Blender School: Ultimate 3D Environment Animation Course - Blender

It's time to start learning more about 3d Environment design, this time from Cov Phillips.

1. References

Great computer-generated imagery captures qualities from reality, even if you are not striving for photorealism.  You can't store all these details of the world in your head, so it's really important to use references. In most cases, this means reference photos. Use them for modelling, to explore the qualities of materials and patterns, such as the way grass grows or the way rocks scatter.

Cov uses Google Maps to explore the world for visual references. Amazing idea! 

Also Getty Images, the photo site.

Any such site, such as Pinterest or Flickr, will offer a wealth of example images of almost anything out there.

Obligatory plug for PureRef. It seems like everyone recognises how good it is for the way you gather and arrange your reference images.

2. Blocking Out

"You really can't go wrong in this part. Except you can."  

True! When you draw and paint, going wrong usually results in a restart of the work. In 3D, there's no situation where a mistake can't be remedied without throwing your work away. However, this misses something important. Your most precious resource is often time. If you go wrong in a 3D project and need to backtrack, you will typically waste a significant amount of effort.

Start a project by getting the big, simple forms right. There's no point in getting the details if you turn around later and realise it wasn't the correct scale or didn't fit your design.

 Building the house

Cov takes the next few lessons to complete the build of the scene's main point of focus, an old American house.

The house that Cov built