Harry Goes to Arabia

[VortigensBane]

Thanks, Laurie. I was rather hoping you would have an opinion on the UV mapping, since I know how much texture painting you have done.

 

[Alisa]

Yeah, I'm no help with the UV Mapping, but this is just lovely!

 

[Miss B]

The two latest textures look great VB. I haven't worked with dynamics enough to know for sure, but 2 minutes per frame doesn't sound too bad for something like this with all those tassels.

 

[CWRW]

Thanks, Laurie. I was rather hoping you would have an opinion on the UV mapping, since I know how much texture painting you have done.

Happy to help! Also option 1 would be less work in general as well for texturing IMO. (Always a good thing

 

[VortigensBane]

The two latest textures look great VB.

Glad you like them, but they're not actually my own work. I've just been using random procedural textures in my Runtime to give me a general idea of how the UV maps look with different textures. I haven't gotten bold enough to attempt texturing my own yet, with one exception, which was a bump map for a project I was doing for fun a while back...

One of my first attempts at modelling. Every once and a while I go back to it and fix a different part. So far I've fixed the blade and the handle, but not the gold parts. What does this have to do with Harry? Not exactly sure...

 

[Miss B]

I like modeling swords as well, and this has an interesting look, so please do continue to work on it.

 

[JOdel]

It all looks gorgeous. As a Studio user I'm pretty much resigned to Daio's old Native Costume set for anything similar.
I'm sure that Poser users will appreciate the separate matt zones for rolling their own via shaders.

 

[VortigensBane]

As a Studio user I'm pretty much resigned to Daio's old Native Costume set for anything similar.
I'm sure that Poser users will appreciate the separate matt zones for rolling their own via shaders.

I was a Studio only user for years too, so I know the feeling. It encourages me to work on a DAZ version as well for those who don't use Poser. I got really lucky one year and managed to snatch up Poser 9 for around $65 USD when it was on sale. I bought it simply because I wanted to use the Cloth Room soooooo bad...and I've been hooked ever since.

I wanted so many mat zones because I am colorblind. So often, I go to work with an outfit, hoping to just add nice trim around the edges, and then I find all the trim and bangles are just textured in. I can't really re-color things, so I usually end up with a boring outfit with no trim. Or, I go into Blender and add a few extra material zones, but that is frustrating and takes too long. I usually add extra mat zones for constrained, soft-decorated, and choreographed faces too, so that it is easier to set up my cloth sims...

 

[VortigensBane]

For your consideration and comments... we present draft one of the Arabian Horse blanket UV maps!

All of the tassels share the same UV layout, even though each layer of tassels is a separate material zone (four zones, actually). So far, I have the following material zones:
Blanket
Blanket (saddle area)
Blanket (posterior decorated area)
Blanket inside trim
Blanket outside trim
Neck band
Neck band trim
Tassel suspension cords (which connect the layers of tassels to the blanket itself)
Tassel head
Tassel binder
Tassel fronds
Tassel head (lower)
Tassel binder (lower)
Tassel fronds (lower)
Tassel head (lowest)
Tassel binder (lowest)
Tassel fronds (lowest)

Does anyone have any ideas for more material zones to be added? When I do the cloth sims, I use three different dynamic zones: blanket, tassel suspension, and tassels; as well as a soft decorated group (tassel heads); and a few constrained vertices to keep the blanket from sliding too far off to one side as Harry runs.

Due to the layout of the UV map, the entire blanket can use just one texture, even patterned, without seams showing up. The only seam that would show is where the neck band meets the main blanket. That too could be gotten rid of if I make the whole blanket/neckband one piece (which would take all of 15 minutes at this point). The drawback to that is that there would be a lot more wasted space on the UV layout, so the UV map would have to be enormous in order to get any level of detail on the blanket and neckband. Any preferences, texture painters? (Laurie in particular...)

 

[CWRW]

For your consideration and comments... we present draft one of the Arabian Horse blanket UV maps!

Due to the layout of the UV map, the entire blanket can use just one texture, even patterned, without seams showing up. The only seam that would show is where the neck band meets the main blanket. That too could be gotten rid of if I make the whole blanket/neckband one piece (which would take all of 15 minutes at this point). The drawback to that is that there would be a lot more wasted space on the UV layout, so the UV map would have to be enormous in order to get any level of detail on the blanket and neckband. Any preferences, texture painters? (Laurie in particular...)

Hey VB

My personal preference is to never waste UV space if you can help it. (on the other hand I like a little space between zones for bleed Looks like a good UV from what I can see. It always helps to see a color coded UV like this actually applied to the model. LOL I always have to make a color coded UV for myself when I get a brand new model no one has textured before so I can figure out where what goes where

Laurie

 

[VortigensBane]

So for the last 24 hours I have been watching the kettle boil, over and over again. I tried adding a little wind to the sim, changed cloth parameters, etc., trying to make the sims run faster. However, I am still stuck at an hour and a half for my fastest sim time; and that is for a 30 frame sim without draping. I think that is too long, so I am working on reducing the resolution of the tassels again. I will see how much better they run with only half as many segments on each tassel strand. Right now, each tassel strand has four faces; I'm doing a two-face version, which will probably end up named "Harvey"...

Anyway, some test renders (still of the Hi-res blanket) with a slight wind from the East (Harry's running South).

 

[Pendraia]

Looks really good...if it takes to long is it possible to hide a row of tassels to speed up the render time?

 

[VortigensBane]

Render time has never been a problem, but it was taking the cloth sim FOREVER to get from frame to frame. Yesterday I went back through and lowered the resolution of the tassel fringe. It was a night-and-day difference between the two models when it came to cloth simulation. The new model took less than 25 minutes to run a 30 frame simulation, and I can't notice a difference between the two models when I render. What is better, though, is I have figured out how to reduce the UV layout from two maps to one, by making all the tassel fronds share the same UV layout instead of all being different. That should make it easier to texture too. Anyway, here's the new model:

Again, the wind is blowing from the "East" still...

 

[Flint_Hawk]

Stunning renders you have added!

 

[Ken Gilliland]

looking good!

 

[VortigensBane]

looking good!

Thanks, Ken! Believe it or not, this whole project actually started because I was trying to put together an entry for the Songbird Remix Art Contest last year. Obviously, my entry never got finished...

 

[VortigensBane]

We all know that when you get little children dressed up for something important, the first thing they do is make a mess of themselves... Here is Harry trying his best to do just that:

To test the capabilities of the blanket, I wanted to try a more "extreme" pose. The sim took a little longer than last time, but was still done in 30 minutes. I think I have the "final" UV layout now too, which you can see below.

 

[CWRW]

Oh that looks great VB!

 

[Pendraia]

Looks fantastic VB! (Everytime I type that I think of the fact that in Australia a VB is a Victoria Bitter which is really weird.)

 

[Miss B]

Your latest UV map is looking great VB. Nice, neat and uncluttered.