I am a self taught maxer and know all the basic theories :). I have done few buildings and rendered using mental ray with quite satisfactory results though I am not good in adding the environment details. Also texturing is my weak part, I have seen quite few tutorials and painting out in photoshop, but dunno how to apply it. Due to this I am also hesitating in modelling itself :).
Anyways, this is a road project. I have about 6kms of road, I’ve been given detailed drawings of 5 major intersections. I have modelled one of them already(without texture), later I’ll have to join all of them and create an animation(that for later :D). Here are my problems
1. I use line command in top view and create a closed spline, then extrude it to create the footpaths. Is it a good way? I want to texture the side of the footpath with stone material and the rest with maybe concrete. Do I have to unwrap, there are many footpaths so, is there a simpler way?
2. How do I create the road in the intersections?, I used a single plane object for all the roads and thought of applying planar map. The first model was plain, so everything might work fine for texturing, in second model I have slope roads, how do I model it?, I simply pulled the edges down, is there a better way?, also the footpaths are now above the road. Do I have to texture them before I pull the edges down in the footpaths??
3. I have to put loads of greenery in the green belts as well as on the sides. I saw grasses made with vray displace, can I do something the same in mental ray?, I want to create smaller plants and flowers too.
Please suggest what to do, waiting for answers :).

3ds Max 2009 64-bit
Core2 Quad @ 2.4GHz, GeForce 9500GT, 4 GB RAM, Win XP 64-bit
Kathmandu, Nepal

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