dv, that's called 'rustic' :lol:

Parochial !  :lol: :lol: :lol:

dv - i copied the tut about rendering - thanks a lot.
i will print it and try to get it into my bald head. - i can't read big pieces of info on a computer screen, don't know why, but it does not seem to stick.

hey! dont pick on the bricks! They have lovely character and charm.....and they will break your ankles if given half a chance :b_scared:

We pick on them only because we like them :D

Oh that is allright then! giggle if you thought they were wonky to look at try walking on them! I loved the colours and different directions they went in. Jen

i am getting a new lappy as I have said, I am looking at a Dell Inspiron 1520
can I ask you lot if these specs seem ok to you as I have no idea....

XP home o/s :woot:
Intel core Duo T7700
15.4 screen
4gb memory
320gb SATA hard Drive
internal 8xdvd+/RW combo 
Nvidia(R)GeForce(TM)8600M GT with 256MB GDDR2 Dedicated Graphics card
Intergrated Stereo
Intel 4965AGN Wireless N Mini card
9 cell Li Ion Batt

I don't know if the graphics card etc will support Wings3d etc? @dv do you have any ideas?

Yeah, that vid card should be fine for Wings; and in fact most, if not all, 3d apps should be fine with it. It isn't a big killer gaming card; but you don't need that, unless you plan on getting into real time GPU rendering.
You only might have trouble with 'heavy' display requirements, with the 256MB, instead of 512MB or 1GB. It should still work, even for those; but will give you more 'lag' in the openGL viewports.

Okay, the staggered planks texture is giving me grief, and noone at FF volunteered to help yet. I'll move on to others, and pencil that one in to revisit later.

back after a full day driving around holland - have to catch up on a lot.

@connie: what is FF?

Oh, sorry, FF is Filter Forge, that new texture making program I've been using/trying to learn more.

Well, you'll be pretty shocked by your new laptop then.
It'll be 2 or 3 times faster, at least.

I'm bookmarking this for when I have a little more time to read all of it. Sounds interesting.

thanks, the greater part of it is, i think

Hey guys! I told BluEcho about this project, in case she has interest in joining us, after she mentioned that she's a big fan of things Victorian.

You can probably see from her store that she's very handy when it comes to texturing. (Making character textures like she does is still a mystery to me)

Welcome BluEcho, the more the merrier. 

Any input would be wonderful and we do have a lot of fun here. None of us bite so any questions that pop up please feel free to ask.  Jen

Oh, Hi BlueEcho - welcome indeed.

There's still more to do on the organ itself but I'm looking at the truck, bed, thingie.

Going to do a spoked wheel next - Koosie, any references for how big it should be compared to the organ?

(- the modern one is quite small.)

welcome to blue echo and i love to see the street organ growing, fran.
will make a file of the textures/images i found and send it to you, connie.

Nice Organ Fran :)

Thank Koosie. I started a little organizing scheme for the textures:

Brick
Metal
Paint and Plaster
Paving
Plant Material (bark, leafs, plant cutouts etc.)
Roofing
Stone (non paving)
Water and Sky
Wood (finished)

i wi8ll make a compilation of the ones i have, including the photos and put them together in a few files - when you need something i will send you the original ones.

Here's my guess for the 8 spoke, not done much work on detailing that one.

More detail on that as I had the image reference for it.

these wheels are always very small - i would gues abt. 50/60 cms - they are actually not higher than the car is from the ground. the wheels were roughly the same radius as the modern ones, they were only made of wood and a steel rim. i will make a drawing of the handle with which it was pushed through the streets. your first image was about right.

the man who cranked the organ was mostly acco9mnpanied by his wife - when the organ had to be moved one of them pushed, the other had bands ove the shoulder and pulled - over the bridges they needed often help from street urchins.

What about an axel?  (what would it look like? - hub cap? cotter pin?)

Woudn't have had a mud guard would it?

By the way, I'll probably have problems when I get to the figures on the organ - I've never done figures before.  Could we cheat and use Poser people?

as for the figures, dv mentioned somewhere a way to do it some time ago - he explained it to boofy - that would be the best way to do it - these figures are in comparison very small so it would look good anyway.

Boofy,

I'm sorry to say that an image like the one you show just isn't possible to use.

Images for textures need to be a clear as possible - no mist - and above all dead straight.

That's why aerial recconnaissance planes had those odd bracket affairs directly under the plane - so that images were totally sharp and straight, with no distortions.

It's also why good images of old weathered roof tiles are so hard to come by - how often are you above a roof?

I would not be able to use such an image in Bryce, Carrara or Cinema - I don't know what program will be used to render all this stuff - but unless there is some deep dark secret about Max or Maya - or whatever it will be - then I very much doubt those will be able to use such images either.  It's a great pity, but there it is.

The same applies to the mistyness - textures need to be clear and sharp so that the detail is good. 

I used to try taking photos through the car window when I first had a decent camera - but that sheet of glass between the camera and the object, ruined every one for all practical purposes.

if a photo of a texture is only very very slightly off the true it is sometimes possible to correct this - but it takes a lot of work, especially for roof tiles and bricks or anything with regular patterning.

I'm sorry Boofy, but I wouldn't want you to keep taking photos that can't be used.

Of course, this is just me, maybe ConnieKat has the sort of program that can cope with that - she's certainly miles better at texturing than I am.

Hopefully she can pop in with her opinion on this thorny matter.

*Of course, this is just me, maybe ConnieKat has the sort of program that can cope with that - she's certainly miles better at texturing than I am.

*Yeah, no, it can't really be used a sa texture that I know of.  Possibly it could be used as a reference photo, to get a feel for how things look from up above. Sowwy

Texture map is different than height map. Height maps are displacement maps. Greyscale (you can have colors, but only the RGB intensity information is used). White is highest, black is lowest. That doesn't neccesarily coincide with the coloration of a photograph. Just because is white in a picture doesn't mean that it would be the highest point, if you see what I mean.
You normally have to use a 2d editor to paint over the photograph; if you want to derive a displacement map from a photograph.
I almost always use DEMs for terrains, when I need real world terrain info. That is what a DEM is for. Otherwise I just make them with noise functions and/or paint them.

EDIT - Bryce has a lot of fractals to use for terrains, and of course the terrain brush...

@jen: a cart like that is certainly possible.

as for terrain, as i said before we don't have to worry about that - holland is one of the flattest countries in the world and we are at the moment building on a square of 250x250 metres which is hardly half filled. apart from some bumps in the road we can forget about that. - somewhere in the very first part of the thread in posted a photo of the real town we took as an example.

It was fun taking the pics so tha is alright. I will keep the cart in mind for when I eventually finish the stable.

it's a nice picture, jen, but most of the time photos from airoplanes and not very sharp, there is almost always some cloud or haziness and, unless you're in a '20s plane, there is always the windows with the scratches.

Thakns koosie! Those look a lot like textures I've ben makng!
whew looks like I'm on the right track!

Oh yeah, the wheel I made matches that - this is the reference I used:

So if anyone's doing that cart - no need to redo the wheel, I'll send you the one I did.

the heavier type is better - the finer one is better for a carriage or coach.
the heavier type is used for carts that carry freight.
very small wheels, like underneatyh the cart that carries the organ are even heavier - a street organ is very heavy.

It's now the little one on the right.

i would like to try the cart after the stable....whatever decade I finish that in. Do you have a pic of the front view? if not I will get some more pics of that one I posted next trip north.

What is a good way to make geometric designs?
Like the wall panels in these pictures:
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/The_Alhambra.html

I need them for displacements.

Dunno if these will help, I foundthem searching for something else.

http://knotplot.com/

http://knotplot.com/celtic/

Jen

another source for you to check out. I know it is celtic but it may be able to be adjusted or spawn new ideas??

http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/knots/bw.htm

Jen

I can get you displacement maps of various kaleidoscopic patterns.
Celtic knots and leafs may not be as easy to come by.

How close do they need to be?