Hey guys i have been trying to make a simple office environment, i have been struggling to get the props the right size and look good. Is there a way to make tables, chairs etc etc scaled right size??
thanks... so there is no other easier way than measuring everything?? how about using reference then just scaling it down to size? what if i dont have a character model then what?? i do have one but just for argument sake...
yes sorry my English is not that good what i meant was the Proportions... im still noob at Environments so basically Size Proportions to Object Scale? and thanks fr the reply... will start trying my luck on environment :P
First things first. What software (3d modeling, I presume) are you using?
There's a lot of difference. In 3ds (and Maya too) you have to fix unit measures in the preferences, in XSI you have more or less to go by guess. In Blender one grid square is one meter, in SketchUp you are asked from the beginning which unit system you want to use, Modo lets you change units on the fly... and so on.
Answer my initial question, and I'll try to be more specifically helpful
You should be able to model to realistic dimensions by some simple unit setup in your 3D package of choice, but I think you'll find that because games typically use a much wider field of view than normal human vision, things will be technically accurate, but appear slightly off. You may need to do a bit of experimentation to find a slightly unrealistic scale for assets in the environment that simply looks better.
The height of your camera, field of view, and relative juxtaposition to familiar things...such as a door or average looking human character, will greatly affect how you perceive scale in a game engine. That goes for geometry and textures. Having a familiar object in a scene can ground the viewer and give them a point of reference for everything else.
Unless a character is going to be directly interacting with a prop, you'll probably want to make things a bit larger than life.
yeah, it really depends on your engine and pov ingame, often you have to 'cheat' to get the right look. I think someone mentioned regarding using UDK in their game, that they had to make all objects 110% in size, to make it look right.
so there is no other easier way than measuring everything??
If you're modeling a dragon or a castle or something that you can't possibly measure, then working in scale is very difficult. But an office? You're already sitting in front of it! Working in scale is one of the best changes I've made in my work; knowing how large something should be (rather than just "bigger than that sphere over there...") helps keep texture density, scale, proportion, etc. It's just very convenient overall.
I'd definitely say to just get out a tape measure and figure out how big things should be. As for people, I always use a 1m x 0.1m x 2m box for a reference human. At that point, you can estimate the heights of doorways, cars, desks, etc, and know that at least your guesswork is based on a real measurement.
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Or place a dummy object and model the stuff relative to it´s size.
really exact scale isn't as important as proportions, since the scale is relative to the size of the player
There's a lot of difference. In 3ds (and Maya too) you have to fix unit measures in the preferences, in XSI you have more or less to go by guess. In Blender one grid square is one meter, in SketchUp you are asked from the beginning which unit system you want to use, Modo lets you change units on the fly... and so on.
Answer my initial question, and I'll try to be more specifically helpful
http://designreboot.blogspot.com/2009/03/refrigerator-box.html
So you may want to think abit more about scale than just making it real.
@Calabi thanks will read it now.
@8Ft i want to make a small office environment.
The height of your camera, field of view, and relative juxtaposition to familiar things...such as a door or average looking human character, will greatly affect how you perceive scale in a game engine. That goes for geometry and textures. Having a familiar object in a scene can ground the viewer and give them a point of reference for everything else.
Unless a character is going to be directly interacting with a prop, you'll probably want to make things a bit larger than life.
If you're modeling a dragon or a castle or something that you can't possibly measure, then working in scale is very difficult. But an office? You're already sitting in front of it! Working in scale is one of the best changes I've made in my work; knowing how large something should be (rather than just "bigger than that sphere over there...") helps keep texture density, scale, proportion, etc. It's just very convenient overall.
I'd definitely say to just get out a tape measure and figure out how big things should be. As for people, I always use a 1m x 0.1m x 2m box for a reference human. At that point, you can estimate the heights of doorways, cars, desks, etc, and know that at least your guesswork is based on a real measurement.