Reference gathering

Maximum-Dev

Hello,

While working on an environment, (a beach) I have gathered a lot of reference images from the internet for that particular location however, with PBR accuracy in mind I'm a little confused when it comes down to texture creation.

For example here are the sand references, all are the same beach. But they all look different from each other due to different time of day, different camera lens and...? etc. so if I want to be accurate with recreating the same look as the real life how would I know which sand color to sample?



My guts say, find a totally overcast image with a wide range of colors in it (sand, grass, rock etc.) and sample everything out of it so everything would have consistency when I do lighting later on.

What approach do you recommend?

Thanks in advance,
Alireza

Maximum-Dev

Bump. Still looking for advice.

DireWolf

Color - you should look at photo with every thing, not just the sand. It will show you how the color should look like in that particular hour.

The story behind your beach will be another factor as well.

Like when I see the first image on the top left, that one looks like it'd been wet on the surface and not deeper down, suggesting it's further away from the sea water and probably only been hit by rain. It also got stepped over by a lot of people and possibly even a car.

The second image on the other hand looks like sand that's actually been the sea bed and got exposed when water retracted. Third one looks like it's the area being hit by waves because it's so smooth and possible with lots of tiny crabs as well from all the little round blobs of sands scattering around. Etc. Definitely you'll have to pick one that matches the area you're looking to recreate and the kind of stuff it's been through.

tungerz

K

Maximum-Dev

DireWolf wrote: »

... Definitely you'll have to pick one that matches the area you're looking to recreate and the kind of stuff it's been through.

Thanks for the reply however, all the sand you see up there do belong to the area I'm trying to create. It's all on Omaha beach, same location, different hours. And different hours makes the same sand color very different depending on what hour it is. Question is, how do I get the true sand color.

AdvisableRobin

PBR isn't a hard rule set, just pick something that looks close. An overcast photo will be the closest you can get, but honestly don't get too hung up on it. Play around with it, use solid colors and see what feels right, you can always come back and noodle it later on.