This model reconstructs the 200 feet by 500 feet, three-ring Big Top from the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1920. I rebuilt it from a scale plan drawing with suitable patch sizes and placements. Then I created the initial mesh from these patches so that surface textures could be applied systematically (similar to how the tent-makes would have made it at that time). The mesh cloth patches were simulated under gravity using the Houdini vellum solver. Finally, the UVs were created in Blender and layed out with UVPackmaster for high-res UDIM textures. The color textures were created in Substance Painter. I used Photos as a reference for the surface coloring and quality and the amount of draping.
Scale plan drawing from pgs. 24-25 of “Logistics of the American Circus (Supplement)” by Joe McKennon (Written by a man who was there) 1984
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