I did a workshop in 2013 on environmental texturing, and we worked on a street scene provided by the tutor. Textures were painted (including photos) in Photoshop. Here’s the result:

I’ve revisited that scene a couple of times since, and as it fits the general scenario that I plan to focus on for a while I’ve decided to have another go and see if I’ve actually learned anything. Here’s the starting point:

My general goals are to make the assets modular and perhaps a bit more detailed than the originals. Also to add a couple of new assets. I’ll try to do the textures without UV unwrapping. And finally to add some interesting set dressing. As a general management strategy I think I’ll break each asset out into an individual file and assemble in the scene by linking.

One thing I haven’t been doing with my scenes is to find good lighting reference, something that most environment artists highly recommend. I guess I should put a bit of time into that first. It might be just a matter of finding the right HDRI, as different ones give very different lighting.

I’ve made some progress. Different composition, different lighting, and a couple of characters for interest and scale. Making progress.