potential and current visitors.

The project will be modelled in 3DS MAX and then implanted into QUEST 3D for its final run.