I am starting on a new building for Jinxland and thought I may post the WIP here.
A building starts with the first boards. And here is mine.
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that's a very decorative corner piece, can't wait to see it finished. very nice

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Looks like a good and enthusiastic start. I hope you keep in mind to keep the amount of splines low.

I made those with the least amount of splines I could.
But I can assure you the house will not be so detailed. The decorative scrolls will be the details on the house.

Here is what I have so far.
let me know what I can do to make it fit in with the film properly.
It is by no means finished.
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that's terrific - love the whimsical design (a window or two would be nice)

That's a cutie!



Hard to know since I dont' know what the rest of the film is like.

Looks great Spleen! As Nancy said, a few windows would be nice.

Windows it is!
And I am not through with the dome.

Very nice Gene!

It has turned into an observatory.
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Hi Spleen,

The building is coming along nicely! I guess this building can be a lookout post for balloons coming and going.
PLEASE check the direction of all your normals. I just spent three days flipping normals from some old props I brought over from TWO.
It is much easier if you flip them correctly while you are modeling.

Now its time to start texturing. I know you though it was textured, but it isn't really.
I hope Nancy gives you some advice on some possible colors, materials etc.
If she does, listen to her. Nobody knows better how to take a fanciful building over the top.

what are normals?

Every patch has a "front" and a "back."
Normals are vectors that emanate from the front of the patch, pointing from the center outwards. They are used by the software for shading, simulations, etc.

If you turn on normals (SHIFT+1) you will see them represented by pointy lines coming from the patch center. (They are usually visible only ion modeling modes.)

In order for smooth, predictable shading, all normals in a surface should point the same direction. If you right click in the modeling window, you will see a "Refind normals." It can help to run this tools after you have finished some major modeling overhaul. (Twisting points around, stitching, copy/flip, etc.)
If you right click on a group, you will see a "Flip Normals" option. These tools help you make your models less ambiguous for the computer. (Just because you know which side of the patch is the outside doesn't mean the computer does.)

Normals are necessary in computer graphics because surfaces are built of infinitely thin shells. A patch has no thickness, you are either on the front of it, or the back.

(For definitions of terms, this page is invaluable, (if a bit dated) http://www.pixelburg.com/am_glossary/#00index )

ok I will examine this.

Just to piggyback on Jessie's post, the yellow spikes should always be coming out of the face of the patch that faces outward (is visible.) So, if you had a cube, all of the yellow spikes would be sticking out, not sticking in.

It is easier for me to see which way the normals on a patch are pointing if I turn off "show back facing polys" in the options window.
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Then, when you are looking at the Front of the patch, it will appear ... ahem ... normal.
But when you are looking at the back of the patch, it will appear transparent and you will see whatever is behind it.


Another easy way to flip normals (in addition to the suggestions already given) is to:
Hit [shift p] to enter patch-select-mode.
Then click on a patch that has its normal facing the wrong direction.
EDIT (You don't need to do this step) - Then right-click Inside the yellow selection box - to exit patch-select-mode.
Then hit [f] to flip the normal.

EDIT: You don't have to exit patch select mode. Just select a patch and hit [f].

The two rooftop sections I would like for them to look like they are made outta straw.
Just putting a decal on it is not going to work.

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Looking good! Have you thought about using a hair material?

would that hurt their rendertime?
I am trying to make it a fast render, that mov file even with smoke was just 3 secs per frame.

Yeah...I guess it would. Perhaps not much more than decalling? Probably better to get an answer from one of the experts up in here. I don't know that much I'm afraid. Maybe a material or a displacment map might be the way to go without taking too much render time?

Some thoughts from the Queen Mother of Doing Her Own Thing, now doomed to a miserable, lonely life in the Shadows of the Land of Misfits & Finished Work Outcasts.

Interesting concepts you have going on there - but perhaps too many all dumped into one (been there - done that). The house now looks like it has sprouted a potentially movable observatory hitched to a train.

The Oriental-ish house concept was very whimsical, and fit for Jinxland. A mystical Sorcerer type observatory would also be nice for Jinxland. A whimsical choo choo train would also be nice.

Whichever ones you do - try to remember they are going to be background usually- unless absolutely stunning and/or are integral to the story. And even then, that gorgeous Bumpyman house (a spline heavy marvel where every damn roof tile was modeled) - didn't get the air-time it deserved. It got lost in the background.

For this house (original one) - I would think some ornate golden tiles (bump maps, texture, maybe some smartly sparsely modeled detail) on the roof, with ornate fanciful patterned golden dome would be more consistent with architectural style.

If for another "poor peasant" structure you want to make straw roof - hair is okay to use. The settings for the hair would depend on where the structure is located and how close up we see this structure.

One could do a thatched type roof with a sparse density for hair - with image emitters, combined with decal texture on the roof, that probably wouldn't be too much of a render hit.

Love that you do tend towards "creative, whimsical" - so I don't want to squash that.

(ps - you should compress your animations, especially when they are just tests and not final, when uploading to the forum - 12 mb is waaaayyyyy tooo much for that short little ditty. Do you need to know how to do this?)

Hi Spleen,
If you want to have a thatched roof, you can use these. You don't have to decal them unless you just want to. You can apply the images as "patch images" to the thatched parts.

Hair probably wouldn't be such a good idea unless its absolutely necessary because there might be quite a bit of hair in some the the scenes already.

Decaling does not hurt render times as much as materials usually (depends on complexity) - displacement is also another render hit - as well as being sometimes unpredictable in behavior.

Thin (length to width aspect) Hair has its problems as well. Better to use thicker type emitters, with sparser density. Emitters with intricate alpha channels (lots of edge detail, varying levels of transparency) also has render hit implications/problems.

Thanks and I will give all these ideas a shot.
Can't promise anything lol

I am trying to add Holmes straw textures.
How do I tile it?

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some more texturing
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turn off back facing polys option is not listed in my rendering options.

You may want to first change to "show properties triangle" so that it's easier to locate properties (rather than have a separate panel) - This is not required - but makes life easier.

Then change the repeat count for the decal image and set Tile seamlessly to ON - it will not show as seamless in real time view - but it will render as seamless.

You must first change to shaded - then set or unset to show back faces

Thank you.
All my normals are correct now

Dunno if this is worthy but thought I would show you what I have so far.
The whole building is twisted, you cannot really tell from this shot.
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looking very odd!

That's my trademark!

Sure Spleen! I'll find a place for it. You can zip it up and either post it or email it to project.scarecrow@gmail.com
Make sure you include the image maps. They are not embedded in the project. You have to include the actual folder that contains the images.

It's not finished yet.
But I wil!

Holmes is there a lighthouse already?
I have a fantastical lighthouse going. really nice I believe.
After every video I try to learn something new and this lesson I am learning textures.

We do not have a lighthouse yet. Go for it.

SWEET! Your gonna love this!

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Hows this look?
I can take criticism.

That looks nice Spleen. If you have any displacement maps or materials, please change them to Bump instead. The lighthouse will probably only be seen from a distance and displacement is a render hog.

will do