Keystone with bas relief

[R Reynolds]

This turned out way better than I had any right to expect.

 

I'm working on a large, beaux arts style, arch that needs a keystone with a classical human figure carved in it. Looking for inspiration on the Web, I came across a free 3D model of a nicely proportioned and posed female figure, unfortunately in 3DS format. After waiting almost 8 hrs. for it to import into A:M (47,000 patches, 8.3 Mb model) I knew that I couldn't add any new splines to the model since finding patches and aligning normals took a LONG time. All I could do was apply aaver's normal map material and render out a rotoscope.

 

Using the rotoscope as a guide, I built surrounding splinage to smoothly blend the figure into a flat surface. Once again I applied the normal map material to the figure's "frame" and screen rendered it along with the rotoscope. I little re-touching in PSPro to hide the seams and I have nice bas-relief for my arch's keystone.

[oakchas]

Rodger,

 

That looks great...

 

You'll save soooo much time and memory with V13's pixel displacement! Of course, it won't be modeled, but pixel level displacement is working with one patch! And, better yet, any photo of anybody could be used!

[R Reynolds]

Yes, the new displacement implementation is the main reason I'm saving for v13. But don't get too carried away about being able to use any photo. As in bump maps, the greyscaling in your 2d image must be proportional to Z coords. Your average photo isn't even close to this. To get accurate results you'll still need a render of a 3D model with a black to white, Z axis gradient material.

[oakchas]

okay... any photo was an exaggeration... But, properly lit ones should work fairly well... especially for a bas relief in stone...

 

There is a sub program for the shop bot that does this (shop bot is a CNC router that can do these reliefs in wood and marble) on up to 4X8' sheets of ply, or stone, or corian...

[3DArtZ]

I have a major question here....

is this the raised surface just a rendered effect?

Like, If I took that model you made(which looks fantastic) and saved it as an stl, would the geometry be

real or would the model just export as a flat surfaced block?

 

Thanks

Mike Fitz

www.3dartz.com

[R Reynolds]

Bumps and normal decals are just rendering tricks that (as shown in the attachment) break down at oblique viewing angles. The block really only has a flat face. But considering that the keystone is at the top of an 85 ft. arch it shouldn't be too hard to pick camera angles that maintain the illusion. However as oakchas points out, with the new displacement implementation in v13, the stone may still have a flat face but the figure will actually protrude from it; pretty dang cool. To use it, all I have to do is replace my normal map attribute with a gradient map to get a correctly shaded decal.

[nixie]

I recall reading some time ago, that displaced could be exported as (ava) and then imported back as (mdl) with the diplacement more or less there. Anyone know if that still applies or was ever a good solution?

 

Nice scene there by the way though.

 

Nixie