Ice Age

Saurav · November 10, 2010, 09:52:40 PM

The last one is looking quite good in terms of the bluish tint. With the improvements you suggested, it should look awesome. It's just how I remembered seeing the glaciers in the Himalayas.

If you need reference pics let me know.

Dune · November 11, 2010, 03:15:19 AM

Thanks, Saurav, but I think I've found enough glaciers in my book library and on the internet. But if you care to post a particularly nice one here, it would be nice as a comparison.

Anyway, my efforts are slowly paying out. I don't like the regularity of the ground yet, but the masses are scaled alright I think. Not too grotesque, but still quite awesome. I only need to get a little closer to the glacier I think (but it's so cold out there

) A low POV with a clump of dying trees right in front would be nice, but I also like to keep the oversight. And I'm not satisfied about the cracks and 'whiteness' of the snow. Perhaps I should darken the sky...

Oshyan · November 11, 2010, 03:52:43 AM

Woah, big improvement! That crack shading is dynamite. The trees are important for the sense of scale, without them I'd think the foreground is more like small depressions in a relatively flat landscape rather than hills and depressions filled with snow drifts. Maybe there's something more than can be done about that? Previous versions seemed to have a better inherent sense of scale, but the glacier in this one is far better than any previous incarnation. You definitely nailed that part!

- Oshyan

inkydigit · November 11, 2010, 05:21:58 AM

agree with Oshyan...DYNAMITE!

domdib · November 11, 2010, 06:03:48 AM

This is the most convincing glacier so far.

Dune · November 11, 2010, 06:06:13 AM

Wait till you the next iteration... really perfect!

Henry Blewer · November 11, 2010, 12:12:21 PM

The bushes help with the scale I think. I would avoid trees, I do not think they would be very big adjacent to a glacier anyway. Some mammoths, woolly rhinos, or yaks(?) would help with the scale. They would also look cool.

Dune · November 12, 2010, 03:34:42 AM

These are the last remaining birch trees, due to be swallowed up my the encroaching ice mass and the pile of rubble it's pushing forward. That's the idea. I worked on some nice lighting yesterday, but I'm still not pleased with the foreground soil. I've searched for 3D mammoths indeed, but couldn't find one (not free anyway). Perhaps interesting to make one, but the hair would be a big problem for me (and TG2).
I got some interesting displacements when one of the distance shader colors was set to -1 (very black), in combination with smooth terrain where displacement intersection was active. It probably reversed or something.

Oshyan · November 12, 2010, 03:49:09 AM

Hmm, I enjoyed the lighting of the previous one a good deal more, but the ice is indeed improved here. You are tenacious!

- Oshyan

Dune · November 12, 2010, 04:04:02 AM

Well, there's no work (no income) at the moment, so why not teach myself some more

And did you indeed like the soft light more? I prefer the more dramatic light, like Freelancah did in 'some experiment': http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=11095.0

domdib · November 12, 2010, 06:01:38 AM

Very convincing glacier. If you could somehow incorporate a few touches of blue translucent ice here and there, and maybe a few sparkles, then it would be perfect. But it's not far off!

Dune · November 12, 2010, 08:48:33 AM

I had the blue ice in before, but decided against it, seeing many photo's of glaciers which were actually quite white. And the sparkles wouldn't be seen at hundreds of meters distance, I purposely blended them by a distance shader to 1-100m.

Oshyan · November 12, 2010, 06:03:55 PM

I would actually say the light in the earlier image here: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=11057.msg114000#msg114000 is more "dramatic", though perhaps also "soft" at the same time, at least in that there is less large-scale contrast. But the sun being in view makes the sky more dramatic, and there is much less of an "obscured", "tunnel vision" feeling somehow, whereas in the latest version it feels somewhat claustrophobic with the darker foreground lighting. Honestly I'd say it hurts the sense of scale a bit. But as I said the glacier itself is definitely an improvement.

- Oshyan

Saurav · November 12, 2010, 07:56:08 PM

Dune a few reference images of glaciers from my last trip to the Himalayas. This one is looking up at the glacier from the bottom of the mountain.

Saurav · November 12, 2010, 07:56:29 PM

2nd is on the glacier it self. The glacier is at 6000m above sea level.