Which of my house measurements is correct?

JordanN

Hello Polycount.

Originally, I measured a house for my environment and I stuck with that number for a few months. However, after looking at other houses in my neighborhood, I tried measuring them from a different angle, and the answer I got was very different.

Here is my original house I measured where I roughly got a height of 7.25  meters - 8 meters.


Here is the new house I measured, but I tried measuring it from the side. The approximate answer I got was 1118cm ( or 11 meters).
I also measured the same house again but also from the side, and I approximately got 1136cm.



Now I'm not sure if it's just me, but the new measurements make the houses feel more gigantic. I have a man model so I put him next to the two heights in 3DS Max (he is 176cm). 

oglu

take a door as measurement... those are 2.1 meter... and ignore the roof for now... that will come after the blocking much more clear...

huffer

You can keep in mind that floor height could range from 2.5m to 3m (sometimes the first floor has a bigger height); then add 30cm for the ceiling/floor beams per each story.

JordanN

Yeah, I'm just going to ignore the roofs for now. 

I went back to using doors and garages and I still end up with a range of 717cm ~ 800cm before hitting the ceiling, which is very close to my first estimate (7.25 meters).

Looking outside my room window, all the roofs seem to be proportionally equal to the second floor, so maybe it's just perspective that's playing weird tricks (at ground level, they look even smaller).

pior

I have to say I don't really understand the thinking here. If you are gearing up for something that will most likely take tens of hours of your time (environment modeling) ... then why don't you take the couple minutes/hours required to actually walk up to these houses and take actual measurements ? Insisting on guesstimating them will only lead to shaky foundations.

JordanN

pior said:

I have to say I don't really understand the thinking here. If you are gearing up for something that will most likely take tens of hours of your time (environment modeling) ... then why don't you take the couple minutes/hours required to actually walk up to these houses and take actual measurements ? Insisting on guesstimating them will only lead to shaky foundations.

I actually did went around my neighborhood and measured a lot of props by hand, but I was worried people might think I'm weird that there's a person walking around next to random objects with a tape measure, so I avoided going next to any houses and just took pictures of them instead and I worked out the math when I got home.

Thanez

Your measurements are off because you didn't take into account that depth changes how many cm goes into a pixel at different ranges from the camera.
Example:

The human to the right is 84 pixels tall, while the leftmost human is only 81. Yes, I counted them.
According to my calculations, either your rightmost human is 1,03 humans tall, or the human to the left is 0,96 humans tall. 

Google how tall floors usually are in your area, multiply that by 3 and add a little for supports and insulation.
According to my local standards, the house is probably around 7,5-8,5 meters, or if you will, 6 Honda Civics tall.

pior

"I actually did went around my neighborhood and measured a lot of props by hand, but I was worried people might think [...]" 

These may be reasons for not taking direct measurements, but not good enough justifications to start a long term project on such shaky grounds.

In other words : if this project requires accurate measurements, but you don't have a way to acquire them ... then it might be best to pick another project altogether. Or, finding a way to precisely infer the measurements from photos other than by photoshoping stacks of cars. There are tools out there to do that.

JordanN

pior said:

"I actually did went around my neighborhood and measured a lot of props by hand, but I was worried people might think [...]" 

These may be reasons for not taking direct measurements, but not good enough justifications to start a long term project on such shaky grounds.

For what it's worth, I went with this environment because I wanted a portfolio piece that could challenge me to think in ways I never thought was possible. Including a scenario where what if I can't travel to a location and get the exact data, that I should at least make an attempt to find it critically. I almost hit a panic button that I want employers to know I can make an environment under any circumstance, even though like you said, I could walk outside and directly measure it.

pior

Employers worry less about how you could potentially model an environment without measurements, and more about what kind of subject matter you pick and why.

BTW I am not saying that this is necessarily a bad topic, or something not worthy for a piece. As a matter of fact, even the most mundane topic can be turned into something very interesting. Just gotta give it one's best effort.

Dash-POWER

If you are owner of any iOS device I would try this AR app or similar for measuring. I know it's not like laser tape but I think it can by handy. Or Android should have something too.