Stranded: creating a futuristic oasis step-by-step
Stranded - step 1: create floor.
I created the "floor". This was a single (subdivided) plane with a complicated shader that yielded colors and displacements. Later on I had to bake the displacement though, as you cannot easily have particles generating from the displaced points (they start on the plane without displacement)
Stranded - step 2: add buildings
I created the city. For this I used the Utopia package of kitbash3d - which was free for a time for people to create art with during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thank you for providing this to us!
Stranded - step 3: trees!
Let's add some trees!
Stranded - step 4: more trees!
Let's add more trees! Oops.. that broke my Blender. Quickly replaced all the high poly trees with low poly versions. Much more ugly though.. added some fog to hide that.
Stranded - step 5: grass!
And then I discovered grass! Grass! This was added using the Scatter addon, which made things a lot easier to set up. Nice! It is a paid addon, but worth the investment if you need something like this. And while I do know how to do this manually with particle systems, I want to spend my time creating art. Oh yes, consequence -- there's no desert anymore.. what to do?
Stranded - step 6
Change the mood entirely! Out with the high noon sun, in with the morning! That action changed the entire mood and atmosphere of this scene, but that is maybe one of the coolest things you can do with 3D editing.. everything is yours to control! I am soo not done with this!