Zen garden - need help :)

[kamiru]

Hi.

I'm working on a virtual Ryoanji stone garden (I have found a great image collection of the Ryoanji here: http://academic.bowdoin.edu/zen/intro_template.shtml?ryoan) , which will be a part of a japanese-oriented animation project. I have done a few test models, but the main problem for me is proper texturing of the white raked sand (shirakawasuna). Anyone has an idea how to do it properly? I was trying to use some pebble image with the bump and diffuse map, but it looks very flat...

Best regards,

[ingo]

Thanks for the nice link, its a nice inspiration for my architectural renderings.
To create the white sand/pebbles is indeed very tricky, you need the sand structure and the formed structure. Maybe HV will help with points lined up the way you need it, but i'm not sure about the speed in an animation with HV. It depends on how close you get to the structure, and its obviously easier to fake in still pictures.

[kamiru]

Thanks, I will try the hypervoxels thing... Another idea that comes to me is to use a particle system. It souds (and probably works) crazy, but I will try it if everything else would fail. Anyway, thanks for the reply.

[Ralph Keyser]

How close do you have to get to the surface?
My initial leaning would be toward a displacement map with a tilable texture that included good bumps, diffusion, and spec maps.

[kamiru]

Well... not very close (in my opinion).
I was playing with hypervoxels last night, but the surface is:
-too dark
-too flat
-the pebbles are too small

:confused:

test image is here:
http://www.japonia.org.pl/SAND.JPG

[ingo]

Looks nice so far, and i wont say its to flat. How about using a texture map underneath HV pebbles, so you can use less but bigger HV pebbles. At least that works fine with SAS grass.

[kamiru]

Here is the newest version:
http://www.japonia.org.pl/sand1.jpg

I think that it looks good now. I will try to make some nice textures for the stones now. This weekend most of the garden modelling should be also ready.

I will post some pictures on monday :)

[Ralph Keyser]

Be sure to tell us what you ended up using :)

[kamiru]

Hi.

I will start to make a new model this evening, because my G4 is not that fast to render 300000 polys with hypervoxels attached. But I have got a few new modelling ideas, so the new model will be even better, and also not as heavy as the current one. I will post pictures with the final scene, so please, be patient :)

[Ade]

Nice im stuff like that too.. well starting to.