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Stone: adding detailed cracks via displacement

srieschsriesch Posts: 4,243
in The Commons

Has anybody experimented with taking an existing rock/stone model and trying to add an additional level of detail in the form of cracks and crevices using a hand-painted displacement map or other method that doesn't involve actually modeling?  I'm wondering how difficult it would be. I'm guessing it would require some extreme effort to make it look good, however in case somebody has tried and has found some shortcuts (maybe a premade material or brush, or some clever trick I haven't thought of.)

Someday I'd like to get some really nice layered rocks, and while I have seen several products available, none quite have the look I see in my head.  Here's some randomly googled photos (which also don't match my vision, but at least they provide the general idea.)  I've been eyeballing the new "Nature - Canyon" product ( http://www.daz3d.com/nature-canyon ), and although this is intended to be a much smoother stone without cracks and crevices between layers, I've been wondering how hard it might be to modify it by painting grooves on it while still making them blend realistically with the original model.  Probably the wrong approach for me to take, but a possible idea to consider.

screenshot, layered rock crevices.png
360 x 313 - 230K

Comments

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,085
    edited April 2016

    If you are talking about Iray, I would suggest using bumps and normals rather than displacement. Iray displacement is... difficult. Particularly with fine details.

     

    Post edited by Oso3D on
  • srieschsriesch Posts: 4,243

    3DL.

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,085

    Aaaah. 3DL is much better with displacement. ;) Combining normals and displacement is still fun, but tiling can be a problem.

    Before doing hand painting, I'd consider looking for an existing map. Another option might be decals. hrm.

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,924

    Dformers are relatively easy. You just pull and create dips and ridges.

  • srieschsriesch Posts: 4,243

    What would be your approach when using dformers, without using hundreds of them, one per crack?

  • FSMCDesignsFSMCDesigns Posts: 12,843

    Yeah, I would stick with displacement and/or normal maps instead of deformers. If you have never made normal maps, try an app called crazy bump or you can do it in Gimp

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