Winter Special

by | Dec 18, 2011 | Styles / Effects | 26 comments

 

I don’t know if I’m just in the holiday spirit, but I thought I would write a post about winterizing an illustration.  In essence, this tutorial takes your typical daytime rendering and turns it into a snowy winter scene, which is easier than you might think.  After some experimenting, I realized that the smudge tool worked really well for a drifting snow effect on the ground. I also used a common technique for adding falling snow. This method can be found all over the web and with a little manipulation can be used to create rain as well.

You don’t see too many winter scenes in architectural presentations. It’s something I wish I would have tried while still in school.

 

 

 

 

Below, I have shown the before and after images of the tutorial. Its a dramatic change in just a short amount of time.

 

snow_tutorial_alex_hogrefe_before

 

 

snow_tutorial_alex_hogrefe_after

 

 

 

 

26 Comments

  1. fabio on December 18, 2011 at 9:58 pm

    fantastic Alex! Merry xmas
    thanks a lot for sharing!
    Fabio

  2. Alex Hogrefe on December 18, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    Thanks Fabio, happy holidays to you too

  3. tu on December 19, 2011 at 3:36 am

    nice tut, thanks Alex! merry xmas!

  4. Andrei on December 19, 2011 at 3:31 pm

    Nice tutorial! Thanks for sharing!
    Keep up the good work, and happy holidays!
    Greetings from Spain.

  5. mark scott on December 19, 2011 at 3:55 pm

    haha i've been sat all day doing a xmas card for work trying to get this look. merry christmas

  6. Jakob on December 19, 2011 at 7:59 pm

    Fine tutorial, think Im gonna use it to make more renderings "on a rainy day".

    Mary xmas to you Alex.

  7. Habib on December 20, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    HI there Alex,

    Great tut, Firstly who the heck is that person who advertised for Hand Bags???? What the???? Hand Bags in Architecture??? Could you show us how you made the grass in the picture above….. Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please …..

  8. Habib on December 20, 2011 at 7:50 pm

    Hey Guys, Greeting from Pakistan!!!! Happy New Year………

  9. Andrew on December 20, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    Thanks for this blog… perfect tutorials.. Merry Xmas! .. Greeting form Poland!

  10. Brochure Printing on December 21, 2011 at 2:17 am

    Right. This is my first time to see snow in an architectural presentation. Very ingenious!

  11. ja narciso on December 22, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    A Happy Christmas to you and your family Alex! Thanks for this snow magic step by step. There are a lot of aesthetic judgement calls in this tutorial that are not immediately obvious but sure single you out as a master.

  12. Jelena on December 23, 2011 at 9:14 pm

    This is amazing. Thanks a lot.

  13. Habib on December 23, 2011 at 9:56 pm

    Could you show us the jpeg picture of the grass, or grass texture in that picture above….please….. 🙁

  14. ALEX HOGREFE on December 28, 2011 at 2:32 am

    Thanks everyone.
    @Habib
    Send me an email and I can show you what texture I used. Thanks

  15. srs on March 21, 2012 at 8:23 pm

    i liked your style alex..you've really good works..thank you for creating this web..

  16. bulshoibooze on June 13, 2012 at 10:38 pm

    Hi Alex,
    Great tutorials by the way, they have helped me in so many ways in college…quick question though…what screen capturing software do you use when you are preparing your videos for your blog? 🙂

  17. RAFE L. D. on December 14, 2012 at 8:46 am

    Tks very much, help so much for a student in an architecture school.

  18. tom greenfield on March 21, 2013 at 12:27 pm

    Hi, great work on here. I don't know how much you know about video, but it would be really useful to know how i can apply these techniques to moving image. They are so powerful on stills, it would be awesome. I'm probably talking mainly about the blueprint style ones, and the diffused effects and xrays etc. thanks!

  19. Davood Yoosefali on September 30, 2015 at 10:42 pm

    Hi Alex. Thank you it was a great and easy way for presentation of winter scene. I’ve seen some tutorials about this but I mixed up every time 🙂
    It is the best tut about snow that I’ve seen.

  20. Aaron Codden on December 6, 2015 at 9:54 am

    Excellent video. Your pace and instructions are very clear. Keep up the amazing work!

  21. tiago on September 7, 2016 at 3:59 pm

    big like…thanks for sharing!

  22. elegy on October 19, 2016 at 4:51 am

    it is very useful,execellent

  23. Nima Behzadafshar on June 21, 2017 at 11:13 pm

    Thank you so much

  24. Joshua on July 3, 2017 at 6:35 pm

    Hey, Alex. I love your work here. It’s really giving me good ideas and inspiration for my last year in studio. I was curious which techniques did you use to create the base image? Did you use a paintbrush and dab on color as you saw, or was it another technique?
    Thanks!

  25. JohnB on August 6, 2017 at 4:54 am

    I’m over 70 and I’m learning so much from your tutorials, wish I had found them 5 years ago when I started 3d work. I’m really grateful, thank you

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