I’m in the very early stages in learning blender and this is the corner of my first brick wall model created using the array function. I am wondering whether there are other options for creating this rather than hundreds of thin cubes! The in-built brick texture node is a bit restrictive for my specific requirement, I have a 4 course repeating pattern with 3 brick sizes; stretcher (courses 1,2 & 3), header and batt (course 4). The batts will be used on the corners, as can be seen here and also close to openings, to keep alignment.
Is this the most efficient way of modelling or could it be done another way such as by creating a custom texture with bump/texture/noise nodes? The advantage that I can see of this method is that I can use 1 plane, subdivided, but the concern is that to get the detail and quality it will potentially need to be a large file. However with individual bricks it is easier to customise but will potentially use a lot of resources to create.
Also as much as the building that I am modelling is intended to be around 20 years old and therefore not considerably weathered I would like to roughen the edges/faces a little as bricks are never as angular and crisp as my image. I have textured the image with bump and noise, admittedly its not very realistic or believable as my knowledge of the node editors is still very basic. This has ‘improved’ the face but not helped the edges; do I need to subdivide the ‘master’ brick to achieve this? I have spent hours watching various tutorials and playing around with settings, but there is still so much to learn and I still seem to be fumbling around, hopefully it’ll all just click one day!
Hum, you have different approach for sure. Problem is that each ones comes with their own pro and cons, and you should pick one depending on your project specifics.
On the overall , if your model needs to be very detailed it’s probably better to have each bricks modeled.
If you need to see it from a distance, then you can use a texture to fake the brick and each wall is probably going to be just a plane.
Now also for modeling you have different options, you can use arrays, geometry nodes, or do some copy / paste to construct a giant wall and duplicate it and past it where you want. Especially in the beginning if you have a method that works and that isn’t too much work it’s probably a good one.
Finally, my advice is to not start real project first, but try to explore and learn blender without a particular goal. This will make learning simpler and also when you’ll start to make your own projects you’ll have a better idea of the tools and techniques appropriate to make it.
In general we want ot jump right into a project to be motivated, but it generally turns out as a bit counter-productive… By studying diligently and do very simple projects to see how you can use your new skills you are very likely to get faster to a level where you can start to focus more on the artistic part of things, rather than struggling with technicalities that generally prevent you from being completely dedicated to your creative ideas !
hope that make sense, welcome to the forum and have fun in your journey in CG !
I suppose there probably is no ‘best’ method as it will all depend on a/ how the model will be viewed and b/ what the desired overall effect is.
In relation to starting a real project, don’t worry, at the moment I am playing around with blender and following tutorials online to get a feel of what it and I can do. I am not trying to build anything purposeful at the moment, my aim is to try and build a catalogue of techniques that I know will give me a good foundation for future projects.
You can look here for another way of creating the bricks, but it might become tricky as you have a more complex pattern :
Another option is to look for textures :
Or if you have access to a similar wall make your own textures by taking photos…
That would be the 2 more advanced techniques I would probably start to look into if I had to make something like that…
Maybe it’s not the right time for you to look into it but you might consider that latter !
