I am going to try my hand at building houses.  I have a terrain with its textures applied that I want the houses to go on.  
Do I build the houses separately and then import them into my terrain?  Or CAN I import them into my terrain?  
Or do I build the houses right inside the terrain I have created? 
Another question on that subject: If I have already used 3 out of 4 of my textures on my terrain, that doesn't count against the textures I can put on my houses, right?  
~ Kimmie



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It's easiest to build your houses as separate props. You can the later add them to the terrain if you so desire, by right-clicking and selecting Convert to Terrain. The textures will remain separate of those used for the main terrain.

If you want to change a house that's part of the terrain you can convert it back to a prop. 

If you want people to move inside the house it is best for it not to be part of the terrain, because I believe that the highest section of the house counts as the terrain surface so people may be walking on the roof...

I often work with a dummy plane (which can easily be hidden) that I add to the terrain to serve as a floor in a building.

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That is really great!! :-)  So I can build the houses separately... And then add them to my terrain... And then convert them into propd on my terrain... And then put it on a dummy plane that I can make totally invisible on the scenes that show the outside of the house?  Did I get all of that right, Animagic? 
Am I missing anything there?   
Oh, and can I use more than one dummy plane for more than one house on the scene?  (I am assuming yes, but I still have so much to learn.)
And yeah... There won't usually be anyone on the roof. :-D  (Well, with one exception: There is a scene where 4 guys take their lame friend up on the roof of the main house and dig through the tile of the roof to get to JESUS.  But other than that, everyone else stays on the ground both inside and outside. :-D )
~ Kimmie

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There is no real need to add them to the terrain (visually it wouldn't make any difference). The dummy plane would be the size of the floor of the house. Since it is invisible, it can overlap the visible floor. You can have as many dummy planes as needed for the various houses.

Now I assume that the terrain may be hilly, but the houses should be placed on flat areas as you don't want the terrain sticking out through the floor. This primarily matters if you have scenes where people are inside the house. For houses that are just part of the scenery it wouldn't matter. 



That scene will be an interesting challenge...

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Yes it will be.  So far I plan on only showing just the key pieces and in very small tid-bits so the audience knows clearly what is going on without doing anything that is overly difficult to do. 
Their houses had stairs going up to their flat roofs, so if I just show them starting to carry their friend on his pallet up the stairs, then I can quickly switch to another appropriate camera. :-D  (Then same thing on the roof... Show them starting to dig - or the movement of digging and holding a tile in one of their hands - and then switch to the inside of the house where they lower him in at.) 
What I am REALLY not looking forward to attempting, Animagic, is Peter jumping out of the boat into the water of a big lake (the Sea of Galilee).  And he does that TWICE in the Gospel books!  Those will be my biggest challenges by far. 
Do you have any advice for me for those water scenes? :-) 
~ Kimmie

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Actually that may not be. When I needed jumping into the water, I bought this handy splash emitter made out of native iClone particles: https://marketplace.reallusion.com/medium-splash-emitter

Awesome!  Thank you!! :-) 
~ Kimmie 

www.TrackingJESUS.net 

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