the making of: Limburg monastery (1)

Maybe you wondered how it is possible to get texture images from a not-existing building?
As I have mentioned, the model is based on a high-poly model for which I used plans and details from literature.

In Sketchup, 3d-models look not as real as in computer games. And even if you have a good graphic card and a computergame, the light effects are in some way a fake. For physically correct light simulation, there are render engines that allow to choose physical properties like reflection, shininess, transparency and bumpiness (I used Kerkythea).

My building has 20m high walls. So most of my textures would have looked too monotone and repeating. Another feature of Kerkythea are layered materials, where you can mix materials to achieve more texture variation. This way, materials can look for example old and dirty.

Finally, I made renders of each side of my model in parallel perspective (right click on face -> align view). After I had made an extremly simplified version of the model (1% of original complexity), I projected the photo-realistic textures on it.

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