Martian Marbles, or 'combined techiques'

Started by child@play, March 09, 2007, 06:43:37 PM

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child@play

hi!

first off all, thanks to all those who share pictures and tgd's to learn from.
i knew some tricks for tg 0.9, but what i have seen here is just amazing, the creativity, the quality, and the possibilities this great programm offers....

so, here are a couple of images i rendered recently, using what i learnt, what do you think?






perfection is not when there's nothing more to add, it's reached when nothing more can be left out


old_blaggard

I really like the first one.  I look forward to seeing more of you and your work :).
http://www.terragen.org - A great Terragen resource with models, contests, galleries, and forums.

child@play

thx o_b =)

slowly i'm getting results that i headed for, try 'n error is over so to say ^^

but there's still so much to master, wonder if i ever come to the point to create a full-grown render, well, guess i'm not the only one ;)


rock on...
perfection is not when there's nothing more to add, it's reached when nothing more can be left out


Dark Fire

First image = Best.
Second image = Most interesting.
Third image = Most realistic.

child@play

hi again!

this time i tried to get acceptable (for me that is ;) ) results from strata and outcrops, and several layers of twist and shear. used an image map as texture, added a second sun and a couple of xfrog trees.

new for me have been the usage of image-maps and adding objects/populations, turned out quite okay, allthough i dislike the placing and the shadow of some trees.

cheers...


p.s.: some people mentioned problems, namely extreme spikes when using twist and shear. what i tried was setting the lean direction on the y-axis to really low values, like -0.0125, which helped getting rid of those spikes without flattening the whole terrain
perfection is not when there's nothing more to add, it's reached when nothing more can be left out


rcallicotte

I like how you're experimenting, especially with the terrain like in the very first picture.  Good work, too, on this last one (directly above) with the strata and clouds.  Those clouds really add to the whole scene.  I think without the trees it would have looked even cleaner and would have brought out the magnificence of the mountains.

Not bad.
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

Mr_Lamppost

I have to agree about the trees; they look out of scale with the mountain. Some of them also appear to be hanging in the air next to the rock face and there is definitely one that is growing up through an overhang.  You can use a Surface Layer with a Maximum Slope as a Distribution Shader to keep the trees to the flat areas.

The clouds and mountain are excellent and have real scale and depth; I have experimented a little with Strata and Outcrops but have not yet achieved anything I really liked. 

Just a thought but what about bringing the trees closer to the camera so that just the tops appear along the bottom of the image?  This would bring your foreground forward and push the mountain back giving it even more scale.

I don't have nearly enough time to work with TG2, yesterday was the first time I had run it in almost three weeks.  :(
Smoke me a kipper I'll be back for breakfast.

Volker Harun

I have seen strata-pictures that I did not want to see. Your way of approaching this shader is very subtle and pleasing.
The martian render ... rocks!

Keep on ... Weiter so!

Volker Harun

child@play

hey!

thanks for the input everyone, very much appreciated.

yes, like i said, i dislike how the trees are placed, you guys pointed out just the right things, scale and placement.

the idea of putting the trees closer to the camera sounds really good, i'll try the lower left corner of the render, so that you still can see the mountain behind the trees, should give a little 'bob ross' feeling ;)


thanks again, cheers...
perfection is not when there's nothing more to add, it's reached when nothing more can be left out


Dark Fire

Quote from: Mr_Lamppost on March 12, 2007, 04:55:33 PM
I have to agree about the trees; they look out of scale with the mountain.
In my opinion, it's not actually the trees that are out of scale - the trees and clouds are contradicting each other over the scale of the image.
(By the way, nice display picture Mr Lamppost).

child@play

#10
hey!

here's a new version of the above render, scaled down the trees and tried to place them better. everything else unchanged, except for the amount of bluesky, makes the clouds a little more dramatic ^^

p.s.: oh, and this has been my first hi-quality render, 22:29:20, quality 1, AA 3, GI 1/1 800X600
perfection is not when there's nothing more to add, it's reached when nothing more can be left out


Dark Fire


child@play

perfection is not when there's nothing more to add, it's reached when nothing more can be left out


Mr_Lamppost

I definitely don't get to come in here as often as I should. 

That definitely works, not exactly what I had in mind, if anything slightly better.  I agree with Dark Fire that in the first version it was the trees and clouds fighting to set the scale of the mountain.  The new version now resolves this.

Again the change to the atmosphere has pulled the cloud and mountain together; the clouds now look part of the scene.  I like the low level cloud layer that appears as mist amongst the trees, this is a nice subtle effect tat adds even more depth to the scene.

The strata work well, I have tried using that shader a few times but have never been happy with the results.

Your scene is not totally realistic but works very well; beauty is often better than truth.

Smoke me a kipper I'll be back for breakfast.

child@play

#14
glad you like it, thank you very much :)

when i finished rendering my challenge-entry ( a try to push twist and shear quite far ;) ), i'll definetly try making up more realistic scenes, next might be an atoll, i want something with more water, hehe


cheers...


p.s.: attached the tgd, if anyone wants to take a look, but beware, might look messed up to you ;)
perfection is not when there's nothing more to add, it's reached when nothing more can be left out