Procedural Cactus
Reference Images
WIP Renders
The first step is downloading the cactus model and importing it into Maya. You click on all the attributes on the out liner. You go up and click on the file and export selection, go to the square box and make the model an OBJ export. You have to save that OBJ to a folder, open Houdini, put down a Geo node, go into it, pull the file node down, click on it, find the folder where the model is, and export in Houdini.
The second step is that once you put your cactus model on the grid, you will also place a ground plane node and place the cactus on it. You will also need two light sources, an HDRI that you choose and an Rs light node. You can turn up the intensity as bright as possible, but don't make it too bright after you have these things. You will also need to place your camera for your cinematic shot.
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The third step is to put materials on your model now. You go into the Material tab, type the Rs Material Blender, and name it whichever object you apply. You go back to your cactus and assign that material you chose.
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The first object I started with was my cactus. I went into my Rs Material Blender and put a material node and an Rs Color Mix down. Once I plugged in my Rs Color Mix into the diffuse color, it gave me two inputs, and I changed both inputs to the colors of my cactus to match my reference. I also used an Rs ramp node to make white appear on the bottom and top of the plant and put some noise on it.
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The next object I did was the stones and dirt. All I did was plug in an Rs Color Constant and change them to black.
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The final step I did was the vase, and I made the color with an Rs Color Constant node and matched the reference as best as possible. I used noise to make the vase look like scratch marks on it. I also changed my IQR to meatless and made it look more metal.
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Overall Troubleshooting
My only issue with the project I had was finding the right noise for my plant. I had a hard time having the noise not show up the way I wanted. I also had some difficulty rendering in high quality. The render sometimes would be dark. I also was having a problem of matching my reference, so I changed it, and I think I matched it well.
Cinematic Shot 1920 x 1080
render time is 5 minutes and 24 seconds
