This particular scene was designed to be simple in terms of the geometry involved and therefore attributing a little more emphasis on the texturing aspects using techniques somewhat akin to games development. The idea beind the project was to model a simple corridor that ended with a doorway and one that would be textured using contrasting sets from the 3D Total Textures collection to convey scenes from different time periods. Using a variety of textures I cropped and copied different aspects and combined them to create new versions to build the details in the scene. After this I made two weathered versions to show the effectiveness of the dirt maps and masks. To help add a little interest and utilise some of the different images included on the CD's I decided to include some geometry specific to each scene that would help demonstrate these qualities without radically altering the scene itself. For example the ancient stone corridor includes stone pillars that run along both walls where as the Sci-Fi orientated environment substitutes these details with wall mounted pipework and panels.
Click the images on the right to see larger versions.
Modelling stage:
1. The first stage was to build the scene which comprised of a simple box which then had the normals flipped to invert it. I added a number of segments along the length in order that a section could be mapped and then duplicated. A camera was placed in the box very early on to establish an appropriate angle from which to view the scene. I find that it is useful to position a camera early on so as to get a good idea of which parts of the scene will be more visible etc.
2. With the initial stages complete it is time to start considering the different lighting conditions that will help differentiate the scenes from one another and decide if this will have a bearing on the geometry. For the stone corridor I decided on a natural light source that would be visible through a number of ceiling vents or skylights and so these had to be incorporated into the plane thet made up the roof. To add some architectural interest I also put in two raised sections along the two walls upon which to mount a row of pillars that would vault upwards to the roof (fig.1)
fig.1
3DTotal
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3. For the Sci-Fi version of the corridor I decided to use artificial light to illuminate the scene that would sharply contrast with the natural daylight suggested in the first version. As a result I decided to place a number of wall mounted lights spaced evenly down the corridor that would be suspended just above the large pipes (Fig.2) These will eventually cast small pools of light onto the walls and floor and help highlight the pipes as a feature. You can see in Figure 2 that the lamps have been assigned a Multi/Sub-Object material with just two ID numbers, one of which represents the light itself and the other being assigned to the fixture. You can see in the material editor that the bulb material in ID slot 1 is set to white with full self illumination whilst the second sub-material is attributed to the lamp itself with an ID number of two ( highlighted in red ).
fig.2 (click for larger image)
4. For the third version of the corridor I decided to set it in a more contemporary setting and plumbed for a conventional, everyday type of architecture that could be used to represent a hospital, school or even an office block environment. I kept this particular scene very simple in order to transform it through the texturing process and wanted to have a set of windows on only one side that would let in sunlight from the left (fig.3)
This image was created using a few of the hundreds of textures from the Total Texture CDs - very comprehensive texture collections priced with the hobbyist in mind. To see more examples, download free
samples and read full details follow this link
