Brainstorming how to model this structure better.

tecii

Part of my job is to model Air-Supported Structures (Domes), the turn around on these projects is pretty fast, within a few days or so for more general asks like a soccer field or warehouse inside. The dome model I'm currently working with is easy to scale, boolean and clean up I'd like a more detailed version of the dome where it really feels inflated against the cables.

My typical workflow is Maya > Substance Painter > Unreal and I've tried using some simulation stuff in Maya but I've only received terrible results. The original model made with the cables has a perpendicular (lat/long) pattern which doesn't correctly represent our product which features either a geodesic pattern or a "thin diamond" pattern depending on the set up.

Old dome model:

Real Life Reference:

I've been pondering, should I sculpt this in Blender or Z-Brush first instead of trying to simulate it? Does Houdini have something that can assist me, especially if I have to change the dimensions of these constantly? If I didn't have to make close up shots and video, I would just fake in Substance Painter.

Fabi_G

Hi! You could try with a heightmap and see how far you can take it. Could displace a mesh with it and sculpt details on top. But would be good to define the texture resolution first, so you don't spend time on details that don't show up. Here is a test. 

tecii

That looks pretty solid! Thanks for posting the layers from SP as well, very helpful.

I could definitely give height maps a try! I did use a combo of height maps and normals on the inside which has a different pattern that was easy to nail town.  Any thoughts on laying the cables afterwards? I feel like turning nurbs into cylinders in maya? That might be my best best once I have this figured the inflation part. I definitely want to see it pretty flush.

Fabi_G

Hey! I would try doing the cables first: Something like shrink-wrap/project splines/curves onto the base shape, then extrude geometry along those. Then bake the cables geometry down and use the resulting map to create the heightmap.

tecii

Sounds good, thanks again!