I am currently working on a large scale high end shopping centre and was wondering if anyone has any tricks or tips on how to go about this. My main concern is regarding the individual stores. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make the stores look full and alive without modeling all these interiors. Same goes for exteriors shots on how to see intot hte shops without modeling all the interiors and such since well that would take forever and rendering times would just well all be but infinite.
Any suggestions or examples would be greatly appreciated.
go to your local mall and take photos of the inside from out in the hallway. do this from a few different angles. how easy and how well this will work is greatly dependent on alot of things.
thanks percy, that was my first thought at doing was going taking frontal shots and then making sure that they were pritty well all stitched together… i guess i could model up the window displays and then have those behind it some distant back and have them illuminate to give some depth?
SNAP!! We have just finished one of these and it was A LOT of work.
We ended up modeling all the shopfronts (manaquinnes and signage etc) then used a series of elements (mapped planes, gondolas, sales desks, posters etc) inside. Once you get into it you should be able to get each one out in no more than half a day…
Where you’re not too close go for mapped shopfronts (perhaps using some of your modeled ones). Maps on planes works very well for external shots where you are not too close too. This cuts down on your geometry, lights etc substantially.
p.s. watch out when you’re asked to add people :evil:
weve done a similar job here, and the client specified each individual shop…
140 of them
was a complete nightmare, but we did it in the end.. we basically planned our camera shots with a block model, before working out which shops youd get close to, or rotate around (some were corner shops you could see through..)
we then produced 3d models of these “key” shops, before collapsing them into proxy objects
the other shops which were passed by briefly or seen in the distance were done with 2d planes, layered back into the shop spaces, with opacity maps cutting out the front ones. works better than simple photos mapped behind windows since you get a bit of parralax when you pass by 'em.
Also we set the planes to self illuminated, excluded from lighting, but the front planes generating lots of gi. gives you a coloured light spill into the corridor in front that matches roughly with the shop.
the most time consuming thing to be honest was sourcing and preparing decent photos of the specific shops in question… reflections on windows is a big problem.. i suggest finding somewhere with very diffuse lighting to take your photos, or alternatively just after sunset if youre outside.
good luck!
the lowpoly ones ive never seen before… useful, but as clifton says, they all look like american cheese stores. (same colour palette as rpc (bleugh) people..?!)
mcphep: i hear you on the people thing…! you cant get away with just a few can you?
Hi Nikki… Unfortunately the job was done a fair while ago ( just after you left us to go to chaosgroup if i remember correctly :lol: ) so the raw frames are no longer around and the job is on a tape backup somewhere…
ill see if i can grab a frame or 2 from the dvd if i get a chance though…
