This is a place that doesn't exist. I saw it when I was flying on an imaginary road in a dream I had a while back, a nice, old-fashioned, nature-covered village where everyone uses bikes, all situated within a larger town or city. I wanted to make it in blender.
I've been using blender for about 5 years now, but I've never really started to understand it until I started CG Cookie a few months back. Online tutorials were fun and all, but once I learned the bare basics I wanted to learn professionally how to blender, so I got CG Cookie! I thought, after having that dream, that this would be a perfect test project to make' the images in my head were clear, everything I would need to make it wouldn't be too complex nor to simple, it'd mix procedural and image-based materials, etc. I found, in the end, that this project was a test of all my current knowledge of blender that wasn't to do with animation or rigging.
The streetlights, the grass, the flowers, and the road(which I ended up not being able to see despite being the most proud of it, heh) were all handmade procedural materials made by me. After seeing some of the results of Nodevember, I just had to learn the evil voodoo magic that was procedural materials, and @theluthier 's 'Shader Forge' course taught me what I needed to know in order to make all of these. I even added procedual moss to the rocks!
The grass itself was made with particle systems made after watching @jlampel 's 'Creating Grass in Blender' course. Grass is one of those things that seemed impossible to do well for me(some more 'evil voodoo magic', if you will), but his course helped me understand it in an easy to understand way. Even if I don't quite get particles yet, I do get how to make some basic grass.
The basic blocking out was relatively easy. The materials were a bit tricky; the galvanized steel on the streetlights is a bit too shiny around the edges, but I'm very proud of myself regardless for the procedural cells that it's made of. When I saw them, I immediately thought of warping a Voronoi. Again, thanks @theluthier !
As is usual with art, the details were the hardest part. Grass is still a bit finicky, it took forever to have it not overlap with the stone path you see in the images, but I got it working in the end! I still see some ways in which it could be refined, but if I kept fixing every little problem I saw I'd probably never be done working on it. You can see my progress from top to bottom, with the bottom image being the most current version.
This piece is personal to me. Not only is it my first published piece of 3D art, but it also is an example of what I've been trying to do for years now; it's something I saw in my head, brought to life. I'm very proud of that. But despite all that, I know it's not perfect and I do want to make it better. That's why it's still marked as a work in progress. If there's any feedback you can provide, please let me know! My intention is for it look like it's surrounded by nature, even if that didn't come across very well in this version so far!
Thanks, and welcome to Hearthsgrove!
P.S. No I don't know why there's a sign at the entrance of a walking path to a village, pointing to a motorway 27 kilometers away. Dreams are weird! ^^
@theluthier Thanks! It was your Shader Forge series that was the inspiration for some of the materials like the stone path and the pattern on the lamp post!
Excellent job applying what you're learning in unique ways! 👏
@jlampel Thanks! Making things I see in my head is the main reason I'm learning art in general, so am pretty determined to learn as much as I possibly can!
Wow, looks like you've been learning a lot! Cool idea to make your dream come true in a way :)
tthe3dbanana Thanks! I'm really happy someone else likes my work!
For the moss on the stepping stones, I used two noise textures; one with a high scale to drive the finer bumpiness or it and one with a low scale as a factor of a mix shader to determine what parts are stone and what parts are moss. I then used the former to add displacement and then there I was!
I've never actually used the Gradient Node before, I'll have to check that out. Thanks!
Thats quite impressive! one question. for the moss, did you use the gradient node or a different trick. all in all, i found this very pleasant, all overgrown