Large Khmer Temple With Lotus Ponds
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3D Environment Reference Photos, From Blockout to Texture

An environment is believable when its surfaces are right: how moss sits on stone, how a cave ceiling drips, how a concrete hall breaks down. These 3D environment reference photos document each location from the wide view down to the material. The Khmer Ruined Elephant Library Temple has 333 photos, the Rock Pillar Maze has 688, and some packs include 3D scan samples.

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Wide for layout, close for materials

Environment work moves from blockout to detail, and a good pack serves both steps. Wide shots give you layout, sight lines and scale. Close shots give you the material. In the Khmer Ruined Elephant Library Temple (Cambodia, 6000 × 4000), you get the library building with its very thick columns, and also an uncleared part of the temple: vines over the stones and piles of leaves on the floor. That second part is your set dressing reference.

Caves and rock: organic spaces

Organic spaces are hard to invent because nothing in them repeats.

For more, see cave reference photos.

Built spaces: think in modules

For man-made spaces, look for the parts that repeat. The Abandoned Soviet School pack has 344 photos of a 1960s school in Kyiv, inside and out: rooms, walls, doors and the objects left behind. Count the window types, door frames and wall panels, and you have the list for a modular kit. The Abandoned Soviet Military Warehouses pack (461 photos, Minsk region, Belarus) is sorted into garages, warehouses, roads and fences, which already matches how you would plan the kit.

Build your own models and scans

The license lets you create your own 3D models, photogrammetry meshes and textures from the photos for your projects. You can't resell the photos or the packs themselves. A few packs go further and include 3D scan samples:

  • Gray Mud Pinnacles: 255 photos of eroded clay cliffs, 4 short videos and 10 scan samples of 50,000 to 600,000 triangles, each with an 8192 × 8192 texture.
  • Giant Sand Dunes: 378 photos from the north of New Zealand, short videos and surface scans of about 1 million triangles with 8K textures.
  • Jindabyne Lake Granite Boulders: 114 photos and rock scans of 1.5 to 3 million triangles with 8K textures.

For more, see photo sets for photogrammetry and photo textures for 3D.

Used in production

Matte painter and concept artist David Edwards built his "Lost Temple" 3D environment with the Masada Ancient Fortress Ruins pack: 83 photos of eroded stone walls and interiors on a rock plateau in the Judaean Desert. UI and FUI artist Evgeny Rodygin used a ground 3D scan from the Gray Mud Pinnacles pack in his work.

Frequently asked questions

Are the 3D scans ready to drop into a game engine?

No. The Gray Mud Pinnacles samples, for example, are raw photogrammetry. They are a base to build on, so plan to clean up, retopologize and bake them yourself.

Can I make tiling textures from the photos?

Yes. Creating textures from the photos is allowed for your own projects. Close-up frames, like the rock and lava shots above, work best. Only the photos and the packs themselves can't be resold.

Do the packs include interiors?

Many do. The Abandoned Soviet School pack covers rooms, walls and doors, and the cave packs are interiors by nature. The product page description says what each pack covers.

Do any packs show the same place in different light?

Yes. The Volcanic Island Lava Rock Fields pack was shot in sunny, cloudy and overcast light. In Giant Sand Dunes, rain the night before let the photographer record the sand drying through the day. This helps when you test your materials under more than one lighting setup.