Hi friends, i made this project as a Final presentation for my Renderman studies as a Jr. Lighter and Environment Artist :D

It was made in Maya Autodesk modeled with Zbrush and for the shadders and materials i use Substance Painter to mask the Moss system and enhace the background models. I also added a Fog system to add Depth of Field as a separate AOV so you can modify the complete look, i will describe it at the end.

This is a clean scene with model parts visible outside the Moss system. Most of them are RIB files, wich can help the render times a lot. 

The RIB Files are alembic elements that bring object information just for the camera and light system to render them. They can be as complex as you want and still get lower render times. 

For this project even the Moss are alembic files that were made from a plane modified with a blend script

As you can see here, the Bend script and the Material support the Moss interaction with the light elements, each one was taken from nature and can be as real as your scan from your Look Dev department. I really love to explore this as an Environment Artist cause it gives a Photoreal look.

Each time the Moss system grew i realized i needed to add more particles so it looked more robust; for tthe finished systems, i created over 100K particles. I also add Moss to the rock behind the Statue so it gave the sensation the Moss outgrew it and started running upwards.

The Moss system has two parts, one for Green moss and another for yellowish Moss. It was made with MASH simulated directly on Maya, for each color i created masks with Substance Painter. This gives a nice division so you can modify each separately and control how color Moss are added on your model. You can also do this for diferent trees, bushes or plants and not only Moss.

For the Lighting set i use different rigs: a Coloris light created with a cookie cutter texture placed in a Rect Light to simulate tree shadows, a three point light for a Rembrant esque since this is Face statue and finally a Dome light for the overall look.

For this final image i added a Fog layer that i build in Render setup window, i separate my RIB files and my simulations into different layers so i could render only what was needed in a separate Fog pass for each Light rig i made.

Since the RIB files are just alembics they needed a Black Surface Override to interact with the Fog pass. What i really loved about Renderman is that you can separate every Object and Light Rig so in the end you get different AOV's ready for the Compositing Department.

In resume, Renderman allows you to obtain photorreal images through a series of steps that are pretty intuitive.

I hope you enjoyed the extended explanation of this project :D