Set building for my own little project

[hrgiger]

I'm starting work on a new project that some of which will entail a car traveling through a industrial type of city. This first post shows the inside of the tunnel in which the car will enter the city.
I'm not an expert when it comes to textures so any suggestions on that front will be most appreciated, even if, or maybe especially if they are harsh. The tunnel at this point is comprised of 2 surfaces, each with its own UV map to texture the different surfaces. I've made one section which will be repeated as many times as necessary to complete the animated sequence. I've tried to paint the textures so that repetition is not painfully obvious. Later, I'm going to add some individual details like some signs, wall damage, and graffiti which will also add a little bit of color (but not too much) to this colorless scene.
The lighting is just a few temporary point lights. The lighting will be (hopefully) much improved once I decide the Lighting fixtures and placement. BTW, the horizontal lines halfway up the walls are shadows from the lights on either side of the tunnel, they aren't part of the wall textures.

All helpful comments and suggestions welcome.

[geothefaust]

Nice start.

I think I would put tire grooves from constant commuting, rubber markings here and there, and the ever present oil stains would really spruce up the road a bit. Maybe, also, on the walls, putting some grime on the lower portions. Oh also, a few cracks in the pavement would really add to the look.

Just a few suggestions, hope that helps.

[Weepul]

Your basic image maps look like a good start. The edges on your mesh look unusually clean, despite the little micro-bevels you added. They might look better as rounder edges than a flat bevel, i.e. use Rounder on them. Some custom-painted grime and wear image maps could also help with the edges, and especially the seams where the textures collide; right now, it's very artificial-looking where the upper part of the center divider meets the ceiling. Look for reference pics wherever you can, or just go out wandering around a city looking at how concrete weathers, if you live near one. Exposed edges should be a little lighter and smoother with the exception of occasional missing chunks and gouges, while inner corners will tend to have a buildup of dust and dirt and maybe cobwebs that obscures the inner edge.

After the image maps are in place, it's time for my favorite part of texturing, what I call "material surfacing". It's taking those image maps and applying them in all the ways necessary to make the surface look like the material it's supposed to be, rather than like concrete-print wallpaper. ;)

In this case, bump and specularity will be two key additions.

Asphault is quite rough, so you could probably just use the color map as the bump map. It's also slightly reflective in a very blurry way, so specularity would be a good way to go. Darker patches, say where cars have run repeatedly, will be shinier than unworn areas. However, you can't just use the inverse of the color map since the valleys around each grain won't be very reflective either. I hope you're working with layers in your image editor of choice; leave the base asphalt texture normal (apply the Levels command to taste to get the right brightness) and invert whatever overlaid wear pattern you paint.

Concrete is similar, but tends to be a lot smoother with the occasional small pit (unless it's been roughened by weather and wear). For example, on the ceiling, those light patches should be pretty smooth with very slight, very broad specularity. The dark patches should be given a stronger bump (basing it off of the color map is fine, but work in your image editor to change the dark areas have more contrast than the light areas for the purposes of bump) and should have less specularity, perhaps none.

Finalized lighting will also help quite a bit. Lighting and material surfacing work hand-in-hand to show off the qualities of both.

Whenever possible, take a look at the real thing and make as many careful observations as you can.

If you don't already know much about it, try adjusting your renders out of LW's default linear color space (which is good for rendering, bad for viewing). I like applying HDR Expose as an image filter with settings: White point 1.5, Black point 22.0%. Your image maps and OpenGL preview will no longer be WYSIWYG and all your image maps will end up washed out; darken them with a gamma adjustment in LW or in your image editor (though you might need to make them all HDR to get enough bit depth in the resultant image maps). This will make the renders end up much more like the way we perceive light, but it takes more experimentation and planning.

I hope that helps. :)

[hrgiger]

Thanks Weepul for all the useful comments. It gives me a lot to think about and I see I still have a lot of work to do.

I guess I don't really know much about adjusting my renders out of Lightwave's default linear color space as you say. I suppose I need to learn more about that.

[Glendalough]

Really great picture! Very strong. You've done some powerful texturing in a very simple way (and good lighting). I doubt you could improve on it. This is definitely a first class image, could be used for cover of a book, film or painting. Surprised no one has noticed it.

[Glendalough]

... Surprised no one has noticed it.

I didn't mean to belittle geothefaust and weepul's solid comments and advice! Just would have expected more replys.

[hrgiger]

Here's another experiment. I went back and rounded all the edges so there aren't any hard edges. Messing around with a few different textures too. Put some wear on the road and trying some different lighting. The center divider and columns just have the base texture, I haven't added any wear or grime to them yet so they look a bit shiny new.

[bgraves44]

Looks great! Will love to see it with the final lighting. The textures look good. The only place I really see any reapeating is the side walls. One thing I do sometimes when useing tiling textures (whether uv or polymapped) is to add a procedural additive layer (varies depending on the surface) that compliments or adds relavent variation. That way, essentially, all the instances of your texture become unique.

But, seeing the number of post you have, you probably already knew that :o

Good stuff

B

[ice_blade_za]

Hmmm ...

Looks like it's moving forward. Just one suggestion, the textures, they don't look like they are the same "age". Some how the center columns don't have the same aged look the roof and side walls do.

[hrgiger]

Hi Ice. I mentioned above that the center columns and divider haven't been fully textured yet and look a bit too new. I'm still experimenting with different textures for all the surfaces.

[Cougar12dk]

:) Having been playing Half Life 2 most of the afternoon, this reminds me of a set in that game.... I know it's not supposed to be, it just remindeded me of it :)

It's well lit for a tunnel, and I wish all tunnels were lit in this way.

[bobakabob]

Great work... some impressive modelling and texturing. Look forward to seeing this tied in with that amazing city model. One detail that stands out as CG is the road. A wee bit too gritty? Some subtle tire / skid marks might add to the realism.

[Mike Borjon]

Well done hrgiger.

Good progress all around. Only two comments from me, and for all intents and purpose you've probably already considered adding are adjusting the light for more dramatic mood and what the now defunct Foundation Imaging's Ron Thornton used to always make mention of, "nurnies", those little bits and pieces of modeling that were added to the scene to heighten the believability factor.

Looking forward to seeing the final.

Mike

[Matt]

Looking good, although it does remind me of the Paris underpass where Diana died!

[hrgiger]

Looking good, although it does remind me of the Paris underpass where Diana died!

That's kind of funny because that's what my girlfriend said when she saw it.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Hopefully, the end result will show some good progress.

[arrow1234]

:) Having been playing Half Life 2 most of the afternoon, this reminds me of a set in that game.... I know it's not supposed to be, it just remindeded me of it :)

It's well lit for a tunnel, and I wish all tunnels were lit in this way.


Half Life 2 rocks, and the other thing i like it so much is that you can extract all the texture from the game disk. This can be 1 major source of where to get surface texture, its over gigs

[hrgiger]

Ok, this is a little closer to what I want the final lighting to be like. Ignore the large hotspots on the center dividers, that's where the fixtures will go.
A few of the textures are just base layers like the center columns and sidwalks. I'll dirty them up some more and put some spacers in the walks to break it up so it's not one long smooth slab.

[Hopper]

That makes a big difference. It's looking really good. The pavement is looking like it should. The tunnel itself feels dark enough and damp enough to put some standing water or at least water marks around the edges of the pavement. Make some tread mark textures for some of the wall panels.

[jnddepew]

I can tell that the set disappears not far in the distance, maybe you should have it go back a little farther so the darkness can take it more naturally.

[hrgiger]

This is just the one segment. The tunnel in the final scene will be made up of several to many segments and will also curve off into the distance.

[bgraves44]

Looking awesome! I think in a animation, it would totally pass as photoreal. Hard to pick out any negatives. The ceiling still looks a little "bump mappy" to me...

How about throwing some cigarette butts and trash in there...

B

[steamthunk]

Really good atmosphere. Now I know lighting needs to be on my radar as soon as I can put together some decent textures.

If the road is at all old and used I'd like to see some cracks in it. Maybe some lumpy asphalt filler in pot holes. Those things get me every time when I drive in our local tunnel. :)

[Phil]

You need some drainage in there - tunnels tend to collect water as it runs downhill. Some debris in the corners (rubber from tyres, and gravel from the surface damage) and some occlusion shading would work wonders.

The bump around the lights in the overhead centre divider also looks a little heavy.

[bobakabob]

The lighting looks really good now... the 'black hole' at the end of the tunnel gives it a menacing atmosphere.

[wavemaster]

textures need much work! The just dont seem to look right... Maybe look at some reference images!