After a long, self imposed, Blender ban (Due to pressure of work) I’m going to start a new project. I’m not really sure if i have time to do this but I miss the fun of blender. So here goes.
The plan is to re-create a series of photos around the theme of abandonment. Although I disagree that photo realism is the pinnacle of CG I do think it is a great way of learning.
Here are some of the photos I have found. I may do them all or just a couple. It depends on how I feel.
I’m going to start with this one. Mainly because it seems the easiest 
Block done. As ever, lining things up is a complete pain. In the end i have distorted the house i little bit more than it is in the ref, but i quite like the idea of the house sinking, so that is fine by me.
Onto modelling next…
EDIT: Proof if i needed it that i have been away too long: I forgot to adjust the resolution before blocking… fixed now.
Welcome back!
I saw this series not long ago, some really fantastic photos.
Good luck with the project, I will be watching with great interest.
Welcome back! Good to see you doing the “shift + a” again … I wish you loads of exciting and outstanding F12’s for this project … Can’t wait to see them F3’ed and published 
Welcome back Monk! Let me throw out an idea at you that is not shown above… The abandon Drive In- Movie theater. I think it would work well. I’m not sure if you had these in England… But they were everywhere in the US till about the 80’s … now there are very very few. Its kind of sad, because as teenagers …we had great times at the drive in’s.
Glad your back.
Good to see you back!
Cheers guys!
Harley: We have no drive-ins in the UK, but they are well known do to references in countless 80’s films.
Started the modelling, but most of this is just slightly more detailed blocking. Having never really looked at the ocean sim in detail i may be looking at you Minoribus for suggestions in this area…
But alas, i have neglected my work too long, so back to the boring stuff…
We have no drive-ins in the UK, but they are well known do to references in countless 80’s films.
Maybe it was the 90’s when they really started disappearing… almost every decent size town had one here in the US. Here is a link to take a look at for grins
The ocean sim is really pretty straight forward to using, you will have to run it and then bake it so you can use it in a still. I haven’t used it that much, but I know Minoribus has.
Hey there, in addition to what Harleyut said I just want to add, that baking the ocean is only necessary if you want to have foam in your stills. This requires baking whereas a render without foam would work without baking it.
The ocean sim has a lot of settings to play with. And your settings already produce a good result - although I think the waves could be a bit smaller compared to your reference image. You can try to increase the settings for the ocean’s resolution in the modifier. That gives better defined waves.
The thing, that I find most difficult when working with the ocean sim is the material for the water. As it is with car paint shaders, the ocean’s material also relies on something to reflect. Much of the effect of a good water still is owed to a good environment lighting and HDRI.
Another thing, which I found helpful, was to place the ocean into a dark “box” (I used the lower half of a simple cube). For the water you will use a material that has some transparency components. And with such a material you will see the HDRI sky through the oceans surface as if the sky would continue under water. So, a box or something else that encapsulates the ocean helps to prevent this underwater sky.
I believe we’re in the same boat heh… Miss the fun too. But sure completing a render got my brain firing a bit more. Already have some new concepts in mind.
Keep it up, doing great so far. Love the reflection of the house in the water.
