I am working on a project and I have to create a relistic closup of topsoil/rotting compost. I thought of looking for a good photo and mapping to an alpha plane or is there a more realistic way. Any ideas would really help! Thanks

What can be more realistic than a photo? I think you've answered your question yourself. An alpha plane well blended into the image is perfect - and effective because it is the fastest way of doing that.

One day your ship comes in - but you're at the airport.

My 2 cents :) The photo idea is to keep imho for very realistic result but I would use a terrain. From the photo of the soil, make a shade of grays copy, tune in in a 2d app to build a height map i.e not to much contrast and white/light shades are high levels whereas dark are low. then create a terrain the same dimension as your image resolution, use the gray copy for the geometry/altitudes, then use the color image for the texture. should give a neat result, probably not as flat as alpha plane.. Good luck :) Paul

Something I've been thinking of trying (in the unmentionable B program) was something like leaf litter on the ground - sort of what you'd get on a forest floor. The idea I was playing with was making several transparency mapped terrains (of leafy textures) sitting slightly above each other and slightly above the main "ground/earth" terrain, to try and give the leaf litter a more "volumeteric" feel rather than it being just one surface. Its kind of using polax's idea, but kind of doing it several times and transmapping them and layering them. Not sure if that idea's any use, but I'd love to see what you end up with in Vue either way.

Dreams are just nightmares on prozac...
Digital WasteLanD

Take a picture, make it seamless. I could do it for you if you can't do it that perfect.Bigger is better. Use it to build a terrain then cover it with the picture. Add the picture to the bump layer and give it some. Render. No smell though. Could add a few leaves on a new layer like above then. That would work
Don't fall in....

Message edited on: 04/29/2005 09:36

As luck would have it, I just finished working in 18 bags of organic compost (small percentage of manure) into a new azaela bed. Would have been happy to shoot you some 8 MPixel shots to send your way before I tilled it in. Good luck!

Well. I decided to use leaves instead of soil. It needs a lot of work, but it will have to do for now. All critiques are welcomed!

LMcLean

Message edited on: 04/29/2005 18:05

For interest's sake here's a picture of the leaves I used in the above image. I used a combination of leaf photographs and Photoshop to make the leaves old looking. LMcLean

Not sure what the project is for but I really like what you've done. Very nice!