05 - SceneScapes Elevation

Scenescapes - Elevation.

Welcome to SceneScapes X3 - Elevation. This set adds more to our outsides, and can be used to form balconies, level chnges and suspended walkways among other things. As always, this set is built with the intention of fitting seamlessly into the rest of the SceneScapes range. As with the Vault set, Elevation affords the opportunity to get some really cool shadows, and allows for forming some of the most complex SceneScapes settings yet.

In the image above, we can see some of the elements in the Elevation expansion set.The stairs are a piece on their own and we'll come back to them in a bit. The main focus of this set is on the balcony pieces. There are 2 types of Balcony pieces, those with walls, and those with spindles. All the balcony pieces have one of two suffixes, either A or B. Those with an A suffix have an attached pillar, those with a B suffix have no pillar. This enables the freedom to bridge over things where there would be no place for a supporting pillar to stand. Included are balcony edges, balcony corners, narrow balcony sections and narrow end sections. Each of the types of prop also has 4 variations, with different arrangements of corner/dividing posts. Also included are 6 various infill sections that have neither walls nor spindles attached, for forming depth to our balconies if required.

The other included piece is the stairs prop. This is an essential prop in this set as this forms our outdoor level changes. The stairs prop is a large section, measuring in at 6 metres long, by 3 metres wide, with a rise of 3 metres. Essentially, this prop is the size of two SceneScapes sections stuck together, one in front of the other. For the purposes of movement, I've set the centre point in the centre of what would be the rear section, in the upper part of the stairs.

So, let's build something. As always, I like to start with a prop in zeroed position and work away from that.

The piece I've left zeroed is the one in the centre, BalconySNarrowEnd1B, and we're going to work our way out from that piece. I've added 2 instances of BalconyS4A on either side. As we can see, the selected prop, which is highlighted in red, is 3 metres across and 3 metres back. From here, we'll add some corners onto the ends of those two side sections, and some infill in the centre.

Further notes. All SceneScapes sets utilise displacements, so you will need to check this on in your render settings for best results. Pieces with glass also utilise raytrace reflections. Whether or not you want to take advantage of this is going to depend on the complexity of your scene, and the rendering capabilities of your computer. Self illumating objects cast Raytraced shadows.

I would suggest playing around with a small number of props, getting used to the way it all works. Once you're familiar and comfortable with the positioning and rotation movements, then your imagination, or your PC's resources, are the only limit.

I hope you enjoy using Scenescapes, and if you have any questions or comments please either send me a site mail at RDNA ....or...email me: andi3d-3dmodelz@hotmail.com

Thank you for your interest in Scenescapes, and I look forward to seeing what everyone does with it.

Very best wishes, and happy rendering,

Andi

In images 33 and 34, we can see the progression of pieces being added. Now at the stage of image 34, we need to ask what else is going in the scene. This is going to depend on what sort of enviroment you want, what other structures are also in view, what characters you want to use. This is the point where I would normally start adding pieces from the other SceneScapes sets, as well as enviroments such as Terradome and Aquazone. (I have to say, Aquazone works amazingly well with this set, I'm having loads of fun using them together)

If you have other installments of the SceneScapes range, they will all fit together with this set, to form balconies on buildings, buildings linked by walkways, from small scenes to immense cities.

If you are using these balconies to place onto other buildings, some movement adjustment may be necessary.

This set also sees the first inclusion of pre-set PZ3's. This is an idea I've been toying with for a little while, and will likely feature in all future packs for SceneScapes. There will also be a number of pre-set PZ3's for the older sets coming soon, as well as PZ3's utilising all existing sets in the SceneScapes range. These PZ3's are intended to give you a base to srat from which you can then add to, and create your own unique scenes. Below are renders of the default opening positions and settings of the three included PZ3's.


Included PZ3's.