Beaver dam?
ngon master
How would you approach something like this? But with bigger logs and a bit more compact. I need a high poly version too, but I know the low poly will basically be a plane with a few logs in front of it.
Replies
OK.. after a stiff drink.. I would.
-if this is below 250 polys then make a flat plane with a beaver dam texture & a bunch of 3 sided cylinders sticking out everywhere.
- If you have 1000k or more polys than this MIGHT work..
1. Attack it just like a rubble pile. instead of bricks / re-bar / rubble / its all sticks.keep in mind you want to break the stick groups into as many small repeating groups as possible. think of it like a long rock wall where each big rock represents a grouping or clump of sticks.
2. this is the hard part, u need to make the stick grouping in a med to high poly pile mesh,(for normal maps, Ao maps, base diffuse texture) then.
A. you can do this in z-brush and use "RE-Mesh ALL" to make a unified mesh cage with no interior faces. (yeah!)
B. or, go into any 3d app and Boolean low poly sticks together, to later UV and texture(holy-crap..headache)
3. u should not attack this as one long dam. try to break it into 3-4 tiling groupings.
4. You are right the sticks will have to be larger / thicker
5. I would do it all the groupings in z-brush then bake it out in a 3d app. then manipulate the low poly groups into a larger segment, then you would need say 3-4 segments to build the damn.
I don't know that I'd bother with a high poly for it. It looks like it'd be more fuss than it's worth. Some crazybump and a bit of tweaking in Photoshop would get you where you need I think.
Geometry is the way to go for this really.
I agree with Ark. For the high poly, you could try somethinlg like this:
- Make a plane wich is the water. Give it the shape and the texture you want.
- Pull down the water edge(s) in order to create the surface which will be covered by logs, and texture it like a low-poly. In other words, simply put a flat and seamless texture on it, with some sticks drawn on. Make it dark, almost black. Don't worry too much for the quality, this is only to give a better depth when watching inside holes between a stick and the other.
- Now, model a bunch of different logs, then create a group of them. Here you can do like Pthomas suggested: work with groups of logs, this will save a lot of work. Make sure you cover all the surface, leaving just some small holes between a log and the other. Also, cover well the border between the water surface and the hidden surface. You can intersect logs with water, obviously.
In my opinion this will do.
I've used this for pretty nice results