Bydgoszcz in Google Earth

This time I wanted to share with you a project I'm currently doing in work. It's not a full job time assignement so the updates will be very rare. The goal is to produce some objects from Bydgoszcz for Google Earth (it's not a Google authorized project). While my job colleague is constantly creating detailed 3d geometrical models, my task is to make less detailed phototextured objects.

My colleague's collection can be viewed HERE (it's over 900 detailed models and more still to come!).

My collection is still more like a test of this different approach and contains only 4 models :) and can be viewed HERE or directly in Google Earth.

For now I decided not to update models in GE until I make the whole old market of Bydgoszcz so I'll place the updates here on the blog as rendered screens. In my models I'm trying to get as much details as I can while maintaining a low geometry and size profile and including the global illumination and shadows baked directly on textures. When the old market's finished I'll swap the existing objects with new ones because now I'm working on real terrain data and not just a simple plane which doesn't work for larger areas.

These renderes are directly from 3dsmax (Vray), now I'm testing bump mapping and maybe later I'll bake it to texture too. The results of baked textures may vary of these seen in renders but the difference won't be big.

Here's the City Hall of Bydgoszcz and nearby buildings:

Of course the models presented here are constantly reworked so these are definitely not the final versions but models in build.

School Dreamer slowly continues...

A little bit bigger update than usual. Here's a new test render with many changes... hard to count them all :)

And here is a sketch of rigging the school dreamer. At first I tried to rigg him in ZBrush with zspheres but I've been beaten - the pose seems to be too complicated with my current ZBrush knowledge to use zspheres. I moved it back to 3dsmax and rigged it with biped. Now it's time for sculpting at last.

The last thing is another step of trying to get the whole image working. I still don't like the composition that much but I'm closer and closer.

Christmas card insertion

Here is a christmas card which I did for the use of Departament of Urban Planning. The card is an insertion into christmas cards bought in a shop. The final piece contains a text placed on the snow part but I'm only presenting the image whithout the text here.

The models of presents and bag were made in 3dsmax as a basic form and then transfered to ZBrush and sculpted there. The unrealistic packing of the presents is done with purpose to get an idea of what is inside - and these are some main buildings from Bydgoszcz. Snow background was sculpted completely with ZBrush, ribbons and strings were modeled in 3dsmax. The whole scene was then moved back to 3dsmax and rendered with Vray into layers such like diffuse, specular, reflection or shadows layer and composed into one in Photoshop.

MPU states for Miejska Pracownia Urbanistyczna (in english: Departament of Urban Planning)