Sand Final Texture & Model

Modelling

For the sand environment, the process was very simple, as you can see from the image below, I started off with a simple polygon plane. I didn't encounter any problems with this as it's a very simply process and used my basic knowledge of the software to create it.

I then proceeded to lift each face of the plane to create hills like in the image shown below. I encountered a few minor problems doing this, for example; when lifting the faces, the hills would look unnatural and very strange. I fixed this problem through trial and error, and by trying different techniques to get the best result I possibly could.

I created a second plane for where the knife will sit into the sand. To do this, very much like the hills in the distance, I lifted up each face (creating more divisions along the way) until I was comfortable it. The result is shown in the image below, which is the perfect size and shape for the knife. The image even further down shows the knife sitting into position. All I had to do now is texture the sand. I encountered only one problem whilst doing this; very much like the previous problem, I couldn't get a natural looking shape. However, through trial and error, I was able to get the best looking shape I could for the knife to sit.

Texturing
The texturing of the sand was extremely simple. Due to it being a flat plane, I was able to throw the texture onto the plane without worrying about UVing. The sand texture itself was based on my sand sketches, so all I had to do was apply the texture onto the model, as shown in the image below. The only problem I encountered whilst doing this was getting the texture the right size to suit the perspective realistically, as well as the knife itself. To fix this is self-explanatory; as the texture was repeatable, I increased the size of the UV until it looked perfect in the final scene. 

The final scene is shown in the image below with the knife sitting neatly into position. At this point, the scene is complete, with the sky incorporated through the rendering settings in Maya (virtual sun and sky). All I have to do now is render the scene with appropriate settings (1080p) until I'm comfortable with the end result.