beach details and details

NAIMA

Hello , always working with my crysis thingy , I woul dlike to ask you esperts how I coul dapproach some detailing of my beach , in this moment I was thinking of some scattered shells , should I model them and scatter around or I shoul dinstead use an alpha map decal ? and in case on this could I add a normal map or bump to give a 3d effect?

thats more or less the picture I wanted to use , and any idea how I coul dcrop out those shells from the image in case of an alpha ?

http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=22801&PHPSESSID=c667380cdb3843e651e31101da02b3d0

Vrav

Ahh, if you are going to use a texture like that, you could just fix it to be seamless and have the lighting you want &c, get some normals out of CrazyBump or any of its alternatives, and just blend in that shell-strewn texture as is often done on terrain... you could create a blend mask so it doesn't fade out in the middle of shells.

Not sure what capabilities Crysis has specifically but that sounds like a feasible solution. What sort of terrain painting does Crysis have? Vertex colour? RGBA masking of different terrain textures?

NAIMA

I think the best solution woul dbe to make a alpha map decal to put on the terrain , this is how Crysis works but I dunno if I can add a normal map to a alpha texture , is this possible = if so then I guess would be the better solution couse I havea limited number of texture slots I can use on the island and I dont want to make severall or to many sand textres or have all shells all around , I guess I could place some little shells tough here and there on the smooth one ....

My idea was to give a variation to the beach throught the use of 3 main textures

a smooth one for shoreline

a stepped one , flat for shoreline/ back transition

and a messed dunelike one for the back

then on those scatrter here and there some shells / small pbbles , small roots , some algae , some dry fish etc .....

teaandcigarettes

You can add both normal and parallax mapping to your decals.

Personally I would use a mix of models (placed using veg tool; you can even make it procedural if you want) and decals.

Good thing about using vegetation tool to place static objects is that you can adjust the settings (draw distance, using sprites, casting shadows, etc.) of the whole group, rather than selecting dozens of small meshes.

Vrav

Okay, well,

NAIMA wrote: »

any idea how I coul dcrop out those shells from the image in case of an alpha ?

You might find Photoshop's Select>Color Range tool very useful. In like five-ten minutes of work using that, occasional feathering and manual masking by hand you can have a mostly usable decal that is just shells. Quick and filthy example:

NAIMA

mmm I didnt understand actually I have been trying and trying with the select color range but I cant get to select all without leaving a halo all around each shell or making holes in the shells themselves .... another one I wanted to use is also that but I am not able to select the right pieces do you have any suggestions?

http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=32455&PHPSESSID=d93519f526eef6b6e236b3902eef190b

Vrav

If you have a tablet, you can always just paint masks manually, or use something like the lasso tool (I wouldn't). The idea with color range selection is that the sand in the photo is brownish, and the shells are mostly white; that can be used to select the sand and mask it away. If you want to not have holes in the shells (I kept them in my example; makes the shells look buried), just correct those areas in the mask by hand.

You're making a lot of threads in this section. I'd recommend posting everything you do in one thread, and considering this is regarding a project you are currently working on, that thread should probably be in Pimping&Previews - you'll probably get more useful feedback if you post the work you've done there.

Finding a photo you want to use on cgtextures is a good start, but you need to post what you're getting in a thread like I mentioned. Then, people can actually offer feedback. As for suggestions on the new photo set, I'd use the same method as before... it takes a bit of work, and there's no instantaneous solution, but the more you try your hand at getting the results you want, the more you'll learn.

When it comes to software usage, such as Photoshop, especially, hands-on experience is key. You might not get it right the first couple times, but if you have the determination, you're bound to figure it out eventually. Again, I'd recommend maintaining a single WIP thread in P&P - maybe get a moderator to consolidate your current threads (all seemingly regarding this project) and move them there. I see you've gotten some nice feedback in your latest one, but this is still my opinion.

Ben Apuna

One possible approach to create scattered debris decal textures with perfect masks normals and ao (even diffuse and specular if you go to that extreme) all in one go, would be to model them out then render to texture using a technique Slum went over in the Best workflow for gravel-roads? thread.

It's a lot more work up front, but if spending all day trying to make perfect selections in Photoshop drives you crazy as it does me then it might be worth it.

There's no need to get hyper detailed with the debris objects/textures either since they're just going to occupy a few pixels for each piece. All you really need are simple colored shapes.

You might not be using Max but the technique could probably be adapted to any 3d app. No real need to use particles either, any sort of paint object placement function and instancing would work just as well, Modo could probably do this kind of thing with replicators.

EDIT:

I also second Vrav's idea of getting all of your threads combined into one if you can. You would probably get more cohesive advice for your scene and workflows that way.

NAIMA

Cool thankyou , I applied in the end the color range technique and I was surprised that even if I got many pixels out the texture decal itself blended enough well on the terrain details at least I think so .... Sorry for making too many threads I ll make just one next and post n the suggested place ...