How To... Create a Modular Texture

When I first began to bring this project togethier in the planning stages I had a idea to use textures that could be re used and mapped to other assets, hopefully saving on texture space.

The two images below show where parts of the texture are used and how one part can be used several times.

Below are three images taken at various points of modeling.


The first image shows me modelling on top of the quick guide I layed out using planes. Its worth to note that while I model most of my development happens very quickly and because of the lack of pre modelling concept I am free to throw about ideas and try new things.

The second image shows all parts of the texture modelled with some slight adjustments from the first image.

The third image is the final model ready to be rendered out. In this final model I have added small details.

To render this finished model out and create a normal map, I used the 'render to texture' function under the rendering tab in 3ds Max.

To use this I had to create a plane in the front view that completly covers the model, this is named 'rendertotexture'. Next I checked that the rest of the models and elements which made up the texture were attached to form one object, I named this 'texture'.

To render out the texture you select the plane which will act sort of like the camera in my case the plane named 'rendertotexture'.

With this selected I opened the render to texture tool window. In this window you find projection mapping and click pick.



A add target box will appear containing all the objects in the scene excluding the plane you are rendering texture to. This is why I attached all the elements of the texture togeither as now I only require to add the one object. This really isnt nessary, however on previous attempts I found that Max became unresponsive temporaly when adding more than a hundred objects at a time. Plus by doing this I know I wont be missing any small details if I had other objects cluttering this list else where in the scene not related to the texture.

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Corridor Wall Design

The first set of walls I designed was the corridors, the reasoning behind this? Well I felt that if I established the shape and style of the corridors I could fit the rooms that would come off from the corridors with similar shapes.

To begin designing the wall pieces I start off with some quick mock ups. These below are the five I came out with after a hour of toying around with different shapes.

The wall piece I received the most feedback for and the one which people preferred was the one on the far right.

I probably liked this design over all the rest as I could see how when in a corridor the shape could allow wires and pipes to be inset into the concave of the wall.

 

Here is the same model repeated to show how the modular walls will work.

 

 



This is a high poly version of the wall. In this model pannels and details have been modelled in. This makes creating the texture easier as I have planned what parts I will need to fit on the texture sheet.

 



 



Next is to layout the texture sheet which will be modelled upon to create the high poly pannels and details ready to have the normals rendered out.