Rendering in comparison with the photo.
MODELING
This scene was done for a single shot. So no reason to model in detail from all sides. First we build the shape roughly so we can set a camera and work only with what we capture. This method works only if you know that you want to render only one image.
It saves a lot of time.
CAMERA
After the basic building shape appeared we can start to match the camera with the photo.
For this you can put original photo on the viewport background. The matching process might take awhile. To be more precise, first you have to analyze the position of the camera, its distance to the building, camera lens, height above the ground..
After we finished with the camera, we finalized the main building modelling, and did some simple housing on the far background. The plants we'll add later. Adding a lot of geometry on early stage will make it heavy, and it might be difficult to work with it.
BASIC LIGHTING
To start experiment with materials you have to throw some general light which is similar to what is in the photo. First we used “corona light mtl” with the image of the sky, and applied it onto the plane which is perpendicular to the camera. The sky is more or less like at the original photo.
The background light is not enough. As you can see on the photo there is a natural light going from the right. So we placed there "corona light sphere". It has quite big size to make the shadows not sharp, but more like in a cloudy day. Old school way with no HDRI.
MATERIAL
Be prepared to a scrupulous process of making complex materials. First we need to define the areas to be processed.
We have 3 main areas – 1, 2, 3. And 2 backgroun. Area 1 is the closest one and has to be the most detailed.
Area 1:
Textures and material
First we are mixing two snow textures to make it less repetitive. Then we are mixing the snow and tiles textures using the mask, where the white colour is our snow, and the black is gonna be tiles.
Once you applied "UVW mapping", you have to fit the textures position using the “tiling”, and ”offset” parameters in the material editor. To see it in viewport, tap "Show Shaded Material in Viewport"
The material for this area:
Basically the same principles we used to create all the other areas.
Only thing that important to mention - use the"falloff map"
The idea of the "falloff" is to determine the surface angle to the view, or to the world axis. Then you can specify the texture for the certain angle. This effect you can observe on material like the velvet fabric, where the surface becomes much lighter on the edges with the sharp angle
To make the cutted tree like on the photo, we used the one we have and removed the leaves and small branches. Also cut it a bit.
For the snowy effect we used the "gradient ramp map". This method we applied for all trees and bushes in the scene. And also for the parapetes.
See material example below:
To make the finish look of the building walls we drew the next textures. The material has very basic settings.
PLANTS
Trees and bushes we multiplied using standard "Object Paint", beforehand converted to "Corona Proxy".
LIGHTING
Arrangement of the light in scene. There are also a few light planes inside the building.
Add the light one by one, checking all the time how it looks like on the rendering. That's how you will avoid the light mess and long calculations. If you don't like the result, delete all light sources, and start again.
There are several corona light planes inside the background housing.
Totally we have 40 light sources in our scene.
The most interesting part in this project was to make clouds. It was done in two steps. First we modelled the random smooth shape with the noise modifier. Then we applied the "Corona Volume mtl".
Here how it looks like on the "CESSENTIAL_Volumetrics" render pass that we used for postproduction.
Also the passes were used:
Render output comparing with the final image.
In this example we leave a lot of space for post production. During many projects we developed the sense of the image potential, and understanding of what can be improved with the Photoshop.
