11 replies to this topic

[peterr]

I have plenty of piles of firewood brush piles laying around. I use it to fire our outdoor bake oven. I've been wondering how to approach the creation of a realistic cg equivalent.
Attached are some reference images; that is a standard 4"X 8 3/8" brick for size reference.

Peter

Attached Files

•  brush_pile_1.jpg   102.17K   35 downloads
•  brush_pile_2.jpg   109.77K   21 downloads
•  brush_pile_3.jpg   104.61K   19 downloads

[Adam Ferestad]

Here's a real quick and dirty version of a method I used recently for a gravel pile.  It turned out better than I had expected, but you'll have to excuse the grass.  As I said, quick and dirty.  If I were going to do this for a full on project, I would use an L-System instead of the tube and stamp the seed value for it so each branch was different.  Also, a better shader than the default wood would definitely be in order.  But considering I put this together in about 15 mins, I'm kinda proud of it.

Attached Files

•  stickPile.png   812.09K   86 downloads
•  stickPile.hipnc   550.34K   26 downloads

Edited by Adam Ferestad, 26 June 2011 - 10:29 AM.

[pclaes]

Well, if it is a challenge, then in good tradition of the challenges you should give it a week or two before you post hip files.

[Adam Ferestad]

Oh, never really been involved with a challenge.  Honestly I thought it was just a clever title to draw attention to his post. I have a the forum setup in an RSS feed and it doesn't discriminate based on sub forum or tell me which forum they come from, so I just kinda respond to whatever I feel I can be helpful on. I guess I should be more wary of which forum I am posting in.

Are there any other etiquette or protocol things I should know about for a challenge?  He didn't really give any information in the post about a true "challenge", and it looks like he was asking for advice due to the lack of a deadline or any real parameters for it, so I am a little confused here. Thanks for the heads up Peter.

[peterr]

Hi Adam,

That Peter (Claes) was being sarcastic
This Peter (Robbinson) was making a suggestion for a challenge.I don't really know proper Challenge protocol either, so just post stuff as I think of it.

Peter

[peterr]

Okay, so I'll fill in the idea for this challenge a bit and see if anyone bites.

This should be developed as a production asset.

The Director is obsessed with woodpiles, perhaps because this is where his dad got his source of branches used to discipline his son; but really it's quite appropriate because the woodpile is central to this movie's story.
The movie is about a chipmunk that lives in the woodpile and the trials of coping with a home that is changing all the time. The pile is built up and taken down each year as the wood is gathered and burned.
Really though the story is allegorical, representing the hardships that go with the insecurity of our modern times; where careers are changed often and "home" is not the stable, long-term place we used to know.

So, the woodpile needs to be directable. You'll notice the reference images show several types of wood in the piles, particularly the main pile which has maple, beech, hemlock and pine in it.
The director will want to control the percentages of each wood; plus have control over the diameter of the wood. Perhaps a small, medium and large diameter control that can be controlled as to percentage of each, and a switch to turn each off is needed.
There needs to also be small twigs.
While the main pile will be static the twigs need to react to the environment ie: the wind.

[old school]

I don't know about all of that but to just create a nicely sorted pile of tubes that don't interpenetrate, you can jam them all together then use the Rigid Body Solver. Using RBD as the default, set the Resolve Penetrations to the number of tubes. On frame 2, all the tubes should not be interpenetrating.

Attached Files

•  pile_of_tubes_resolve_penetrations.hip   450.25K   37 downloads

[Marc]

Nice challenge . I've moved it into the 'unofficial challenges' purely for organisational purposes.

M

[zarti]

hi , ..

since i own only Escape consider this as ' a poorman's version ' .

ok , my idea is to model most of it ( so to speak ) , in order to have a lot of control over its silhouette and other aesthetic needs .

and after that add extra details on top of that ( other trunks , bushes , etc ) which can be placed more accurately esp considering interpenetration for close up shots .

basic controls are :
> a grid ( as the main source of trunks )
> a closed curve ( to control its frontal silhouette )
> two Edit SOPs ( to shape the front and behind shape separately ; the length of trunks )
> and finally , a modest ForEach SOP with a Skin , Copy , Mountain and few other bolts inside .

so far here there are few screens ..

 ClipBoard-1.png   46.18K   54 downloads  ClipBoard-2.png   114.65K   66 downloads  ClipBoard-3.png   266.49K   54 downloads


this is my first Challenge , so ; be kind !

[Adam Ferestad]

I would be interested in seeing how you put that together, care share the scene file?

[rob]

I wonder if some adaption of the poor mans circle packing techniques could be of use.

http://www.preset.de/2008/0219/

rob

Edited by rob, 29 June 2011 - 03:50 PM.

[zarti]

Adam Ferestad, on 29 June 2011 - 08:37 AM, said:

I would be interested in seeing how you put that together, care share the scene file?

sure . there it is .

 pilesChallenge_0001.hip   124.41K   35 downloads

havent put any comments on it , but the naming of few network boxes might help you to quickly get ' whats happening '

on another note ; rarely , when redefining the frontal silhouette with the curve SOP , there might be few points 'dodging' the ray' SOP calcs .

few tiny tweaks / offsets should 'convince' everyone of them without compromising the desired shape .. (",)


--

rob, on 29 June 2011 - 03:49 PM, said:

I wonder if some adaption of the poor mans circle packing techniques could be of use.

http://www.preset.de/2008/0219/

rob

and i have always said to myself that there is nothing wrong with being a 'poor man' .  =)  j/k

seriously ; thanks Rob for the link . i'll look into it .



.cheers