Deep Green WIP (was detail in deep shadows in terragen discussion)

[cyphyr]

Still trudging along ...
It's getting slow to load but edging towards a final
Richard

[Kadri]

Looks good 

[cyphyr]

And frame 700, the final resting place of the shot.
I'm not happy about the citadel yet, think it needs to stand out more.
Richard

[Oshyan]

This looks like it could be really incredible! I can't wait to see it rendered. I hope you are planning to (and have the resources to) render it in HD!

- Oshyan

[cyphyr]

Not really sure what the technical res will be. It was 720p HD (720x1280) but I liked the letterbox feel of the 2.35:1 ration I have here. Looks more "filmic" and as a bonus chops off about 20% render time. The resolution now is 545x1280.

It's going to take about a month to render.

I can see lots of short camping trips coming up

Richard

[Matt]

This is a project I'm looking forward seeing the results of. Each iteration looks better than the last. Frame 111 looks great In Frame 700 I'd like to see more contrast. Even just brighter overall might do the trick. Some curves in Photoshop could work. Make sure you render all possible Render Elements for the final

Matt

[Matt]

Richard,

I hope you don't mind me trying out some colour adjustments and posting them here. I started off just trying to get more light and contrast in frame 700, then I went back to both frames and adjusted the overall colour to something I like. Maybe they go against your colour concept?

Matt

[cyphyr]

Oh that is lovely
I was intending on doing a lot of post work and grading was one aspect. That's very good and definately the direction I want to go with this.

Richard

[Matt]

Glad you like it. Just some curves in Photoshop.

[cyphyr]

Ok Matt, I like what you've done with the grade but "just with curves", I've tried all day and to no avail. How did you do this with just curve adjustment.?
Cheers
Richard

[TheBadger]

I like the post work too. But you guys aren't talking about doing this frame by frame are you? I mean, batch or otherwise?

I know that there are much more powerful apps than after effects, but one great thing is that AE is basically PS on steroids. You can use curves over the entire animation, setting key frames to change the curves over time were necessary.

It may be possible to put matts setting into AE as a starting point (for that frame set) and work backwards and forward from there. I haven't tried it but the settings in curves from PS should have the same effect on the same frame in AE

Just a possibility.

[Matt]

Richard,

I didn't save a preset, so I've tried to reproduce what I did on frame 700, and it looks like the attached screenshot. There's an overall S curve to increase contrast, with emphasis on brightening overall. I also changed the individual R, G and B curves to correct the white balance.

This is working on the JPG, of course. I usually leave the black and white point alone if I'm working on a LDR image like this. I'd use different techniques on an EXR.

On the other frame I didn't really change the contrast or brightness, I just pushed the R, G and B channels around a bit to give the mist the hue I was looking for. If I remember rightly, I would either boost or reduce a channel with a single control point in the middle of the curve.

I would save this as a preset, but I can't figure out how to save a preset from an adjustment layer!?

Matt

[trailofsevens]

I'd have to suggest using AE for colour grading as well. I don't know if you're familiar with it or not but there's a free version of Colourista from Red Giant, I use that for all my grading.
Also - your latest frames look incredible!

[cyphyr]

Thanks Matt, easy when you know how.
Just tried it in PS and of course it works a charm. Pretty sure the curves the curves in AE will work the same (just a quick check and indeed they do) so this is a big jump forward.
Thankyou.
And thank you trailofsevens for the link to Red Giant, some usefull free software there. I will be using the Colourista and the lens flare (shhh)
Richard

[TheBadger]

Free is Great!
But on the lens flares, if you get to wanting to drop a few dollars, this is the best lens flare plug in I have ever used. It really is very good, if you need it.
https://www.videocopilot.net/products/opticalflares/