A while back, I tried to recreate a scene from the 2021 movie Dune in low poly.

Watch the movie, then come back here.

Menno Van Roon gave me tons of feedback on the original render. I finally got around to updating it.

Something’s still off about it. A big color problem, mostly. It needs to be darker and more greenish.

So it’s still a work in progress.

Have a look: at the update:

Today’s Technique

Not much of a technique today. Just the updated render:

(💡Note: reply to this email & I’ll send you the project file. It’s messy—I warned you.)

There are a few main changes here.

• No more excessive fog: in the original, I had tons of different gradient planes placed through the scene to fake the fog look. Now it’s just a single volume shader on a huge cube.

• New lighting: I rotated the Sun light to shine from the back of the scene. Also added a faint flat color to the main world shader for ambient lighting.

• The forest: I cut a wider opening so we can see the spaceship better.

• The rocks: more of them. Lots more. Bigger ones, too. It helps break up the limitless background forest.

• Bigger army: now the soldiers are larger and more visible, so you can tell what they are. It does throw off the scale of the scene—that may be an issue.

All in all, the render is vastly improved. I even went as far as adding a slight bevel around the edge of the spaceship (as Menno suggested.)

It’s all looking pretty nice.

Have you ever thought about swinging between stone pillars in the middle of the ocean?

You might now:

Really Random Render

Today’s render is by BespokeCube.

I thought this was a painting at first.

My favorite parts:

• The lights: the lighting on the stonework is very realistic, and the light through the fog is mysterious. It could be a volcano erupting—or the moon, or the sun. (but probably the moon.)

• The fog: I didn’t notice the island in the background, at first. But when you do see it, it adds a lot of depth to the scene. The longer you look, the more interesting things you find in this render.

No, I don’t know what this is a picture of.

Yes, it’s awesome and I want one.

Can't think what to blend?

Try something luxurious. A diamond ring or a very plush mattress.

P.S. Just released my latest (and possibly best) fiction, read it here ↓

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