How to improve the global lighting in this scene

Artwork Works in Progress
1

I am still very new to the more advanced topics of blender and I am still quite poor at modeling as you can see. This is one of my more involved work with Blender and I am simply amazed at how good some of the artists are on this forum…

I wanted to ask the members here how to improve the lighting in this scene. Also tips on improving this scene in terms of ground texture, other objects, would be much appreciated.

(I will upload the blender file if anybody wants it.)

tree-attempt.jpg1024×576 39 KB

The above was post-processed in GIMP to increase the colour saturation and contrast a bit.

2

If you go to cgtextures.com, sign up and download some textures there for your ground that would improve your image allot.
Increase your main light source to give some more light and if I were you I would make the blue mist in the background a little less blue.
If you keep it blue though then you might want to try to make the ground and the trees in the foreground a bit more blue, not as much as in the background though.

Good luck and hope it helps :slight_smile:

3

Well, I created a small texture file in GIMP and added my own “grass” texture to figure out how to do texture mapping. I am afraid it’s not a great success, but at least there is now more “detail” in the ground texture though there is a grid pattern.

tree-attempt-2.jpg1024×576 59.1 KB

Is there a way to “paint” in textures to objects inside Blender itself? I know the interface exists, but not yet got around to it.

4

there is a way…uv unwrap whatever you are needing to “paint” a texture on, then switch to texture paint mode both in the UV veiwport and the 3d veiwport…then set the mode to textured…and next start painting!!!

also try adding some Normal value to your ground…this is done by going to where you obviously put your texture and then going to Geometry…then normal and set the normal value to about .3
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5

Thanks for the timely hint. I remember this from a long time back when I was tinkering with Blender. Textures aren’t a whole lot of fun for me, but I always prefer to use my own creations whenever possible. However, not averse to admitting my own limitations in that area.

6

I think your scene is looking pretty good! Something seemed a bit off though and at first I couldn’t figure out what it was, then it dawned on me… The trees are all dead/burnt, yet the grass is perfectly green. I think a more muddy/brownish look to the grass would suit the atmosphere better. Your original question was with respect to lighting however, and I think you’ve improved that quite a bit by your second post. The mist was too dense and blue in the first one as another poster mentioned. Maybe even bring the mist a bit closer to the foreground to improve it further?

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hahah its fine we’ve all been there…in fact…im still there O.o

8

Yes, that grass is too “green” for the scene. I was just trying out textures mapping for that and I quickly created a green texture in GIMP for the purpose.

I also wanted to note that the extra blueish tinge in the first render was actually a result of ramping up saturation in GIMP. I will work on that fog again.

I also tried using the particle system (hair) for grass, but somehow the grass grows BENEATH the plane. Not sure how to fix that though.

9

fix this by flipping the planes normals? wonder why its doing that

10

Tried that. Doesn’t seem to have any effect on the particles effect. I am tired today. Will look at the whole thing again tomorrow and see if there is something obvious I have missed.