How to texture a church

[delavaca]

Hello everyone,

I have a basic doubt. This is the first time I do a building and I am not sure how to breakdown the texture and how many textures do I need to use for the building. The first time i thought to make 3 unique textures for each of the 3 sections (tower, main building, and small building), but later on I read that tileable textures are more common for buildings.

Can somebody give some clue of how to breakdown the Unwrap? Should I put togetther all the walls and the specific areas in a different set of UVs?

There is not an specific target or platform, is just a personal project that later on i would like to run in the UE3

Here are some images of the building and a couple of reference photos of what kind of style i pretend to get, just a bit more dirty than in the pictures. Is some kind of Mexican church.

Any help will be highly appreciate, Thanks!

[shadowmonkey]

Hi There

If game I would prob map the first and second floor as 1024x1024 for original texture then shrink it down to 512.Using this I would then work out textual rez for the rest of the building.The advantage in doing unique textures is that you dont see tileing so much

[delavaca]

So then you think i should make 2 unique textures for the main building? one for the down half and another for the upper half?

How about the Tower and the small building?

[shadowmonkey]

in ref to the second render below,the front building with the big arch and 5 windows I would make that a 1024x1024.A bit like the second ref photo,To the left where u have under the tower I would make 512x1024 and make it tile to the Front 1024 with door arch or you could continue the texture around the side to make it a 1024x1024.the side of the building maybe could be 2 1024 squared textures also.For the upper half (above where you have extruded that ledge) your towers have 3 sections,now you could map the each section as a 512x512 or you could half the rez for each section as it goes up.This is nrmaly done for racing games as u dont need the detail at the top of bulding so its up to you.

[shadowmonkey]

quick question can u upload an image here with out using a URL

[Wynn]

yep, when you're making a new post, click on the "manage attachments" button in the Additional Options area.

[shadowmonkey]

segreto Ah u little Ninja thanks

[shadowmonkey]

This is what I would kinda do

[delavaca]

Thanks Shadowmonkey!

i think i now i have an idea of how to start.
I hope to finish this someday:)

[shadowmonkey]

Cool, anymore questions ill be glad to help and hope you do fin and post the final renders :)

[Dekard]

Tons of ways to do it. I'd personally use tiling textures for the brick sections and decals for the grime and stuff. Too large of a building to be using unique uv maps.

I created a huge list of helpful information when modeling enviro's if you want to check it out.

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=53002

[delavaca]

Thanks For the links Dekard! there is many usefull stuff, most of the tutorial i have found by internet are about props, weapons or character, but about buildings is a bit hard to find.

I unwraped it to be a few unique textures but even I make a 2048 x 2048 texture still looking blurry when you are very close. So i will have a look about the tileable textures and then make extures for the doors, windows and other things bedide walls.

Just a question. When you do tileable you unwrap everything in one square? Overlapping the UVs? Or doesn´t really need to be unwrapped the model?

Thanks guys!

[Dekard]

It depends on what engine you will be taking it into I believe. I usually map out the UV's to get the sizes right but they don't necessarily need to stay in the box (uv 0-1) They can also overlap.

If you want to add an AO map to the model afterwords, its a little more complicated but not too bad, you can create a second uv set and that would be unique and then that uv set can be used like a multiply layer on the textures.

[delavaca]

It will be in the UE3. I have allready a unique unwrap for every object. Then I think I just will overlap them together by materials and then keep the original UVset for the AO.

Just one more question, then to use the tileable textures I have to split the model in various pieces and then order them in the editor? I mean one object per material?

i never thought modeling buildings was that tricky, probably just matter of experience.

Thanks anyway