I finally got myself to do an environment modeling, I chose this reference:
Current state of project:
full resolution link
So far I have worked 2 days, close to finishing the first building, modeling environment is really easy so far, just tedious a bit
Nice job man! It looks really sharp.
If you really want to take things to the next level, try not to make the small details look too large. Things like the railing being too large and doors being too deep can really ruin the sense of scale and realism.
Other small things I can pick out are those electrical boxes near the garage door. They look much larger and thicker in your model, and the stucco they are mounted on looks thicker as well.
Taken by themselves, none of those type of details makes much of a difference. But when you start adding them up, it can make a huge difference in the way the viewer sees the image. Its similar to the uncanny valley effect.
I finished few more buildings, started with some rock displacement and Now I will work on props, distant buildings and buildings on left side in separate max files, so it does not get viewport heavy…
New update, this time I finished one building on the left and got to 70% of another one
High resolution
Some of the props are finished I have 6 distant buildings left, then I will model som more close up detail like small trash, empty bottles and similar stuff to make scene look more detailed than it actually is
Btw this piece is for my portfolio, do you know some cool tips to make it better, for example silhouettes shouldn’t be straight, bevels on all objects etc…
umbrella and lamp have turbosmooth on them, plants ground bricks and plants are rendered in same res as on screenshot. for the buildings, I made them in low poly and then chamfered edges as needed, some buildings far away I left them low poly
those rock walls on second render is optimized displacement map, rendered with turmosmooth and additional displacement to make it look good
those rocks at corner are still boxes, I will sculpt them in zbrush
Beautiful work man. Seems to be progressing fast and nice :keenly:
Sorry that i give any real feedback, this above my skill level and it looks great!
Thank you, I glad you guys like it
I made testing composite of gi, lighting and ao to pronounce details in render, any ideas how could I make even better clay render?
I tried to make it a bit more interesting than on reference, and modify each tile so it doesnt look like pattern, except sidewalks, they are new, road is supposed to look much older
After tons of work I finished modeling into mostly finished form, still there are many mistakes, problems, details that need to be fixed maybe I will add there some cars and people in the future, but scene is getting really heavy, about 15 million poly when I assembled it together. Especially when I will do some close up shots even buildings in background have soft round edges.
I haven’t retrieved too much feedback so far on this project, some would help a lot
Your scene is really coming together now. You have a lot of great detail in there.
Aside from some cleanup and some proportions that look a little bit off from the reference here and there I think the scene is in a pretty good place. I do think you should do something about the sidewalk along the left of frame though. The model is way too perfect for that sidewalk and there are really deep looking spaces between the stones. I think the street halfway up the street also looks odd with all the stones aligned with one another creating deep grooves. Be careful you don’t displace these stones up too much.
I’m not a fan of the light post in the foreground. I know its in your reference, but it isn’t helping the composition and its blocking the view down the street. I’d recommend removing it completely, or maybe move it further away from camera if you really want to keep it. I would also recommend changing your sun light direction to something more backlit. Currently your sun is almost directly behind the camera which flattens the whole scene out. I’d try backlighting the scene from screen left putting the entire left side of the street in shadow and having nice shadowing happening on all the buildings on the right side.
Its a nice looking scene. I’m looking forward to seeing more updates on this.
Tim J
I think your modelling looks great so far. However, while I realise you’re trying to copy the reference very closely, I’d suggest removing the lamp post from the foreground. It’s very distracting and ruins the composition. Don’t let a desire to recreate a photo get in the way of making an image that’s beautiful and compelling on its own.
Thank you for feedback,
To that light post:
I want this shot with light post just for purpose of demo-reel where I will fade from original reference into render. This is supposed to demonstrate I can follow the reference as closely as possible. Then I will do separate closeup renders (they will look detailed even in closeup since it will be 1080p video)
Then I will do another render from a bit nicer camera angle, without light post.
To sidewalk:
Yes those cracks aligned just for the camera are baaad , way to deep… I plan to add some modeling to cover it up just for purpose of this camera angle. In other shots, those gaps in sidewalks are barely visible especially in 1080p. Also I wanted to emphasize new sidewalks so it is comfortable for pedestrian shoppers.
To aligned stones:
Especially from this camera angle they are quite badly aligned, technically this is reasonable, that rows of stones are aligned along the sidewalks, but I will change it so it looks pretty and random.
Also they are quite high (I had strong urge to make them scream how much work has been done on them 
) I made the as high as stones in my city where I live (even tourist websites refer to them as potential threat lol )
Future plans:
I have about 3 to 6 days available for this scene, then I need to wrap up another projects too.
I want to add there two cars that I did as projects in past, and used 3ds max populate feature to add some people in background (and cover little detail in background buildings)
Then do cleanup fix some levitating pebbles chose good camera shots and render out the good stuff.
Great work Winside the scene is beautiful with lots of interesting details 
Will we get to see a textured version of this in the future?
Nice work overall, but your cars are way too big.
The woman has a good scale versus the doors, but not the car
Sorry for the matcho picture, but you can compare better with Ref
Thanks, I noticed it just after I rendered the image, I changed car size and moved/rescaled people
