Northampton State Hospital

[Marcia]

First LightWave project... please excuse the lighting; I haven't read that far in the manual yet. Modeling about 2/3 done, starting to worry about textures.



partial side view:

[Tiger]

Wow...really nicely done!

[NightEye]

Holy F**!!
That looks detailed!!!!
How long did it take to model that??? Man, soooo nice

[Marcia]

Thanks, guys.

Looks like I started it around the first of April, give or take a day or two. It's been kind of slow-going (although I'm picking up the pace now) because I've only been using LightWave for a few weeks.

It is detailed, but if you look closely you'll see a lot of the detail is repeated geometry... like the windows and bars and all of the trim going around the building.

[Kuzey]

Boy...that's some mighty fine work!!

Kuzey

[riki]

Excellent detail, love it. Looks like an old mansion.

[Lalin]

Marcia, it is bloody G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S!

This is definitely a thread discussion I don't want to miss.
Because I recently made a scene in lightwave, and now I am intimidated on how to approach the texturing, so I'll hop aboard.

Keep up the talent!
Lalin

[sandman300]

Textures for such an object should be fairly straight forward. The best way to go about it,is to go there and take some pictures of the place. This is of cource assuming that the place allready exists. If not or you cant get there easily you can always fall back on texture maps like in the freebee section of Newteks sight.

From there I would determin scale (how many bricks from one point to another) of the immages so they can be tiled, or in some instances wraped. I start with the color, because it shows up in modeler, on the model. 2nd bump, then specularity. Generally I leave luminessence and diffusion alone. This is also assuming that your looking fo a clean uniform look. For a lifelike appeal, you would need to add some procedural textures on some of the channels . There are endless possibilities for layering.

Here is an example of this idea

[Cassanovastein]

If you try really hard - you maybe, just maybe,can get this
to turn out half as good as sandman's room...
In all seriousness, this is superb model. It's hard to believe
that you are new to LW from the quality. This really remnds
me of the Mansion in Clive Barker's Undying.
I think this is a masterpiece just waiting for the finishing touches.

[Marcia]

Wow, I really appreciate all the kind words and encouragement.

I wish it were possible to actually photograph the building for textures, Sandman, but it's about 700 miles from here and I'm not 100% sure it's still standing. The reference photos I have are awful, so they're no use, either. I think I know some places downtown that would yield some decent material, though. Thanks for taking the time to explain that.

Ah, Cassanovastein, thank you. I'm not new to 3D, only to LightWave. Love this app; the modeling tools pretty much work the way I think. Not sure that will hold true for texturing and lighting, though. I may need some serious help in the near future.

Anyway, major update in a day or so.

[sandman300]

Ive been studying lightwave with the Inside Lightwave book (comes with demo version) and every tutorial I could get my hands on. So Im not as new as I might look(ah, sound or is it type) anyway I just got around to buying a copy a little while ago.

[ingo]

Hi Marcia, very well done so far. BUT you should think about texturing before you start the modelling, because its the main reason to seperate different parts on layers. Or you can use simple colors as textures from the beginning. Looking forward to see your modell textured.

[p_de_clerck]

by the way - promessing model !!!
Any idea how many poly's ?
Keep it up
p.

[Marcia]

Update: exterior modeling is about 90% done. I still have to add some details (doors, downspouts, etc.) before I can start texturing.

Thanks for the advice, Ingo. I should have read through that part of the manual before starting the project. Fortunately, each section of the building is its own layer, so it shouldn't be too difficult to deconstruct and reconstruct at this point. Next time I'll know better.

If I use simple textures as place-holders, can I later revise the texture and have it update the model everywhere it's used?

pdc: right now it has 262K polys. Too many? I'm wondering if I should break it out into several different models and load them into layout only as needed for a particular camera position?

Full front view:



Overhead:



3/4 View from new end:



Left side, front:

[p_de_clerck]

could be handy to brake it up... but mostly (by my own experience) is rarely worth the effort of changing it afterwards. You still got the scene-editor (to unhide or change the viewing mode of the model).. Anyway I figure you wanna render it as whole, so.. until your pc doesn't go beserk,... let it flow !!).
Anyway there a lot of changes you can make to enhance your workflow (ex rendering radiosity only with backdrop - this will work well if you only have an exterior shot).

some small workflow-tips (maybe...)
- maybe add a base-floor.
- change your background to a desatured grey-blue or even white (i prefer working with a light grey.. black gives too much contrast..)


Anyway looking freekingly nice !
any possiblity of rendering a wide angle shot at the entrance - could look nice -
p.