Archive for the ‘3D Stuffs’ Category

After a much needed mini end-of-year holiday, I am back to work. Which means: back on the prison cell project.

I initially hoped that I would be able to cram everything into a half-width texture, but it wouldn’t fit. At least on a full-size, I know that all the parts should fit.

I’m not going to put anything into the window/hatch spaces because I intent on keeping those “black” for the lowest lod (when the door is merely a cube).

The hatches will also share the same texture area. Other than that, there isn’t going to be much UV recycling.

It probably won’t matter but I’m trying to do some pixel perfect snapping in the UV edges in order to see if I can make them as seamless as possible.

I also had an idea on how to get more value out of the prisoner uniform. The last picture is a quick mockup of a “conversion” to a japanese/korean style uniform, tell me what you think!

I am REALLY happy with how it is turning out. I’ve finally solved the TouchBound “padlock” issue that I was stuck with for a while now, I’ve basically extended the recess used for the handle OUTSIDE the shrouding, it makes the sliding bar mecanism more visible.

I have also added two more deadbolts that will be visible on the side when the cell door is opening/closing. Absolutely overkill? I know. But I’ve seen firefighters kick those corners with steel toed boots to great effect. And it justifies adding those little rivet details for the texture on both sides. It makes the back less plain since I removed one of the panels there.

The hatches also have handles now and a sort of spring loaded catch (I’m not gonna animate that obviously) and while more locks would be the right approach, I didn’t want something that would be complicated to animate during opening.

(Ignore the glass and bars being in eachothers, they are options, not ment to be visible at the same time)

Got the uniform completed and all imported in Blender (fits like a glove, so far). I ended up ditching all the stitches, it was cool but a bit buggy.. and in general a poly hog so I’m gonna have to re-introduce those using a simple bump map.

Cell wise, there has been SOME progress, I finally settled on a window with a vertical shutter and I’ve tried to get some material stuff going on with it.

Hoping to get the new bevel shader to do some magic here, but I’m not sure which color (or colors) to assort it with the rest.

That wasn’t what I had planned for today, (or the weekend) but I couldn’t stop myself from poking at it. So now you get a bunch of images from that.

Sorry for the color change at the end but I needed more contrast. I made a bunch of changes between the last blue and the brown version that I’m not 100% sure of, specifically in the sleeves shape and shoulder width.

I might go back to the blue one and try a different approach.

Some little work on the door, this seem a little better than what I had but the top part is so plain… I think I’m gonna re-add the window, not sure about the shutter for it.

Also a happy little accident and this is a really nice looking ceiling lamp 😛

I spent a while working on a potential prison uniform…. just the pants for now, but even if i end up using them for something else, it’s a pretty solid base.

Lastly, I’m having some DNS server issues and temporarily switched to a backup until I figure out what is going on with it, fix it, or replace it.

The window unit pretty much finished, and I’m very happy with the appearance of the glass.

I started doing some work on the door that I mocked up a while ago and came up with a cool looking handle/latch combo (with a nice guard around it), I ended up scrapping the original door design ans started fresh.

The biggest change is that the hinge runs the full length of the door now, with a few reenforcement tabs. Not entirely sure yet which parts will be normal mapped and which will be geometry, still at the design phase.

Not sure how I feel about the skirt around the bottom hatch extending all the way as some sort of … kick plate? I’m not sure it makes any sense really.

(It’s not a bed, it’s literally just a prim I had there)

As I mentioned before I’ve made a version of the barred section without the slot, those textures, including the window ones are done.
I’ve given a second pass to all the repeating beam sections to make sure none of them have inverted UVs, since SL doesn’t like that very much.

I’ve also moved the window a little higher, fixed the cell mesh & lodded it properly.

And finally, an attempt at a wire glass material for the glass pane that sits in the window frame (outside the bars makes sense right?).

Things that remain:

• 1 or more door variants with hatch and stuff.
• Material for the tiled section.
• Possibly a better floor texture and/or decal versions.
• Ceiling lamp.
• Chain anchor plates.
• Texturing the root prim as some sort of fuse/light/control housing. (It HAS to be a prim because of a weird SL quirk related to sculpted prims, which I need for TB locks).

Reworked the wall texture to make it tintable (it IS tinted right now), added some subtle drips on the top edge and general grime at the bottom. It appears that I’ve fucked up the UVs of the concrete on the outside (fixed already, but not re-uploaded yet), easy fix.

Finalized the barred section with the tray slot (mesh wise, lod & all) and have been trying to make it “pop” texture wise. It’s not perfect but I think it looks the part. Same as the lattice cage, I do texture recycling on identical sections (only a bit better this time), textures aren’t 100% final but I like where I’m at with those; not too little, not too much.

I’ve redone the tiled section as a raised overlay so it can safely be hidden if you don’t want to have it, same for the baseboards (still untextured).

The lamp is just a cube for now, I plan to have a little more than that but I wanted to test my options as far as lighting the cell: It looks pretty convincing with a down facing projector and a “support” omni light to lighten the ceiling a little. I tried using the cell center as a lightsource, but it turns out that it is disabled as soon as you enter the cell, some sort of culling I assume.

Several changes which I believe make it better overall:

• I removed the right side panel from the mesh: it will be re-added as a separate object so you can decided if you want panels, bars, or both.
• The “tile” section on the second 1/3rd of the floor is now raised slightly rather than recessed, which looks cool but also will allow to make it invisible (I only had black marble tiles for testing).
• The wall corners are beveled to make the 90° transitions softer.
• The ceiling has a recess for lighting.
• The ceiling now extends (down) all the way to the beam that runs along the wall and is also beveled in all corners.
• The baseboards will be hide-able too.

I started texturing the metal beams with a very small normal map, it almost looks good enough under the right lighting but I need something more…

(Sorry for the ‘dark’ the in-world test pictures are, I didn’t realize that when I took them)

It took me a while to get back to work but unfortunate family events unfolded. No worries, it will pass eventually.

I’ve decided to resume the cell project and rebuilt what I had from scratch. This time I’m focusing on a self contained version in a 3x3x3 cube. It should end up tile-able, but this is more for people who just want “one” as a standalone structure.

Currently the floor is split on the back 1/3rd to accomodate a tiled section (toilets & all), and I’ve even pushed it down slightly to give it a more “3D” feel. I don’t know however if this is a good idea as it makes it impossible to completely “hide” this feature if you’d rather have an uninterrupted floor surface.

I can also very easily make variants with and without barred sections on either sides of the doorframe.

The “beam” next to the door is for chaining point as you can see :D.

I haven’t really detailed the ceiling, I’m not sure what I could really have there, and I’m pretty much out of unique texture “‘face” on the main mesh anyway.

Integrated lighting could be neat, or at least a recess to install one?