modeling a booth

[TurboSmooth]

Wanted to know how you would go modeling a booth for a coffee shop like the one with in were the buttons sink in

[amycus]

I'm unsure if you want instructions on making all the parts, or just the uneven sofa with the buttons.

I will only give instructions for the latter for now, and if you wished to know the whole process for all the parts, please write that and I will try to give more detailed instructions later (need to go to bed soon),

 

Frankly, I would have ignored modelling the buttons and the small "bumps" on the sofa for the time being. Just make a mesh of the sofa without that extra detail. THEN you can add these details through a normal and displacement map. If you are planning to get this into a game later, make sure to find out if the game engine supports displacement maps (normal maps shouldn't be a problem).

 

Now you probably ask yourself: what the heck is a normal and displacement map?

A normal map gives information of how light should be reflected and can as such give the ILLUSION of shape. It's thus great to add extra details like wrinkles. It doesn't change the silhouette of the mesh itself though.

Here is a recent example I helped another person with earlier. The mesh wasn't made by me, but I added a UW map and made a normal map to give the mesh details like the scales and the eye on the sword hilt.

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm200/amycus89/sample2-1.jpg

 

Displacement maps pretty much does the same thing but goes one step further: It DOES change the silhouette of the mesh. Best results are usually received when combining this with the normal map though.

 

You could of course make all the shapes part of the mesh itself, but that would require quite a large number of extra polygons. It's takes a lot less memory if you add the smaller details with maps instead.

 

So:

1) Make a very simple mesh of the sofa. Ignore all the details that doesn't affect the silhouette of the object is my rule of thumb.

2) Make a UW map (there are a lot of tutorials about this though, so for now I won't add any extra details about that)

3) Make the normal map. This can be done in several ways, but a good one is the nDO plugin for photoshop.

4) Just apply the textures on the mesh and you can render it in its full glory.

 

(Once again, it's getting pretty late over here. I will fill in more info tomorrow, right now the instructions are very abridged)

Edited July 12, 2011 by amycus

[LHammonds]

Like amycus said, don't try to add a bunch of details that does not affect the silhouette. The indented buttons are one such detail. Try to accomplish the look with just the texture and normal map.

 

However, if you think it is not enough and want it to physically be indented, make sure you use a few polys as possible. Trying to make the button actually round will blow your poly count sky high. Instead, let the are be fairly rough and let the circle be painted in the color map. I would have the button area be composed of only 4 to 6 verts. I would try 4 first in a vertical diamond shape in order to help with the way it shapes the cushion.

 

I would also model each material as a separate object...such as the wood, the bottom cushion (dark teal), top cushion (light blue), head rest (light teal) and the base (light teal). So that would be at least 5 separate objects. Once modeling is complete, I'd probably merge the head rest and base since they seem to share a common material / color. This process mimics building the real-world counterpart in modular steps. The buttons would be one of the last things done on the cushion and as such, you build the cushion's original shape, then either paint on the indented buttons or modify the cushion geometry to physically push in the button area.

 

LHammonds

[Ghogiel]

 

 

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c85/lego-botz/wipz/dinerSeatHP.jpg

 

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c85/lego-botz/wipz/dinerSeatWrkflow1.jpg

 

 

 

I tried to speed model that but it still took me a bit over an hour for some reason. That is 1 possible work flow, I thought it was a fairly smart way to tackle it.

 

That is the high poly, well more or less, . This would be used to solve a lot of this "Try to accomplish the look with just the texture and normal map" thing.