Kapiti Airport

[toprob]

Finally made some progress on this, still plenty to do but maybe I can keep up the momentum... Getting better at Blender, these days I tell AI how I used to do things in 3D Max, and it shows me how to do the same thing in Blender.

[emfrat]

Rob, looks like Postimages is having a hiccup. Syntax looks fine, none of mine are showing up either.
Mike

[toprob]

Cheers, Mike. Can anyone see the images?

[emfrat]

Cheers, Mike. Can anyone see the images?

All good now

[cowpatz]

I see you haven't lost your touch there Rob. Looks very nice. Just for 2024?

[K5054NZ]

That's looking gorgeous Rob, bravo!

[Charl]

I tell AI how I used to do things in 3D Max, and it shows me how to do the same thing in Blender.

Gulp.
I mean, scenery design among many other computer-based activities, relies on coding.
AI is good at coding.
How long before you can tell it to rework all the sceneries you've ever done, no matter what the sim, and update it to the Latest Thing??
Creative people everywhere are interested.

[toprob]

Did a quick trip to Kapiti today, the weather was rubbish, but managed to get a lot of the photos I needed.
One new AI tool gives 3D models from a photo, so I might be able to include the Atua who stand guard at the little raupo walkway. This is Tumatauenga, the god of war and mankind. I don't know if I have the skills to include the native vegetation though.



EDIT: Kapiti Airport is a bit weird, really, much of the airfield bordering the main road has been developed with huge hardware stores, a supermarket, and lots of small businesses. Last time I visited there was one new building with some vibrant businesses, but this time the entire building was empty. The guy at the service station (who panicked when he saw me wandering around taking photos) said that the rent got too high. I don't know if the airport is the landlord, and I don't wanna get into my views on the airport management, but I wouldn't be surprised that this sort of thing will happen more and more there.

[toprob]

[K5054NZ]

I've not been to Kapiti in person in quite a while so it's interesting to hear a report from on the ground. I'm guessing the progress shown means the state of the place hasn't negatively affected your plans to do the scenery?

[deeknow]

Slick as !!!!! .. hoping I will be able to drive my non-flying forklift round the yard

[toprob]

I'm guessing the progress shown means the state of the place hasn't negatively affected your plans to do the scenery?

I went through the 3-year-old email thread with the airport manager, just to check on what actually happened. At the time I was still in business, and their request for royalties ruled it out, but that was the only issue.
Actually the missing tenants makes things easier, I had spent a lot of time making some 3D text logos on the buildings, after searching for the fonts, which added a huge number of vertices to the model, but now I can just delete those and it's basically a 20-vertex model:)
One thing I wanted to try with the '3D model from photos' AI tool was the wall on the back of the terminal, the Kapiti Kid's Motivation Trust put plaster masks made by local school kids up on the plaster wall. However the 3D model didn't work at all, it built the masks but a small section used 500,000 vertices, which is more than an entire airport for me, and retopology reducing it down to a workable size made it too blobby. So I'll go back to the old idea of a PBR texture with exaggerated normals to increase the 3D effect. Here's FS screenshots of the failed 3D model, then one section of the PBR version. Both are weird. But I'm having fun.




I finished the local service station model, just in time for it to become obsolete, as petrol becomes too expensive for normal folk. At least we'll have a record of these quaint old retro buildings to show our grandkids.