I’m still just getting used to blender, and 3d modelling as a whole. Here’s a render of my first project just a simple island in the water. I guess it’s supposed to be like a helicopter view. I can spot some flaws myself so it’s not great but hopefully I can get better with blender soon.
Alright for a first project, although there are some improvements I would suggest.
Firstly, subsurf the island. (That means adding a subsurf modifier, in the edit buttons, click ‘Add modifier’ and choose subsurf). This will make the island more smooth, and therefore realistic.
How big is this island? If it is a small rock sticking out the water, what you’ve got is fine. But if it is meant to be a large island, one with beaches and forests, it really needs to be flatter. Have cliffs and beaches at the edges - extrude the more central faces upwards. Add grass using static particles, there are various tutorials for those. Judging by your current texture, it’s a small rock.
The water might need a bit of work. I’m guessing you’re not planning on complex sea effects (if you are, try these tutorials: http://www.cogfilms.com/tutorials.html ), but at least add a Nor map to the water (more on that later).
Again on the rocks, your material seems very flat. Firstly, modify the specularity - there is a ‘Spec’ slider in the material buttons. This will make it look less plasticy. Either lower it to zero, or leave it there to make the rock look wet. The rock also needs a normal map.
A normal map uses the texture to create bumps on the surface of the material. Not actual 3D geometry, though - it modifies the surface for the lighting to fall on. To do so, in the material buttons, go to the last box and the last tab. This controls textures, and click the Nor button. This will turn it into a normal map. Move the slider if you like, and try rendering to see the effect.
If I seem overly critical of this work, I’m sorry - I generally try to include any and all criticisms I can of a work, not just for new users but for anyone. If any points need clarification, I’ll be happy to help.
Thanks for the tips, yea that first one looked pretty lame, I shaped the island up alot, added a small beach I think all the textures need to be scaled down alot, then it would look bigger like an island.
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You should tern the water so it faces the beach.
And the beach should be more at an angel.
But other than that it is a cool picture.
To make the textures smaller, in the Map To tab, make the size X, Size Z, and Size Y settings bigger.