Ah. I think you might just have lost me at "atan2(y,x)"
By pulling apart the normal map, do you mean "unwrap"? I've done that before, if that's what you mean. Its a devil of a job, but the results are always quite spectacular.
Now that last suggestion is probably a really good idea. I think that when I've had something to eat I'll go and have a look at that.
By "pulling apart" the normal map, I meant isolating the X, Y, and Z components of the normal vector at each point. The "atan2(y,x)" is an unfortunate notation for "angle between the point 0,0 and the point x,y" that I was reading out of the Wilbur code (it's what should go in the red channel for azimuth angle). The blue channel should also be representing an angle, so scaling it will be the tough part.
I don't know for sure what the flags should be when using the green channel in the map for varicolor, but a quick look at the CD3 symbols should resolve that issue (I don't have the code in front of me right now, so I can't check what it actually does). If you're using the "CD3 Roof entities are varicolour" feature, you shouldn't be adding a separate varicolor map file as well.
How strange! I normally have trouble understanding the beautifully intricate things you say, but I do believe I'm starting to understand. At any rate, you've given me another idea about lighting tricks...
There isn't a varicolour file. I didn't think it was possible to have a varicolour file as well as a map file, so I didn't make one. The actual image is just a pale grey daisy thing with no built in shading of its own at all.
Currently, the map file looks like this (and here is where you will see for yourself that I still have some way to go before I get it right, because neither blue nor red are totally spot on). The green component is added in GIMP by masking the area I want to be varicolour and using the legacy form of "Addition" to add just 1 green to those parts.
[Image_11523]
And this is the image file. (Its grey rather than white because it was way out of gamut when I tried combining a white image with the map file. Everything bleached out)
I managed to perfect the blue shading by making the object glow fiercely with the lowest end of the blue range (128) to get rid of the bits that were too dark, and lighting it with a blue light that matched the top limit of the blue range.
Red:
The red is still irritatingly imperfect.
Image colours and symbol settings:
I darkened the varicolour segments of the basic image to a mid-grey, and unchecked the "Make symbol varicolour" box, leaving the "CD3 Roof Entities are varicolour" box the only one ticked. This has shaded the paler symbols and taken the garishness out of the colours, but the darker ones are now looking decidedly flat. It looks like I will have to make a decision about what kinds of colours people will use most often and adjust the image to best suit that colour range. But I'm more or less ok with the varicolour aspect now.
It's looking good. You can use the ImageMagick convert.exe program (shipped with CC3+ in the #Imagemagick directory) to combine several images into a single PNG, if it helps. An example:
All versions shown above are varicolour. Its all just the one varicolour symbol with a random pick of colours chosen to test the symbol across the range. If I was being properly scientific I would have done a huge grid of them laid out like the colour palette and pasted one in each of the default palette colours, but I just grabbed a handful to see if the shading worked on them - hence the instance of lime green :P
The next test is to start rotating just one of those colours in a row - to see just how badly 'out' that red map is. Flaws will show as differences in shading patterns between the rotated symbols. When they all look the same and there are no sharp lines and sudden changes anywhere, the red map will also be fine. Then it will be time to pick the top node in that Blender model, turn on proportional editing, and twist... hoping that my modelling skills are sufficiently good for the thing not to explode into a ball of jutting triangles. (Blender doesn't always warp the mesh evenly - causing vectors to spring out of line if the transformation is too severe.) Modelling the bobbly onions will be quite interesting (some of St Basil's domes have rows of small pyramidal protrusions), but at least I will already have gotten the shaders right by then
My intention is to create a set of St Basil's domes that should make it possible to re-create St Basil's, or, because they will all be varicolour symbols, to create a St Basil's-like building. This will require 8 domes and one tented roof and central spire. That's a lot to fit into a set of only about 60 symbols that I really want to represent the major temple forms around the rest of the world...
And that black line around the central cone form could make quite a big difference - thanks
...
Joe - Thank you so much! I didn't realise that ImageMagick could be used to create actual graphics like that. I thought it was just a rendering engine... but then I suppose when you think about it that's kind of the same thing really. Yet another great idea
…
Once I've got these Russian Orthodox domes sorted out I'll tackle the second most difficult symbols in the set - giant statues of Shiva, Durga and Buddha.
I've managed to get Blender to create an almost perfect CC3-style map shader. I tested it on the plain stone symbol at the bottom of the shot, which is rotated 90 degrees each time. I've been staring at it for a very long time on and off today, so I can't really see if there are any major differences between the rotations. If you can see differences I would be very grateful if you would point them out to me. Thanks
These are the full set of 8 onion domes based on St Basil's Cathedral. There's still some tweaking to do to get the colours spot on, but the modelling is done now, and that's what was taking the time.
Sorry its a bit chopped off at the edges. I work on a 15 inch screen, and its difficult to get everything large enough to show the detail.
Those are certainly very well suited for the roof of a magician tower, because if you look at them from the corner of you eyes, you can be pretty sure that they are moving !
Jensen - These were 'drawn' (if you can use that term in a 3D app) in Blender. I think 3D artists prefer to call it 'modelling'. It was the only way I could think of doing it so that the structure was believable - instead of guessing how it might look from above, and then constructing it from pure imagination.
Wyvern - that's probably because I created them as 3D models, but I am quite surprised how closely they actually do resemble the images you can find online. Here is a view from Blender of some of the domes. Each is constructed and the shaders (colours) applied to them. Then a duplicate is created and shaded all over with the new CC3 'map shader' I have created to allow me to automatically render the map file for each dome - something that would prove to be entirely impossible if I was drawing it by hand and using only my imagination. Sometimes there are things that are just way too complicated to draw, and look far better if they are modelled instead.
[Image_11552]
And here is the green and red spikey dome and its partner map dome.
[Image_11553]
As you can probably see this whole Blender file with all its various onions and prototype models consists of just over half a million nodes. Each of those nodes has been lovingly placed an tweaked by me, which is why its taken such a very long time to get this done! LOL!
These are part of a much larger set of domes and other temple constructions that I will be sharing with you, most probably with Profantasy's help, or through Profantasy, so they aren't just things I'm making for myself. They will eventually be available for everyone
I made the Blender models pendant shaped like that because the relative position of all the selected nodes in the model affects the way scaling works. I tried just making the topside only, but the centre of the scaling operation (the point from which the scaling grew or shrank back into) moved upwards into the top half of the cone, and I got some very peculiar results!
Bit rushed at the moment, but I'm having some fun with these domes
There are 10 originals done as faithfully as I can to the original St Basil's, and the same 10 done as varicolour symbols - shown in black, white and red below.
I'm hoping that when this set is released this will be enough wizard towers for everyone for a couple of days :P
I like these a lot!! You are way more talented than I will ever be. If I were to complain, just a couple of small nibbles. 1) These are Onion Domes after all, but the shadows are of a round object. This especially obvious on those that are irregular in pointyness, like the red and green one, top row, second from the left. 2) They all seem brand new, right out of the box, just unwrapped -- perhaps a bit of "living" cound be applied to them? Or to a variant of them?
You can (for the time being until it vanishes in an update somewhen) ruin these domes just like you can ruin any CD3 building by using a Colour Key effect on them.
I will see how much space I have left for deliberately ruined and tatty buildings when I've finished adding new ideas to the set
These will also work nicely for circular awnings or tent tops, for example as used in a market place. Or even the parasol for a suitably regal personage keen to keep out of the sun!
I like the bright colours. Though an option for more domes with a bit of neglect and fading would always be welcomed. We have an endless need for more symbols, after all ;D
Wonderful stuff Sue! You truly are an amazing artist in all mediums. I can't wait to get my mojo back (mapper's block, i guess) after exploring a few medieval villages in Tuscany and a castle or two on my holiday. Really looking forward to another Annual from you!
Comments
By pulling apart the normal map, do you mean "unwrap"? I've done that before, if that's what you mean. Its a devil of a job, but the results are always quite spectacular.
Now that last suggestion is probably a really good idea. I think that when I've had something to eat I'll go and have a look at that.
Thanks Joe
Joe - I used the green channel set to 1 for those coloured segments, so its the map file that isn't working all that well...
I also checked Make symbol varicolour. Maybe I shouldn't have done that as well as checking the CD3 Roof entities are varicolour.
I don't know for sure what the flags should be when using the green channel in the map for varicolor, but a quick look at the CD3 symbols should resolve that issue (I don't have the code in front of me right now, so I can't check what it actually does). If you're using the "CD3 Roof entities are varicolour" feature, you shouldn't be adding a separate varicolor map file as well.
There isn't a varicolour file. I didn't think it was possible to have a varicolour file as well as a map file, so I didn't make one. The actual image is just a pale grey daisy thing with no built in shading of its own at all.
Currently, the map file looks like this (and here is where you will see for yourself that I still have some way to go before I get it right, because neither blue nor red are totally spot on). The green component is added in GIMP by masking the area I want to be varicolour and using the legacy form of "Addition" to add just 1 green to those parts.
[Image_11523]
And this is the image file. (Its grey rather than white because it was way out of gamut when I tried combining a white image with the map file. Everything bleached out)
[Image_11524]
Blue:
I managed to perfect the blue shading by making the object glow fiercely with the lowest end of the blue range (128) to get rid of the bits that were too dark, and lighting it with a blue light that matched the top limit of the blue range.
Red:
The red is still irritatingly imperfect.
Image colours and symbol settings:
I darkened the varicolour segments of the basic image to a mid-grey, and unchecked the "Make symbol varicolour" box, leaving the "CD3 Roof Entities are varicolour" box the only one ticked. This has shaded the paler symbols and taken the garishness out of the colours, but the darker ones are now looking decidedly flat. It looks like I will have to make a decision about what kinds of colours people will use most often and adjust the image to best suit that colour range. But I'm more or less ok with the varicolour aspect now.
So I just have the red thing to sort out...
could I suggest a thin black circle around the top of the teardrops to give the top a more distinct look??
All versions shown above are varicolour. Its all just the one varicolour symbol with a random pick of colours chosen to test the symbol across the range. If I was being properly scientific I would have done a huge grid of them laid out like the colour palette and pasted one in each of the default palette colours, but I just grabbed a handful to see if the shading worked on them - hence the instance of lime green :P
The next test is to start rotating just one of those colours in a row - to see just how badly 'out' that red map is. Flaws will show as differences in shading patterns between the rotated symbols. When they all look the same and there are no sharp lines and sudden changes anywhere, the red map will also be fine. Then it will be time to pick the top node in that Blender model, turn on proportional editing, and twist... hoping that my modelling skills are sufficiently good for the thing not to explode into a ball of jutting triangles. (Blender doesn't always warp the mesh evenly - causing vectors to spring out of line if the transformation is too severe.) Modelling the bobbly onions will be quite interesting (some of St Basil's domes have rows of small pyramidal protrusions), but at least I will already have gotten the shaders right by then
My intention is to create a set of St Basil's domes that should make it possible to re-create St Basil's, or, because they will all be varicolour symbols, to create a St Basil's-like building. This will require 8 domes and one tented roof and central spire. That's a lot to fit into a set of only about 60 symbols that I really want to represent the major temple forms around the rest of the world...
And that black line around the central cone form could make quite a big difference - thanks
...
Joe - Thank you so much! I didn't realise that ImageMagick could be used to create actual graphics like that. I thought it was just a rendering engine... but then I suppose when you think about it that's kind of the same thing really. Yet another great idea
…
Once I've got these Russian Orthodox domes sorted out I'll tackle the second most difficult symbols in the set - giant statues of Shiva, Durga and Buddha.
I've managed to get Blender to create an almost perfect CC3-style map shader. I tested it on the plain stone symbol at the bottom of the shot, which is rotated 90 degrees each time. I've been staring at it for a very long time on and off today, so I can't really see if there are any major differences between the rotations. If you can see differences I would be very grateful if you would point them out to me. Thanks
Sorry its a bit chopped off at the edges. I work on a 15 inch screen, and its difficult to get everything large enough to show the detail.
I can't take credit for the mesmerising design, unfortunately. That would have to go to the architect Postnik Yakovlev
Jensen - These were 'drawn' (if you can use that term in a 3D app) in Blender. I think 3D artists prefer to call it 'modelling'. It was the only way I could think of doing it so that the structure was believable - instead of guessing how it might look from above, and then constructing it from pure imagination.
Wyvern - that's probably because I created them as 3D models, but I am quite surprised how closely they actually do resemble the images you can find online. Here is a view from Blender of some of the domes. Each is constructed and the shaders (colours) applied to them. Then a duplicate is created and shaded all over with the new CC3 'map shader' I have created to allow me to automatically render the map file for each dome - something that would prove to be entirely impossible if I was drawing it by hand and using only my imagination. Sometimes there are things that are just way too complicated to draw, and look far better if they are modelled instead.
[Image_11552]
And here is the green and red spikey dome and its partner map dome.
[Image_11553]
As you can probably see this whole Blender file with all its various onions and prototype models consists of just over half a million nodes. Each of those nodes has been lovingly placed an tweaked by me, which is why its taken such a very long time to get this done! LOL!
Anyone fancy mapping a Christmas tree?
I made the Blender models pendant shaped like that because the relative position of all the selected nodes in the model affects the way scaling works. I tried just making the topside only, but the centre of the scaling operation (the point from which the scaling grew or shrank back into) moved upwards into the top half of the cone, and I got some very peculiar results!
There are 10 originals done as faithfully as I can to the original St Basil's, and the same 10 done as varicolour symbols - shown in black, white and red below.
I'm hoping that when this set is released this will be enough wizard towers for everyone for a couple of days :P
You mean... optional birds nests and city grime?
You can (for the time being until it vanishes in an update somewhen) ruin these domes just like you can ruin any CD3 building by using a Colour Key effect on them.
I will see how much space I have left for deliberately ruined and tatty buildings when I've finished adding new ideas to the set
I like the bright colours. Though an option for more domes with a bit of neglect and fading would always be welcomed. We have an endless need for more symbols, after all ;D