Borealis - North Light

Started by choronr, March 03, 2011, 09:25:01 PM

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choronr

Bob: Notwithstanding the inordinately long render time (98.52.09), I am pleased with the results. Atmo and clouds samples were set very high. My interest was piqued when I saw Dune's 'Aurora' image in the Image Sharing : ( http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=11615.0 ). In that thread, a .tgd file was posted by TheBlackHole which I used to find out how the clouds were stretched ( aurora.tgd ). I played with this file trying to stretch the clouds in their 'Y' axis to achieve an aurora appearance; but, to no avail.

About that time, Markal ( Mark ) expressed an interest in doing a TG2 collaboration. I sent him a few files; and, we decided we'd do the 'Aurora' project. Mark changed the terrain I used to his own ( Desert High .ter ). He then hit on the first sun which I had below the horizon and gave it an elevation of 355.873 which didn't make any sense to me - but, it worked.

I will post the .tgd  of this image in the File Sharing if anyone is interested in checking it out. We'd be interested in your ideas on improving  upon the render time. Other elements used for this image include:

•   Lucio's 'Embossed Snow'.
•   XFrog's 'Atlas Cedar'.

Enjoy,

Bob

Mark: Thanks Bob, it was a fun and learning experience. Everyone should try at least one collaboration ...you might really like it.

Looking forward to responses, critical or praise;  but, I really want someone to figure out how to raise and shorten the aurora's min/max height and shorten the render time.
Check out the files and send your ideas/suggestions to me or Bob ...we both would appreciate it. Thanks!

Mark

Markal

Someone please help Bob and I....this image took forever to render. The clouds/atmo form the Aurora but, the clouds are streched too tall and require a high quality rating to get rid of noise and thus a long render time. The aurora effect could be improved if the the clouds were shorter and not streching from horizon to the top of the image. How can this be done? Any thoughts....Bob and I agreed to share the files for someone/anyone to help and come up with an improvement to this start of an Aurora Borealis. Picture this Aurora over a large lake with reflections.....or as Bob suggested....over a city!!! It can be used over and over in many ways but, it needs some improvement....HELP!!!
I'll post another version of this image with a different view soon and you'll see the possibilities.....
Thanks
Mark

Volker Harun

Very pleasing scene ... I can feel the touch of your (Mark) Classic renders. I would really like to be there and watch the Aurora.
If I'd had any idea about atmospheres, I would be glad to help.

Redwolf

i think i posted the tgcin here or was it the settings a few yrs ago under the name terrade (which i cant get back on here under that name for some reason), anyway I did a load of these but failed to get the light like you have here, I can post a tgd here if it helps.
Excellent image tho

Dune

I think your clouds are way too high. That increases rendertime of course, and the photo's of aurora's I saw didn't have this high 'stretching', and less sharp 'lines'. You might want to try less high clouds at lesser height... I'll check out your tgd later, of course.

---Dune

dandelO

Nice render. Although, I'm sure you're, both of you, quite mad! ;) ... I looked at the .tgd you posted and was very surprised to see the quality settings you have used, in both clouds and atmosphere. There are some 370 atmosphere samples (roughly), and with a cloud quality of '50', creating over 600 cloud samples, it's no surprise that this took so long to render!

I've got to wonder, was it really necessary to use such extremely high settings to clean up the noise? Especially in the atmosphere, there are very little atmo-shadows involved in your scene. I can understand that the clouds, with all that stretching(500 Y), need to be set pretty high but Q=50?
And, surely '-4.2' is easier to type than '355.873' for sun elevation. After all, it can only be set between -90 and 90 degrees. ;)

I've not tried to render any of it myself yet but I'm paring back the settings and I'll see if it can be tweaked any at my end later on.

It is a lovely, clean scene, though! I wish I had you guys' patience! :D

Mor

Very nice render and massive render time :) I agree with Dune that aurora could be a little smoother, but otherwise very nice looking.

dandelO

* You'd probably be best to use the localize cloud feature too. Then, you could situate the clouds above your mountains/lake/city, whatever, and they won't reach to the horizon.

FrankB

First of all: AWESOME render, I totally love it!

Secondly, you absolutely have to ray trace the atmophere for a scene like this. I bet you could let AA at 3, use atmo sampling of 24-32 and cloud sampling of 1/3 of what you used now to get a good quality render at possibly much lower render times.

Frank

choronr

Quote from: Volker Harun on March 04, 2011, 02:17:23 AM
Very pleasing scene ... I can feel the touch of your (Mark) Classic renders. I would really like to be there and watch the Aurora.
If I'd had any idea about atmospheres, I would be glad to help.
Thanks Volker, I'm feeling there will be another iteration in the works.

choronr

Quote from: Redwolf on March 04, 2011, 03:22:16 AM
i think i posted the tgcin here or was it the settings a few yrs ago under the name terrade (which i cant get back on here under that name for some reason), anyway I did a load of these but failed to get the light like you have here, I can post a tgd here if it helps.
Excellent image tho
Thanks Redwolf, by some of the responses, I'm beginning to get some thoughts on redoing this image with some different settings. Thanks for the offer.

choronr

Quote from: Dune on March 04, 2011, 05:07:43 AM
I think your clouds are way too high. That increases rendertime of course, and the photo's of aurora's I saw didn't have this high 'stretching', and less sharp 'lines'. You might want to try less high clouds at lesser height... I'll check out your tgd later, of course.

---Dune
Thanks Ulco, by some of the suggestions we see here, I'm thinking Mark and I will give it another try. I appreciate any additional thoughts you may have.

choronr

Quote from: dandelO on March 04, 2011, 07:03:29 AM
Nice render. Although, I'm sure you're, both of you, quite mad! ;) ... I looked at the .tgd you posted and was very surprised to see the quality settings you have used, in both clouds and atmosphere. There are some 370 atmosphere samples (roughly), and with a cloud quality of '50', creating over 600 cloud samples, it's no surprise that this took so long to render!

I've got to wonder, was it really necessary to use such extremely high settings to clean up the noise? Especially in the atmosphere, there are very little atmo-shadows involved in your scene. I can understand that the clouds, with all that stretching(500 Y), need to be set pretty high but Q=50?
And, surely '-4.2' is easier to type than '355.873' for sun elevation. After all, it can only be set between -90 and 90 degrees. ;)

I've not tried to render any of it myself yet but I'm paring back the settings and I'll see if it can be tweaked any at my end later on.

It is a lovely, clean scene, though! I wish I had you guys' patience! :D
Thank you Martin, much appreciate your ideas here and anything else you may come up with. Yes, the noise/graininess we got initially prompted the high atmo/clouds quality settings. I'm sure Mark and I will be re-doing this one soon. The upside for me was that I thought of several new projects while waiting for this one to finish its rendering.

choronr

Quote from: Mor on March 04, 2011, 07:14:45 AM
Very nice render and massive render time :) I agree with Dune that aurora could be a little smoother, but otherwise very nice looking.
Thanks Mor, appreciate your visit and comments.

choronr

Quote from: dandelO on March 04, 2011, 07:17:54 AM
* You'd probably be best to use the localize cloud feature too. Then, you could situate the clouds above your mountains/lake/city, whatever, and they won't reach to the horizon.
Martin, when I saw this response of yours, I slapped myself in the head - now why didn't I think of that - I've used it before; I think I need to change my brand of beer.