Extruding a scene..Part 1

These are wonderful Bazza! even if I’m not quite ready for them yet ^_^ I’ll be doing them soon!

If you take a look at these two pics, the basic geometry for the scene is created from a basic cube with a series of extrudes.
The first is a screenshot from one of the decks on my Morpheus spaceship, the second is part of the hotel scene from my futeristic/bladerunner type city scene.
Just about everything you create in 3DC will need the Extrude operation at some point, some more than others, scenes like these are a good exersize in using the Extrude op.
I’ll recreate most of the Morpheus deck scene here…it’s more interesting than the hotel.

Both these screenshots were taken after the scenes had been lightmapped in Gile and imported into Blitz3d so unless your a Gile user you won’t be able to create the lightmaps in 3DC (yet, maybe one day).

I’ve also done a tutorial, which follows on from this,showing how to lightmap this scene in Gile.
See… Gile
Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 in the Mini Tips and Tutorials section.

So this set of tutorials will re-create the Morpheus deck scene, starting with a basic cube in 3DC, texturing in 3DC and lightmaping in Gile.

If anyone has a go at this please post your results…I would be pleased to see them.

[img:2phyv1q9]http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/4126/deck1rj7.jpg[/img:2phyv1q9]

[img:2phyv1q9]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/7742/hotel1jt5.jpg[/img:2phyv1q9]

So, the basics….Extruding scenes like this isn’t that difficult but you need a bit of forward planning, it’s not just about extruding the basic shape of the model but also creating faces you can apply your textures to.
I’m working in Feet and inches here so if your into metric you’ll need to adjust the sizes for the extrudes.
Fig1…
1) Is a basic cube scaled to 4.6 in both X and Z, I’ll explain why 4.6 later and 2.5 along its Y axis. ( Blue).
2) Select the top of the cube, right click the Extrude Operation set the extrude amount to 4.8, click OK and left click the Extrude operation (Pink)
3) Again select the top of the cube, set the Extrude amount to 1.7 and extrude the face (Orange)

What this gives you is a wall height of 9ft but it’s the way this 9ft is divided up thats important.
You can now apply your textures much easier, the blue faces take the lower wall panel texture, the pink faces the main wall panel texture and the orange faces the upper wall panel texture. See Fig2
The height to the top of the Pink face is 7.3ft, so by selecting both the blue and pink faces you can extrude a doorway.
By using the Inset operation on the pink faces, you can then select the insetted faces and extrude a window recess.
You can now create the textures sizes to fit these panels as in Fig2…The Orange and Blue faces take a 256×128 texture, the Pink faces a 256×256 texture.
All you need to do is to load your texture, then use the Brush tool, clicking on each face as you go …dead easy

The reason for scaling the basic cube to 4.6 in X and Z is for doorways, by extuding a doorway at 4.6 ft you can then build a doorframe to fit inside this extrude leaving you with a door width of 4ft and a door height of 7 ft. Yes I know this is wide for a standard door but if you’ve ever tried creating a walkthru in a 3d scene with doors only 2ft 6 inches wide you’ll know what I mean. Stck with a door width of 4ft..believe me.

In Fig3 extra extrudes have been added to create faces for a skirting board at the base of the wall and a cornice at the top…the wall height was taken to 10 ft but the top of the pink face still remains at 7.3ft for the doorway.
Fig4 has some of the textures applied from the Hotel pic. For both the Skirting and Cornice you can now use a texture size of 256×64.

[img:936mvjwc]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/3195/basicroomcubeson5.jpg[/img:936mvjwc]

So..onto creating this deck scene….
Make sure Extrude Using Face Direction is checked when you perform theses extrudes. ( Right click on the Extrude operation button, Check the Extrude Using Face Direction Box, Click OK.)
Remember to Save the model often and compact it as well to keep the number of layers down. Especially when applying textures. The number of layers can build up at an alarming rate when appling textures and you can get some serious slow down on a large model.
Because I didn’t need the doorframes for this scene, ( the doors just fit into the door recess and slide sideways to open) I rescaled the X and Z size of the cube to 4ft, I also increased the wall height to 9ft 6 inches by selecting the top face and moving it upward along it’s y axis till the model height was 9ft 6inches
From this basic cube model you now need to create a corridor/room section and invert it so you can get the camera inside it, so….

1) Make sure Edit Using Object Coords on the top toolbar is selected, Select all the faces down both sides of the model, set the Extrude amount to 4 and click the Extrude operation.
2) After the extrude the model is now 12ft wide but still not big enough to get the camera inside it.
3) Select all the front faces and extrude TWICE by an Extrude amount of 4
4) The extruded model is now 12ftx12ft and you can get the camera inside it…just
5) Select the model and click the Invert operation to flip the model inside out
6) To give the model a bit better shape, select all the edges along BOTH sides where the ceiling meets the walls
7) Make sure Edit Using Object Coords is still selected, deselect the Y and Z axis on the top toolbar, move the mouse over the Scale gizmo (bottom right of the display). Hold down the left mouse button and drag till you get something that looks like this. Apply a grey colour to the floor and ceiling faces. Compact and save the file.

[img:1mylfinb]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/9149/deck2dl0.jpg[/img:1mylfinb]

Now that the model is inverted nearly all your Extrudes will need to be set to a negative value so to Extrude the end faces further to enlarge the model you enter extrude amounts of say -4 NOT 4.
If you look at the deck pic at the beginning of the post you will see I added some bulkhead support thingies to break up the rectangular shape and add a bit of interest.
You need to create the faces for these as you extrude the length of the corridor so they can be extruded later.
Fig1.. Select all the faces at one end, set the Extrude amount to -1(the width of the bulkhead supports) and extrude.This gives you the faces for the first bulkhead support.

Fig2…
1) Set the Extrude amount back to -4 and extrude 5 times
2) Extrude by -1 to create the next bulkhead support
3) Set the Extrude amount back to -4 and extrude 5 times
4) Extrude by -1 to create the next bulkhead support
5) Set the Extrude amount back to -4 and extrude 3 times
6) Use the Material Sampling tool on the right toolbar, select the grey floor material, apply to all the new ceiling and floor faces.
7) Select another colour ( green) and apply to all the bulkhead support faces
8) Select another colour ( Yellow) and apply to faces where you think you may need a doorway
9) Compact and save the file

You should end up with something that looks like Fig 2.
By applying differnt colours with the brush tool for the various parts of the model at this stage, you get some idea of how things will look and helps when applying the textures.
You could start applying some textures at this point but I find it best to complete the all extrudes first.

[img:25v1pkw7]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/3790/deck3ci2.jpg[/img:25v1pkw7]

The bulkhead supports…these really need to be identical so if you perform an operation/adjustement try to do it on all the supports at the same time. We are also back to positive extrude amounts for the supports.

Fig1..Select ALL the side and ceiling faces of each support, set the Extrude amount to 1 and extrude
Fig2…This is what you should end up with, note the extrude along the ceiling faces isn’t level, I’m not sure why this happens but it does, it’s easy to correct.
Fig 3…Select the uneven faces on ALL the supports, right click on the Equalize operation and select the Y axis, cick OK and left click the Equalize operation. this will level out theses uneven faces.
Compact and save the file

[img:2oqnrftg]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/3118/deck4oj0.jpg[/img:2oqnrftg]

As they are, these supports look a bit rectangular so we need to change the shape a bit to get them to blend into the scene a bit better. You don’t have to follow my design but be careful when creating non rectangular faces…it can be a real pain apply textures.
Remember to check you have Edit Using Object Coords selected on the top toolbar. Take your time with this next part and remember if you move a face/edge or point on one support to select the same face/edge or point on All the supports.

Fig 1…Make sure only the X axis is selected on the top toolbar
1) Select the TOP two inside EDGES on All the supports ( I’ve marked them with a red dot)
2) Position the mouse over the scale section of the Rotate/Scale/Move gizmo (Bottom right of the screen)
3) Hold down the left mouse buton and drag to the left till you get something that looks like Fig 2.

Fig 3…
1) Select just the Top inside EDGES on ALL the supports
2) Repeat step 2 and 3 from fig 1 till you get something like fig 4.

Fig 5…
1) Select the lower inside FACES on ALL the supports
2) Repeat Step 2 and 3 from Fig1 but this time drag the mouse to the right till you get something like Fig 5

Fig 6…
1) Select the top inside FACES on ALL the supports
2) De-select the X axis on the top toolbar and Select the Y axis.
3) Position the mouse over the Move section of the Rotate/Scale/Move gizmo
4) Hold down the left mouse button and drag these faces down slightly, just to give this top part of the support a bit more depth.
Ok… thats the hard part over with

[img:3ftaatmz]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/4161/deck5fq0.jpg[/img:3ftaatmz]

Just the doorways to do, but a word of caution here…
Be careful with how many doorways you have in a scene like this…assuming each doorway leads to another room/corridor you can end up with a model were the face/poly count gets completly out of hand and applying,scaling and rotating textures becomes a nighmare to say the least.
If you do need a scene with lots of side rooms etc, build the extra rooms as seperate objects and butt them up to the other side of the doorways.
Another trick is to have a dummy door that don’t go anywhere and put a NO Entry sign on it.

Fig 1…I re-arranged where I wanted the doors to go, reduced the number of doors and to break up the walls applyed a yellow material to some of the faces where a wall recess would look ok. Maybe stick some pipework into the recesses.

Fig 2… we go back to negative extrudes now
1) Select all the yellow DOORWAY faces
2) Set the Extrude amount to -0.5 and extrude the doorways

Fig 3…
You don’t really have to do this but it does help to see how things look before you apply any textures.
Go along the edge of each doorway recess and apply the relevant material to each of the faces. Pink wher it should be pink, blue where it should be blue etc.

Fig 4…The wall recesses….
Just the same as the doorways but set the extrude to -1.5 and apply the relevant material to the sides of the recesses.

Last job…select the model and click the Center Selection in Group operation…this just places the axis in the center of the model.
Compact all the layers and save the file.
The doors themselves still need to be built but I’ll do that later as they are seperate objects. For now I’ll just leave the yellow door faces as they are and apply the door texture to these to see how things look.

If you followed this through, starting with a basic cube, you should have learnt quite a lot on how to use the extrude operation…the face count on this model is only 360 and the poly count 720.

[img:29gvihwv]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/8775/deck6ni1.jpg[/img:29gvihwv]

very nice tutorial bazza,
i appreciate the time you spend teaching us on this forum. it always seems like you do a tutorial on something i am trying to build its almost like your watching me or something. i’ve been working on a house interior with a lot of hallways.to keep the poly count down i don’t load the scene of each room until you enter the door…this has helped me a lot..
thanks, pirate..on to part 2

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