PS - Creating a Circular Brick pattern

salacious_Crumb

I can create straight patterns easily. But does anyone know how to create a circular brick pattern that can be used to texture a dome?

Tried looking on the internet for tutorials, but have'nt found anything useful. Just lots of tutorials of people creating patterns WITH circles, not circular patterns!

Thanks

Muzzoid

Filters>distort>polar coordinates.

salacious_Crumb

wow quick reply! Thanks.

Polar Coordinates is great, but the further out from the center it gets the more the bricks gets stretched in width. I.e. there are always 8 bricks in the circle. Any ideas how to over come this?

McGreed

Maybe make it into sections, so you have 2-3 'rings' of bricks and adjust the number of bricks with each ring, so the inner ring will have less. Then you will avoid too much distortion.

Eric Chadwick

Best bet is to make the bricks in 3D. Then you can use arrays, deformers, and the like to more quickly lay it out.

Mark Dygert

Just to be clear you're talking about something like this?


Then I agree with Eric, making them in 3D seems like it will give you the most control and best results. Plus you can sculpt in some great details if you need to.

I would start off with a row of instanced bricks (so you can make changes to them all by only editing one), apply a bend modifier set it to 360, then copy, shrink and rotate it. Depending on what you plan to do in the center you might need a few different arrays of bricks but you'll be using the same technique.

sprunghunt

Vig wrote: »

I would start off with a row of instanced bricks (so you can make changes to them all by only editing one), apply a bend modifier set it to 360, then copy, shrink and rotate it. Depending on what you plan to do in the center you might need a few different arrays of bricks but you'll be using the same technique.

If you apply a bend modifier to them you'll get the bricks forming a sort of wedge shape. It'd be better to use the array tool.

Mark Dygert

It depends on what type of bricks/pavers you use. If you use square bricks you get a big gap at the outer ring and they touch at the inner part. If he's willing to warp bricks with polar coordinates then I don't think wedge shaped bricks are all that bad...

Cut to fit or custom brick shapes are pretty common and in a lot of cases preferable because of the even spacing between the bricks.
http://www.lewisgardensandlandscape.com/images/walkway12big.jpg
http://thumb9.shutterstock.com.edgesuite.net/display_pic_with_logo/60247/60247,1156203939,1/stock-photo-circular-radiating-brick-walkway-in-a-park-1721415.jpg
http://concreteengravers.com/sitebuilder/images/normal_ldriveway3-362x233.jpg
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/657/657,1124711847,3/stock-photo-brickwork-design-502386.jpg
http://static-p3.fotolia.com/jpg/00/11/27/22/400_F_11272270_WopNuikufvbSlfsjBOStqQOdV0YEnmN9.jpg
http://www.earthworkslawnandlandscape.com/Photos/1/brickpav/brickpavPoolside_Brick_Pavers_Patios.jpg
http://ridgewoodcontracting.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/circularsteps.jpg

Regular bricks are sometimes used but feature the gap.
http://thumb15.shutterstock.com.edgesuite.net/display_pic_with_logo/51304/51304,1128117518,1/stock-photo-brick-circular-walkway-with-plants-591402.jpg
http://img4.sunset.com/i/2003/03/potager-m-l.jpg?400:400

One doesn't necessarily look better or worse than the other, but I know its easier to bend a row of bricks then it is to try and create several arrays of bricks fit into concentric circles. Since the changes are not that noticeable I would use the bend modifier... but it never hurts to experiment with all the available methods and pick the best one, if you have the time.

Eric Chadwick

Check out Kevin's post about GOW2 bricks.
Gears of War 2 modular modeling

More here.
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryEnvironmentDesign#Modular_Design_and_Workflow

salacious_Crumb

Thanks for the answers. I'll get down to modelling it now.

I don't want the bricks to distort too much. Like you say, i'll play around and find what works best in maya.

Oh, i'm trying for something like the inside of the domes on the left and right of this image: