case Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 Man this takes way to long to do tell me what you think i just started -it equals 708 patches Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 Man this takes way to long to do tell me what you think i just started -it equals 708 patches Dear Case, I’ve had to build a few cities or, city blocks, areas, etc. There are some options for saving time depending on this and that (how original you want to be, how detailed, how realistic, etc.). 1. There are A:M models available that you can use; buildings, blocks, even a city if memory serves. 2. Also you can go to places like www.3dcafe.com and get more models that can be imported as props and used. 3. There is the duplication wizard and the Extrude plug-in that can duplicate, space out the location and juggle the size. You can get tricky and inter-space these with other buildings. 4. Also, ‘perhaps’ you can also do things with expressions to take one building and automatically vary the location, size, aspect ratios and maybe even the texturing. In XSI I once created a building and did this very effectively. I have not tried it in A:M but it seems like you could. 5. Images you can get from goggles image search can be used – just cut them out, add an alpha map and use as a cookie cut decal on a patch or use on a layer (there is a limit to how many layers you can use). This can look great and renders really fast. 6. Also, I am using building images with hair systems to create a massive city which I then destroy. In the link below I show and tell -- there are links to a ‘proof of concept’ test I did and also to a thread where I spelled out how this was done. Note that his method only gives you something that can be used at a distance and with motion blur (or depth of field)… close ups would probably not work so well as it lacks detail. S:\Virtualmedia\WIP\BookTrailers\01 SciFi\SpiralSlayer\SpiralSlayerSite\wip\effects\blastcity\index.html All the above can be mixed and inter-spaced. So there are options to painstakingly modeling each structure. Some suggestions… • Remember that buildings in the background will mostly covered… some times only the roof shows. • I modeled building parts – walls, windows, stone work, doors, etc. – so that I could re-use these over and over, mixing them together and/or rescaling to create new buildings. This builds reusable model libraries for future work. • I found that, depending on what you are doing, sometimes it is best to model the streets/sidewalks/blocks first. What you've done so far looks great! I hope this helps, Rusty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
case Posted October 15, 2006 Author Share Posted October 15, 2006 3. There is the duplication wizard and the Extrude plug-in that can duplicate, space out the location and juggle the size. You can get tricky and inter-space these with other buildings. Will i be able to make the whole city like this?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 3. There is the duplication wizard and the Extrude plug-in that can duplicate, space out the location and juggle the size. You can get tricky and inter-space these with other buildings. Will i be able to make the whole city like this?! Yes, no, maybe so. This takes one building model and copies it, each time it does this it can place it based on the location of the last model and size it (on X, Y and/or Z) based on the last model. I would say probably not by itself. A combination of all the things I mentioned or at least some of them would be needed but again, 'what' depends on the specifics of what you want. What you need to do is take one or two evenings and learn and experiment with the tools and plug-ins at your have to work with. Go to the tutorial area of the forum and locate available tutorials on the duplication wazard and others I mentioned (there are many many others that could help). Rodney and others have made your life easy by creating lists with links of what is available and these are pinned to the top of the tutorial forum area -- look at the 'Tech Talk Series'; it has a great video on the dup wizard. I took two weeks (8 hours a day... I'm retired) and I aquired and learned and experimented with each and every plug-in available for A:M. Sooner or later you need to do something like this. I just went to my 'reference library' folder where I collect documentation on everything -- it is orgainized alphibetically so I just selected all the plug-in reference and zipped it for you. It looks like 55 plug-ins - some newer ones may be left out. Most are free, some cost between $10 and $30. There are lots of these that could assist in building a city in one way or another (scatter, extrude, bitmaps ). Here you go. [attachmentid=21426] All this effort is my good deed for the week, LOL, I must now get back to my own work before sleep takes me out! Take the ball and run with it! Good Luck, Rusty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
case Posted October 15, 2006 Author Share Posted October 15, 2006 WOW! Thanks rusty, yes if i did that it would be my good day for the month lol i may need more help maybe not this long!Once again thanks alot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
case Posted October 16, 2006 Author Share Posted October 16, 2006 here is the updated version with just a bit of help COMENTS WELCOME by the way it is a very simple setup! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 here is the updated version with just a bit of help COMENTS WELCOME by the way it is a very simple setup! coming along nicely. what will you do with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeetman Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 Case that looks excellent!!!!!! It's coming along really good. Can't wait to see the movie. George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
case Posted October 16, 2006 Author Share Posted October 16, 2006 Thanks ruaty and jeetman the car and this city have a starange twist to them they go together this city will take place in the year 2200! -The city is not half done which is the sad! im working though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_black_mage Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 nice man!!! i can help design some futureristic stuff if you want me too. plus theres this lighting set up i've been wanting to test out for a city, e-mail me if you want to know what it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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