The Gallery

ARTIST

Pedro Henrique Placido Silva

SOFTWARE

Blender, Maya, Substance Painter, Redshift, Photoshop

Brazil-based 3D generalist Pedro Henrique Placido Silva spent a total of three weeks working on this stunning environment, which was inspired by the side-scrolling puzzle video game, Trine 2.

Silva began by searching for references, which helped him create detailed concept art with well-defined camera angles, composition and shapes. “I modelled the layout with rough shapes first to help place the camera in the 3D space,” he explains, “then I started detailing the scene as a whole, in such a way that all the objects retained the same level of detail, instead of picking just one and finishing it.”

The scene was illuminated in the layout stage so that Silva could use the shadows to emphasise certain elements of the model, and hide others. When it came to texturing he used UDIMS to achieve a higher resolution. Choosing not to model the vegetation, Silva focused instead on scattering and shading these elements. He adds: “To scatter the vegetation I used Maya's MASH plugin, which is a great tool for instancing objects, with a lot of options. I only used painted masks to generate the vegetation in view of the camera. The secret to scattering vegetation is a good variation of shapes and colours.”

Redshift’s powerful rendering capabilities gave the image its high-quality finish, before Silva performed some tweaks using LUTS, colour correction, and sky replacement in Photoshop. Discussing some of his inspirations while creating the piece, Silva lists “visiting beautiful environments and natural wonders, as well as discovering the life stories of my favourite artists.”

TO SCATTER THE VEGETATION I USED MAYA’S MASH PLUGIN, WHICH IS A GREAT TOOL FOR INSTANCING OBJECTS