Stone

[glorybound]

Crazy Bump

I actually used crazy bump.... I am not sure I understand the normal maps. How did you accomplish the smooth gradient? When I do the ame in PS it isn't as smooth. Thanks for the help.

[tom182]

your money well spent on http://www.arroway.de/textures/05/en/index.html

[glorybound]

Stone

The one I want is 59.00 EUR and the American dollar is pretty weak right now so it is round $90.00. Is it worth it?

[LQ2]

Normal Maps...

I don't want to hijack your thread here, but I would actually like to know if and how you can use Normal maps with v-ray?

Unless I am much mistaken, it would mean that you wouldn't need to use displacement?

Also:

I don't know if you were talking to me when you said that you don't know how someone achieved the smooth gradient... if you meant with the file "New displacement map", I just used photoshop... copied the red channel I think (the one that has most contrast) to a layer and then changed the contrast of it so that there were blacks and whites.

Can you let me know if that displacement worked?

I'd love to see another render if you have achieved any improvements.

[Aldaryn]

Try the combination of different blur types in PS, for example surface, and smart blur can be a good start to get rid of the small frequency detail, so you can generate a smooth base for your displacement (which you can tweak with bumpmaps) Also, the curves function is a very useful one. Most of the time, you get linear gradients, (from blurs you almost get linear) so if you want to modify the slope and shape along rock edges, a curves adjustment is most useful.

And about the arroway textures, well.... wow... rocks is out at last?! Sweeeet. I think I'll order it right away. From arroway, you get top notch, quality, insane highres stuff with actual, well worked specular and bump maps (not just a grayscale copy of the rgb image... sigh...) for a very, very reasonable price. Also, you can use their "low"res samples for free.

best regards,

A.

[tom182]

I think it is worth it Bobby, even at 90 bucks for the best stone library on the market,

[Neilg]

Is it worth it?

Yes, theyre excellent.

Each of their textures is a 9k wide custom image - something that would take most decent texture artists a day or more to do and balance to their standard. You'll need to resize them before use depending on where the view is, but its nice to have them far bigger than you'd ever need.

[glorybound]

Stone

I contacted them and they are coming out with a new one Monday. I will check it out and if I like, I will order it.

[glorybound]

Stone

I downloaded the low-res demo and it looks wonderful. I will surely buy the library Monday. I'll post the image in the morning, after it is done rendering.

[Subburb]

hi !
did you tried www.cgtextures.com ?

[glorybound]

Stone

I don't think I have ever seen cgtextures, but all they have is the diffused. Here is how the image turned out. I'll probably change the umbrella colors, but I am pleases.

http://whitebirchstudios.com/public_.../lake-side.jpg

[beestee]

Great improvement!

[jkletzien]

And...you could make your own with a procedural map maker like Darktree.

www.darksim.com

It can be a time sink, but it is pretty powerful!

[glorybound]

Dark Tree

Not another purchase :<( When will I make a profit? :>) I can't tell you how many plug-ins and applications I have purchased and ended up not using. Is Dark Tree a must have? I would be interested in seeing a compilation of must have applications and plug-ins.

[glorybound]

Stone

I just saw this on CGarchitect.

http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/newsfeed.asp?nid=3942

http://www.arroway.de/en/index.html