In his first experiment, the author created a scene with a grassy field, cabin, trees, and mountains to practice environmental modeling and texturing. He used volumetrics to add fog and establish mood. Through this process, he learned new skills in modeling, texturing, composition, and lighting that he plans to apply to his final project, which will take place in a forest. Specifically, he aims to improve how he models grass and incorporate knowledge of trees from an MTree add-on. Overall, he was pleased with the composition and atmosphere achieved and sees the experiment as beneficial for developing skills for his major project.

1. Experiments
Matthew Evans

2. Experiment 1

3. Process
I started off this experiment by creating a plane for the ground that everything else would be placed upon as well as
distributing some grass models around the plane to create a very basic outline for the feel I wanted this scene to have.
I then positioned my camera and moved the grass around to fill the area in which the camera can view. Seen as though
this is not an animation, I didn’t make sense to fill the entire plane with unnecessary polygons which would have
slowed down renders, so I just placed the models I needed within the camera frame. I then added my HDRI that I
downloaded from Poly Haven to create some basic lighting for my scene.

4. Process
I then added in this trunk and plant to help frame the shot a little bit better and to fill up some space on the right side
close to the camera to create some depth in my scene. I then downloaded a model of a little wooden cabin from Blend
Swap and added in some textures to the cabin. I placed this in the far left of the frame to further add to the
composition of my shot. With this I had a good idea of how I wanted this environment to look in the final render, so I
started looking for other assets such as trees and bushes to help fill some empty space in the scene.

5. Process
I found this model of an old car which I thought would look nice as a centerpiece to my scene. I originally wanted to
texture this car with a metallic rusty material but unfortunately run out of time when I got round to texturing.
However, I like the idea I was going for and I think it’s a goo addition to the scene. I then found a picket fence model to
add to my scene and to wrap around the car, starting close to the camera and then reappearing further away from the
camera, adding more depth to my scene. I also added a small light behind my car to try add a little bit of a metallic
shine to the car but as I didn’t get round to texturing the vehicle, this is not apparent in the final render.

6. Process
I added a collection of trees around the frame to further add to the composition of my shot. These trees were made
using the free add on for Blender called Mtree which allows you to create your own trees with ease. I was really
starting to like how the shot was coming together and I felt it was just missing one thing in the higher center part of
the frame that could have brought it all together. I thought some sort of landscape in the background such as a
mountain would look really nice in the center of the trees, so I started to model a procedural mountain in blender.

7. Process
I eventually model a mountain I was happy with and decided to texture the mountain with snow. Because of this
decision, I needed to make the entire environment seem as if it was in a cold area. I thought of two ways to do this,
one would be to use fog to make the air feel cold or to use colour correction to give everything a slightly colder colour.
However, I didn’t want to over do it as the mountain will be colder than the round level due to the altitude so there
was no need to add snow to the ground. I decided that I would go with adding fog to my piece seen as though this is an
experimental piece and I am already happy with my knowledge of colour correction.

8. Process
Adding the fog to the environment was a relatively simple process as I used volumetrics to create a dense fog effect,
like those found in cold environments. I started by placing a cube around the foreground environment to create a light
layer of fog in the foreground with a slightly blue tint to add depth and a colder feeling to the environment. I then
added a second layer of fog to the mountain which was denser to really make the mountain feel as if it was far away, as
well as making the scene feel that bit colder.

9. Reflection
I am happy with the outcome from this experiment, and I've learned many skills that I can take into my final project
and incorporate that knowledge to better my piece. Seen as though this is one of the first projects, I have made in
Blender due to the quick change of software as a result of unfortunate circumstances, I was extremely happy with
what I was able to create in such a small amount of time using just reference images that I had found on the internet.
I am a big fan of the composition especially in this piece, I think that the way I went about setting up this project and
faming the image early on really helped me to better the composition in this piece.
During this experiment I have learnt many things that I did not know how to do previously such as how to use
volumetrics to create a fog effect, techniques to creating depth, basics of environmental modelling and sculpting,
basics of texturing and shading as well as the use of UV editing. I hope to take these skills with me into my final
major project and use them to develop the quality of my final piece. I also learnt how to use an add-on inside of
blender called MTree to create trees within blender. This will be extremely useful to me in my final project as I plan
to have the short film take place within a forest.
Obviously, there are places to be improved within this piece, like there always will be, but one thing in particular that
I would like to focus on improving is creating realistic looking grass. Grass is an asset that I will use over and over
again and can often be a main part of a piece such as this one so I believe that it will be really important and
beneficial to learn how to create realistic looking grass to allow myself to create pieces closer to realism.

10. Experiment 2

11. Process

12. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product?