How do i create a jungle??
 

Ok, im trying to make a jungle for an animation project im working on.

I have Xfrog 4 as a plugin, so modelling trees and plants isnt the big issue for me, its the ground (terrain).

Sure i can make a NURBS plane, and raise cv's etc. but how do i make it look realistic as possible without adding like 60 billion polygons! lol

I just want a ground, where it looks like there is bumps, leaves, twigs etc, but balancing it with minimum rendering times as poss. as i need to batch render.

Thanx in advance

Do you mean the actual jungle floor?

How close will you be to the ground? Frog, human, bird or airplane view? :P

Thanx for the quick response guys.

Well im animating a monkey in a tree, but there will be a point where he will be on the floor. However the trees will be quite high, so if i can get away with it and good enough results, i'll make him hop from tree to tree and not touch the floor, so the camera wont be so close.

gster yes m8, i meant the jungle ground.


I can make a NURBS plane and push and pull cv's until my eyes pop out if need be, but its the texturing and final touches like twigs, etc.

What do you guys suggest. Any short tut's would be superb. THANX AGAIN

Mkay I have no idea if this work in Maya but in 3d max I usually create several planes with differant maps (different color of grass in this situation i guess) and make noise opacity maps so that you see through them(Except the last one of course!) that makes a groundish look, and it is reapatable becouse you cant see the edges. :D For the twigs, model them quickly and add a simply bark bitmap or something. :D (Dunno if this works in Maya tho) :)

Was just gonns sugest some thing like that, do a google for some ground images and use this as the base, then on the layers of vegitation (leaf's etc) use bump maps coupled with transparancy maps with these planes slightly higher than the ground (base plane), this should give it some depth.

Keep each of hte planes the same with some slight undulations (made using the artisan tool or sculpt poly tool)

YOu might suffer at render time but it will save you loads of polys.


Or if your not going too close to the floor, a simply image with the desaturated image as the bump might do it for you.

Here are some pretty good sites with loads of textures


http://www.cgtextures.com/ http://www.mayang.com/textures/

Thanx guys. I'll try that and work on it.

Weyu, ur a god for that link!!!

Thank you so much, i'l definately be bookmarking that one!!

:bow:

No problems mate, always glad to help :)

Sorry guys,

I can model, animate, blah bla blah. But suck at texturing.

I havent spent any time on it at all since ive started learning maya. Up until now i havent needed to, just playing around, but now im getting serious and wanna create something good.

Can anyone give me a basic step by step guide to create bump map etc. etc. for my ground like gster and weyu said.


Thank you

Ok, i think ive got the hang of texturing basics. Still no good at uv mapping etc.

I added a bump map.

However, my next question is...

I would like some grass on it (to cover up the 'artificial like' ground) as it still dont look perfect.

I was thinking of using fur and painting a baldness map.

Does anyone know the best way to do this? How would i add a baldness map and bake it?


Thanx

Grass takes alot of render time(at least in 3dmax) :) and regarding the ground, use greener maps? :D And you shouldnt have to uv it, just multiply the ground enough times untill it lookes good. :D

I dont know shit about baldness map and backing as it wasnt neccerary in 3ds max... Just throw the fur on and make it green. :D

I use a combination of these maps to make normal ground

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h57/weyu/EVGREEN.jpg

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h57/weyu/SANDSHOR.jpg

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h57/weyu/EVGREEN.jpg

Here is an example of me using hair/fur for grass (3dsmax

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h57/weyu/mne.jpg

PS some jungles dont have grass :D

thanx weyu!!

render time aside Id go with just a simple dirt texture and for your "grass" on your
Animation
Modeling
Dynamics
Rendering tab select rendering and go paint effect>Get Brush use a mix of grasses from the list it will give you when you get the desired effect go modify>Covert>Paint Effect to Nurbs or Polygons hope that helped a little

yeah, graph, i was thinking that, but rendering paint effects, takes just as long if not longer,

although, like you said i can just paint clumps of grass here and there as if it was like in a jungle.

On the other hand i can get alot more realistic results,if i use fur as i can texture it with photos.

I'll have a play with both advice and post the results.

One thing i have noticed is i can get away with, is that in jungles there are gigantic leaves, so i may be able to cover some terrain with that.

:beer:

Thanx guys, keep up the help! MUCH appreciated.