modeling a building ?

LuckyStudio 13

LuckyStudio 13

The Tapeless One
Is it possible to take a picture of a real life building and then model it in 3D by using maya ??

If so, can someone explain the entire process please ?? or point me to an online resource so I can read a little more bout it.

thanks again
 
Yes that process is known as photogramtery or photomodelling.

You would require more than one angle of your building.

But nowadays programs such as "Sketch Up" (I think thats what its called) is used for that task.

(1) Align camera, via camera matching, usually involves user to select points that are common in more than one view, the camera Pose (orientation and position) is then calculated.

(2) Build simple primatives that follow the real photographs

(3) Extract textures from photographs or, make your own textures.
 
Thank you, for the exact information ! Would I be able to export the model from sketch up to maya and do some lighting & final rendering ??
 
I'm not sure, never used that program, I think that modelling in Maya would be a better way rather than importing in from other apps (because of problems that sometimes occur during imports) also modelling from within maya you will have much more powerful modelling tools available than using "Sketch up"
 
Last edited:
Hey DXmetal,

Yeah, you can use SketchUp, but I doubt you can export the 3D models from SketchUp into Maya. Better learn a bit of polygon modeling in Maya & model the entire building using polygons in Maya. Maya also has what is called NURBS (non-uniform rational B-spline). Generally, don't use NURBs to model a building as NURSB is good for modeling objects that have very fine & smooth curves like an optical mouse, a car. Polygons would suit modeling buildings & the process to model polygon in Maya is much faster than using NURBs in Maya. Besides, buildings generally don't have nice rounded corners, so polygons are suited for modeling buildings than NURBs.

I can point you to the best 3D forum there is : http://forums.cgsociety.org

You can search for my username at this forum : andybiz_2004 I've modeled a condo showroom in Maya some years ago.

Other helpful Maya tutorials are :

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/tutorials/
http://www.learning-maya.com/23-0-modeling-tutorials.html
http://www.3dlinks.com/tutorials_maya.cfm

Generally, polygons are made up of edges. A polygon with 3 edges make up a triangled polygon. A polygon with 5 edges makes it a pentagon polygon & so on. When the edges all join together they form a face, or the surface of the polygon that you see. Maya is not too difficult a 3D modeling software to learn. Try it.

Regards,

Andrew
 
IT is really easy to do photo modeling in Sketch Up ! and i also found a lighting plugin that should* work* with it.

I assume photo modeling in Maya is going to be super tedious ??
 
I've seen some video of how things are modelled in sketch up, but my take is that unless I had to model an entire city or street block and have the final shots from a distant I would not want to use that kind of modelling, because the results are basic.

The basic rule is the more the complex the geometery the complex the modelling.
 
DXmetal, you also have to consider how photorealistic the 3D building is going to look. SketchUp doesn't have a photorealistic shader library for generating realistic materials, but Maya has the ability to create whatever shaders you want, be it granite, marble, bricks, wood, etc. All can be created within Maya. Or you can take actual photos of real-work materials & slap that onto a 3D surface. Creating models in Maya would be more tedious than SketchUp, but when you want control over how the model looks, shades & renders, then Maya is the way to go.

Andrew
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top