Again away from my main computer so another grey scale height map.
Pretty happy for a 10 minute model. Made it for another project but of course had to see what a pattern would look like.
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Again away from my main computer so another grey scale height map.
Pretty happy for a 10 minute model. Made it for another project but of course had to see what a pattern would look like.
That story sounds kind of fishy. Looks great as usual, will make a nice addition to my marine patterns.
Thx, Rick H
Great job Oscar, any idea of fish type. Just wondering?
Thanks gents.
I believe its based on a Bass, but I took a 10 whole minutes to make it so its a more roughly fish shaped model than a real fish. I knew a lot of the detail was going to be hidden in the animation so I cheated a lot in making it.
Can you show me how to make a hight map or point me right direction
This is a challenge because there are a ton of ways to make height maps for bas relief patterns.
Very first thing is you need a good 3d model for the bas relief. Not all models are good candidates.
I primarily use Blender 3d but here are some of the programs I use to make height maps. Depending on the model sometimes one works better than an other. Even within Blender there are multiple ways to do it. Here is a simple way to do height maps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekogw2Zm20Y
I use a slightly more advanced method and I've already shared that earlier on this thread (page 21).
Carvewright Designer
Blender 3d
Meshlabs
Zbrush
Shader Pro 4
Fusion 360
Gents and gals,
Blender is stupid powerful for a free program but I will not say it's an easy program to learn in an hour or two, but if you learn the basics it is a ton of fun. That is true with any 3d program. The options are crazy. Maya, Cinema4D, Mudbox, Zbrush, 3DCoat, Fusion360, Sketchup, 3DS Max, Modo, AutoCad, Rocket 3F, and the list continues. Oh, and can't forget that Carvewright Designer modeling suite add-on is a decent basic 3d modeling software as well. The prices are free to "I need a second mortgage".
Making height maps is relatively easy but it is different with each software package and many times there are different ways to accomplish the task within each program. I know of only one program that will create a height map with a single button push (Zbrush). The rest need some sort of set up before you can create the height image. I am not an expert so please let me know if I'm wrong.
Here is a basic material node tree in Blender 3d to make height maps. It separates the z data and mixes it with some ambient occlusion to create the height map render (image from 3d data). There are many, many ways to create a height map in Blender.
I've been playing around with this to see how efficiently and quick it can be made. I have it down to about 3 minutes. Should make a nice background texture and its tileable.
I added a screen shot of the blender screen for anyone interested in what that looks like. I used the node set up material I posted earlier instead of my normal method. It is a little darker but it works okay. Its actually way faster than my normal method.
Totally off the chart for my abilities. I started to try Fusion 360 but haven't be able to devote enough time to figure out if I can get anywhere with it. Hopefully it's one of those things that you reach a certain point and the light comes on. Hoping things will slow up so I can make another stab at it. We'll see..
Anyway, thanks for all your time and effort along with the willingness to share.
Rick H
Rick, you got to keep trying. It took me three separate starts for blender to finally click. I kept thinking it was like Photoshop when in reality it was something completely different (3d). And when it clicked I was still very much a very poor artist. I have risen to the level of mediocre which is still a ton better than bad. Same with Zbrush. I didn't even know how to start it.
I thought Fusion 360 was pretty hard because its more CAD than artistic 3d program. They taught us the Fusion 360 basics in the 3d animation school I attended.