Layering Cultures

By Marco Rolandi
Software used: 3ds Max, Photoshop, Softimage, LightWave, Maya, Cinema 4D


The purpose of this tutorial is to create a scene using most of the textures contained in cd number 9. Examining
the content of texture cd, you'll soon realize each own "civilization solved the same problem into different ways, using
very different materials. Some used stones, some wood. Even when the material is the same, each own civilization used it
in different ways. Wood for example has been nailed, cut in planks or used as trunks. For the sake of this tutorial we'll split
the textures into two main groups: one labelled "lithic cultures and the other labelled "wood cultures. We can then split
the two groups again sorting the different textures using a chronological criteria. Let's use some imagination now. Let's
pretend we want to use lots of these textures in the same scene to experiment a lot. We'll make some sort of "sandwich
scene especially for this tutorial in which all the different cultures get superimposed one over the other. This process is
quite common in places where periods of prosperity and crisis follow one after each other. In the real world we'll have
clear examples in the majority of europe (mostly in Italy and france), and India.
Back to the textures, we'll ignore the most ancient wood culture (due to the fact that wood in reality doesn't last too
much) and use one of the ancient lithic civilizations as our base layer. We'll add one more lithic culture later on and then a
wood/lithic culture in the end. To summarize, we'll have the following set:
One ancient lithic civilization formed.
The ancient civilization gets wiped out or degenerates into another one (same materials tough)
A new civilization grows from the ashes of the old one using different materials and constructive methods.
We now have a more precise idea on how to use how textures and where:
For the most ancient civilization we'll need dull, consumed textures representing large monolithic blocks and few
ornaments. We'll use the same textures for any ruin or rock in the environment as we suppose (but we might think
otherwise if we like) that the large monolithic structures originated from materials on site.
In practice we'll use the same textures/hues/colours for the ancient structure and the rocks nearby.
The second lithic culture will be characterized by a different set of textures. We'll retain the same colour as the
previous (again the material is found on site or salvaged from the ruins) but as we assumed that this second culture
originated as a result of degeneration of the previous one, we won't use any ornaments and use wall textures that present
a smaller size in blocks (larger blocks mean better technology for both carving and moving/assembling the rocks).
For the sake of experimenting let's pretend now that the world turned dry, and the only water left is the one that
gathers in the recedings of the ancient structures (that's a bit of a stretch I know) We'll build our last civ right on top of
these structures, assuming they used the wood from the rare plants growing there. Having the water in a dry world gives a
lot of power so we'll assume these guys ar pretty rich. The choice for our last layer would be wooden and textile textures,
both colorful and encarved
with ornaments.
Now that we have
made a choice of texture
we'll have to examine the
scene in order to
understand where the
texture should be placed,
which textures can be used
without modification and
which need to be tweaked
in order to fit the entire
picture.

Environment

Since we stated our
fantasy world turned dry,
we're supposed to create a
desert of some sort. In
order to make the picture
more interesting and give
more detail to the image
itself a few elements have
been inserted as well.

How this elements interact
one each other?
First we have the base
material. We'll make a mix
of fine particulated sand and some dark gravel.
The sand is lighter and carried mostly by wind,
forming a thin layer over the gravel. If we
imagine some sort of wind coming from one
arbitrary direction (in our case the right of the
image) we'll have to create zones in the dunes
(the protected side for example) where the sand
has been carried away and zones where it
accumulates. This is valid for the other elements
too: each object casts a "shadow zone where
the sand is not present. A very simple method for
obtaining such a map is to make an high
resolution rendering of the scene with a radent
light using an area-shadow to obtain the
required smoothness. In the example below a
rock creating an area without sand is procesed in
the same way. From a top render view (with objs
occluded from camera view) a render is created
and then tweaked in photoshop (find edges plus
a copy of the same layer on multiply 50%) and
then used as a mask to overlay two different
materials. Take notice that the sand material
(right of the picture) is already a mixture of two
different materials: one bitmapped and one
fractal (visible on the side of the cube).Now that
we have the basic material set up, we'll want to
add markings, roads and dirt. We can choose to
add a second material to represent the dirt or, if
the enviroment plays a secondary role in our
scene, simplify the procedure by using the gravel
we already prepared. When adding dirt to the
image keep in mind that dirt is produced
everywhere near the settlements, lurking in corners and along pathways. In clear spaces dirt would be covered by the
sand, therefore you should tweak your mask accordingly.

Approaching the first civilization,
we create some huge monolithic
structures and try to texture them with
consumed, carved bitmaps. In order to
do that we create a huge map for the
monolithic structure and we then
overimpose a second material in order to
create eventual dirt. If we have the need
to have more detail at this stage, instead
of creating a unique map for the object
we should create a mask instead and
then use it to overlay different and more
detailed materials.
When choosing the kind of
texture to create keep in mind the
following facts:
masked materials are better for high
resolution images and extreme closeups.
masked materials unless fractal tend to
be more repetitive and give more visible
moire effects. Use materials with different repetitions and UV Wraps to minimize di effect. The best is to use already
blended materials and have up to 5 different UVs per object.
Complete maps tend to be much fresher to
the eyethan masked matyerials. Having
complete control over the complete textures
gives an overall better result.
Complete maps get blurry on closeups if small
or just too big and time consuming for optimal
results.
While complete maps tend to be
memory hungry, masked materials are time
consuming when rendered. An optimal
balance of the twos is often required.
The decoration I used comes form
some maya and aztec patterns contained in
the texture cd.
We use the same texture for all the
columns in the scene, using distance and
lighting to hide the fact that the texture is
repeated.
Moving to the second civ, we'll use a
combination of plain textures for the walls
with a new vertical gradient material in order
to blend the walls with the surrounding sand.
As we said before, we won't have any
decoration at this stage, and use mostly plain
rocks. as we said before, the argument
"complete map" VS "different materials +
mask" can be applied to this case as well.
The last civ. is characterized by the
use of wooden textures.
We create two different sets of
buildings. The first one resembles some asian-
kind of structures, both the walls and roofs
consisting of nailed panels. The second set
includes some nordic-type buildings with
straw roofs and a wooden structure underneath. In both sets the wooden structure is built upon a stone one used to
contain the fireplace. Extensive use of layered materials was added in order to include effects like weathering, dirt and to
add more variety to the overall scene