Theatre Project

[aquarits]

nice!

I just guess that for a mazing place like tis, you have to take care about the entrance hall, belive that you have to get more to receive the VIP persons.

[Meshon]

Here's a first go at getting some wood to curve. I initially thought I'd try to do it with Illustrator brushes but then the wood textures really don't match up. As you can see I'm having trouble getting the radius of my curve to match up with the theatre precisely but is this maybe a step in the right direction?
curvedWoodTest.jpg

Also for this example I just plunked a layer mask on what I'd done so that it could be combined with Jacktannery's awesomeness, but we need to figure out a way that contributors can offer useful pieces without causing extra hassles. Jacktannery are you using GIMP? I'm guessing my best move then would be to provide .png graphics that are trimmed to fit?

Say like this (scaled down to conserve bandwidth):
croppedFloor.png

cheers,
Meshon

[Jacktannery]

Excellent! You are a genius Meshon - I knew you could do it.

But we need it much bigger - at over 3000 pixels long please. Save it as a jpg (90% quality), post it up here, and I will remove the white bits with the fuzzy select tool manually. That should work fine.

Your middle two tiers are perfect, so upload that version and we can cut those out of it. But it would be great if you could curve it to make the lowest (walkway) tier, and remake the uppermost tier.

The other thing we need to do is to remake the stage a bit better. I can make the metal bits, ropes and that sort of thing So can you make us some amazing intricately curving wooden planks? We can keep simple floorboards in the main part of the stage, but it would be lovely to have a curving wooden frame and curving wooden steps up the side of the stage.

Here's the wood texture I was using - it's not seamless but seams on planks are easy to fix. If you do spend lots of time stitching this floor together to make it seamless when you are doing the curving, then it makes sense for you to use all the wood. If you find a nicer texture use that instead obviously - but we do need to stick with a single texture for everything I think.

Go team!

wooden_floorboards.JPG

[Meshon]

Sorry for the longish post, just need to get some things straight in my head.

But we need it much bigger - at over 3000 pixels long please.

Do you mean the section where the curved tiers turn straight and head east? I should extend that section so it fills the rest of the balcony floor space on the map, is that right?

Your middle two tiers are perfect, so upload that version and we can cut those out of it. But it would be great if you could curve it to make the lowest (walkway) tier, and remake the uppermost tier.

Here do you mean I should curve the floor as well? I was thinking that only the tiers that are above the floor should be curved since it's expensive and time consuming to soak the wood planks, set them in forms and dry them until they have a nice curve. Also it's a little harder for me to do tight curves and as the radius of the curve gets smaller towards the centre the distortion ramps up a bit.

The other thing we need to do is to remake the stage a bit better. I can make the metal bits, ropes and that sort of thing So can you make us some amazing intricately curving wooden planks? We can keep simple floorboards in the main part of the stage, but it would be lovely to have a curving wooden frame and curving wooden steps up the side of the stage.

I should be able to work that out, especially since the stage is symmetrical I'll just do the one side. But I think that might take a bit longer, I may need to figure out a technique other than the built-in warp that I'm using in Photoshop at the moment. But definitely doable. Do-able? fortunately I'm building here, not spelling!

Here's the wood texture I was using - it's not seamless but seams on planks are easy to fix. If you do spend lots of time stitching this floor together to make it seamless when you are doing the curving, then it makes sense for you to use all the wood. If you find a nicer texture use that instead obviously - but we do need to stick with a single texture for everything I think.

The wood texture I used was one that seemed close to yours. It is much easier to warp and bend it if it tiles seamlessly. Maybe we can use a couple of similar but not identical wood textures? That said, I will play around with the one you've uploaded here and see if I can make something seamless out of it. I've managed to do that in the past at least once or twice. Just have to remember how it goes

Go team!

Agreed! This is great.

cheers,
Meshon

[anstett]

Fully agreed that this is a great project and great progress already!

For the different wood textures as Mishon mentions that works great. Most places like this would have been built and rebuilt over time so there would be various types of wood as well as the wear and tear of use.

BOB

wonders if the director is a Centaur if any of the rooms in the back will fit him? just an idle thought....

[Jacktannery]

We have some wires crossed I think!

Do you mean the section where the curved tiers turn straight and head east? I should extend that section so it fills the rest of the balcony floor space on the map, is that right?

The issue is that the image you posted called 'croppedfloor.png' backthread is scaled down (as you admitted). I want the full scale version for the map.

Here do you mean I should curve the floor as well? I was thinking that only the tiers that are above the floor should be curved since it's expensive and time consuming to soak the wood planks, set them in forms and dry them until they have a nice curve. Also it's a little harder for me to do tight curves and as the radius of the curve gets smaller towards the centre the distortion ramps up a bit.

The 'floor' you refer to is, I think, a curved raised balcony supported by pillars. I think it would look lovely curved but if it is too much hassle we won't bother. Try it anyway.

I should be able to work that out, especially since the stage is symmetrical I'll just do the one side. But I think that might take a bit longer, I may need to figure out a technique other than the built-in warp that I'm using in Photoshop at the moment. But definitely doable. Do-able? fortunately I'm building here, not spelling!

Indeed. Yes this is a trickier part - I did not know you were warping in photoshop - in GIMP I have the iwarp tool too which is the same. It's a pain to use for this sort of thing. For the stage we need to design it first - we don't need to use the same design that Supercaptain used; I'l like something with a complicated curving tiered staircase (now that I know that I can push you to curve wood!). Ideally we would have a talented artist draw us a sketch of a lovely ornate boutique-baroque stage, then I could turn it into a scaled plan, then you could curve the wood for the edges/frame, and we could fill the inside with a simple plank texture. Otherwise, at 'work' tomorrow in the office I could google some images of stages and try to come up with a nice plan. What I would like would be to have a double line of curving planks all around the edge of the stage, 'framing' it. Technically difficult, but it would be very impressive.

The wood texture I used was one that seemed close to yours. It is much easier to warp and bend it if it tiles seamlessly. Maybe we can use a couple of similar but not identical wood textures? That said, I will play around with the one you've uploaded here and see if I can make something seamless out of it. I've managed to do that in the past at least once or twice. Just have to remember how it goes

I had not realised you had used a different texture - I thought you had just cut and pasted mine! Your wood texture is amazing! And seamless! yay. And I think it is better actually to use a slightly different texture for the stage and balcony than on the floor. Ignore my uploaded texture and just use your own. I could create a seamless texture out of mine too, but I hate seamless textures and refuse to use them nowadays out of pointless stubbornism.

[Jacktannery]

I agree Anstett.

wonders if the director is a Centaur if any of the rooms in the back will fit him? just an idle thought....

Not sure I follow - are there rooms behind the stage? I don't see them. Do you mean the little rooms on the second and third floors of the stage? If so, do you want me to change the plans of the theatre that you emailed me to enlarge some of the small rooms up there? Or do you mean the doorways behind the stage leading outside? They will be five-feet wide so wide enough for a centaur I imagine.

[anstett]

Not sure I follow - are there rooms behind the stage? I don't see them. Do you mean the little rooms on the second and third floors of the stage? If so, do you want me to change the plans of the theatre that you emailed me to enlarge some of the small rooms up there? Or do you mean the doorways behind the stage leading outside? They will be five-feet wide so wide enough for a centaur I imagine.

The doorways and those small room are what I was thinking and no I do not think a Centaur would want an office on the second floor so I will have to consider my NPC choice for an odd ball theater director. Hmmmm a Fremlin flying around with a concert director's baton swatting actors into posistion.

[Meshon]

Warp tool is a bit of a pain to use, though not impossible. Easy for a very simple warp, but gets difficult quickly. I will play with it a bit and also have a hunt around for some other options. I love Illustrator brushes for things like this but its hard to get a convincing wood texture that is simple enough to use as a brush.

I'm game to try curving the balcony. I think I'd better have another careful look at the map and get a better sense of what's where. Onward!

cheers,
Meshon

[RobA]

Here's the wood texture I was using - it's not seamless but seams on planks are easy to fix. If you do spend lots of time stitching this floor together to make it seamless when you are doing the curving, then it makes sense for you to use all the wood. If you find a nicer texture use that instead obviously - but we do need to stick with a single texture for everything I think.

I bent that texture into a circle. It is a tad large (33 MB) http://www.silent9.com/incoming/round.png

If it is useful, please feel free to use it. It might need a little adjustment but it should be close at the radius desired.


-Rob A>