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Modelling the books on the shelf if easy, since only the binders would be visible, but what if we have to model an entire library of books, and books whose spines contain big letters?

Suppose we've got to model a large library of books that we're going to run our camera thoroughly and up very close.

We could model our books but when it finally comes to texturing them, do we texture the entire array individually or is there a workaround?

Since, the books are supposed to carry random styles and letters(describing their titles) individually, is texturing them entirely the only way?

Duarte Farrajota Ramos
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mathmaniage
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  • This is clearly a very interesting project to look into. Recently I saw a post on the agenzasbrothers blog, that mentions random distribution of textures. The setup had only four textures, which doesn't deliver much variety. I also remembered another tutorial about randomizing color values on leaves.... I'll try my hands on that as soon as I have some spare time. – metaphor_set Jul 24 '16 at 11:14
  • thanks a lot, could you perhaps drop a link here of the aforementioned blog? – mathmaniage Jul 24 '16 at 12:58
  • Of course. Randomize Textures (https://agenzasbrothers.com/en/blender-tip-26-distribute-textures-randomly/) and randomize colors (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LeFij0JS6w) – metaphor_set Jul 24 '16 at 13:04
  • I wish I could give an upvote, thanks a tonne – mathmaniage Jul 24 '16 at 14:37
  • @metaphor_set, have you ever used the below mentioned 'free' addon? – mathmaniage Jul 27 '16 at 12:52
  • No. I only use very basic addons, since the more complicated ones tend to clutter up the UI – metaphor_set Jul 27 '16 at 13:10

1 Answers1

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The solution here I think would be particle systems.

Model a few different book shapes, apply a few different book cover textures and you should have enough variation to make it seem believable.

You can then use some sort of emitter object running along the length of your bookshelves with a particle system to quickly distribute the books

Manually modeling thousands of books would be cumbersome and unpractical, but modelling a few variations, like say 10, with a few different textures , like say other 10 and you already have 100 possible different combinations of books.

You could also look into randomizing the textures procedurally, which would add even more perceived variation with little additional effort. If you are using Cycles the Random output socket of the Object Info node may help.

There are also a few book generation addons, both commercial (here and here) and free that could help if you want to automate the process.

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Duarte Farrajota Ramos
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