Creating the Big Top - Part 2 - Ropes, Flags and Curtains, Oh My!

A difficulty in creating the tent is the amount of details needed to make it work visually - ropes, stakes, and flags are all vital components of the silhouette. In addition, we were in need of a curtain to create a tasteful barrier to the interior of the tent.

Ropes

The high poly ropes were made by creating 4 cylinders in 3DSMax, then deforming them using the program's Twist function until they resembled a basic woven rope; finished rope was then shaped into loops and knots with PathDeform. Retopology was likewise performed in Max using low poly cylinders.

When it came to texturing, I created the look of woven fibres by overlaying the model with a second (smaller and rotated) rope texture. Lastly, a wooden stake was sculpted in Zbrush and metal elements added to make it stand out a bit more.

Flag

I made use of MarvelousDesigner for the flag, attaching the cloth to the flagpole before simulating. It took some tweaking to get the program to work, but the hassle pays off more often than not for the realistic look it produces.

Curtain

For accurate folds, I tried both MarvelousDesigner and 3DSMax's cloth simulating functions; the latter ended up producing the best results. I then threaded a piece of rope through the curtain loops to serve as an attachment to the tent.

I figured the curtain would be made of a different material to the rest of the asset, so I applied a velvety texture in a deeper shade of red to provide some color contrast. One of my reference images for the entrance area had the words "ENTER HERE" printed on a curtain (below, behind the men on the left), and I applied the same text to my tent in a circus-themed gold font and weathered it a bit with some masking and generator layers.

Looking at it now, I should have added some fraying and dirt at the bottom of the curtain, as well as some indication of a sewn edge with height, but it looks good in level so I'm jumping to the next step.