Making of – Real Boulders

The making of REAL BOULDERS

REAL BOULDERS is a new kind of products from VIZPARK with 3D models recreated from photos of real world stones. The following images and description shows how they were made and how much effort went into creating these realistic models.

Photographs and photogrammetry

First we photographed many boulders in real world by taking several images from all directions. While the boulders were photographed from above, it would of course more difficult to get the lower side (have you ever tried to lift such a heavy boulder ? 😉 . Taking photographs at certain weather conditions is important because if the sun is too strong, the boulders have shadows which are unwanted for the diffuse maps. So we had to wait until it was cloudy to get a non-sunny diffuse lighting for taking the pictures.

1 - ReCap360_Photo Uploads

Next the photographs were selected and uploaded to Autodesk ReCap360 to do a mesh reconstruction of each boulder:

2 - ReCap360_Mesh_Preview_Color
The resulting mesh from ReCap360 with color

3 - Momento_Mesh Raw Scan Data_Wireframe
The raw mesh data

Trimming and editing the geometry

In the next step the models were trimmed, unnecessary geometry was removed and the boulder mesh was closed.

4 - Momento_Mesh Trimmed_Color
The trimmed model

5 - Momento_Mesh Capped_Color
The capped and closed model

5 - Momento_Mesh Capped_Wireframe
The capped and closed model wireframe

Remodeling and repainting textures

The closed high resolution model was then loaded into zBrush for further remodeling. As you´ve probably seen, the bottom of the boulder was not “available” so it had to be repainted so the boulder can be used from any angle and direction.

6 - Zbrush_Mesh Bottom
Loaded into zBrush

6 - Zbrush_Mesh Top
Remodeled in zBrush

8 - Mudbox_Retopologize Model
The retopologized model in Mudbox

9 - 3dsMax_Unwrap Low Res Mesh
The unwrapped low-res model

With the properly remodeled and complemented model, the texture painting was then made in MudBox:

10 - Mudbox_Projection Painting
The finished model, ready for texture repainting

The Result

VP_Boulder_Limestone_D

That´s it. As you can see, a lot of effort went into creating these models to make sure you´ll get the best possible results.

More details about REAL BOULDERS

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