Something for the weekend - Part 122 - Happy Trees

[davescm]

Hi

During lockdown one of our TV channels has been running repeats of the late Bob Ross' "Joy of Painting" series. For those not familiar with them, Bob painted landscapes in oils and, in real time, went from a blank canvas to a completed painting in just 30 minutes. In doing so, and in his very calm and positive style, he encouraged many people around the world to have a go at painting. While watching these I wondered if I could create a 3D scene in a similar style to Bob's trees and mountains paintings. It took me a bit longer than 30 minutes using a combination of Blender 3D, World Creator, Adobe Substance and Xfrog, but for this week's starter image we have my tribute to Bob.

Now you have the scene, what can you do to bring it to life?

The “rules”:

• Anything goes, as long as it meets the forum rules on decency, copyright etc.
• Anyone, and everyone, is welcome to have a go, whether you are a complete beginner or a Photoshop expert.
• There are no prizes apart from the chance to practice, show off, or bring a bit of humour and fun. Don't be shy, join in and have a go!

To download the image below at 3000 x 2000 pixels, with an embedded ICC colour profile (sRGB), hover over the image and click on the circle with the arrows at the top right. Then, when the image opens in its own window, right click and choose “Save Image As/Save Target As” (or similar depending on your browser).

When posting back your image – please use the Blue reply button in this first post. If posting a comment on someone else’s entry then please use the grey reply button next to their image post.

Have fun.

Dave

[Guest]

Wonderful render Dave, very realistic 👍

[jane-e]

+1 with Ged, Dave, it's gorgeous and is super realistic 😊

Jane

[davescm]

Thanks Ged & Jane. It was a fun project to do.

Dave

[jane-e]

Thanks for this view, Dave. Your trees, btw, all look happy! 😊

"It took me a bit longer than 30 minutes"

What is your definition of "bit"?

~ Jane

[davescm]

"What is your definition of "bit"?"

Somewhere between a touch and a lot 🙂

Dave

[jane-e]

Give me another minute, Dave, I've almost got it...

Jane

 

[Guest]

Jane I'm always amazed that people can actually understand that gobbledygook

[jane-e]

Me too, Ged, although one time a number of years ago a niece or nephew sent a photo and coinidentally there was a massive calculation on the chalkboard in the background. My sister, who is an astronomer, actually started figuring out the math, much to the amusement of the rest of us.

Here, though, all I was trying to do was figure out [ bit − x = a_lot > a_touch ] (or something like that!), and surprisingly, it solved for the x number of hours it took Dave to create this masterpiece!😊

See here:

~Jane

[Norman Sanders]

Not so fast, Jane. First, let's cover the basics.

[jane-e]

Haha, Norman, is that you standing in front of your class? I yield the floor!

~ Jane

[Norman Sanders]

I was going to title it simply AU CONTRAIRE, JANE! but wasn't sure of the spellling.

[Guest]

Looks like you forgot to flip the normals Dave 🤣

[davescm]

No it's just wireframe view with everything selected. The normals are fine, I would have suffered in Substance if they weren't 🙂

Dave

[Guest]

It was meant as a joke 😉

[davescm]

Oops - sorry Ged - that's the trouble with text, it's easy to miss the nuances:-) 🙂   Reversed normals is something I sometimes do though when working quickly, export to FBX to texture in Substance, open the model in Substance and any faces with reversed normals are transparent - arghhh!!

I know you use Blender have you downloaded the latest (2.91)?

Dave

[Guest]

No worries Dave 👍 yes I'm using Blender 2.91, Blender is getting better and better with each release, I'm going to give Substance Painter a go, I see they have a 30 day free trial.

[davescm]

It's fairly straightforward to use, a bit like Photoshop with extra channels for Height, Metal, Roughness, Normal ....etc  . There are some good tutorials on the Substance Academy site.

When you export from Substance you can load the texture maps into Blender quickly if you have Blender's node wrangler add on enabled. Just click on a principled shader and press Shift+Control+T. You can then highlight all the maps for that material and will load them and plug them into the shader node as well as set up a mapping node.

Shout out via PM if you get stuck.

Dave

[Jacob Bugge]

I can see you are using cloud chambers, Dave.

[Jacob Bugge]

Sometimes, some bloody bird soars in and spoils it.

You can Click/RightClick to have an even better > worse look; to see it in Chrome, Click Here. 

[davescm]

Photo-bombed by wildlife 🙂

Dave

[Norman Sanders]

This is a bit of a stretch.

Jigsaw Dali-ance

[davescm]

Nice one Norman, but is it only me that has the urge to finish it  🙂

Dave

[Leslie Moak Murray]

Did someone say Happy Trees?

[davescm]

Very happy trees indeed Leslie, you managed to give them great character  🙂

Dave