Digital-Evolutions

FIRST:

Using the sculp, smooth, & drag tool, deform the ground to make mountains.

Click and drag the stamp over the ground and mountains. Adjust the strength so that subtle changes are made. Sculpt until it looks good. *You may have to smooth out the terrain in areas after.

It should look like this . . .

Change Divisions to 6

Choose the 'Lift a Surface' tool

It should looke something like this . . .

Use the Grab Tool (Pull a single vertex along a surface any direction) and adjust the shape so that it is not perfectly spherical.

Select the base snowball and Duplicate it. <ctrl> + d

Then Scale and Rotate each snowball. Like this . . .

It should look like this . . .

Add Light: Physical Sky

Setup a simple Physical sky using Arnold. In the Main Menu select Arnold > Lights > Physical Sky.

The background turns black. Maya creates a large sphere that surrounds you scene.

You can either render it with the Arnold renderer or use the live renderer. Render Window - Arnold > Render

Select the Physical Sky

Change the Elevation to elongate the shadow of the snowman. Change the Azimuth to change the position of the sun in the sky.

You would use Azimuth and Elevation in 3D environments like Maya with Arnold's Physical Sky when you want to accurately position the Sun in the sky to simulate realistic lighting and shadows based on time, location, and atmosphere.

You can control the Sun's position via the Sun Direction (a directional light).

Or, use the Physical Sky attributes:

- 1. Elevation vertical angle of the sun above the horizon. Measured from 0° (horizon) to 90° (directly overhead)
  2. Azimuth horizontal angle, Measured clockwise from true north (0° to 360°).