For Frank

[Tangled-Universe]

Good efforts Martin. I agree with Seth unfortunately, I prefer the original, I think there's too much saturation in the processed version.

In the end, we went with blue sky and GI on the NE plate, it just looked better, and I had absolutely no time to finess due to the client changing the Cad data 1 1/2 weeks before delivery. Even so, I wasn't really happy with it.

We want to go back and do a few selected shots to show the client what they could have had if they had pulled a bloody finger out and gave us more than a few weeks to turn around the project. I've had a tentative go at doing an overcast version, but it's a nightmare to balance getting any light into the scene through overcast skies. It would be incredibly helpfull to have a "cast shadow opacity" in the cloud node that didn't rely on cloud density or effect the shadow in the cloud itself. The only other way to get around this would be to render the scene twice and create a horizon mask. This is also a good example where the alpha channel which didn't include clouds in the atmosphere or the atmosphere itself would be more useful than what we have at the moment. Anyway. Rant over.

Ghehe, well I never thought of agreeing with Seth as being "unfortunate" just kidding
Funny observation though, because I didn't touch any colour/saturation slider in the proces as far as I remember.
The raw output I posted is from the .bmp output, while I used the .exr as a base for the first posted image.
Not sure if this contributes to it.

I like that image by the way. The overcast clouds add much to the scene, they also look pretty realistic themselves and the hint of bluesky really works for me.
I terribly agree with you about the cloud opacity function you described. Unfortunately, and also a bit illogical if you'd ask me or to me, the light propagation settings in the clouds don't have any effects on the casted shadows from the clouds on the surface. It is density dependant though as far as I know. What one can try is to keep density low and increase edge sharpness. This way you can still simulate dense clouds without having actual dense clouds, so keep the benefits of brighter shadows beneath.
You can play a bit with the 2D cloud map function, but the softer you make it the less accurate the shadow becomes, so not ideal.
I also agree improved alpha functionality would greatly help in these situations.

Ok back to real work again sigh

[Seth]

Ghehe, well I never thought of agreeing with Seth as being "unfortunate"

huhuhu

[FrankB]

Hi Martin, I'm just now stumbling over this thread. I appreciate you named it "for Frank" :-)
... but really it is for you, as it's a good thing to go away from the comfort zone from time to time. I think you exaggerated the contrast and saturation in the first posted image so that overall, it appeared not quite right, but you figured that out yourself already.

Have Jon and you been sharing this scene and each one made their individual versions? I must say Jon nailed it with the lighting in the first two images he posted. That lighting makes everything look incredibly real. But then, it's not necessary from an artistic standpoint to aspire to making all renders look incredibly real. Some postworked scenes, for example such scenes as wetbanana likes to make, don't look real but awesome with their contrast and colors.

Anyway, keep on exploring postwork options and opportunities

cheers,
Frank

[Hetzen]

That's kind of you to say so Frank, but this has been a team effort. the workflow was to get Ulco to do the mask design for roads, rivers, tree lines and fields/heath, which was then passed on to Martin to populate and add detail. I had the pleasure of tweeking their efforts before rendering.

[Jonathan]

Hi Martin,

I love the composition too. To me it is a cold autumnal day somewhere in the south east (UK). I think the vegetation close to the camera needs a little more work - it does loof more fake than the rest of the escene. Another thought - would it be worth rendering with more light then darkening the result in PhotoShop / PhotoPaint? Jonathan

[Oshyan]

"Final" (?) results posted by Jon look quite realistic. Very nice detail in the road gravel, this is the kind of thing TG2 is great at, because you can keep that in the scene and zoom way out and not even see it, but it won't really slow things down much and it's there when you get your camera over there to see it. The lighting in these last images is particularly nice too. But great work by all and it's awesome to see such collaboration working so well. The end results speak for themselves.

Jon, if you can share any more details, before/after (final) images, etc. on this we'd love to put together a case study or other feature, if you're interested.

- Oshyan