Blender & Photoshop CONCEPT A LIMITLESS GAME ENVIRONMENT

Using simple 3D techniques, Brandt Andrist creates a procedural landscape with countless possibilities…

- Brandt Andrist

The best technology meets us where we are. That’s why I keep my approach to 3D simple. Instead of learning every tool, I ask myself: “How can this software empower my creativity?”

I’ll use Blender to create terrain by adding modifiers to a flat plain. I populate this terrain by modeling simple buildings, trees and rocks, and scattering them across the surface with a particle system. Instead of hand-crafting the terrain and hand-placing props, I create them procedurally so that I can shuffle my composition like a deck of cards. I do this so I can explore the scene, see it with fresh eyes each time, and render whenever I find a strong composition.

In Photoshop, I’ll create color by mashing together photos, sketching detailed architecture, and painting with custom brushes I’ve grown to love.

To get the most from this workshop, you’ll need some basic knowledge of Blender and Photoshop. If you’ve ever modeled and rendered a basic scene in Blender, you’ll be able to follow along. If you’d like to learn more about Blender, I recommend Blender Guru on YouTube. He has hundreds of hours of content, and his beginner series is perfect for anyone looking to break into 3D (also take a look at our sister magazine, 3D World – ed).

1 Establish the terrain for the scene

I need terrain for objects in my environment to sit on. I create a plane and add a subdivide modifier and a displacement modifier. On the Texture tab I create a Distorted Noise texture. I use Original Perlin for the Distortion type, then select this texture in the Displacement modifier.

2 Generate simple 3D models