Argona 3D Project

[J.Edward]

They look good Ilanthar.
Here's one thing I noticed over the years doing 3d versus 2d illustration...
When you create a map or scene in 2d, you draw only that much detail that you need for what you can/will see in the finished rendering.
With 3d, there is the pitfall of doing far more detail than will actually be seen in a rendering.
Especially with a large city - to fit all of it into view, you generally have to be fairly zoomed out and as such much detail won't be visible from that distance.
Unless you are going to be doing closer in renders of streets maybe.

[Katto]

They look good Ilanthar.
Here's one thing I noticed over the years doing 3d versus 2d illustration...
When you create a map or scene in 2d, you draw only that much detail that you need for what you can/will see in the finished rendering.
With 3d, there is the pitfall of doing far more detail than will actually be seen in a rendering.
Especially with a large city - to fit all of it into view, you generally have to be fairly zoomed out and as such much detail won't be visible from that distance.
Unless you are going to be doing closer in renders of streets maybe.

J.Edward is definitely right here and it is a VERY useful and important comment. If you want to add that level of detail put them into a separate layer, so you can blend them out if not used. Even without those details you will need a powerful computer to handle the huge amount of polygons.

btw: looking good so far

[- Max -]

Looking great so far !

[Humabout]

These are really quite pretty. You've really put SU on my radar as something I need to take a crack at.

[Ilanthar]

Thanks everyone!

By Snodsy
I think the textures are fine, my only comment would be to put some trim elements around the doors and possibly some gutter or element to finish off the roof line. On the larger building the roof doesn't quite look right, maybe a little more room above the windows.

Well yes, I completely agree. I'm gonna add a few things to the roof of that big house. What would you add around the doors?

@J. Edward : yes, I've thought about this. I would like to do some reference buildings anyway and in case my computer won't handle the whole thing, I thought it would be nice to do some detailed close-up indeed (like building around a square or view of a street).

@Humabout : it's really worth the try!

A quick try with the three houses. I've probably used too much different colors/textures.

The front side of the third house.

[snodsy]

Looks like you solved the issue by of the door detail by adding the windows, it just needed something besides a solid panel, but It really depends on how your going to do this in the end,

Not sure of your process your going to use - but here's a thought.
You might check to see if in your final rendering program (photoshop?/other) whether you can add more line details, that match what you bring in from Sketchup , this might allow you do fix anything later and still matchup and not have to go back into sketchup to fix anything.

Also scale will factor, you may want to print it out at final scale and see what details you really need to add, I think the 2D windows and doors would work.

[ChickPea]

Looking really good, Ilanthar. I can't wait to see this all come together.

[Ilanthar]

What if I just do the "important" features in 3D, and the rest (windows, doors) in 2D? Like the on below. Do you think it could work?

An Inn is currently in the workshop .

[J.Edward]

That's actually what a lot of game designers do. Though they use a material layer [a UV wrap] to get the 2d windows and such, which is very time consuming.
I know, as I used to do that. It took longer to create the materials than it did to model the object.
So yeah, doing the windows and such as 2d will save you a lot of time, effort and comp resources in the end.
It will also render better, if you're rendering out of SU, as there will be fewer edge lines.

[eViLe_eAgLe]

J.Edward beat me to it, but a lot of people do 2D detail instead of 3D, mainly because it renders easily
I've only ever used sketchup once, what kind of rendering options does it have? Or are you planning to take it to a more advanced program?