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[WIP] Abandoned Shack Environment

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Nicolas_Saad triangle
Hi everyone, I was hoping to get some feedback on my latest 3D scene. I recently switched to Blender from Maya so I used this project as a way to learn the ropes, and I must say that Blender is awesome! Right now all this work was done solely in Blender (for learning purposes) but the plan is to put this scene into Substance Painter.



My inspiration for this scene came from the Sonoma/Napa region in Northern California. Also known as the Wine Country for its prolific vineyards, the area is mostly rustic with lots of wide open space and lazy rolling hills. My focus was to create a photo realistic scene using the PBR metalness workflow. The scene was lit using an HDRI. I used 4k res photoscanned textures for every object except the barrels which I made myself in Substance. However all the dirt in this scene was created procedurally using the Dirty Vertex Colors feature in Blender.



I also used adaptive subdivision in conjunction with texture painting on the wood shack doors, allowing me to hand paint where I wanted things to appear cracked and chipped, which in turn generated tessellated geometry. I chose this workflow specifically in order to get the up close details I so desired.  



The Ivy Gen Blender Addon was also used in this scene. The grass field was made using particle effects. Dry and new grass clumps were generated using generated cloud masks. I created several of my own grass clumps and then used a free grass set to add variation to the vegetation. 



If I could go back and do things differently, I would not have used the Dirty Vertex Colors procedural dirt workflow, and instead would have used Texture Paint mode to paint dirt grunge maps. Dirty Vertex Colors required me to subdivide my models in order to get better results which was not worth it.  Also, since this is still a WIP I think I might want to actually add a vineyard in the background, to better tie the Wine Country theme into my scene.

Thank you and if you have any feedback please don't hesitate to post!

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  • dmemes
  • teodar23
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    teodar23 sublime tool
    Overall, the image looks great.
    When you zoom in it starts to crack  :). There are some sharp edges on the wood and the brick wall.
    Try to avoid using random noise as grime and dirt. Use a photo that looks like random noise.
    Cracks in the wood material look unrealistic because they are very sharp and the layer of paint seems to have an uniform thickness which doesnt happen in real life.
    Also, the glass is very clean.
  • Nicolas_Saad
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    Nicolas_Saad triangle
    So with my current workflow using adpative subdivision I cannot currently vary the thickness of the paint. The thickness is controlled by a Displacement node so I will have to come up with a work around for this. Also I was trying to work on making the glass dusty but it didn't show up I guess. And I agree the procedural dirt can go in place of real dirt textures. Thanks I really needed this feedback. I'll update this thread after I figure out how to fix all of this.
  • codyaq2
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    codyaq2 greentooth
    Interesting to see a version with the bricks scaled up. Currently they seem off in comparison to real world bricks.
    The lighting could use some work, maybe more bounce, it seems like a bright day and judging from the sharp  shape shadows the sun is high and strong, but I don’t see any over exposure or “bright areas”
    Be nice to see less shadow intensity under the leaves, ideally the leaves would bleed light through themselves and give more light penetrating though. Be nice to see the reference shot you used.
    Looks cool.
  • Nicolas_Saad
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    Nicolas_Saad triangle
    Thanks! I'm currently not using any post processing on this scene but I think a quick visit to Photoshop can fix the lighting issues. Also the only light source in the scene is the HDRI background. According to the position of the sun I would guess it's late afternoon in the day. I also used Blender's Simplify feature to limit the number of light bounces to 3. I can push that some more.

    As for the bricks, I can easily scale up the brick size so I will be experimenting with larger brick sizes. And I have all my reference photos, I'll upload them today when I get home. Thank you very much!

    EDIT: Also I forgot to mention, I'll try adding some translucency to my ivy leaves to see if I can get some more light to pass through them, good call!
  • Nicolas_Saad
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    Nicolas_Saad triangle
    Here are the reference images I used for this project. It's a mix of stock photos, a google street map shot, and my own photos taken around my neighborhood:














    Reference for the painted sign:



    And here is some reference photos I used for the padlock and chain:

  • Gannon
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    Gannon interpolator
    Love the vines/foliage. How did you go about creating them?
  • Nicolas_Saad
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    Nicolas_Saad triangle
    Gannon said:
    Love the vines/foliage. How did you go about creating them?
    Thank you! The ivy was created using the IvyGen Addon. I followed this tutorial in order to learn how to use the addon:
    https://youtu.be/OpBrg1iZEY0 

    As for the grass field, I had to create that using a hair particle system. I started off by creating several of my own grass clump models. There wasn't enough variation in the field at that point so I found this free foliage pack online. I added a few of the plants and grass models to my particle system from here: https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/plant/other/lowpoly-pbr-rocks-and-foliage

     And working with the particle system settings for the foliage was a chore but this tutorial cleared things up for me: https://youtu.be/eshOzshjt90

    I hope that helps!
  • oraeles77
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    oraeles77 polycounter lvl 4
    it looks nice. not so sure if the faded mural is a good match for the rest of the building.

    one of my pet hates is the misuse of the word 'abandoned' though. its pretty hard to find any sort of building which is genuinely abandoned. Disused or derelict would be a better word.
  • Nicolas_Saad
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    Nicolas_Saad triangle
    oraeles77 said:
    it looks nice. not so sure if the faded mural is a good match for the rest of the building.

    one of my pet hates is the misuse of the word 'abandoned' though. its pretty hard to find any sort of building which is genuinely abandoned. Disused or derelict would be a better word.
    Thanks but I didn't ask for a critique on the title of my piece, just the artwork. And the word abandoned fits perfectly for this scene, as it sits on an abandoned property which is defined as: Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property are categories of the common law of property which deals with personal property or chattel which has left the possession of its rightful owner without having directly entered the possession of another person. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost,_mislaid,_and_abandoned_property
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