Inspirations and References

For this personal project in terms of inspiration and references I don’t try to get references , because I already had an idea of what I wanted in my mind for this project. Where I spent more time was in the vegetation. In the vegetation I did some testing to find good results that I wanted in the picture.

Scene Setup

In the start of any project, one of the first things I do is adjust the scale of the scene and the gamma which is very important!

Modeling

Modeling is where it all begins and what will influence a good result! It is very important to make time to ensure the objects have good geometry and good details. Of course, each project is different. In large projects we need to have good management of the geometry so we do not run the risk creating a heavy scene! I usually have several options. I turn to VRay proxies or multres for objects further from the camera’s perspective.

As you can see in the image below I always chamfer edges to give the final finish on objects!

For the wooden house I used the 3ds Max spacing tool to distribute the wooden boards across the walls.

Rocks Modeling

For the stones I created a sphere and from sphere with the 3ds Max freeform too, I started modeling and making variations of stones. I also added a slight displacement to give more detail.

Terrain Modeling and Scene Composing

Vegetation

For vegetation I used several types of grass, trees, leaves.

With the Multiscatter plug-in, I spread a diversity of vegetation across the landscape! For this kind of work I usually use the multiscatter painter as it is actually pretty good for distributing.

Grass

The grass type 4 I used to spread out the stones to create the effect of moss, as you can see in the figure below.

For the grass on the ground I used the others grass types as you  can see in the images below.

For the fallen leaves on the ground I used my pack of autumn leaves that you can find on my website: http://www.sergiomereces.com/?page_id=1076

I spread them out witn multiscatter painter over the ground.

Trees

For the trees I used five different kinds of trees, I also used the multiscatter  plug-in to distribute the trees. I used trees a package from Xfrog.

Materials and Textures

For the materials and textures I decided to spend some time here because it is really important that we get good materials for our scene.

Rocks Material

Ground Material

House Wood

Water Puddle

Lighting and Render

For lighting I used a VRay dome and a VRay sun. For the VRay dome I chose not to use any HDRI but only a color to create the environment.

Render Settings

Raw Render

Post-Production

The final phase is the most important to me because I can control the final look that I want for the picture!

2D elements to the composition of the image as you can see in the image below.

After I got the desired composition I began adjust the levels, gamma, and curves to give the look that I wanted.

After I get the right black and white balance I began to play with color balance and tones, using the curves and color balance.

After I get the desired tones I do the final touches, like god rays, some vigneting and light corrections.

And here is the final image.