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Looking for Midwest landscape- prairies, meadows, farmland

LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
edited April 2016 in The Commons

I'm struggling to find some good 3D background scenery for the promo materials and book covers I want to create for my Midwest romantic comedy series. It seems there's plenty of environments for deserts, forests, lakes, tropics, oceans and badlands, but I'm having a tough time finding plains and farmland. Maybe there isn't much demand for it, though it can be breathtakingly beautiful, especially with the right lighting.

I've tried stripping out and turning off mountains and hills in some of the available sets but the results weren't that great. So I may have to kit bash and cobble something together. I'm looking for cornfields, rural highways, meadows. The landscape is sweeping and big and beautiful with lots of big skies (great opportunity to do amazing things with skydomes.) I'm working in both DAZ and Poser, trying to find the best tools for what I'm doing. I have Bryce and a trial of Vue, but haven't gotten into those much yet (as well as Carrrara). They may be a better way to go, but I'm not sure. I'm still pretty new to 3D. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Here's what I've found so far, but if you know of others, let me know: 

  • Worldbase XT (DAZ)
  • Dreamland Model's 81 city block set (Rendo)- has some rural parts on the edge of the huge set that might work, plus great buildings for a small town
  • Country Living (DAZ)- there seem to be a few farm products but they lack good background scenery
  • Flink's Instant Meadows (Rendo)
  • Terradome and Terradome 2 (Poser only, Runtime DNA)
  • Plant and Grassland packs (Runtime DNA)
  • Ecomantics (DAZ) (beautiful but the grasses in this set are very resource intensive graphics
  • Ant Farm's tornado set (DAZ- had to buy that one!)
  • Above the Clouds (DAZ)
  • Skies of Economy (DAZ)
  • Skies of Terra (DAZ)

I know there are others I've forgotten. I've looked at so many my eyes are crossing.

I'm attaching a few pics of the types of things I'm looking for. Some of these are wallpapers, so I can't use them in a commercial render. A couple of these were taken on my land, but I don't think they'd blend well as backgrounds with rendered characters without a lot of photoshopping (the baby is mine, so is the teenager, lol).

12718167_10205502119932551_4257655732235726642_n.jpg
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a6faa9f618cbaaf5cb169d997f034a29.jpg
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Grass-Field-and-Old-Truck-iPad-Wallpaper-Download.png
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Post edited by Llynara on
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Comments

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,944

    http://www.daz3d.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=farm

    but I see what you mean...putiing together a wheat, sunflower, or corn field wouldn't be too difficult but it would be repetive and how big you made them would depend of the vantage point of the camera lens when you rendered. 

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited April 2016

    I tried that with Ecomantics. Whew, it was a job and a half! And took forever to render. I think I definitely need to learn more about instancing. I saw an i13 set that used it for poser to create landscapes. It's an older set over at Renderosity. Some newer sets here at DAZ are also using the instancing features, so that may be the way to go.

    Another thing I'm running into is some of the sets that say they are "grasslands" have lots of hills and mountains in the background. Not going to work for what I'm doing, and in many cases, I can't turn them off. (Easy Environments comes to mind. Beautiful, lightweight sets, but none of them work for what I'm trying to do.)

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,944
    edited April 2016

    For the hills and mountains in the background that is a cheat they do to avoid adding a looks of horizon depth to their scenes. They do it in gaming do. You can find lots of games indoors, in cities, on islands, or surrounded by hills & mountains or even the middle of the ocean but find one in the praries. Never.

    There is an Unity asset called Gaia I bought that I've been meaning to test for such a field but haven't yet. If it can be done it will be gorgeous and almost unique to the gaming / rendered art hobby scene that I've seen, although I haven't seen a lot.  

    Post edited by nonesuch00 on
  • Cris PalominoCris Palomino Posts: 11,151
    Llynara said:

     

    • Ant Farm's tornado set (DAZ- had to buy that one!)

    Ant Farm has a tornado set?  I know there are Ron's brushes, but have never seen a model. 

  • j cadej cade Posts: 2,310
    Llynara said:

    I tried that with Ecomantics. Whew, it was a job and a half! And took forever to render. I think I definitely need to learn more about instancing. I saw an i13 set that used it for poser to create landscapes. It's an older set over at Renderosity. Some newer sets here at DAZ are also using the instancing features, so that may be the way to go.

    Another thing I'm running into is some of the sets that say they are "grasslands" have lots of hills and mountains in the background. Not going to work for what I'm doing, and in many cases, I can't turn them off. (Easy Environments comes to mind. Beautiful, lightweight sets, but none of them work for what I'm trying to do.)

    I'd heartily recommend experimenting with instances if you want something that will render without killing your computer

     

    As for stuff I'm surprised Predatron doesn't have any wheat but there is this and  a few other things in their store that might do.

     

    Personally flat land gives me anxiety

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited April 2016

    Good point, nonesuch00- didn't realize it was a cheat, but sure would explain how awful things look when you turn off the hills and mountains. Real horizon depth could be breathtaking if done right. I'm surrounded by it here in real life. I live in the rural Midwest (two of the photos above are my front and backyards). The scenery is so pretty, and sorely missing from 3D art (unless it's photoshopped or a stock photo slapped in a background layer). Would love to figure it out. 

    Gaia tool sounds really interesting. I downloaded Unity but haven't had a chance to play with that either. I'm a techie and will try any program if it does what I need it to do. Right now I know enough about 3D to be dangerous, but I sure am having fun! 

     

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited April 2016
    Cris Palomino said:
    Llynara said:

     

    • Ant Farm's tornado set (DAZ- had to buy that one!)

    Ant Farm has a tornado set?  I know there are Ron's brushes, but have never seen a model. 

    Yes, it's a poseable tornado! How cool is that? Here it is: http://www.daz3d.com/bc-moviestands-twister

    I even bought the cow because I couldn't stop laughing at the promo art.

    I have a tornado in my first book and live with the threat of them constantly here (April through November is tornado season). Ron's brushes are great too. I did this render as a joke/rough draft a while ago. It's n00bish and awful but the tornado brush is in here, 

    12376060_10205202226675407_6576838188644589300_n.jpg
    800 x 450 - 49K
    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    j cade said:
    Llynara said:

     

    I'd heartily recommend experimenting with instances if you want something that will render without killing your computer

     

    As for stuff I'm surprised Predatron doesn't have any wheat but there is this and  a few other things in their store that might do.

     

    Personally flat land gives me anxiety

    Thanks for the recommendation! Instances are in my future!

    The wide open spaces definitely take some getting used to. I grew up on the East Coast surrounded by forests. When I moved out here, I felt agoraphobic at first. The landscape was so huge and overwhelming. Now, I love it. Where else can you watch a thunderstorm on one side of the sky, sunny skies on the other and rainbows in between. It's a huge canvas for so many things. It's like living art. Now, if I can just reproduce it here!

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited April 2016

    Sorry, double post

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,944
    edited April 2016
    Llynara said:
    Cris Palomino said:
    Llynara said:

     

    • Ant Farm's tornado set (DAZ- had to buy that one!)

    Ant Farm has a tornado set?  I know there are Ron's brushes, but have never seen a model. 

    Yes, it's a poseable tornado! Here it is: http://www.daz3d.com/bc-moviestands-twister

    I even bought the cow just for fun because the promo art was so hilarious. I mean, how cool is that?

     

    I have a tornado in my first book and live threat of them constantly here (April through November is tornado season). Ron's brushes are great too. I did this render as a joke/rough draft a while ago. It's n00bish and awful but the tornado brush is in here, 

    Actually that pic is pretty good to my eye, you've done a good job fading to the horizon. For some reason though it's showing the product picture & not your farm picture.

    A link to a thread about instancing.

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/67727/creating-scenes-with-large-numbers-of-people-in-them#latest

     

    Post edited by nonesuch00 on
  • Cris PalominoCris Palomino Posts: 11,151

    Thanks, I finally found it before coming back here to post that.  :)

     

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited April 2016

    Nonesuch- unfortunately, that's a wallpaper background. Wish I could take credit for that! I have no idea who created it. It's not on the stock photo sites, so I can't buy it and get permission to use in a commercial render.  

    I threw it in the background to create a rough draft of a book cover idea. I got into 3D because I had a lot of trouble finding anything that would work on the cover of my first novel (which is due out next month). And somehow I got hooked on 3D! Seems to be a fun and productive addiction, though a tad expensive at times! LOL

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • HavosHavos Posts: 5,311

    If you do go down the instancing route, you might want to look at this product,

    http://www.daz3d.com/instances-plus-for-daz-studio

    It allows you to create large numbers of instances, and lays them out in rows and columns for you, which would be perfect for a crop field or orchard. Tiny random differences in size and orientation of each plant can be done automatically by the script to improve realism.

    Naturally you can lay instances out yourself, but it is much quicker using a script like this product supplies.

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited April 2016

    Ooh, thanks for reminding me about that script, Havos! I'd forgotten there was one for DAZ, though I've seen it before, along with the LoRez figures. Thought it was mainly for people, but looks like it works great with landscape too.

    I just found this thread on rendering large groups of people: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/67727/creating-scenes-with-large-numbers-of-people-in-them

    Lots of great info on instancing there too. 

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 14,897

    One big problem with large flat spaces is avoiding obvious tiling. One approach is trying to do something procedural. 3DL has some 'large scale/small scale' tiling shaders to help.

     

  • j cadej cade Posts: 2,310
    Llynara said:

    Good point, nonesuch00- didn't realize it was a cheat, but sure would explain how awful things look when you turn off the hills and mountains. Real horizon depth could be breathtaking if done right. I'm surrounded by it here in real life. I live in the rural Midwest (two of the photos above are my front and backyards). The scenery is so pretty, and sorely missing from 3D art (unless it's photoshopped or a stock photo slapped in a background layer). Would love to figure it out. 

    Gaia tool sounds really interesting. I downloaded Unity but haven't had a chance to play with that either. I'm a techie and will try any program if it does what I need it to do. Right now I know enough about 3D to be dangerous, but I sure am having fun! 

     

     

    If you're not averse to mucking about in new programs there's also always blender :)    for things like fields it has the advantage of very robust instancing methods.

     

    And cause I felt like it

    downloaded model from blendswap and some mucking around with particles later.

     

    Oviously it would need ome tweaking to be a proper finished render but its pretty good for a half an hour mucking arund

     

    field.png
    887 x 525 - 1022K
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,567

    I have used deadcorn before for farmland. It has nice furrows and the corn is useful. IT is a little dated looking but you could re-texture the dirt.

    http://www.daz3d.com/deadcorn-bundle

  • bighbigh Posts: 8,147

    Vue field - one you could play

     

    000 01 Field.jpg
    1024 x 768 - 482K
  • scorpioscorpio Posts: 8,318
    edited April 2016

    There's a corn field prop at RDNA

    http://www.runtimedna.com/RDNA-Fields-Volumetric-Field-Figure.html

    Esha's Grass is another prop set that might help as well as

    http://www.daz3d.com/grassy-grounds-megapack

    G3D-DA also has a plant set that uses instancing.

    http://www.daz3d.com/g3d-da-grass-and-plant-pack

     

    I did manage to do a scene once with fields not quite the sort you are after but a similar concept, I had to model the base fields and add trees etc,I also used First Bastion's Rolling Plains

    http://www.daz3d.com/rolling-plains-morphing-terrain

    He's also got the Hilly Surround http://www.daz3d.com/hilly-surround

     it did take a while and my litlle computer only just manged to cope with it.

    Post edited by scorpio on
  • JUJUJUJU Posts: 1,120

    http://www.most-digital-creations.com/fields_of_gold.htm

     

     

  • scorpioscorpio Posts: 8,318

    If you are using 3Dleight theres this

    http://www.daz3d.com/grass-shader-for-daz-studio

    The bundle comes with some handy presets

    http://www.daz3d.com/rock-grass-bundle

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited April 2016
    j cade said:
    Llynara said:

    Good point, nonesuch00- didn't realize it was a cheat, but sure would explain how awful things look when you turn off the hills and mountains. Real horizon depth could be breathtaking if done right. I'm surrounded by it here in real life. I live in the rural Midwest (two of the photos above are my front and backyards). The scenery is so pretty, and sorely missing from 3D art (unless it's photoshopped or a stock photo slapped in a background layer). Would love to figure it out. 

    Gaia tool sounds really interesting. I downloaded Unity but haven't had a chance to play with that either. I'm a techie and will try any program if it does what I need it to do. Right now I know enough about 3D to be dangerous, but I sure am having fun! 

     

     

    If you're not averse to mucking about in new programs there's also always blender :)    for things like fields it has the advantage of very robust instancing methods.

     

    And cause I felt like it

    downloaded model from blendswap and some mucking around with particles later.

     

    Oviously it would need ome tweaking to be a proper finished render but its pretty good for a half an hour mucking arund

     

    That looks really good! Thanks for taking the time to "muck" with it for me, LOL. I do have Blender installed, just haven't braved it yet. Sounds like it's time to!

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Wow, there are so many good suggestions here! Thank you all- I'm checking them out. Vue looks very promising too. I have the trial version installed, so I may give that a whirl too. I'll post what I end up doing (in case anyone else is going this route).

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    scorpio said:

    There's a corn field prop at RDNA

    http://www.runtimedna.com/RDNA-Fields-Volumetric-Field-Figure.html

    Esha's Grass is another prop set that might help as well as

    http://www.daz3d.com/grassy-grounds-megapack

    G3D-DA also has a plant set that uses instancing.

    http://www.daz3d.com/g3d-da-grass-and-plant-pack

     

    I did manage to do a scene once with fields not quite the sort you are after but a similar concept, I had to model the base fields and add trees etc,I also used First Bastion's Rolling Plains

    http://www.daz3d.com/rolling-plains-morphing-terrain

    He's also got the Hilly Surround http://www.daz3d.com/hilly-surround

     it did take a while and my litlle computer only just manged to cope with it.

    Great render! love the feeling of depth with the rolling hills in the background!

  • Melissa ConwayMelissa Conway Posts: 590

    At ShareCG, Ethin has a corn stalk freebie. I used it with instancing and one of Dimension Theory's HDRIs for the background. 

    EnidonPony.png
    1920 x 1080 - 3M
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited April 2016

    Thanks, Melissa! That's gorgeous! Grabbing it right now!

     

    PS. I just checked and he also has 3D peanut butter cups and chocolate bars! A man after my own heart! LOL

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,944
    j cade said:
    Llynara said:

    Good point, nonesuch00- didn't realize it was a cheat, but sure would explain how awful things look when you turn off the hills and mountains. Real horizon depth could be breathtaking if done right. I'm surrounded by it here in real life. I live in the rural Midwest (two of the photos above are my front and backyards). The scenery is so pretty, and sorely missing from 3D art (unless it's photoshopped or a stock photo slapped in a background layer). Would love to figure it out. 

    Gaia tool sounds really interesting. I downloaded Unity but haven't had a chance to play with that either. I'm a techie and will try any program if it does what I need it to do. Right now I know enough about 3D to be dangerous, but I sure am having fun! 

     

     

    If you're not averse to mucking about in new programs there's also always blender :)    for things like fields it has the advantage of very robust instancing methods.

     

    And cause I felt like it

    downloaded model from blendswap and some mucking around with particles later.

     

    Oviously it would need ome tweaking to be a proper finished render but its pretty good for a half an hour mucking arund

     

    Mmmm...now I want some Cheerios.

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,768
    Melissa Conway said:

    At ShareCG, Ethin has a corn stalk freebie. I used it with instancing and one of Dimension Theory's HDRIs for the background. 

    How does one 'instance'?

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001

    Create > Node Instance or Node Instances.

    You need to have the item you want to instance selected.

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,768

    How is that different from 'edit>duplicate'?

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