Guess I´m addicted to creating better and better landscapes these days.
Not long ago I shared my post “To new Adventures” but ultimately was not satisfied with how the landscape turned out.
So I gathered more reference and changed it.
Then I discarded everything and started from scratch asking myself what factors are making landscape renderings feel realistic?
This is the result:
Maybe there are way more but I figured 4 elements are most important.
-
Detail: That does count for geometry and texture. If you want an organic object like rocks or a mountain look realistic you need the tiny details in the geometry for it to cast big and more important the small shadows. The texture has to be high resolution. How high? Well it depends on the scale. In World Creator for example you can export a Splat Map to specify the regions for rock, grass, snow etc. Because you can´t tile it it has to be a minimum of 8k so it won´t be blurry.
-
Depth: The more layer of depth you include, the more it will feel natural. Sure you can just add a mountain in the background and cover the bottom with grass and rocks in the foreground but it will mostly feel off or staged. So a good choice is to include multiple layer between the distant mountain and your foreground or even seamless. It helps the viewer to understand the scale of every object in the scene. To blend all layers together a blueish distance fog (or however you call it) gives it a realistic touch.
-
Chaos: Almost nothing large scale in nature is perfectly arranged. Everything is just chaos. Size, distribution, you name it. The more natural chaos you implement without destroying your composition, the better.
-
Light: It´s always light. Every image and every frame of every outstanding artwork or film is a meticulously crafted contrast between light and shadow. If you don´t have any light you will see nothing. If you have no shadow it will feel flat.
Let me know if you think there are more important points or what is important to you to make a 3d landscape look realistic.