Welcome to this Blender training course about creating a stylized forest environment!

4 hours runtime, 14 video lessons

Over the span of 14 videos, you will learn a broad spectrum of skills:

• low-poly modeling from scratch
• generating trees and plants with the Sapling Addon (included in Blender)
• populating grass and trees with particles
• material creation
• lighting, and rendering with Eevee
• and final tweaks with the compositor.

Simple Low-Poly Style with Big Results

Sometimes, less is more.

My favorite thing about this kind of style is how much visual reward can be achieved with little input. 

You'll see that each individual asset is very simple to create. But when all the individual parts come together -- the result is much more impressive than the simplicity of its parts. 

Fast Results With Eevee (Just a few Hours)

In this course, we'll be using Eevee to render. It's so much faster than Cycles and such a fun way to create!

This low-poly aesthetic makes the timeline from initial inspiration to final render much shorter than a realistic version. What this means: we can start and complete a project in a few hours instead of a few days or weeks.

Using the Sapling Addon

Sapling is an incredibly powerful tool that is included with Blender. 

You just have to turn it on - and immediately you get a tremendous capacity for modeling believable trees and plants. 

The parameters of the Sapling tool are deep and wide. We'll be covering the most-used essentials to achieve the trees we need. 

You'll learn to use the Sapling add-on for these steps:

• modeling trees and plants
• branch splitting
• branch distribution
• leaf arrangement
• preset management

Out-of-the-Box Blender Tips and Tricks 

Numerous tricks, tips, and even hacks are sprinkled throughout the 4-hour course.

You'll learn these highly useful skills: 

• Procedurally randomize the color of objects that share a single material.
• Sweep everything with vibrant color gradients and atmospheric fog. (This effect is the MVP of the aesthetic.)
• Fine-tune atmospheric depth with a mist pass in the compositor.
• Leverage physically inaccurate materials to focus viewer attention.
• Add god rays (shafts of light) with a simple plane + procedural material
• and more!

Meet your Instructor

Kent Trammell, CG Cookie

"Hey, guys! I'm an instructor at CG Cookie, the longest-running Blender training website. In my 8+ years of teaching Blender, I've taught thousands of learners how to create memorable environments. Together, we can do this.

Watch the intro and first lesson to see how comprehensive this course is

See you in the forest!

Want more CG Cookie Courses?

If you get inspired and would like to become a CG Cookie member after purchasing this course, send a message to [email protected] and we will be happy to help you set up an annual membership while discounting the amount you paid for this course on Blender Market.  A membership will give you access to our instructors, our community and 100+ CG Cookie Blender courses.  Be sure to mention your Blender Market Order ID and we will take it from there.

For more information, visit cgcookie.com or head over to our Creator Profile here on Blender Market.