Tips on Environment Modelling

Wow, thanks for the reply, Yes this is what I was looking for. I will just ask if I need more.
Thanks Again:)

Thanks for posting this Steve.
I was thinking about doing this today.

If you need any of the steps explaining, just ask.

ok, I did tool search and found surface align.
cant get it to work. what needs to selected both sphere and plane or just the plane. should i be in face mode. I activated the tool and tried to drag the plane onto the sphere, but it will not move.

starting to get it now, I got the plane to wrap to the sphere. the sphere had to be added to the retopo reference list. Now I just have adjust the plane topology. but if you could do a more detailed tutorial it would be great.
Thanks.

I got the plane to wrap to the sphere. the sphere had to be added to the retopo reference list. Now I just have adjust the plane topology. but if you could do a more detailed tutorial it would be great.
Thanks.

Sounds like you have found the streamline tools.

You do have to add the object (you are aligning to) to the retopo reference list. But have a look  at the (while in sub_object selection mode) "Geometry-> Common commands n Tools-> Align". That will give you a popup with various options. (you use the bottom options, either "Alignment Along Vertex normals" or "Along Camera direction")

The streamline Align tools do work in a similar way, but allow you to adjust the distance from surface.

Which one do you want help with first?

I had a bit of time, so made a quick movie on making the hole in the sphere.

I reduced the screen resolution to 1280x720 and used a default config (although I removed any toolbars/windows I was not going to use). It is a bit strange making anything in NVIL without my toolbars/hotkey setup.

Hope it helps. Just ask if anything unclear.

Silent movie :- http://www.mediafire.com/?3zsi5ez6a9a83ex

I had a bit of time, so made a quick movie on making the hole in the sphere.

I reduced the screen resolution to 1280x720 and used a default config (although I removed any toolbars/windows I was not going to use). It is a bit strange making anything in NVIL without my toolbars/hotkey setup.

Hope it helps. Just ask if anything unclear.

Silent movie :- http://www.mediafire.com/?3zsi5ez6a9a83ex

Thanks Steve I will download and have a look.
If mediafire does not cost I may look at uploading and sharing this way also.
So what did you use to record with?

Really 2 most important skills i find for environment art, above basic modeling, and finding creative ways to re-use and work with existing geo, and textures. so you can raise the amount of variety while not using too many textures.

Could examples would be creating tiling textures and trim sheets, and just creating geo by lofting, and mapping the existing textures to it. And building props in such a way that you can uses pieces of them elsewhere in the environment for different uses.

All of that, and use the grid, or be prepared for a lot of stress later on.

@Steve
I have downloaded the video and will go through it several times.
Thanks for doing it, no doubt I will be able to pick up a bunch of info. not for just cutting the hole, but usage of the tools demonstrated.

Hi johnnybevo,

The video was just done quickly, no call_outs etc, as I just wanted to get it uploaded before I had to go out(I recorded/reduced file size/uploaded). I did reduce(Handbrake)the file size a bit too small, so the quality is not the best.

If mediafire does not cost I may look at uploading and sharing this way also.

There is a free account, with 5GB storage.
I did at one time have a paid subscription there, but they changed payment options and no longer accept Paypal. (Due to all the problems with file lockers and copyright). I do not/will not have a credit card, and for whatever reason, I could not pay using my Bank(Visa) debit card, so I just have the free account there now.

So what did you use to record with?

Mirillis Action, then reduced file-size with Handbrake.

I will, when time, make a better guide for the "Align" tool. But I may go with a PDF or HTML file.

I can hardly think of any concrete tips on environment modelling. There's no recipe for it and it depends on what the meshes will be used for, e.g. games or closeups in movies or print. If you're going to render the mesh, you don't necessarily need to bevel edges or weld together geometry, because the renderer can take care of that and that can save time and effort. Either way, you'll want to optimize a lot. For games the realtime rendering is critical, for movies the time it takes to render a frame, to reduce turnaround times and keep the money spent on a renderfarm low. Also, file sizes matter! I worked in a company where we had daily builds of our games, and every morning everyone was downloading the latest development files from the server. If the files got too big in size that could mean that you'd have to wait half an hour or more, before you could start working. That's time and money lost. And the backup servers may get storage problems. So delete any temporary meshes and stuff you may have hidden that is not needed anymore.

For character and creature modelling, topology is important because of animation. For environment art it is important because of shape, shading and optimization. There may be loops, that don't add to the shape, but help to reduce shading flaws (very slim but long triangles are prone to bad shading). If you're making something that is not clear-cut, like a half-timbered house, planks on an old bridge, make everythink a little bit skewed. Don't just take a cube and scale it to the dimensions of a board, but tweak every vertex a little bit, add a loop in the middle, zigzag it and tweak these vertices, too. Be careful when modelling. I have seen so many models that still had some lonely vertices sitting on an edge, holes, nearby vertices that could have been welded and so on. I remember one time, when an intern made a simple wooden box for holding virtual vegetables, and I threw out 60+ polygons, in a mesh with less than 100 faces. He made a single mesh, welding everything together, creating unnecessary polygons, when he just needed to stick some cuboids together and delete the faces that would not be seen. Another time someone deleted the bottom faces of a bridge, because he thought the ingame camera would not allow to look beneath it, which it didn't, but the water was reflective, so you could look through it in the reflection. So know in which context your models will be used.

I know, this was not exactly how-to stuff. Besides "spherize", there's also a streamline tool "circularize" in Nvil.
For getting to know the tools in NVil I also made a small environment art related model. I thought, what would be more suitable than its eponymous inspiration: the anvil.

That's a very nice anv... NVil, Vaquero.

how do I make a curved pipe?

how do I make a curved pipe?

One way would be to create a "Spline" for the shape you want. You can then go into spline_vertex mode and use "Slide" with option "Tube", set the "Radius" and segments" needed.

Quick example.

1: Create spline:-


2: Use "Slide" with option "Tube"


3: Result

This was an example I made a while ago of putting an hole (offset from center) through a sphere.

I used the "Align"/"surface align" tools.

(The cylinder was just put in place to show where the hole was going to be)

Is this the kind of thing you want to learn?

Could you pleas explain this more detail?

Could you pleas explain this more detail?

I posted a link to a vid that shows the "Surface Align" method I use. http://voidworld.cmcproductions.co.uk/index.php/topic,1136.msg3998.html#msg3998

It is a little slow, but I used default config, so no custom hotkeys/ui used.

Hi Steve,
Nice method, some times for this tasks I use MOI 3D, real time saver, check it: http://youtu.be/lHM7MFrEcI0