Driving through rural New Zealand you are bound to see a dilapidated red barn sitting in the middle of a paddock somewhere. These often cheaply built structures served various functions but mostly were used for housing livestock, machinery, grain and/or hay bails. The red colour was also borne out of pure necessity where a cheap locally sourced mix of iron ore and whatever medium or oil was a available to make a weather and rust resistant paint that could withstand the hard summer droughts and extreme weather changes. Even before iron ore was used as a paint on cow sheds, Moari used kokowai, iron ore and other pigments made from the earth, pollen and rotted wood to make paint to decorate and protect wharenui, pou whenua and waka. I really like the utilitarian nature of these sheds and the history that come with that. They have an inherent beauty about them that makes we want to explore more in depth. What I will endeavor to do is covert the “red barn” into something that will connect people to nature in a locale native to its past.

Notable Replies

  1. jamie says:

    I have been playing around with Gaea to create the surrounding landscape. Gaea churns out some really good results using procedural nodes to create ridges, mountains, canyons and all sorts. It is very procedural. I haven’t quite figured how to create specific detail exactly where I want it but it may not be necessary for what I am trying to achieve. here are some screen shots for the various parts of the scene

  2. Atom says:

    Great Idea, Coming along nicely. Looking forward to it.

  3. jamie says:


    @Atom Thanks!!

    A quick update regarding the surrounding vegetation. Because of the dry summers and cold winters and the inland nature of the area we end with a lot of tussocks and grasses that cope better in those conditions. I have used a bunch of models from Max tree and just tweaked the material to get the colour balance more like that of the local area.

  4. Brujah88 says:

    I really dig the atmosphere, I’m sure this is gonna be A+ quality

Continue the discussion at talk.ronenbekerman.com

4 more replies

Participants