My latest Art Project

[töff]

Are you using a displace for your compass face? What's your mesh density?

wish I could make 3d models like that!

You can, if you invest a jaquillion hours learning Max.

[Robbie]

Nope, just a carefully crafted bump map...I used a combination of diffuse color and bump map with motion blurred noise in various different directions to create the metal material...I can share the material with you if you'd like it?

In the meantime, this morning I did the sundial face etching and applied it. Now I need to do the etching for the latitude adjustment guide and add the compass needle stopper, and the hinge for the sundial face...the screws, and some other minor details...Of course I've dedicated this to the Cartographers' Guild

[Robbie]

forgot to mention my mesh density...its not very high at all...I'm relying on some of the new mental ray shader effects to do most of the work...for example, I have absolutely no modelled in chamfered edges...all my edge chamfering is done with the rounded edges mr_A&D shader effect. It even has a blend with other materials option, so I can create a clean merge between two pieces of geometry just by overlapping them...which you can see where the compass housing merges into the compass base, and also where the little cylinders that hold the gnomon in place merge with the sundial face.

Here's a screenshot of my workspace and a high resolution render of the current model. As you can tell, its not really that dense except for the number of segments on all the circular pieces...none of the chamfering is modelled which really makes things easier to work with.

Also from this high res, the bump map on the glass is a bit too intense...gonna have to reconsider it.

[töff]

absolutely no modelled in chamfered edges

I noticed those. They're a great touch! I almost asked how you had modelled them.

my mesh density...its not very high at all...

Doesn't need to be, the way you're doing it. Dense meshes are a soak of resources. I don't have a nice enough compy to do anything with them.

chamfering is done with the rounded edges mr_A&D shader effect. It even has a blend with other materials option, so I can create a clean merge between two pieces

That sure is handy! Obviously there's quite a bit I need to explore in the new Max.

[pyrandon]

This is amazing to me. I can't believe I know somebody who actually does this high quality of work. Just incredible!

[töff]

this high quality of work

The work is excellent, and kudos to the worker. But some credit has to go to the software, too. Here's a piece I did in Max several years back ... http://lattice.mysteryandmagic.com/d.../151/12280.jpg ... you can really get some wonderful results if you have the right tools, and know how to use them! Sounds like Arcana is really mastering Max. I struggle. I've stuggled since, I think, v3. It's the only piece of software that has ever intimidated me with its power. It makes Photoshop look like Wordpad.

[edit] I should admit up front, I stole the naked-girl mesh from Poser. I'm nowhere close to a good enough mesh modeller to create such a thing!

[töff]

But to get something close to back on topic ...

I ask about mesh density because, of course, many of us play with 3D terrain renders, height maps, etc. Max does those with displace modifers, and to get decent results you need really high mesh densities. (That puts Max at a disadvantage to proggies like, e.g., Bryce, which seems to handle them much more easily.) The same modifier applies to doing an engraved brass compass face. I just never had any success with high-density meshes, probably because of lack of processor power.

I guess I am wondering if the mental ray techniques used on this piece would be applicable to terrain maps?

[ravells]

You might not know this, toff, but Arcana does 3d modelling for a living...so he's very good at it

[töff]

.so he's very good at it

No argument from me. Cheers!

(Shh, I'm pickinig his brains.)

[Robbie]

The transition from Max 8 to Max 9 focused primarily on Mental Ray and Performance issues...Max 2008 has focused even more on Performance and made the interface a little more functional (read: more to learn)...I've been workign with max since v2.5 BUT have only done low-polygon modelling for games up until Max 8 when I started doing some hi poly stuff seriously.

Max 2008 handles higher density meshes MUCH better than its predecessors, so you should give it a try now if you have it.

As for displacement for heightmaps and terrain...there's three ways to do displacements...There's the displace modifier that displaces based on existing geometry, which means higher density meshes give better results...then there's Displace Approx...which approximates the details of the displacement map and subdivides the mesh accordingly, which requires far less mesh density, but increases your render times a LOT since it does all that math during render...and then there's the new mental ray displacement shader which is similar to displace approx, but its a shader effect instead of a math process...I imagine the mental ray displacement map is similar to normal mapping in modern games, which does a combination of displace approx and bump mapping...All I know is it works great and is surprisingly fast at render time, but you don't get to see the results till render.

Feel free to pick my brain anytime I learned all I need to know from CGTalk...which is my inspiration for this site anyways...I've only been doing this professionally for the past year or so...but I've been a part of many mod teams and things for games, I did a lot of stuff for Neverwinter Nights, and I'm still an artist member of the DLA mod team and we're up to some great stuff nowadays...