Reinforced concrete... how to?

[Anonymous]

Greetings!

I was wondering if there are any available tools to make reinforced concrete elements - walls or beams - in ArchiCAD, such as reinforced concrete panels (with holes and everything ala Tadao Ando ) that could provide a realistic look when rendering. I've been using textures over flat walls so far with relative success, but I cannot get the effect I'm looking for, also meaning that I have to map every single concrete element I have in my project (to be accurate and faithful to the original design), which obviously takes a long time.

This is what I have so far (please, don't laugh... it's still early WIP):

Ok, concrete block walls and polished concrete floors are coming out nicely...


But poured reinforced concrete structures look... well... Plus I have to map every single element to be consistent with what I had originally designed:


I'd like to get this kind of effect:


Any information would be useful. Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

There are no specific tools that I know of to do what you want. Your best bet is to make the textures in Photoshop (or similar). With transparent layers (in Photoshop) you can also produce a variety of patinas (if that's the right word with concrete) over the same base color and pattern.

Beyond this you will probably need a more sophisticated rendering program. You will be hard pressed in any program to achieve the natural look of the bottom image.

[Dwight]

I hope that you are not wishing for magic.

-- Specific concrete shapes must be precisely modeled and will stand up to close scrutiny in a rendering if they are fully detailed. Panels and other accessories can be saved as objects and re-used.

-- Surfaces should be hybrid compositions using bitmap textures as bump maps for formwork edges and roughness while the underlying seamless shader should be used for the concrete pattern.

Have a look at Concrete roadway in the 02Basic>Construction> for a nice pattern, but you might have found it already judging by your shader....

You might also consider combining some yellow and blue light for a more natural effect.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the input. No, in no way I'm hoping for magic, I just want a render that looks "right" to give my customers an "extra plus" before "laying the foundation" (it's my first project and all and I want it to be something special, obviously); beyond that, I'm not really interest in getting the perfect render that could almost pass for a real photo since I start building the bloody thing early next year (which is coming right around the corner, anyway) so...

What I actually meant when I showed the real picture was how to get a "3D look" on reinforced concrete panels (if you see, in my render they look kind of "flat") with the holes and joints and everything.

Ok, so I'll have to make every texture individually and then... see what happens. I'll keep on working and I'll show you later what have I come up with.

Thanks again.