Blood Logo - Help

[jondicks]

hi there, I am wanting to create an image which looks like thick blood on a white plane.... let me explain.

I have a logo (see image) which I want to make look like it is made out of blood, i.e a thick liquid sitting on a plane, so therefore it has to have slightly round edges, well - a bit like blood really, so thicker than water.

I am struggling to think of a method of how I can create this, I have tried creating the logo using an extruded spline, and then smooting it - or melting it... that doesnt work.

I have tried doing a thick box model of it - and then applying a meshsmooth - that didnt work either.

I also have realflow which simulates water and liquids, which I can use this image as an emitter, but realflow is so complex that it is difficult to get the effect required......

ANY help would be appreciated......?

it doesnt have to be animated and so photoshop could be an option, but I feel that with 3D I can specifiy lighting and specular highlights and get a much more realistic feel.

HELP

[jondicks]

an example of what I image it to look like.

[jondicks]

but obviously in the shape of the logo..... any ideas or advice?????

help

[Chris-3DT]

Moved to Modelling, Lighting & Rendering Help.


Have you considered using blobs?

[jondicks]

BLOBS??
no sorry -im not familiar with these - im using 3ds max 6 if that helps...??

[olympus]

Hi, is this the effect you were going for (see image)? If so I can e-mail you the MAX file, and tell you how I modeled, rendered, and lighted it.

[enjoiskating543]

yeah this is really crappy, but if you arent having it animated i suggest photoshop..just use layer styles and that crap.. i got bored.. \/

[jondicks]

olympus - perfect!!! yes please - send me the file and we will talk then, thanks for your help on this guys!!

enjoiskating543 - that looks pretty good, but the reason for wanting to do it in 3D was so that I could get an angle on it rather than looking at it from a birds eye view - .... it says exactly what I want it to say - but just need it more 3D, brilliant efforts tho thankyou very much!

CHEERS!

[olympus]

Well, my hard-drive failed this morning, so the good news is I just installed Norton Ghost 9 three days ago. The bad news is; I created the blood logo piece after the last backup, so it was not restored with it.

The other good news is I redid the scene, had nothing else to do, and finished the model (took about 60 minutes to model and set up scene).

Attached is the a render of the model, took about 5 minutes to render it on my computer.

[olympus]

Here is the max file, zipped. I made it in Max 6, even though I have Max 7, so that you could open it.

In the scene I have two Omni lights (multiplier 0.3) and a Sky Light (multiplier 0.6 I think). Under advanced lighting in the render panel I have turned on Light Tracer. All settings are default.

For the white reflections on the blood logo I placed a white plane at an angle above it. I recommend you study the material I put on the model (it may be found in the 'material map browser'). For a reflection map I have a raytrace map. The specular is about 80, the glosiness around 35.

In the attached file I have deleted a substantial portion of the mesh. In this way I encourage you to learn the process I used for modelling the logo. When you finish the model yourself I will be happy to send you my completed version.

Tomorrow I will post more completete instructions as to how I modeled it.

The attached file is a zip file containing the scene I referenced above. All lighting and material properties are the same as in the render I posted. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

[jondicks]

WOW!!!!!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH - I didnt expect you to actually do it - you must have been REALLY bored!!

well - I have looked at the file you supplied and I see it is very simple (in terms I can see what you have done) but unfortunately my modelling skills arnt fantastic and so when working with editable poly's I am little lost ( I mean I understand faces, vertices ect) but dont fully understand all the controls in the rollout.....

i.e. taking off where you have left the file.... CANT WAIT FOR THE NEXT EXCITING INSTALLMENT OF THIS TUTORIAL!!!


CHEERS!!
I owe you a beer or six.

[jondicks]

well - this is my attempt so far, I have taken your existing model which you supplied and basically used the extrude edge style of modelling, and the just tweaked the vertices to where I wanted them........ is this the way you did it - or would have advised????

let me know your thoughts - I would still like to see your final file to see how you tackled a few of the areas I stumbled across and kind of made up as I went along.

cheers!

[olympus]

Here's a basic overview/tutorial of the entire process.

Modeling

1. Start fresh. Go to File>>Reset, to reset many settings to default.

2. Create plane and apply logo as texture, click the ‘Show Map in Viewport’ box. Make the plane the same number of pixels as the image. Set plane to viewport coordinates 0,0,0.

3. Create a box, about 3.5 generic units tall, over some part of the logo textured plane. Move vertices until they math the outline of the logo.

4. Select one of the end faces, and then in the top viewport using the “Extrude” tool, extrude the face a couple of times.

5. Arrange the vertices as you did with the original vertices. Repeat steps 4-5 to create most of the rest of the logo.

6. Once the outer ring of fire is constructed select a edge that crosses it and click the “Ring” button. Right click, and from your quad-menu select the “Connect” tool.

7. Deselect all edges and then select one of the new edges that have just been created. Click the “Loop” button (right next to the “Ring” button). Deselect the edges on the tips of the flames, and with all others selected, using the “Scale” tool, scale up on the Z-axis. This will give the top of the blood logo a more rounded appearance.


Materials

1. Select an unused slot in the material map browser. Change the color to the shade of red you desire.

2. Increase the “Specular” level to about 80, and the “Glossiness” level to about 35.

3. Click on the gray bar labeled “Maps” (look right below where you are entering the other settings) to expand the “Maps” rollout, and next to the reflection slot where it says “None”, add a “Raytrace” map (Click on the button labeled “None” and select “Raytrace” from the list that pops up).


Lighting

1. To achieve the affect we are going for, we must have some lights to make a specular highlight on our logo. For this place 2 “Omni” lights. Set the multiplier to about 0.3.

2. In another unused slot created a material that is white. Set “Self-Illumination” to 75. We will use this later.

3. Now if we render our scene we get poorly lit image. To fix this we will place a “Sky Light” in our scene. Set the multiplier to about 0.6.

Now a little lesson in “Global Illumination.” The “Sky Light” is designed to create nice, even, soft lighting and shadows. It will do this only if we turn on “Light Tracer,” leading to the next step.

4. Go up to the menu bar (File, Edit, etc.) and under “Rendering” go to Advanced Lighting >>Light Tracer. This automatically activates it. You do not need to change any settings in this panel, the default ones work as they are.


Rendering

1. Select your plane that has the logo texture on it and right click. In the upper right portion of your quad-menu click “Hide selection.”

2. Now create a new plane in the place of the one you just hid. It should be about 2.5 times as large as the hidden one.

3. Apply the white material that you created earlier to this new plane.

4. Create a new plane at an angle above it. This will serve as an object that has only the purpose to be reflected on your logo. Apply the same white material

[olympus]

And here's the completed logo and a partially completed mesh in a .zip file.

[jondicks]

excellent - thanks for all your help on this, once again forums.3dtotal.com has come to my rescue and re-enforced my belief that there are some truly helpful people out there!!!!

THANKYOU ONCE AGAIN