This is the part where I will start
Modeling some assets modeling and texturing them, but I can't stress enough how important it is
to
Kind of nail your composition and layout first because I don't want to figure out
The composition the layout and the models at the same time because I will get overwhelmed
So before what I'm saying before proceeding to creating assets first
I want to have somewhat figured out my composition.
So with this one, I already have my character in first.
I will have those leading clients.
And then I'm thinking about this element,
because I want for this foreground element to not
only to just stand heavy in the foreground,
and I want to use it as a compositional tool as well.
So I'm thinking that maybe the walls,
because they're curved already,
Maybe they can be curved like so as well
vertically, right like so so
compositional rules first then the layout with just cubes
So I will still end up like moving a lot of the pieces and I bet a lot will change but already
this environment gives me at the sense of scale of
of space, of distance between objects,
it gives me a lot of information.
On the other hand, what I won't do,
and I use to do it a lot,
I won't start like creating assets on an empty space.
And then, I don't know, I will spend a couple of hours,
for example, like modeling one model,
and then I will only have like one model
and no sense of where I am at,
or as in what's the environment,
what's the scale of the environment, right?
So I need that layout
For for for the job to do I need this layout will make my life easier
So what I will try and do next is I'll try to figure out
How many assets do I need to create and what kind of assets I need to create?
so
What I will often do is use the
Cutting tool which is I think it's called like Snip Snip Snip it tool in in Windows
Just grab the screen grab and just scribble over it
And I will do it like every hour or so when I want to tweak the composition where I want to move the elements
I will just like pause for a second
I will try to turn off my 3d brain and then just like scribble over an image if I want to make some changes
but I will talk about it later on so
What do I need for the shot to work? I need the ground plane, so this will be like my one asset.
Now I will also need my walls, my canal walls, but I think what I will do is I will just like texture this piece for example, model and texture this piece, and then I will use simple deform on duplicate.
And the thing with Simple Deform is that it doesn't affect or change your original mesh.
What I mean by that is if I have a bunch of duplicates, like this one, and if I start
editing this mesh, it will edit the original one.
But because Simple Deform is a modifier, if I duplicate this mesh and I will change the
value of this modifier, it doesn't affect the original one.
Which means I can just come up with one piece of wall
and then just use duplicated LD
and just use simple deform
to create like variation of the same mesh.
So I will use this technique a lot,
but back to the assets I need to create.
So I need my ground, I need my canal walls.
I'm thinking about like one asset that could be standing in here, but it will be like most likely a variation of this one
But still I'm gonna call it number three and then what I need what I need what I need
Will be a bunch of walkways
Going into the distance like maybe and I want them receding visibly receding into the distance
So one in here one in there and one over there instead of this also what I will want to add is
is a scan that I've made some time ago, a scan, a model of an old factory that I will
place over there in background.
Now the reason why I wanted to add it is it will act as a placeholder for now.
And I really want to focus on this like modeling, texturing phase.
And I want to be done with texturing within, let's say, the next hour or so.
so
What I want to avoid so the reason why I want to place the asset and
Is I want to avoid being in a place where I would just like texture some of the things and then I will go into
Preview mode and then there will be like a bunch of white boxes in the background. So it will be extremely
Distracting so when I press press the render button from the camera, I already want to have
majority of things texture even
Like the textures can be even placeholder II. I really want to move from the
Block out white boxes block out face as soon as I can right and I'm not even like as for now
I'm still not like toggling
rendering stuff out or going into preview mode because um
Because I know my lighting information is correct
I don't want to focus on it right now because if I start focusing on
Creating the models and having quite boxes and then trying to figure out the lighting at the same time
Like, I will get overwhelmed, so I want to avoid it.
So now, I will start to think, all right,
how do I want to texture those things
or where I can add scans?
So I know this will be a scan, all right.
This will be texture from textures.com.
Textures.com.
So, I won't be using textures from Quixel
to texture a lot of the things.
In fact, I would be like 95% of the time relying on texture
from textures.com.
And the reason is that the Quixel assets, they are great.
But also, they are game-ready and optimized.
And they're meant to be like 2 by 2 tile-able textures, right?
Which means they can sometimes look quite boring for what
we need as concept artists.
While if you go and start scrolling like the textures from textures come they're like just juicy huge chunks of
textured of photos of walls
But I will talk about textures coming a second because first what I want to do
If I want to figure out the ground and usually it would it wouldn't be the first thing that I will do
But for the sake of this video, I will use I will create the ground using quick serve
Mixer, so this is the only place the ground I will use
assets from Quixel.
And the reason is I want for my ground to be extremely juicy.
And I want to just create this huge plane.
And the way I want it to feel like or to look like is
basically something similar to this or this, right?
And to me, just having a mud mixed with some watery
elements and the way it transitions into the water.
And then we get to see some different type of specularity
or roughness along this path.
So for example, this surface is doing something different.
And this surface is slightly more specular than, for
example, this dry surface.
And it's super noticeable.
So I really want to imitate that.
And a lot of the times, I will just spend up,
spend like, I don't know,
some time looking at the reference
to try and like get an understanding
on what exactly I will want to do, right?
Like, this is also cool how the mud
is like creeping up on this wall.
And about like Quixel textures
and textures from textures.com.
So it's super hard to do this with Quixel.
So you can start using mask tools in Blender,
import a bunch of textures, start figuring out,
all right, there's this shader that's doing this on z-axis.
And then I will use the pearly noise or whatever
to mix a bunch of textures.
And then I will use another setup of shaders
with z-axis coming from the bottom,
or some edge and wear add-on to imitate it.
So it takes a lot of time to set it up.
Maybe not a lot of time,
but there's so many different things
that we want to texture, that I don't want to spend my time
in figuring out the shader's note at all.
Because I know if I will get caught up in here,
I will get caught up in here.
And my brain will switch from iterating,
moving the pieces around, pushing the compositions
into like, all right.
And this goes in here, and this I need to plug it in.
It's like, jeez, jeez, jeez, jeez.
I want to avoid that.
So I want to keep it as simple as I can,
with the exception of the ground.
Because the ground is, I will just, I will spend some time creating the material and
it's just because it's such a huge chunk of this image and I'm thinking that it would
be cool to have like this S leading line leading us to the character, right?
And then there should be like a bunch of different things happening with the ground.
So this is the only asset when it comes to ground.
It will be the only asset that I will spend some time creating.
I mean get more involved with it and then
Maybe use some like slide displacement from from
With with with modifiers. I don't want to use this placement from the shaders
Because they won't be visible in a solid mode, right? There will be they will only pop up
in rendered view in rendered view
so and
For the other things for like everything else
I won't be using any displacement at all because displacement maps
Displacements are super heavy displacements as I said, like I think I said mentioned in previous videos
Like it's totally fine to use a couple of displacements where we are doing like a smaller
Smaller scale scene or like doing an interior shot and sometimes using them is the only way to like get the juice
but when it comes to
To do these kind of shots where there will be like a lot of the elements in the end
I don't want to use it. So in this case, I want for my walls or like a lot of the assets
I want to keep them low poly
And I will want to use just one photo with a lot of juice as a texture and I want to keep this one photo
under 10 megabytes and I won't be plugging like any normal maps or
displacement maps or any other maps because I
And I feel like I don't need them in case of this environment or those types of environments.
Now sometimes someone will comment that my scenes are running fast because I have a strong
GPU.
I'm using 4090.
And yeah, for sure.
But also they're running fast because I'm keeping my scene optimized.
So for example, this wall, I'm pretty sure I will keep it under like 5,000 vertices.
So I'll always look looking over here, right? It's a huge asset. It will be under like 5,000 vertices
I hope maybe under 10 10,000 and then I will just reuse this asset a lot and just rotate it and
Use simply deform, right?
I won't be control C control V it I will be out the duplicating it right? Oh
And just to clarify because I've talked about
using pixel textures, so
So, I will be creating with Quixel Mixer the ground plane because I want for it to be huge
and I will spend considerable amount of time, like 10 minutes, into just texturing, right?
And I will use some displacement maps.
And you can do similar thing or stuff that might look even better in Mixer as well.
So you just have to like mix a bunch of assets in Mixer, you don't have to mix them in Blender.
But the thing is, I don't want to spend like, I don't know, like 10 minutes creating a shader
using Mixer.
I just want to find a nice photo that will have everything happening in it already, right?
So I will start with the ground plane.
And the only reason I'm starting with it is because I'll be using Mixer once in this video.
And then I will like switch into using textures from textures.com.
so
to
Quixel mixer. I think you can download the
loot download it done load it from for free from from mixer fight
from crystal fight, sorry, so
So what I want to do is start mixing a bunch of different materials so I have like a bunch