Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Modeling Complex Surfaces with Displacement Maps
and Baked Geometry
When it comes to creating the models for tiles on a roof (or other dense complex meshes), creating the indi-
vidual models and aligning them to a surface can be very difficult and time-consuming. Using image-based
displacement, bump, or normal maps will make this process quicker and more accurate. In essence, this
process is half modeling and half texturing. The object is modeled first, and then displacement, bump, and
normal maps are created from that model. The image maps are then used to create a final model in context of
the structure. This can be done with any type of surface, but, for this example, a tile roof seems appropriate.
The base model for a single tile can be very simple. In this case, I created a simple tile for the basic tile,
as shown in
Figure 10-23
.
Notice that the tile is slanted a few degrees (to accommodate another tile) and
that the extended piece on the left side is positioned to fit nicely underneath the adjacent tile.
Figure 10-23:
A single tile for the roof displacement map. The tile has a material attached that will be cre-
ated in the next chapter.
