Final Renders

It all worked out pretty well, the fur grass still needs work but this is the first time I used it. I really don't like the bush I made but I just did not have the time to make it any better.

Trying some new techniques

Did a lot of experimenting since I was not happy with a lot of the elements in my scene. Decided to go with a HDR image based lighting as a base light and did a directional and a bounce light. Tried out fur grass and the first results are not bad, learned how to tweak it a bit but I don't have any renders of the newest version. Also learned about z-depth and using it in photoshop to achieve depth of field and distance fog with out having to increase my render times. Some of those results are in the pic. A friend of mine ran a water simulation using real flow which we exported as a mesh and adjusted in zbrush. I think it really feels like the water is interacting with the environment.(not in this pic). And I was able to get a hold of Crazy bump for a while and ran all my textures through them, the normals are vastly better than those I made with the Nvidia plug-in. I don't have renders of the most current scene because the comps at school can not handle the file, They run out of memory when trying to render. So I'm rendering at a friends house because he has a awesome comp, You'll see what I mean in class.

New water and layered shader

Added some more plants and some new water. Had to ditch the old layered shader for the terrain, mental ray does not support it. I used a mix8layer shader and used mia materials. Deleted light set up and tried again.

Update

Added water, which still needs a lot of work. Experimented with a layered texture to have the rock/dirt/grass blend into each other.

Redesigned Terrain

Here are some renders of my redesigned terrain. The old terrain was just to big and did not have enough flat spaces to work with. This new design should allow me to work much faster and with better quality. I'll probably post again before class with more assets in the scene.

Little More Work

I started some more vegetation and started adding grass to the scene. With my back hurt last week I wasn't able to sit in front of the computer very long. I'll be playing catch up this weekend, I'll try to get some renders soon.

Tree Update

I made a new branch texture and added it to the trees for some variation. I also created a new bark texture and used an overlay to make some trees look like they still have some bark on them. Here are some pics.

Textures

I went to the park yesterday and took a lot of pictures. I tried using a black board behind the leaves to make it easier to cut them out. I got luck sometimes and found branches that were broken off. I could lay them down on the board to take the pics. I started making my tree and the first run at the tree textures. Here are a few of the pics I took, I got lots of them.

Added some textures and more modelings

Added some textures but they will probably change. started adding some rocks around the lake. I still need to make grass and generic rocks to duplicate. Deleted Physical sun and sky and added my own lights.

Updated Models

Here are some pics of the blocked out terrain with and without trees. I am still adjusting the position of trees and probably will do so throughout the project. The next pics are some quick renders using some cameras I placed and using physical sun and sky to get some quick lighting.

Modeling the environment

The following pictures are the paths modeled flat along the plan. Then the paths raised to the correct heights. Then with some of the terrain filled in between the paths.

Weekly Goals

My weekly goals are
week 3 - Block out environment
week 4 - refine model
week 5 - first pass on environment textures
week 6 - Model an texture trees and other plants
week 7 - place trees and plants
week 8 - Model and texture rocks and water
week 9 - Place rocks and Lighting
week 10 - Final texture pass and other adjustments
week 11 - Final done

Park Reference

Here are some pics of parks that I like. Hopefully I can create a similar feel in my project.

Park Map

This is a simple map I created for the layout of my environment. I will map this to a plane in Maya and use a scale of one unit in Maya = 1 meter. I will then create all paths flat along the plane then move them to the correct height. Then I will fill in the rest.

Test Scene with brick textures

I rendered out my test scene with the tillable brick texture. I made a bump map for the brick and used a noise for the specular. It is rendered with mental ray with final gather and ambient occlusion turned on.
The next image is the same scene with the same lighting just with the new texture from class. I created a bump map and rendered.

HomeWork 1: Goals

My main goal for the class project is to learn how to make great foliage and to create an extensive texture library. Any time I apply for a job in the game industry I am given an art test with a time limit. Having a texture library to pull from will save me a lot of time and help me in polishing the look of the test project. I hope to refine my skills with texturing so that I can apply for texture artist positions in addition to my regular occupations.