Master 3D Environments in Blender

Chapter 3

Basic Workflows

If you aren't too sure about your Blender skill set, you can jump into Chapter 3, where I will explain different methods for landscape creation that we will be using throughout the course.

We will also go through various basic modeling, particle and node-based workflows. Whenever the need arises, you can come back and freshen up your skill set in this chapter.

Chapter 4

ANT Landscape: Lone Mountain

In this first workflow chapter, we will learn how to use the ANT landscape add-on, which comes built into Blender.

We will make use of its displacement, erosion and weight map generating capabilities. Also, we go over some basic shader node creation and texture mapping, and put everything together into a final lake scene, complete with rendering and compositing breakdown.

Chapter 5

Node Workflow #1: Desert

The first node-based displacement workflow will guide you through the creation of a desert environment.

We will combine various Shader Editor node textures, and mix them all together to form a desert vista, complete with dust, cloudy sky, cloud shadows and more.

Chapter 6

Node Workflow #2: Mountains

The second node-based workflow will expand on the Desert chapter, showing you even more ways to combine your node in the Shader Editor, to produce unique displacement effects.

We will then add clouds, mist and particle snow into the scene.

Chapter 7

Node Workflow #3: Arctic

⚠️ This chapter will be added to the final course later. ⚠️

In this third node-based workflow chapter, we'll create a complete environment full of glaciers and a water surface featuring translucency.

We'll learn how to displace frozen landscapes, add snow and ice materials and fill the water surfaces with ice particles.

Chapter 8

Displacement Workflow: Highlands

⚠️ This chapter will be added to the final course later. ⚠️

If you have your own displacement maps ready, there is nothing easier than using it with the Displace modifier directly on your mesh, no node work needed.

In this chapter, we will use several such displacement textures, to make a misty highlands environment, full of trees and rocky shapes.

Chapter 9

GIS Add-on: Scottish Lake

This chapter will teach you all about the GIS add-on in Blender, allowing you to get satellite images and elevation directly into your 3D scene.

We will then proceed to dress up the landscape, add particle trees and bushes and finish it up by adding atmospheric effects and some free scanned elements.

Chapter 10

Treescape

⚠️ This chapter will be added to the final course later. ⚠️

Beautiful endless forests filled with fog and covered with rain, such environments always captivated the imagination.

In this lesson, we will learn how to make such an environment, by filling a landscape mesh with both 3d and 2d tree particles. In the process, you will learn how to properly utilize 2d tree cards and make them look more three-dimensional.

Chapter 11

Water Types

In this chapter we will focus on creating various types of water elements, from simple reflective water surfaces to complex ocean waves and animated ripples.

We will also learn a bit about translucent water types for your shallow-water environments.

Chapter 12

Cloud Types

What would be an environment course without a chapter about clouds?

This chapter will teach you how to quickly and easily add various types of node-generated clouds into your shots, as well as how to utilize the power of VDB volumes.

Chapter 13

Atmospheric Effects

To make your environments believable, you don't need just good textures, great displacement maps and lots of details. You also need a layer of atmosphere, covering your scene, the further away from the camera you get.

In this chapter, we will learn various ways to achieve this, both by using volumes and 2D elements.

Chapter 14

Custom Trees and Vegetation

⚠️ This chapter will be added to the final course later. ⚠️

After you learned all the nuts and bolts of environment creation, we will have a look at how you can create your own 3D assets to fill them with.

Trees and plants are a necessity when making large scale 3d environments, and even though the internet is filled with assets to download, it never hurts to know how to construct these yourself.

Chapter 15

Weather Effects

⚠️ This chapter will be added to the final course later. ⚠️

Snow and pouring rain, lightning and hailstorm, all these are going to be the topic of this chapter.

We will learn how to utilize particle effects and dynamics to achieve such effects.

Chapter 16

Add-ons

⚠️ This chapter will be added to the final course later. ⚠️

Blender is well known for amazing free and paid add-ons that can boost your workflows and save time.

And even though the base course is not dependent on paid add-ons, I will introduce some of the products I use all the time in this chapter. Most of these are paid tools, nevertheless, these have a potential to streamline your work substantially.