Modular building texturing, advice needed.

Gheromo

Hey polycounters,

I am in a situation where I need a modular building for my showreel right now and many more later this year for the final year film. It is one of my weakest spots in GA it seems. I tried to do it last year around the same time and it didn't go very well, this time I think I need help from those who know what to do and can give a valuable advice.

Whilst I was doing this quick blockout I was trying to think ahead how I am going to approach texturing this, but I dont think I am getting anywhere with that one.


Example: Huge brick / blocks on the first floor, how do I make them tile well across all modular pieces?
Yet its probably for the best if I retain across those pieces since I am planning on reusing this building in a different variations.

another thing that concerns me, is that its probably not efficent to have about 5+ texture sets...

Blockout, to figure out the modular pieces. Any advice on that including points above would be much appreciated.




Reference building: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/fr/6/68/Paris_16_-_Immeuble_Jass%C3%A9d%C3%A9_142_avenue_de_Versailles_-1.JPG


Google Maps Adress:

Lealy Pressing, Avenue de Versailles, 16th arrondissement of Paris, Paris, France

Thanks a ton in advance!

tjakal

I've recently made some pretty extensive research into modular environment texturing for a game project. What I came up with was having elements
that tile horizontal on one texture board, elements that tile vertical on another and keep any materials that tiles across large surfaces like bricks plaster and stuff like that
on their own. This way interesting elements can quickly be combined in multiple ways and offsets to create rich variations trough out the scene.
The challenge is to create these boards of content that is generic and indistinct enough to be reused a lot without looking boring and repetitive.

Having many texture sets are just fine if they can be used to create variation for a whole city block.

Also. new member: hello polycount.

Zepic

Check out this thread, look at Stefan's texture layout (about the 8th post down):
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=39&t=444791&page=7&pp=15

Check out the polycount wiki as well:
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryEnvironment

McGreed

Yeah, the trick is to make unique/non-tiled textures is to combine them in the material. It doesn't have to be extreme, for example a brick wall (1x1) with another grime texture masked over it (1.43x1.43) can break up the uniformity of the tiling.

Other effects such as using masking to do color/brightness variations helps as well, often using vertex coloring. I always refer to the example here for UDK, but the principle is the same in your 3D program: http://eat3d.com/free/vertex_painting

Gheromo

Just wanted to say thank you for your replys guys, it really helped me to get my head straight. I will post a link here at some point soon when I will make a thread dedicated to this building. In order to get feedback.