Stranded

Stranded
Model: Flora
Tools used: Blender
Created: April, 2020

This project was inspired by the sight of empty streets in our cities during the Covid-19 pandemic, broken by a few food delivery scooters racing up and down the streets. At the same time, we heard the sounds of birds everywhere. Is nature growing back on us?

In my mind this extrapolated to some dystopian future in 20 years time.. People living self-contained, no contact, nobody outside, and nature taking its course again. Welcome to the future!

Not completely unlike the computer game Death Stranding from 2019, so we couldn't resist adding that playstation controller and way too many packages ;)

Here's my behind the scenes crafting notes.

Crafting Notes

• This project started out to be a desert with a city in an oasis. And I might (or prbly will) still make that version. However, during my self-learning I started to experiment with using particle systems to add vegetation and grass... wow! That completely changed the scene and atmosphere of this photo!
• As a consequence - the photo I wanted to use of Flora was originally lit with desert in mind, not with this eery foggy morning glow, and I had some difficulty in getting the light matching again. I think I could have worked that more, but at some point a project is "done". I've taught myself all I could with this image, and now I need to start working on something new.
• As a second consequence -- mind your poly count. I started to add way to many high poly trees and grass, and ultimately ended up with a 1.5GB blend file that was almost impossible to render. I had to cut back and replace all far away trees and vegetation with super simple models. Only the ones close by are higher detail. Result? File is now ~200MB again, and renders in about 50 minutes on my laptop.
• Grass, trees and vegetation are ideal for "hiding" bad design. Don't like that ugly bend in that hill? Put some grass on it!
• Volumetric fog! Ork loves fog.
• Don't forget to bevel edges. A curb with a hard edge looks fake.
• Personal note - I am getting better at this! Working in 3D is starting to flow more naturally.. this all is not unlike my first years of trying to teach myself photoshop. View tutorials, try, experiment, fail. Fail more. View more tutorials. Try more. At some point things start to 'click' and you start to mentally correct the tutorials you're seeing ("Nah there is a better solution for that") and you start to see the bigger picture! Wow, that feels like a world opening (again!). So, if nothing else, here are two takeaway messages:

1. If you want to learn to do something, don't expect to be good at it at day one. Make the time, take the time. Try, fail, fail more, learn. Put in the hours.

2. Now is just a good a time as any to start learning new things. Start now.