FINALLY [non-competing] WIP: Summer gardening! (Make a Splash in Amsterdam)

[Manellopgar (Manellopgar 3Dwork)]

Hello everyone,

Finally, I decided to participate in this challenge, I will show my progress here, four days it cost me to find an idea that convinced me, but I already have it.

I want to make a remix of the Splash of 2.93, which has always seemed fascinating what has been done with Geometry Nodes in its first phase.

My idea is to replace flowers with flowers that bloom in summer, where I live is currently summer, (I am not an expert in gardening, therefore I hope I am not wrong to select any flower that does not bloom in summer). But I will do it in the form of flowers placed in such a way that they conform to a design.

Some points that I have thought, without a specific order:

1. • I will create the flowers with Geometry Nodes but not in a single tree of nodes but in several, to optimize the maximum work and performance.
2. • I will add two side walls to the back wall in such a way that when the camera is turned, it is not seen empty, I will add two small windows to each one to provide light.
3. • I will add two extra tables that I will need for the configuration of the main camera.
4. • I will change the elements for more modern or current elements such as the painting buckets of the shelf, and other elements, I will see according to work.
5. • In the concept of the upper view, you can see add in a part of the table some papers and elements where designs are seen created with flowers and on the other side a small area where some flowers grow to later be used in the future designs.
6. • The final idea of ​​the concept is that it is small modern gardening where designs are made through seasonal flowers.
7. • At the moment I have mind added two extra points of the camera where you can appreciate these details that I have commented on, I will surely add more in the future.

I leave you the concepts I did quickly without drawing using photo bashing and texts since I am not very fast at drawing by hand.

I need to think about a good title since this title is temporary. Any comment or criticism is welcome.

Here are the concepts:

See you later, with advances!

[DeGa (Denis Gauder)]

Seems super exciting, and definitely well planned. Can’t wait, one of my favourite splash as well

[Manellopgar (Manellopgar 3Dwork)]

Thank you so much! I have a lot of work to do, I hope to do everything well!

[Manellopgar (Manellopgar 3Dwork)]

Oh no, I forgot to add the references, here I leave you, while I start working on the project!

[Manellopgar (Manellopgar 3Dwork)]

First, I share other references that I will use for the filling of the walls, shelves and tables … etc.

The first step was to open the scene in version 2.93 since the current version does not support most Geometry Nodes.

I separate everything into parts, and thanks to the good organization of the scene, I was able to separate the elements more or less quickly, and then decide what I will use and what I will not use. I have been able to verify what is slow to work with such complicated node trees.

Then apply all the modifiers and amounts to the scene in Blender 3.2. (The one I will use for the challenge). Here I already decided that objects and elements would take advantage of the original, this can still change since I have not all decided.

Before starting with the modelling of all the elements that I need to remodel and optimize what reuse of the original project.

I have decided to make a blocking, reusing some parts of the original project, adding other Assets of Hdri Haven and n using very basic objects for a test of how I will place the flowers, all this will modify it as you need. As I am using the original scene, Blender is still heavy, although I have noticed great improvements in the performance of the last versions. (Thanks for All Devs !!)

Raising the main front camera, the two lateral extras and later some more I will pose.

Because I will not be able to have a lot of polygonal density, things that I have been thinking about to optimize the final performance.

• • For the walls, I will use everything that can texture to give detail and will be basically flat or in your case cubes.
• • The elements that I will reuse from the original project, I will optimize them to the maximum, in case of one that causes me many problems because I will scratch it from scratch.
• • The original basketball, my idea is to use it, but it has very dense geometry, so I think it would have to reuse the design but lower the polygonal density.
• • The same as the basketball, I will do with the tables and elements as glasses and others that I will reuse.
• • The purple blocking objects are Assets that I will use from HDRI Heaven (in principle they are Game Ready), and the Clear Greens will be Geometry Nodes that will then modify in the copies you make, I will try to optimize it to the fullest so as not to have to redo work.
• • The basic geometry that I put above the originals, will be the flowers that I will work with Geometry Nodes and my idea to optimize them is to use plans … etc.
• • The sides of the basketball in the field of flower design are pending, but I have more or less determined which, in another advance, I hope to show them.
• • Regarding one of the extra walls that I have created, I decided to eliminate one of the windows I had planned since, by composition, it seemed better than I have done in the blocking.

It’s time to start modelling, see you soon with a new update!

[Manellopgar (Manellopgar 3Dwork)]

After a few days, I can already show what I have managed to move forward. I have decided to start with flowers, my main idea was to make all flowers procedurally with Geometry Nodes. So I started with the rose.

After trying 2 days, I got closer to the head of the rose, but I was not very satisfied with the result, I share an image here, for this, I base myself on the Golden Ratio:

Therefore I decided to look for models in Sketchfab, I found several, downloaded and finally one of them was well modeled. Therefore I decided to separate all the petals, through face selection and place the origin in the right place. Since I needed to be able to adjust the opening of the petals.

It was a rather mechanical task, but once I did it and tried it in Geometry Nodes. The result was what I was looking for.

All the flowers are generated to draw curves since this allows me to adjust well and exactly in the scene that I have shown in the concept that I uploaded to the beginning.

Here is the final result:

Nodetree:

Then I began to work with the sunflower, for this if I have generated it practically from scratch, for this, I had to investigate the Phyllotaxis formula (which is based on Golden Ratio) which shows how in general the flowers grow and place their different Parties. Except for the trunk leaves you took from another Sketchfab Asset and Erin’s original project.

Here is the final result:

Nodetree:

Now it is Gomphrena’s turn: that flower if I made it 100% with Geometry Nodes, and by hand her leaves. The rest use what learned in the last flowers to create the necessary node tree.

Here is the final result:

Nodetree:

With Calla Lily, I found a license model so I simply did a process similar to that of the rose, but this time it was easier to create the generator. In this case, do not add the leaves since they are usually at the bottom of all, therefore I will use them to fill the bottom inside the basketl.

Here is the final result:

Nodetree:

As for the Zinnia flower, it is another flower which I also made practically 100%. Except for some Assets that I have reused from the original Erin project.

Here is the final result:

Nodetree:

Finally, it is Delphinium’s turn, I also made this flow I work with the flowers.

Here is the final result:

Nodetree:

With this, I can immediately fill the flower box and place them in the way that I have marked in the blocking and in the concept. There would still be some details and elements to rebuild them to give them finished but being Geometry Nodes, I will do it later since it will be a relatively simple process.

From all this, I have learned a lot in particular how to capture formulas with Geometry Nodes, and create certain groups of nodes that helped me expedite the work now and in the future. Despite the failures, I stayed with what I learned.

The next task is to place them in their right place, place the rest of the Assets and replace the high density with low polygonal density or, where appropriate, with textures.

All flowers together

See you in the next update, I hope it is soon this time!

[bandinopla]

how do you plan to export this to sketchfab? can the geometry generated with geometry nodes be “exported” to fbx?

[Manellopgar (Manellopgar 3Dwork)]

Yes, it’s possible if you use a realize instances node on the final node tree, before exporting FBX, but I have to optimize and pack the UVs correctly, so I will apply the modifier when everything will be ready and then work with UVs and bake to optimize for sketchfab. And I think I will upload it with Blender Addon. I used it in the past and normally works nicely.

[Manellopgar (Manellopgar 3Dwork)]

Little update. I have already started to optimize the assets that I will use in the scene.

Start with the most important, which is the basket. To do this, replicate approximately in blender 3.2 simply to then modify the mesh and use a curve to mesh to create the low-density mesh.

Here is the result, I think it is quite good since I managed to reduce from half a million polygons to less than 25k.

Once this was done, it had been a long time since I used Blender’s bake, so I had to remember how it was done and try until it worked as I needed.

I will continue with the other objects that I will reuse from the original scene and then with the flowers.

For this, I will have to plan well the UVs and the number of maximum textures, apart from the number of final polygons.

See you in the next update.

[Manellopgar (Manellopgar 3Dwork)]

Quick update, I have already placed the new flowers in the basket. There are still things to accommodate and add, but the project has begun to take shape.

Here I show you render and a viewport:

Viewport Camera Front:

Quick Cycles Render:

In another post, I will explain in more detail when you have finished the placement of the plants and other elements.

See you in the next update!

[bartv (Bart Veldhuizen)]

Hey! As we’re entering the final days of the challenge, I’d like to give you some helpful tips to make sure you can successfully complete your entry. Please see my new post on the FAQ topic.

[Manellopgar (Manellopgar 3Dwork)]

After quite a work, today I could do the first test in Sketchfab only geometry. They made quite a lot of changes and reductions of polygons to reach approximately 500k, they are not exact but this assures me a fairly good optimization. I have tu invert the main camera as well

Other Tests:

Tomorrow I will work with the texture part and finish and upload it!

[Manellopgar (Manellopgar 3Dwork)]

Finally, I will not be able to arrive on time to prepare the scene in Sketchfab.

Due to multiple problems and the long cooking process of textures. Apart from that, I think I wanted to do a project that may be too big without knowing all the work I would entail.

This does not usually happen to me, but some have to happen, so some lessons for the future that I think will help me in similar ones.

• Reduce the project’s complexity, especially if I am working on my main work and on the challenge simultaneously.

• Try to have margin days regarding delivery, mainly if the project implies processes that you do not usually do or new processes.

• It has not been a lost time but has allowed me to create new tools in Geometry Nodes and refresh the nightmare that is to cook of textures sometimes.

• Rest and want for another project later.

This is all, I leave some final renders in Blender. Enjoy!

Take care and see you in another challenge in the future, it was a pleasure to participate!

[bartv (Bart Veldhuizen)]

Hey! Just a quick reminder that there’s now less than 12 ours remaining to wrap up your challenge entry - submissions close at 2022-09-15T21:59:00Z, GMT+1 (click on the link for some international times).

If you haven’t done so already, please review this post which contains some essential information for preparing your submission.

At the very least, upload your work to Sketchfab as soon as possible and add the #bcon22challenge tag.

It’s also a good idea to add a link to your WIP topic in the description of your Sketchfab model so we can easily find it.

I’ll also keep a close eye on the FAQ topic today, so if you have any issues or questions please post it there as soon as possible.

Good luck!

[bartv (Bart Veldhuizen)]

Hey! We just announced the winners - check it out!

Winners announcement

[ba winners] It’s done! Our first large-scale challenge is over and I was floored by the number and the quality of the entries. After two rounds of voting, the judges (see their names here) settled on the final scores for the winners. And even after they were known, we asked them to remain silent until they had booked their trips to BCON. That moment has now arrived and it is with great pleasure that I can announce who will be joining us at the Blender Conference later this month! Huge thank…