Modeling big environments.
polycounter lvl 11
Hello guys 
i'm now starting a new project/study. I always wanted to do big environments but i really don't understand where to start. Actually i wanted to model something like this (from ghost in the shell) 
but i really i havo no idea on what would be the correct workflow. Do you guys have any idea or tutorials to suggest? Also anyone knows a good method to reduce the 3 point perspective vertical distortion at the minumim with a Vray camera? Thank you
i'm now starting a new project/study. I always wanted to do big environments but i really don't understand where to start. Actually i wanted to model something like this (from ghost in the shell) but i really i havo no idea on what would be the correct workflow. Do you guys have any idea or tutorials to suggest? Also anyone knows a good method to reduce the 3 point perspective vertical distortion at the minumim with a Vray camera? Thank you
Replies
It is very intimidating to start on a big environment sicne you see the full picture and need to break it down.
That would be the advice i would give is break the scene down into smaller chunks. For example you can seperate the neon signs and model them individually. Or the overhanging pieces i'm not sure what to call them, balconies? Besides taking out the smaller details you can start by idetifying the large shapes of the building. For example most of the outline of the buildings are quite straight so that would be a fast sort of box model you can create.
Hope that helps at least a little bit
Then block out the scene, since you might discover some issues that requires you to change the scene, some scales might not work out and your modular pieces might change as well. This way you avoid having to redo work, and you get an better idea of what you can make modular and what you need unique assets/textures for, and what can be made just with planes and tileable textures.
While it's tempting to just jump right in and start creating assets, I found that often can bite you in the behind, especially when doing large environments and follow concept art. Sometimes when translated into 3D, the 2D concept you are following, doesn't work as well as you thought in 3D space, and you might want to adjust the size of things, which can be a pain if you already created the assets and can't just scale it.
When you got it blocked out, then you can start model and replace the modular pieces in the scene, and preferable the main focus of the scene.