Creek

[Dune]

Just testing a setup with two simple shapes to get a creek, ended up with this. Next step would be to get some more differentiation in the sand, perhaps layers of soil, and do something about those stones. Also the wind ripples need to be finer. Any other C&C welcome. This took about 3 hours to render at Q 0.5 and AA 4 and GI 2/2, while the water was masked out.

[Henry Blewer]

The only two things I see are the stones. (no shaders are attached?) and the wet sand could be a little darker. The ripples are maybe a bit large, but I have seen larger on creeks this size.

[Kadri]

Nearly a photo , Dune
Your post says what you can enhance .
The water edge left below...The edge is a little too straight?

[chefc]

Great render I agree w/Kadri and njeneb Great foliage

[Dune]

Iteration 2, but the soil is too harsh here. And I can't seem to get just rounded pebbles on the wet sand, have to try something else. And the swallows need another seed... and the horizon needs more grass, etc.
I also thought to use a pop of planets for rocks (more smooth than the indigenous rock, but it doesn't seem to render at all
Here I used 3 fill lights and GI 1/1 instead of GI 2/2, which took 1 hour less to render! Result is about the same.

[Tangled-Universe]

Looking very photorealistic already, especially midground imho.
If you'd like I can help you with the fake stones. Have a week off so enough time to play

[choronr]

For some reason, I like the river banks in the first image. Regarding the grass cover which is very good, I'd like to see a few dried grasses sparsely placed.

[Dune]

Iteration 3. Better sand, better wavelets, so I'm getting pleased with this. The only thing that bothers me now is the clumps of soil on the creek bed, but that's easy to fix. Anything else, guys? Final iteration will be with soft shadows on, I think, at least the frontal part where the shadows of the swallows and bank are.

Ik stuur je een tgd, Martin. Heb je wat te doen met zo'n regenachtige week 

[Henry Blewer]

Maybe the ridged extrusions in the creek would look better inverted, like a cow or something walked through there.

[Tangled-Universe]

Hi Ulco,

Had a play with your setup, here's the result after tweaking the base layer for the stones. It uses smoothing and IU in depressions mode.
As you can see we have rounder stones now as well.
The stones are a bit too dense, especially the smaller ones, but the idea is there isn't it?

The IU depressions gave another supercool side-effect and that's the big ridge underwater. It looks like a slab of sand/mud broke off under water

I'll send you this tgd, but will keep on playing in the meantime. It's a nice scene setup!

Cheers,
Martin

[Tangled-Universe]

@ Everybody:

No one noticed a new feature in Ulco's images?

[Seth]

Look at the grass

[Tangled-Universe]

Look at the grass

Ssshhhtttt...!!!

[Henry Blewer]

I have noticed the grass. I thought it was a new object/s. Is this procedural (built in) grass? If it is procedural, it is really awesome. If it is a new model then the modeller needs to be told that the blades look very natural.

[Oshyan]

It's not new procedural grass.

- Oshyan