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The
Caldey Island project shows a collection earthHD models from this
beautiful location. This project was designed to show how small tourist
driven commercial locations containing multiple buildings can benefit
from using earthHD services to enhance both commercial and none commercial
settings.
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Here
we have the row of attractive cottages that can be found at the
far end of the islands central green. These cottages form what you
might call the residential center of the island.
This model uses many different techniques to get almost 95%
of the building rendered with photo-texturing from the original
on-site photographs.
There were many challenges with this building to make sure
that the dimensions of the building matched the slightly off
center satellite imagery. In addition this building has many
unusual characteristics especially the different roofing materials
at the front, curved walls and door arches.
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To
give this model a little bit more character many exterior elements
have been added that appear at the original location. Chimney
pot planters, hanging baskets and a strange small tiled recess
to the right of door 2 have all been included amongst others.
Notice there are several different types of chimney pot across
this one building, all of which have been photo-textured.
Any elements on the original building that protrude or intrude
more than 1 inch are represented with some form of physical
geometry.
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This
small building is know to visitors as the Video Hall, indicated
by the blue sign near the entrance, however by the look of
this building you can see it seems to have a double life as
a small chapel.
With this model the main building features that offer character
are the arched windows and door opening. Every effort has
been made to create a sense of depth to the entrance with
the use of window ledges, door extrusions and recesses. Rather
than leaving the door closed I decided to offer a more authentic
representation to the original reference photographs by leaving
the door slightly open.
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Above the main door underneath the roof apex you can see a covered
stone plinth. When the reference photograph was taken I was
hoping that the statue that is sometimes placed on this plinth
would be in position but as you can see it was not (it will
be added when a reference photograph can be sourced).
Other little things like the bin, sign and planting (to the
left of the building) all give this model a depth that would
usually be missing from such a small model. As usual with earthHD
models the roof texturing plays a major role in bringing this
model to life as it takes up 40% of the visible surface area.
Any elements on the original building that protrude or intrude
more than 1 inch are represented with some form of physical
geometry.
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This
little blue cabin can be found in a wooded area near to the
video hall. The blue is a great colour contrast with the surrounding
greenery giving this building a magical quality that really
catches your eye.
With this model one of the main problems with obtaining reference
photographs was the surrounding vegetation. As you can see
in this photograph which covers half of the building a tree
is covering the side and the roof. Because earthHD is all
about creating authentic photo-texturing especially with areas
such as roofing materials these images needed photo-shop work
to create usable textures.
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Several
design techniques have been used to offer unique building quirks.
First you have the front of the building with its raised concrete
steps and entrance which have been carefully photo-textured
from the original photos. At the top of the steps you have the
small wooden fence created using a partly transparent PNG texture
to give the sense of detail, water barrels at the side of the
building and open windows as were present from the original
photos.
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Caldey
Post Office & Museum
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The
post office and museum sits at the head of the central green
and is the first building that visitors to the island face
as they make their way across the open space. As you can see
quite an unusual building with it's large double tiered roof,
arched entrance, beam supports and bright red phone box.
With a building like this there are multiple points of interest
that need to be incorporated to make the most of the final
model. One of the first things undertaken was getting a good
match with the roof line that could be seen from the satellite
photograph, with a roof like this angles need to be perfect
to get everything to fit correctly on top and underneath.
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As always great care was taken to photo-texture as much as possible
using the original reference material. Many details have been
added to this model including benches, bin, phone box, sign,
gate and wall. It's very important that earthHD models offer
all elements that define the character of the building this
can include exterior walls and signs, in this case the wall,
gate and sign to the right of the building.
At earthHD we want our models to be future-proof, we do this
by adding all the key geometric details that you could ever
want from the building in question. In this models case an example
of our eye for geometric detail would be something like the
wooden support beams at the front of the building, many other
artists would simply create the illusion of solid beams using
semi transparent textures but we build the beams so they stand
up to close scrutiny.
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Caldey
Perfum Shop & Shrine
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The
perfume shop and shrine are the second buildings that you
will see on your right as you enter the central green. This
shop sells every type of lotion and perfume on offer from
the Caldey Island range. All items on sale are derived from
plants such as the yellow gorse that grows wild on the island.
This building has a rather strange wide entrance with no windows
to the left or right just benches and a wide overhang, ideal
for getting out of the sun. Most of the detail in this model
can be found around the central entrance, the farm building
to the left and the shrine to the right.
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With this model you
essentially have three separate structures, the central shop,
the farm building to the left (which sites at a slight angle
to the rest of the building) and the shrine to the right which
is joined by a line of mortar.
There are many details to look for with this building such as
the plaque on the wall of the farm building, the front window
and open door of the shop, the classic blue post sign out the
front, the internal detail of the shrine (that you can now just
get down to see with Google Earth™ 4.3) and the call to
mass sign.
The beauty with earthHD models is our ability to take what first
looks like a plain building and turn it into something special
with the power of physical geometry and textural detailing.
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As
you first enter the central green you will find the main gift
shop on your right. Here you can find an array of Caldey branded
gifts, from chocolate made 400 yards away at the chocolate
factory, to elaborate religious ornaments that you can just
make out in the front window.
This building is the simplest in structure out of the Caldey
collection and lends much of its interest to little details
around the front of the building.
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Even though this building is simple in it's overall shape there
is still a lot of scope for carefully placed photo-textures
and geometry. You will find a detailed sign hanging out the
front of the building, benches and fully structured window frames.
Many buildings that have simple function are equally simple
in there physical structure, as with this building. With earthHD
we pride ourselves on making sure that small, seemingly insignificant
geometry and photo-texture elements are carefully incorporated
to add additional dimensions that are easily overlooked in the
real world. The overall effect is adding layers of detail (interest)
as you get closer to the model, something lacking in many Google
Earth™ models.
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Walk
towards the 'Video Hall' and the 'Blue Cabin' and you will
find this and another house along a steep section of road.
Following the same paint scheme that many of the buildings
on the island do with dark, or sky blue window frames and
a white-washed roughcast.
This model was made more difficult to build by the fact that
only a few photographic angles are available from the public
footpath. The sides of the building have been created with
what little photographic material could be gathered, referred
to as 'building blind' because we hazard a guess to how building
elements -we can't see- will look.
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Although this building looks to be quite simple in it's design
there are elements that need to be handled with care to give
the model a realistic overall posture. This building is positioned
on a rather steep incline, that is not fully available from
the Google Earth™ terrain feature, because of this we have
the problem of grounding the model. To overcome this grounding
problem we have used a technique we call 'Wedge and Cover'.
To 'Wedge and Cover' we place an angled wedge at the front of
the building mirroring the general ground cover and then we
hide the angle of the building by creating semi-transparent
panels of vegetation which are offset one behind the other on
the higher side of the building.
Other details have also been added to put a bit of life into
the model such as a fully rendered blue chair to the left of
the front door, also drain pipes. As always the roofing material
plays a very important part in offering character to the building.
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Walk past House 7 and you naturally find House 8. Although
the two houses are joined they are totally different buildings
in their design and geometric complexity. As with house 7
we had problems getting anything but forward facing photo
reference due to surround buildings, trees and public access.
With House 8 we stumbled across a classic example of the building
style linked to this little island. Every type of shape has
been incorporated into this structure from a normal looking
entrance to fort like flat roof to a large round tower, in
addition every window and door is total different apart from
the sky blue paint.
Satellite imagery from this location is very difficult to
use as model positioning reference due to distortions created
by the steep slope. A lot of fine tuning was needed to make
House 7 and House 8 join while leaving enough room for the
video hall to the immediate right.
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Building this model was more of a challenge than it would first
appear due partly to the steeply sloping position that is not
fully rendered inside Google Earth™ in addition to the
fact that much of the photo reference has been taken from a
forward position offering only hints to the structure beyond.
As with House 7 a technique we call 'Wedge & Cover' was
used to correct the sloping ground. The 'Cover' greenery we
applied in this model takes the form of a geometric organic
component in addition to semi-transparent PNG foliage panels.
This foliage cover allows us to reduce sharp angles formed by
the 'Wedge' at the front of the building.
Everything past the garage door to the rear of the building,
including the tower has been built from satellite reference
and visible hints to the structure taken from forward facing
photo reference.
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Using production techniques such as 'Personality Texturing' and
'Building Quirk Rendering' our models are real pieces of artwork,
the ideal way for any business, large or small, to make the perfect
first impression inside Google Earth™ and future geospatial browsers
integrated into Satellite Navigation systems.
We strive to make sure that all our models comply with Google's 'Best
of the 3D Warehouse 'Blue Ribbon' guidelines. This means that our
client's business's have the best chance of becoming a permanent fixture
inside Google Earth's 3D layer, making them a visible landmark to millions
of users.
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