Canyon WIP

Started by Dune, September 01, 2012, 04:00:45 AM

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fleetwood

Very nicely done and excellent looking details.

A couple of observations that may be of no importance for your purposes.
The river has a natural look, but one I would expect in flatter terrain.
In my experience the water is usually rather  more blue, clear (not carrying silt, it is not that far from snow melt),
and the water surface is broken in steep canyons in the Rockies.
 
I say this as someone who has hiked in Colorado quite a bit. The rivers in those steep canyons are
dropping altitude fast and so they usually have frequent white ripples breaking over rocks. Difficult to create in a render, I know.
In the fast water there is little algae or vegetation so there is not much greenish cast due to algae even
in the slow parts of  those streams.



Dune

Thanks guys. I already changed the water, you're right Fleetwood. Maybe I'll try some rapids as well in a next iteration. I don't know about the goats, though  ;) unless somebody has one...

Ah, next one will have a better falls in the distance and more grass.

otakar

While the fast flowing river would certainly not be out of place, you can absolutely create a realistic render with (almost) still water. Colorado? Sure.

Here are a few reference images from Glenwood Canyon:

- http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/ae/51/6e/glenwood-canyon-and-the.jpg
- http://rockymountainscenery.com/glenwood/images/01.jpg
- http://photokayak.fit2paddle.com/glenwood/glenwood-canyon-081907-4a.jpg
- http://internetbrothers.org/wp-content/gallery/hanginglake/hanginglake_river.jpg

(Yes, you could argue some of the taming is due to Shoshone Dam)

TheBadger

The colorado river is massive. There are many slow and fast moving parts. I floated down a 6 hour stretch in Arizona. Except for one tiny part it was very calm. But when you have been drinking in the sun for 5 hours, that little bit of rapids can get you killed ;D

It looks good Ulco! Fast or slow its up too you. I just like that I can see rocks in the water. This always makes a water scene look more real to me.
It has been eaten.

Dune

Perhaps I like a little silt in the water after all, it's getting a bit 'busy' by now. And I might want to change the left wall, it's too uniform. And the grass is maybe too colorful. And then some trees of course....
Thanks for the refs!

tumasch

#35
Oh my, I love this thread! It's fascinating to watch this unfold and marvel at how the skilled approach and develop scenes. Even if I have no clue what exactly you do...!

I like the details you already added at this stage of the process (e.g. the water fall or the underwater structures)! One noob question, though: how did you do the "flat ground for the tracks" - is it just a displacement blended by an image shader mask? Sorry for the question, I seem to miss something here...

Thanks!
Décider c'est mourir un peu.

mhaze


Icegrip

Great work, really nice to follow this thread :)

Jo Kariboo

Very nice! Great work and subtility in the water!!!

Dune

Not entirely what I'm aiming for, but what the heck... let's post it anyway.

masonspappy

Nice work! How did you get the smoke effect from the engine?

nethskie

wow this is getting better and better! (i have no idea how to do this yet ;D )

Dune

#42
The smoke is a localized very dark cloud, the (fat but small) fractal blended by a circular simple shape shader and two X and Z warpers between SSS and fractal (so it warps the SSS). One small scale for the whole and a larger for the top part (blended by a distribution shader as well), with another distribution shader as final density to cut it of below (little fuzzy) and above (more fuzzy).
But it's not perfect, better to use a cone shaped cloud (to be found on the forum).

I possibly even linked this wrongly I now see, so don't take it as perfect.

Dune

Different rock, without strata shaders.  Tilted the left part a bit more, changed the distance (added an erosion fractal). I don't really like the right bit now (vegetation colors, e.g.), so there's more work to do.

otakar

Definite improvement. Rock structures are very good. The water's fine. The vegetation is well chosen, though I'd add a bunch of yellow-brown and bare (dry) bushes/trees. The consistent saturated green on the trees is a question mark for me. I feel this is now really coming into place. Just make it look wild :)