I can appreciate the magnitude of this project. Good luck with. So far it looks great, especially these clay renders.
Lovely, keep it up.
There is something very endearing about that last model you’ve posted. It has a lot of charm to it. I especially like the grass you’ve added, very believable.
Details are great so far. I really like the direction you’re taking it, with it being displayed as a tabletop presentation. You’re making models of models!
Thanks again James. I keep trying to start the cemetery but am continually getting sidetracked by other stuff.
Currently playing with camera tracking so I can be cool like you. 
Thanks for making me your first post Lerq. :yes:
I can’t wait to see the cemetary, that sounds like it’ll be awesome! And it’d be really cool to see this composited with tracked footage! I’d love to see that. It would be a great way to show the project off once it’s all completed. I wish I could help with that!
And I’m only cool because I pee my pants. Every day.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha:p
Well being out in Texas, I’ll keep that in mind come next summer.:yes:
This was intended to get me familiar with camera tracking because I am wanting to shoot some live action footage to render the final town with. To that end there is nothing really fancy here, just a quick replacement of the table top and some cheap lighting/shadows to help bring it together a bit.
A very successful first test! How did you setup your lights to have shadows cast on the surface of the table? Are you using a mesh object to act as a gobo?
I know I should have this in here but it just feels very simplistic compared to the others so far.
Maybe I’ll try and rework it after I have some other buildings completed, I have wasted enough time on it for now.
I can’t remember at all what the graveyard looked like in the film, but I’m guessing you’re modeling it to look approximately like a replica of it. In such a situation, I understand that you can’t just add things like trees or more headstones to make it look cooler.
So with that in mind, maybe creating some more randomness in the grassy areas VS the dirt areas? Maybe giving the dirt a gravelly, textured surface with specularity for damp areas?
And this kind of breaks the diorama feel, but some fog goes a long way to give the piece the graveyard atmosphere. Maybe you could find a solution that mimics using cottonballs.
Areas of diffused and direct light also help, but again, that breaks the diorama presentation.
Hmmm cotton balls…
I decided last night to try merging the church and the cemetery into a single tile.
So this morning over some coffee, V8 and a couple breakfast burritos I finally had this, I think they both look better for it.
Great idea, brilliant simple solution! I agree that both models are better for being combined. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one!
Glad you like it James. My only problem now is that seeing two tiles together makes me want to see the rest together… 
So as I sat around procrastinating starting the next building I started reworking my light rig and global setting for the individual beauty renders. Here is what I have come up with, what do you think?
That’s it for today.
Oops, forgot to turn off nodes.
I have them preset now to keep all the renders looking the same from here on out.
I would like both thank and well lets just say not thank Vicky and The Old Ghost for talking me into giving Yafa another go.
Great, now I have to rework the materials for all my progress so far. lol
But really, thanks, I feel much more in my element working in Yafa.
Video is a bit dark, I forgot to turn on the set before rendering.
Had to come up with a new grass display but that got Yafa pumping frames out +/- 30 seconds each.
Unfortunately i can’t watch the video, it says ‘‘This is a private video’’ 