MLT-Studios

My Weekend Project

Added 2025-08-23 10:32:20 +0000 UTC

Hey Patreons,

I hope you’re having a nice weekend.
Yesterday evening I opened a project from last year. Back then I spent a few days on it, but got stuck and lost motivation.

Last Render before loosing motivation

This time it was different. In just 10 minutes I completely changed the look and suddenly felt motivated again. All I did was add a sunlight and change the background sky, but it made such a big difference to the whole scene. It reminded me once again how important lighting is. Of course I always knew that, but still, it surprised me how much impact it had.

It’s almost never about just adding more light everywhere. Usually it’s the opposite – it’s about shadows and contrast, which give the image life.

I also decided to turn this scene into an animation. I added some flags, birds and camera animation for movement, and next I want to bring in some people. Normally I avoid that, because it’s hard to make them look realistic. But at some point I need to practice, so I’ll probably try a crowd simulation addon.

There’s still a lot I’m not happy with and many things I want to add. At the same time, I don’t want this project to take more than another 1–2 days. The original goal was to make a detailed environment quickly, using online assets and only focusing on what is close to the camera. That plan didn’t work too well. I already spent a whole day texturing small market stalls that are barely visible. I thought it would be nice to have a detailed asset for future projects, but I need to remind myself that most of the time, I’m never using it again. So no need to spend extra days on the project for stuff like that.

Anyway, just wanted to share a little update on what I’m working on this weekend.