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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?

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  • $\begingroup$ 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. $\endgroup$
    – metaphor_set
    Jul 24, 2016 at 11:14
  • $\begingroup$ thanks a lot, could you perhaps drop a link here of the aforementioned blog? $\endgroup$
    – mathmaniage
    Jul 24, 2016 at 12:58
  • $\begingroup$ Of course. Randomize Textures (agenzasbrothers.com/en/…) and randomize colors (youtube.com/watch?v=4LeFij0JS6w) $\endgroup$
    – metaphor_set
    Jul 24, 2016 at 13:04
  • $\begingroup$ I wish I could give an upvote, thanks a tonne $\endgroup$
    – mathmaniage
    Jul 24, 2016 at 14:37
  • $\begingroup$ @metaphor_set, have you ever used the below mentioned 'free' addon? $\endgroup$
    – mathmaniage
    Jul 27, 2016 at 12:52

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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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  • $\begingroup$ it seems it is a purchasable addon, do you think there is a free addon though? $\endgroup$
    – mathmaniage
    Jul 25, 2016 at 1:22
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, there is also one free apparently. Answer updated, added link info for BookGen addon. $\endgroup$
    – Duarte Farrajota Ramos ♦
    Jul 25, 2016 at 1:40
  • $\begingroup$ is the free one only for modelling books(i tried it and it's really great), but How do you also texture them randomly? $\endgroup$
    – mathmaniage
    Jul 25, 2016 at 8:55
  • $\begingroup$ Never used any of them but my guess is after creating the books you can customize the materials and assign your very own random book cover shader. If they are a single object you may have to separate them into several objects. $\endgroup$
    – Duarte Farrajota Ramos ♦
    Jul 25, 2016 at 16:49

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