Hi guy’s , I’m currently working on my first real cycles project with is a render of a prison cell. Thing is I’m trying to get that glossy white painted stone look on the wall and i’ve been fooling around with the node editor. I think i am heading down the right path but it just doesn’t seem to look quite right.
I’ll post my node setup and the wall itself below, if any of you have any suggestion’s or , you know, focused critique i would love to hear it! Also if this is in the wrong section i apoligize.
I am horrible with new cycles materials. I however do spend the majority of my time in jail (for work). What type of prison are you going for? Most modern jails are cement or CMU (concrete masonry unit, not quite a cinderblock, but looks the same) you look like you have brick there. so I would scale the uv texture. Also, most jails have years of paint on them, the texture on the blocks is still there, just not as porous looking, kinda looks like dimples more than holes.
If you need help with any items, let me know. I can’t take photo’s inside my jail though (technically illegal) but I can certainly help out with details.
I’m no expert but i’m wondering if the roughness inputs should both use “rgb to bw” nodes, also i’d try inverting one, because at the moment you seem to be applying the same to each… but, i’d also try removing the roughness inputs and channel that into the mix nodes’ fac input…???
Yeobe1: I actually spend a few hours in a holding cell once and thats as far as my experience with prison go’s so i cant claim to know a whole lot about them. Are you saying i need to make the bricks larger? or use an entirely different kind of stone look altogether, thanks! couldn’t have hoped for somebody better to reply than somebody who works in a prison Also if you have any ideas as to how i could fill the space, what is typically in a prison cell other than a metal sink/toilet and a bed? Pretty much nothing right?
rarebit: That’s a fair point actually, i didn’t really notice because i don’t have a lot of experience with nodes other than some compositing. My problem is seing what parts of the wall the bump mapping is actually being applied to? probably because i cant GPU render so everytime i change a value i have to wait a little while to see the effect.
Jonathan L: I was working on this through the night and that never even occurred to me! Thanks a lot i’ll try it right now
For testing purposes try making the two colours drastically different, then when you’re sure of the distribution change them back to their proper colour.
Oh and if anybody has a good method of pillow modelling i would be grateful , i was thinking of getting something roughly the same shape, duplicating and scaling up to make a hollow pillow case, and using a cloth sim to disguise the actual pillow collision object below? I could probably use the clothsim’s pinning feature for the closed end of the pillow case? been mulling this over all day but if you have a better idea i sure would love to hear it!
Oh and if anybody has a good method of pillow modelling i would be grateful
Well, I don’t know how detailed you want to be, but if you want a really nice looking pillow this is what I do for pillows, blankets, and any static cloth object:
Rough out the basic shape of the pillow starting with a cube (a plane with solidify for blankets)
define specific areas if needed (Say if you want your pillow to have pulled corners)
add a multires modifier
go back and add loop cuts for places you want to be sharp (usually the little crease on the perimeter)
then sculpt wrinkles, adding to the multires until you have the detail you want.
The great thing about this technique is that you can lower the view port poly count so you don’t have as much performance
decrease. Also it looks way better and gives more control than a cloth sim.
yes, make the bricks larger. Google cement masonry unit, you will recognize them once you do. As far as what’s allowed in a prison cell, really depends on the purpose of the facility, if it’s pretrial, it is usually fairly basic, sentenced have a few more things. Also depends on security ratings. Another thing is what country it is in.
Bunk beds are common given the number of people in prison. Typically there is also a desk, stool and some type of shelving unit.
Cells always have a window in them as well. They can be normal rectangular windows with 2 inch by 2 inch square tubing between two panes of glass, there are some jails that use thin long windows as well. There are air vents as well but typically on the side of the of the cell that your camera is not pointing at.
A light fixture as well, typically a metal box extending down from the ceiling, long enough to fit florescent tubing. That is covered in what looks like a typical old school florescent light cover, kinda the diamond texture ones.
As far as clutter, playing cards are always there as are family photos. Soft cover books, canteen items, pop, chips, chocolate bars, noodles, etc… , envelopes stuffed with paper.
Ask details, it’s been a while since I’ve worked the floor but I can still check. Plus I’ve worked on a few projects here and there, so I know the actual construction of a few things.
Ask away, I can get the recipe for a jailhouse burrito if you really want. There is no corn or flour shell, no beans and usually no vegetables… and it is made in a garbage bag…
Just thought i would post a quick update! I wanted to finish this today (I was thinking of that andrew price article on finishing a render a week or something to that effect) As i haven’t been completing too much of late. I don’t think i will have it done because of a lack of time but i have been working on experimenting with cycles and the floor/wall textures.
I took a lot from everybody’s suggestions and i would like to hear anyone’s thoughts as to how i could improve on this.
The bed is more of a stand in at this point, i just want to figure out my wall and ground textures first I pulled the camera out a little and changed the focal length to something higher too. I understand it doesn’t look fantastic but i really am feeling around in the dark here so i’ll take all the help i can get, Any particular Cycles tutorials i should be watching?
Kinda looks like you are going for an old prison feel. The variation in the brick looks a lot better in your render than previous posts.
I’m not 100 percent what type of flooring you are going for, do you have references? Of the top of my head, there is too much displacement on it.
Are you going for a cold dank feel with the lighting? If not, I would warm it up a bit. For some reason the scene feels sterile to me (maybe the bed that’s a wip?), I think some warmth may make it feel lived in though. Even old school prison systems that are hard core on beds made and cells cleaned have a “well worn/lived in” look to them.
As for increasing the focal length, I would suggest against that. You want a cell to fell confining and claustrophobic I would think, depends on the intent of the final render, but that’s my two cents.
I’d like to see your wall bump map texture. Basically in GIMP (or other) i’d select all the grouting bit and put that on a layer, then the rest i’d probably blur slightly, next make sure the grout layer is above the other layer before exporting…
Painted walls, especially heavily painted walls are generally quite smooth, even if quite bumpy (high tactile relief).
I’m going to guess that you’re using a white light, well you need to choose what type of bulb will be in the cell and then set the colour of the light to the temperature that it will actually output, see here for a simple reference…
Great suggestion’s. rarebit, thanks for those colour reference charts , i like to keep a folder of bit’s and bob’s like that and it seem’s like it will be very useful.
Also in all my time looking on BA , i never noticed the weekend challenge, if I’m not too busy over this week i will definitely enter
Also if you have any ideas as to how i could fill the space, what is typically in a prison cell other than a metal sink/toilet and a bed? Pretty much nothing right?
, i was thinking of getting something roughly the same shape, duplicating and scaling up to make a hollow pillow case, and using a cloth sim to disguise the actual pillow collision object below? I could probably use the clothsim’s pinning feature for the closed end of the pillow case? been mulling this over all day but if you have a better idea i sure would love to hear it!
Really appreciate all the reply’s, if you think of anything else i am all ears!
I pulled the camera out a little and changed the focal length to something higher too. I understand it doesn’t look fantastic but i really am feeling around in the dark here so i’ll take all the help i can get, Any particular Cycles tutorials i should be watching?
