Creating a Beautiful Forest Scene With 3ds Max and ZBrush

Fox Renderfarm is committed to making contributions to the CG industry by sponsoring international CG challenges. Evermotion Challenge 2021 came to an end. As one of the sponsors, we are so glad to have the honor and opportunity to have an interview with Ruming Cao, the 2nd place in the competition.

His work, As busy as a robot, using the robot as the 'worker' in this scenario, taking a break from work and having a rest in nature, is a nice and quite interesting concept. Technically speaking, the image stands out for its solid composition, great lighting, and realistic textures.

In our interview, Ruming tells us how he created the truly beautiful forest scene, away from the hustle and bustle of life.

As busy as a robot © Ruming Cao

Fox Renderfarm: Hi Ruming! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you give us a brief introduction about yourself?

Ruming: My name is Ruming Cao, and I come from Ma'anshan, a small city in China. I have self-studied rendering since 2013 when I was in college.

Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning the 2nd Place in the Evermotion Challenge 2021, how do you feel about that?

Ruming: I am very grateful to Evermotion for providing this opportunity. Although this competition was a bit rushed, I was very fortunate to win the prize.

Fox Renderfarm: How long did you finish the work, As busy as a robot?

Ruming: About a week or so, time was a bit rushed. Inspiration came from a trip I made around May 2021, when I went to a mountain forest, it felt good, and it was also a rest time after busy work. There is no accurate picture. The inspiration is just the source and the feeling at that time.

Fox Renderfarm: What software and plugins did you use?

Ruming: Using 3ds Max, ZBrush, Corona Renderer and Photoshop.

Fox Renderfarm: This image was a sneak peak into a truly beautiful forest scene, away from the hustle and bustle of life. How did you make the modeling and the texturing?

Ruming: The model was modeled with 3ds Max, some stones were sculpted with ZBrush, and some Bridge resources were used. For the texture part, the robot itself used a Substance Painter, although it cannot be seen. For the materials of the plants, I used Photoshop to adjust the color of the four leaves.

Fox Renderfarm: Lighting is great, and the darker foreground very nicely frames the subject. Compositionally the hanging lights draws us right into the center of the image. How did you make the lighting?

Ruming: I use HDRI lights with the target directional light, the target directional light makes it easier for me to adjust the color. Then add boxes around the foreground to block too much light. You can also give a volumetric fog material to make it slightly transparent.

Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties when creating this work? And how did you solve them?

Ruming: The biggest difficulty is the color problem. Green and red are complementary colors, and it is difficult to coordinate in a picture. The solution is to skew red towards a little bit of orange and green towards a bit of cyan, and the cyan-orange tones tend to be a little more harmonious. Or they can be desaturated.

Fox Renderfarm: Any artists or artworks inspired you most?

Ruming: Artur Tamiola and Bartosz Domiczek. They are one of my favorite artists and they are very nice people.

TERRACE © Artur Tamiola

Henge Hill © Bartosz Domiczek

Jesus Selvera (zuliban) was a big influence on my texture adjustment.

Marek Denko is the height of pro I've ever dreamed of reaching.

House Of Light © Jesus Selvera

Her Eventual Hesitation © Marek Denko

Fox Renderfarm: Could you briefly tell us your educational and work experience along your CG journey?

Ruming: I have been learning 3ds Max since 2013. And I have been self-studying all along. Currently working as an interior rendering lecturer in an educational institution in China.

Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any recommendable learning methods to improve professional skills?

Ruming: Youtube is a very good website. In addition, we recommend BliBli in China, which is the Chinese version of Youtube. There are a lot of learning materials in it. In addition, I highly recommend Commonpoint founded by Artur Tamiola and Bartosz Domiczek. There are many very professional articles in it, which are great as well.

Fox Renderfarm: Have you ever tried Fox Renderfarm’s cloud rendering services? If yes, how do you like it?

Ruming: I'll be using it lately, a very good rendering platform, I love it!

Fox Renderfarm: Is there anything you want to share with the CG enthusiasts?

Ruming: Finally, what I want to say is, don’t limit yourself to the technical aspects, you can try to observe more things around you. Rendering is like a sketch, which tests people’s observation angles. Skills are only to help you better accomplish what you want.