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I had some request on how this tower image was done so here is a small making of this particular project. Even if VRay is not really required for this tutorial, it will be explained with some of this wonderful render engine functions.
Basically the skin of the tower model consist of three layers. The challenge was to build each of these layers in a random way, where no repetitive pattern should be seen. Ideally it would create a “meta-randomness” ^^ in the whole tower. These layers were, from inside to outside :
- Individual offices illuminate randomly in the upper side of the tower, I’ll call them “cells”.
- Window Blinds, roller type. Randomly opened.
- Complex facade system of horizontal reglit like elements, consisting of three different opacities randomly dispersed.
After the modelling of the floors and interior walls, the first office layers was illuminated with a simple planar shape, divided accordingly to the number of stories vertically and the number of cells horizontally and pushed as further as possible into the room while staying inside.
This process was repeated on the 4 sides of the building (or at least on the sides that would be seen). After that, It was converted it into an Editable Poly and all vertexes were broken. This will assure every rectangle of the shape to one individual element each (and then to be mappable individually) I apply then a MaterialByElement modifier and a Multi/Sub-Object material to the object with at least 2 materials : one fully transparent, or with the color of the wall and the other one as a VRayLightMtl. You can add different VRayLightMtl in position 3, 4 etc. if you want to simulate different color temperature. The result should look like this :
The strength, frequency, seed and color of the different lights are fully editable afterwards, before the final rendering.
The second part, the blinds, was actually the most simple layer to make, cuz it was actually a very helpful script called Fassadeblinds by Christian Bauer. Just tweak a bit to have the desired effect. Below you can see the effect (notice that I’ve also added frames and glass to the facade, but those are static and non-random) Again, it is fully editable within the parameters of the “blinds” object. Thanks to Christian.
Now comes the most difficult part of the project, the reglit one, maybe where a pattern should be avoided at all cost. Drawing a whole random distribution of the horizontal element on the complete heigth of the tower would be a nightmare to model, so I decided to make approx 10 horizontal stripes around the tower then repeat this “hard-modelled” pattern until the end of the tower. The result did look like this (the pattern is already barely noticeable)
Then the trick is, again, to break your object into individual element and to map them randomly with MaterialByElement (yeah I’m a huge fan of this modifier, maybe because it’s one of the rare random modifier you can find in max ;) With 3 materials of different opacities, you can achieve a really nice non-patterning effect.
Notice how the elements are shelled to achieve best glass looking results (I advice you to make this modifier visible in rendering only to avoid viewport lag ;)
With those 3 layers, the effect at the render was already awesome, but it needed some post tweaking in photoshop to achieve the final result. This is why I finally broke the external layer into 3 objects, with 3 different wirecolors in order to get a nice VRayWireColor render element pass. By doing this, each of the 3 glass types of reglit can be edited individually in post. But that’s another story ;)
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Very Usefull !!!
thank you very much !!!
Thank you very much!
ça cartonne ;)
que louco!
Adorei!!
there is something that i tried, and i dont know how to do it, that is how to brake the vertexes of the Edit Poly, because that option i cant find it, i mean i can brake the vertexes of a Edit Mesh, but well, i been trying and no luck ……..please help!!!
Editable poly -> Vertex mode -> Edit Vertices rollout -> Break button ;)
i don’t understand how did u do the model ??
lol, that’s another story ! ;)
What do you mean exactly on “break your object into individual element and to map them randomly with MaterialByElement” ?
The plane object converted in editable poly is still 1 element. If you go to sub object element, select one quad, it will select the whole object because the edges are linked. That’s why you have to “break” the vertices. This operation only separates the quads from each other into separate elements, selectable individually as element sub objects.
i think you made this tutorial for highly profeesionals who knows everything, please explain the tutorial for ametures also, I tried for days but i coldn’t make an image like what you shown,
Brilliant tips and tricks, Very Useful and Works a treat!
Many thanks
can u upload u r max file ..
After scrolling to the bottom to see the final image, I just had to go back and try this!
Can you please post the rendering times you had for the tests and/or final render, and what systems you used?
Thanks, and beautiful work!
Here we have a tutorial about the creation of the reglit random pattern.
Do you have any tutorial about that interior ilumination we see en this great project?
thanks a lot
Alvaro
Nice tips and trick, for me the making of is perfect… very useful
Very useful tutorial, i remade it in a few hours. I like the random effect of almost every element. It’s very useful for high tech stylish architecture renderings. Thanks very much! I also use the material by element modifier very often.
just what i needed! perfect and simple way to do it! now i know 1 more command for max :) thanks for posting m8!
if write by vietnamese langugae is best
thanks for sharing your knowledge – awesome
So Great tutorial !!
it’s a good choice that made my life better & thanks for sharing your trick , very useful
Really thanks
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Brilliant tips and tricks, Very Useful and Works a treat!
Many thanks very easy to follow.
I followed the steps and I got an acceptable result at first time.
thanks a lot
[...] Pasted from <http://www.pixelab.be/blog/2008/03/09/tutorialmaking-of-vincent-van-duysen-tower-in-beirut/ [...]
nice tutorial, Thanks.
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[...] 7. How to setup a sky scrapper rendering [...]
this is a great time saver, thanks for the tutorial!
Great tutorial.. thanks
very helpfull information I will try it with ur random mat IDs fantastic. Thx
very nice tutorial, Thanks
hmm.. can the admin help me in edit poly section… i tried to sub object but nothing change, sorry if i disturbing u but can u help us as an amateurs train in this rendering
Hello.
very good.
Thanks.
Thanks a lot!
This spared me some time and work :)
Hi,
Very useful tutorial. thanks for being such a generous artist.
[...] modifier. Tutorial/Making of Vincent Van Duysen Tower in Beirut Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Comments RSS [...]
Very good tutorial. Thank you very much
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very nice , thanks
Awesome – thanks
WOW!! That is amazing tip for rendering! Thank you so much!
Let me buy a cup of coffee for you! Thanks!