Box Car Textures

[R Reynolds]

box car textures WIP

 

I've been getting more satisfaction from building textures now that I've adjusted my attitude by repeatedly chanting the acronym THWRT (pronounced "thwurt", it stands for "to heck with render times") to overcome my fear of multi-multi-branch materials.

 

I took a chance and mixed modeled rivets (the darker ones) with bump mapped (all the sheet metal rivets) and was pleasantly surprised with the result. I've rationalized their different textures by assuming sheet metal rivets would be made from a different alloy than structural rivets.

 

However the close-up image shows one, not unexpected, hazard to bump maps; the ladder rung's shadow doesn't contour over the rivet head.

[SteelShark]

Personally, I think the rung shadow is something only the original artist would notice.

 

Nice job, by the way!

[Rodney]

I take it you must have created the decaled rivets with a bit of shadow and light 'cause, while I can see the difference when I look for it it took me quite a while.

 

Now I look at them and say, Oh, that's what he means!

 

Color me educated!

 

I'm thinking in some cases the decals might be better than modeled ones... and not just for speed in rendering.

 

If you take a quick glance at the smaller (first) picture... which rivets seem to stand out more? I think the decaled ones caught my eye first. Then as I looked closer the detail of the modeled ones (assumming the rivots along the top going forward to the front of the car are real) got my attention.

 

I'd say an excellent demonstration of the possible benefits of mix and match!