Le Phu Quoc, a Vietnamese 3D artist, aims to use several software to create his own models and textures. In this article, he showcases his workflow that besides the basic tools, SketchUp - 3DS Max- Corona, he also uses Speedtree and Substance.
About me.
Hi everyone,
My name is Le Phu Quoc, and I'm a 3D artist from Vietnam specializing in architectural visualization. I have many years of experience in this field and I collaborate with local and international clients mainly on residential projects.
At this point, I would like to thank RebusFarm and VWArtclub for giving me the opportunity to write this making-of article promoting my work worldwide, it means a lot to me.
Inspiration & Modeling.
For this image I got inspiration from several images I found on the net. The basic model of the wooden cabin was modeled in SketchUp 2022. After that, was imported into 3DS Max 2022 where the surrounding terrain was created.
For rendering, I used Corona Renderer. I chose a square frame of 3000 x 3000 px to be able to describe the landscape and sky more than a horizontal one. Then, I used a 3x3 grid to customize the layout position in the canvas. You can see the render frame on the left side of the image below.
Concerning the lighting of the scene, I set it up with Corona Sun and Sky, in the simplest possible way. I played a bit with different angles until I found the one I liked more. For this scene, I just wanted the light to be gently creeping through each tree branch before the light hits the building. For that reason, I finally selected a low position angle, about 30 degrees.
Click the image to enlarge it.
To complete the overall modeling part, I added some 3D assets mainly from Quixel. Thanks to this huge and qualitative library, I achieved to make the scene less monotonous. I also tried to express a little story without using any 3D people. I only used tree trunks, firewood, bricks, stones, gravel, and mushrooms.
Vegetation.
To create a group of plants and trees, I used Speedtree 9 software. Speedtree is a pretty powerful tree modeling tool, and I use it to design my own trees so that I can edit them at any time. I created many different types such us big trees, shrubs, flowers, grass, and so on. Here are some typical examples of the design process of some trees I used to frame my image.
After modeling all the trees, I imported them from Speedtree into 3DS Max, and I used Corona to create its properties for color, reflection, refraction, translucency, and bump. I finally sorted them by category. Here are the results of the synthesis I completed.
I forgot to mention that for scattering vegetation, I used a pretty powerful tool called Chaos Scatter:
To make them more vivid and natural I used vertex paint in combination with vertex color. As you can see, I tested the vegetation step by step from the smallest to the largest species, and to achieve naturalness, I had to paint a lot of layers for each category. Then I started mixing different types together. I also paid close attention to realism, for example: in the area where the fire is burning, I created some specific grass in black and left the area far from the fire just gray. Thus, the plants at the fire location look enough natural and realistic. Generally, this process is not easy and you need to have a little experience but mainly you have to try and fail many times!
Here is the main camera angle that shows vegetation with more details.
Materials.
Now, I want to talk about materials. I used Substance software to create the main wooden material. With substance, I can freely create the materials the way I want, and with many beautiful details.
Click on the image to enlarge it.
Click on the image to enlarge it.
I made several tests in order to check out some things. For simple observation, I use the bright white test method. With a larger render frame, I test the intention of the lighting direction. Sometimes using strong light while other times soft light. I also tested the creeping through each branch. In this way, I help my scenes to be brighter and have more depth, to be precise and more emotional.
After finishing everything above I slightly adjusted the color tone for the whole scene. I chose autumn as the main theme.
Summary.
My workflow is concentrated on 3D creation and I don't use any special post-production techniques very often. I will be glad to answer your questions in case you have some queries.
Best regards,
Le Phu Quoc.
Check more of Le Phu's work on these channels:
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