Question on doing a texture..for a well

Milo

I am about to start a learning project. A well. Kind that is made of rounded rock and morter with a flat brick/mortor top with the little wood top. I know I can buy it but I told myself I was learning to model and figured this would be a simpler to start project then a ship or a figure.

Now the basic body is pretty simple a cylinder with the top removed, another with some depth added and squashed. This now comes to texturing. I started thinking about the texturing and I noticed that Genetica is on sale. I have the 3.1 special basic version bought as part of a bundle So I am trying to decide before it goes off sale to go with the basic or pro version.

I also have 3d-coat.

Perhaps this question is better on the Genetica forum, however my thinking of how to accomplish this might be misguided. I know you can do a brick and mortor texture in Genetica even the one I have. Now it will create bump. I wonder if I would really need Normal for displacement. I could take it into 3d-coat (which I also still need to learn) and supposedly do the depression of the mortar in there.

There were two thoughts while pondering the look. one flat cut stone/bricks along the cylander and the other were rounded stones that potruded out.

I also have the rock pattern (my own photos of Rocks or Some net resources). The thought would be either bump to simulate or have normals with a pattern. This then comes down to the same thing. Would you use something like Genetica to create the stone with mortar around, somehow creating the various extrusions of the stone in a depth map (normals, meaning having to buy pro). Would you model the stones in the underlying Mesh then using Carrara or 3d-coat to paint all the textures on. Or something like 3d-coat to paint the textures of stone then putting Mortar on in there and doing some kind of depth mapping. Again I am just starting this and trying to see if I need to catch this sale or rather which version before it expires. Perhaps its better to try to create a manual depth map / texture map.

I actually started to do a simple flatter set of stones for the base of the well, however I thought the rounded type would look nicer (being the glutton for punishment that I seem to be). . Some of this would be questions on the Genetica forum like varying the individual rocks in the texture so I won't ask that here.

I am probably over thinking this. Just trying to decide which version of the software to get at this time.

If I am thinking the whole approach to this poorly I appreciate any input.

**EDIT** We also have Filter Forge but its on my wifes Mac and I thought this would give me a chance to do this from my machine without having to not have her wanting to use her own machine.

WendyLuvsCatz

Carrara has a lovely texture room
using layers and operators you can do lots of complex stuff
there is a brick and mortar function
you can force drop one of the stone presets into texture mix operator and another for the mortar with brick as the mixer

evilproducer

What Wendy said!

These images of a vertex dam I created are 100% procedural. The water spilling over is a different model that uses a hand painted texture map.

The image of the stone fence is also a simple vertex object that uses 100% procedural shaders, including one for the displacement.

Design Acrobat

Here's a quick image I made in Carrara.

I used the standard rock and stone and wood textures available, but I substituted the default textures for some textures I got from a Website that has tons of texture maps. (Mayang).

The problem is, it is too perfect, too CG looking.

The well textures are using bump maps which doesn't really show much bunch the image applied on the surface. In real life the well would have jigs and jags sticking out. The sides of the well are well...too perfect and have no displacement or depth. The tree is flat, the grass if flat and the lighting is flat.

I also have 3Dcoat and the advantage you have is you can make physical creases and crevices in voxels and use depth painting in layers to add to realism.

If it were me, I would model your well in Carrara, import it into 3Dcoat with the same UVs (preserves the shading domains). If you are not doing close ups, then it probably would not make any difference, but I always think about it in the back of my mind. heh

Note: I added a hastily done 3DC well from 3Dcoat. Kind of sloppy actually, but I think it makes the point about having more depth in textures and displacement. Added another view with black background and spot to show the depth.

evilproducer

Acrobat, the thing to remember about the bump channel, is that it's a virtual optical illusion. There is no distortion of the mesh. The effect works with light, so a diffuse, flat looking light as in your image really won't make it stand out much. You could try copying the bump map into the displacement and see what happens. You may have to dial down the map's intensity. Also, if the model is pretty low poly, the displacement will look pretty bad.

Milo

Thank you Wendy, Evilproducer and Design Acrobat for the replies.

It gives me a perspective. I am leaning against going with the more expensive one for now. Like Evil Producer said though only bump is available. I will have to get better at 3d-coat and create a displacement map if I need it.

Some great examples and we will see how it goes.

Thanks again. WHen I get some progress made (more RL set backs) I will post here I am sure with some more questions :)

Garstor

If you want a lot more work, don't use a cylinder base object. Model up some stones (probably want some noise-based displacement on them) and put them together to form the well body.

It all depends on the amount of detail and effort you wish to put into it.