BUILD THE FUTURE

DANGIUZ GIVES 3D WORLD HIS TOP TIPS FOR CREATING FUTUREPROOF CYBERPUNK AND SYNTHWAVE ARTWORK

DIRTY TERRAINS AND SURFACES

You can make some terrains and surfaces look dirty or ruined very easily by creating or using noise maps and plugging them on roughness. Then you can play with gamma or contrast to decide how dry or wet you want it to be. This works very nicely with dark scenes and materials.

BACKGROUND IMAGE ON A PLANE

If you are creating a scene where the background is not as detailed and is not the main focus, you can get away with sticking an image on a plane and placing it far away from the scene. Just remember to use free images, like stock images you can use freely from websites like Unsplash.

CONTINUOUS CAMERA TESTING

When looking for new camera shots, duplicate the camera you are currently using and change parameters like Depth of Field, Bloom, Camera Imager, LUTS, Gamma, Exposure and Saturation. I often find myself working for days and days on a camera, just to realise that if I moved it slightly, or even completely changed it, I could get a way better shot. If you are not satisfied with the new cameras, you can just go back to the original one you duplicated.

RAINDROPS ON GLASS SURFACES

Google ‘raindrops maps’ to see what I’m talking about. Plugging those maps into the right channel (displacement if you’re using displacement maps, bump if you’re using bump maps, normal if you’re using normal maps) on a specular material will create that very awesome and realistic raindrop effect. However, you will probably need to adjust the size, rotation or UVS.

TAKE BREAKS

This actually helps me a lot. Having breaks when feeling unproductive really makes the difference for me. It can be a coffee, it can be a shower or just a short walk with your dog, sometimes taking breaks from the routine can make the difference. I often do it and notice that I tend to bounce back stronger, feeling more artsy and then making cooler things.