THUMBNAIL - Currently - ‘The Last One (until the next one)’.
This is quite a famous view of the Catbells fell, along with Derwentwater (or Derwent Water) and the town of Keswick in the Lake District. This view is roughly what you’d see from the Latrigg viewing point. The final set will probably have a few views from different locations.
Still a WIP because there’s still quite a lot to get ‘just so’ but been working on this a while and wanted to share as I think its looking OK(ish)… although comments welcome on how to make better.
I know my building materials look bad and some of the buildings are still just blocks. They need sorting. So do the roads, which need more cars and stuff. But if you squint, it hopefully isn’t too bad so far (?).
I use open source mapping data from the Ordnance Survey and Openstreetmap - use various layers as masks to give me the positions for woodland. Buildings I bring in as shapefiles using the BlenderGIS addon. Hedgerows, walls etc - being in as curves using BlenderGIS and then use geometry nodes.
2nd upload. The differences are subtle (as they probably all will be given how far into the project I am) - mainly a few more vehicles on the roads - as you’d expect - and all the buildings now have some form of texture. These still aren’t great. I think this version has a bit more contrast too, as suggested above.
3rd upload. More subtle differences. There are sheep in some of the fields (white dots) and caravans on the caravan park (white blocks) and a bit more variation in the trees and some other bits and bobs. Can’t decide on the right approach for colour grading and contrast. Experimenting. As always suggestions welcome for improvement.
4th upload. Sorry these aren’t more exciting or different and for the number of posts. I very rarely spam the forum like this, but I’m finding this one difficult to finish as, while I think its almost there and looks OK, I think this could be my best work so far (perhaps not saying much!) so want to get it just so.
This last one is great - nice colours and definition of the elements. I have fond memories of the Lakes District, hiking there in 1973. I especially remember a beautiful evening walking along WastWater. I live in Australia and haven’t been back there since. Is Kendal Mint Cake still a thing?
Thanks Christina, very much appreciated. I’ve just spent Christmas in the Lakes. Literally try to get there as often as I can. Yes, Kendal Mint Cake is still very much a thing (although I’ve not had any for years - I saw a documentary on how it was made and the sugar content scared me to death!).
5th and possibly final upload in the WIP thread for this particular scene. Law of diminishing returns has kicked in. There are a couple of things I want to do, but they will be quite minor. Will move on to some different angles I think (unless I get some good suggestions for improvement here!). Differences between 4 & 5 - changed some of the building textures; there aren’t a lot of redbrick houses in the lake district! Also added some piers in their correct locations around the lake… but unfortunately they’re mostly too small, hidden, or the wrong colour to be seen properly. More boats, more messing with the colours and main material. All just tinkering.
1st upload of the second intended scene for the ‘set’ of Catbell/Keswick images I’m going to make. This is taken from Friar’s Crag (and is intended to be similar to this shot I took a couple of years ago: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lazlowoodbine/51483276591/in/album-72157603934701092/ but with different weather conditions probably). I intend to add a beach to this and some foreground interest. Also need to do something with the probably excessive number of trees in some parts of the scene (as well as lots of other bits and bobs - but will be able to see some ‘progress’ - hopefully!!)
2nd upload from the second ‘scene’. Beginnings of a beach - the very good rock scan assets I have (quixel and botaniq I think) probably emphasise the dubious CG of the fells in the background - so need to do some improvements on their materials and the trees. More foreground interest needed too. Will no doubt tinker with the position of the rocks ad nauseum. Reasonably happy with my water shader though (for now).
4th upload from second ‘scene’. Not having a lot of time to work on this, and probably won’t get much for the time being owing to having to do lots of normal real life pesky work. But I think its coming on slowly.
5th upload from second ‘scene’. Been a while since little Laz has been good enough to pose for me. Loves this rock. Takes it with him everywhere he goes and always uses it as a chair. (Although just messing around, I actually think the ‘painterly’ effect here works quite well as its quite ‘loose’).
Should probably finish other ‘scenes’ before moving on, but I had an urge to do a jetty (of which there are many around Derwentwater). Lots to do to make this more convincing (mainly texturing)… but potential (?).
At some point I will finish all these mini-scenes and move on… don’t know when!
funnily enough I have bought that shader for that very purpose and it looks really good! Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it slows the renders down massively. Not sure why (although examining it, there is a lot going on). Might save it for the ‘final’ render.
funnily enough I have bought that shader for that very purpose and it looks really good! Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it slows the renders down massively. Not sure why (although examining it, there is a lot going on). Might save it for the ‘final’ render.
??