This lesson in realistic environment design starts with reference gathering. Koke speaks on the importance of analyzing photos and videos of real-world environments, and taking note of unique geological features. He explains that it is vital to clearly define your artistic vision before beginning production.

Duration: 8m 54s

Koke jumps into World Creator in this lesson, covering the basics of the interface, tools, and how to get a project up and running. He emphasizes the importance of understanding base terrain shapes, biomes, and the filter/material workflow as the building blocks for creating complex landscapes. Getting used to these basics is key as Koke moves on to creating more advanced landscapes and simulations.

Duration: 34m 51s

In this lesson, Koke walks us through creating a rocky snowy mountain landscape, showcasing the different layers of filters, distribution masks, and textures he used to achieve the most natural look. Again, he stresses the importance of studying real-world references so that artists can build terrain thoughtfully and purposefully.

Duration: 55m

In this lesson, Koke looks at how to move the landscape from World Creator to Blender. By exporting texture maps at appropriate resolutions and using modifiers in Blender, artists can accurately recreate detailed 3D terrains while maintaining an organized project structure. Combined with World Machine's random seed function, artists can export any number of terrain variations within the same project, setting the foundation for the texturing process covered in subsequent lessons.

Duration: 15m 40s

In this lesson, Koke takes the landscape he has imported, and applies their associated textures to recreate all the detail from World Creator. Utilizing texture assets from Quixel Megascans and some comprehensive node network usage, Koke takes the terrain texture up a notch, making it more dynamic and realistic. This modular approach to building materials provides extensive creative control, allowing artists to non-destructively adjust their terrains and experiment with different looks throughout the production process.

Duration: 32m 56s

This lesson demonstrates an efficient, resource-conscious approach to lighting a 3D terrain in Blender: Using the Gaffer plug-in, Koke can control HDRI environments skies from NoEmotion HDRI’s and Poly Haven more effectively while he takes advantage of some clever tricks, like fake cloud shadows, in order to achieve photorealistic results without overwhelming system resources.

Duration: 16m 11s

In this lesson, Koke focuses on creating a composition, with different terrain features closer and farther from the camera's perspective. Running through steps from past lessons in this workshop, Koke adds and exports more terrain, making the environments much more complex. Using this flexible system from the get go allows for rapid iteration and experimentation, enabling artists to explore multiple creative directions without starting from scratch each time.

Duration: 11m 30s

With the environment established, Koke demonstrates how to create professional-looking final renders entirely within Blender's compositing workspace. This workflow shows how Blender's built-in tools are capable of producing high-quality results for artists interested in working with free software, in spite of the fact that studios may use more production-standard software. The comprehensive approach to post-processing shown here provides a complete framework for enhancing the final terrain render.

Duration: 28m 52s