Physically Based Rendering has captured my attention in recent history. Making compelling renders of landscapes, both built and natural, can be very time-consuming and difficult to get right. Competently done hand drawings have a warmth and charm that really bring the humanity to a project and its design process. With computing power today, I think digital rendering can carry some of that same power albeit in a different way. As is very much the case in architecture, the quality of the hardscape and planting materials is a critical component to the success of a work of landscape architecture. There is no better method to study the potential success or failure of a material than physically based rendering. Should the bluestone pavers for this walkway have a thermal finish or would natural cleft more befitting? Is the albedo of this concrete too bright for a pool deck with this level of exposure? Would a Black Locust offer the desired dappled light and shade or would a Kentucky Coffeetree be more effective? Issues like these are very difficult to investigate in hand drawing/rendering, especially if there are tight time constraints. If organic forms and fractals are the result of a series of steps, it only makes sense that the process used to represent them follow a procedure as well. In doing so, we can capture the seeming randomness that makes these forms feel realistic. A procedural modeling process can offer a compelling graphic quickly and allow designers and stakeholders to make confident design decisions in short order. I am looking forward to incorporating PBR more as an integral part of my workflow in landscape projects. Below are examples of studies I have done so far.
Landforms
Procedurally modeled cliff landscape. Terrain model constructed in Gaea; textured in Quixel Mixer; rendered in Blender Octane.
Plants
Procedurally generated Cypress tree using Sapling generator in Blender. Textured with Quixel Megascans atlases and rendered in LuxCore.
Pine tree generated from downloaded asset and mapped textures. This model is a study of the light porosity of this species as well as the way its shadows fall on undulating terrain. The rendering engine is Blender Octane.
Testing Blender addon IvyGen. Mapping the stems and assigning a random rotation to the leaves are both tricky sciences.
Surfaces
Displaced pine bark texture. Pines regenerate their skin very slowly. Its outer bark can be decades old before re-generating. This lethargic sloughing can be compounded by the hardening effects of the sun, rendering the bark inflexible and leaving it susceptible to cracking as the tree grows. The rendering engine is Blender Octane.
This is the most convincing travertine material I have found. I added the joints using displacement maps.
My inspiration for researching this material is the steel-edged curbs that are ubiquitous throughout New York City. A36 structural steel in that application weathers to a beautiful luster and this texture simulates it well.
This galvanized steel material was generated from noise textures as opposed to image textures. Sometimes making a material texture out of nothing can yield compelling results. I'm not so sure about the cube at this viewing angle, but the sphere and the cone I think are both convincing. Rendered in Cycles.
This is my first study of sub-surface light scattering. I think the appearance of the material as a resin really comes across. Modeled in Blender. Rendered in Eevee and lit using light probes.
This group of pint glasses is an exploration of caustics in rendering. Rendered in Cycles.