I’ve been exploring digital nature for a number of years and wanted to challenge myself to replicate some of my favorite places in Oregon without using any pre-existing assets or libraries. I used traditional and procedural modeling workflows as well as photometry and photogrammetry to generate all of the rocks, boulders, trees, leaves, groundcover and other objects in the project. In working this way, I have a personal connection to everything you see and I know exactly where I found the things I captured on-site. Lots of good hiking memories.
I made heavy use of nanite and tried to avoid using alphas in the foliage where I could. This was also a stress test of using Niagara fluids for fire and smoke and I’m really impressed with it.
WOW, I am completely mesmerized by your scenic environmental cinematic! It’s even more impressive knowing you didn’t use pre-existing assets or libraries for this creation; you truly have a genuine connection to this work of art, and I can’t voice my appreciation for your hard work enough! How long did it take to finish this project in its entirety? I imagine the creative process involved was quite lengthy.
Thanks a lot. Yeah, I’ve been working on building out these assets for years. Most of my spare time went to hiking around looking for stuff to scan and processing all the data. I only used a fraction of my library on this particular project.
The pleasure is all mine! Wow, I would’ve guessed a creation of this quality/magnitude took years to create; especially knowing you didn’t use any pre-existing assets. What’s even more impressive is that you only used a fraction of your overall library on this work; you must have quite the inventory of assets built up!
Yes, I have a few ideas for using my assets in different ways. I’ve been working with the new PCG plugin to procedurally populate changing landscapes and it’s pretty incredible. I also have been exploring using the virtual camera for more realistic exploration of these virtual environments.
