Zlain's old dirt road Final

Started by Zairyn Arsyn, March 28, 2013, 06:31:52 PM

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Dune

I'd use a larger variety of grasses, and tilt the main grass object 3-4 degrees. Maybe add some flowers? Furthermore, I'd get id of the lighter lines at the path's edges. And it would indeed be nice to have something where the paths leading to, a castle, shed, farm, or a water tower or temple. Not too big.
Maybe some subtle, soft cloud layers would work, just try it.

Zairyn Arsyn

from last night, i cranked up the settings - Detail 0.8, AA 8, Supersample, GI details 2/2  :)
render time 10hrs+

C&C welcomed

@dune i have some flowers in the next render
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Tangled-Universe

Very very nice, can't say much else than that I like the mood and scene here.


There's only one thing I think you could try if you like, but first let me explain why. I think the image looks a bit HDR as both atmosphere and ground are well within exposure range and thus both have details in shadows. In a photoreal situation, single shot, this dynamic range would be captured differently.


As the sky makes the mood here I'd stick to keeping that as is and compensate the surfaces by adding more shadow.
I'd like to suggest to make a vertical crop (so only crop left/right sides, so that you still can see the way the atmo interacts with the terrain).
Then in the "Enviro Light" node reduce "GI strength on surface" by half and render the crop.


How does that look?


Cheers,
Martin

Zairyn Arsyn

and now, flowers, i have more, so i can try different ones :)

i'm using 2 Enviro lights, with GI & AO

ill give your suggestions a go.
WARNING! WIZARDS! DO NOT PREDICT THE BEHAVIOR OF OTTERS UNLESS YOU OBEY BIG HAPPY TOES.

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Oshyan

I agree with Martin, both his praise and criticism, hehe. The one thing not mentioned (surprisingly to me) is that the edges of the path really need some "breakup" or other fractal detail, something to make them not look so smooth and evenly blended-in. Some noise, basically. That's the only glaring issue that stands out to my eye at this point.

- Oshyan

Zairyn Arsyn


Quote from: Oshyan on April 03, 2013, 05:43:51 PM
is that the edges of the path really need some "breakup"

- Oshyan
i'm aware of this actually.
not sure why im getting this.
actually it does have some break up, or did, i need to go through my surface nodes and do some render tests
WARNING! WIZARDS! DO NOT PREDICT THE BEHAVIOR OF OTTERS UNLESS YOU OBEY BIG HAPPY TOES.

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Tangled-Universe

The flowers might be a nice addition after you have increased the contrasts more by adding some shadows, so I'd say those are a keeper.
Disable the AO enviro light. "We" don't want extra enviro light, but more shadows so we can disable it. It also adds some rendertime, so another nice reason :)
If you think the shadows aren't strong enough then reduce strength on surface again by half.


If your shadows have a hue, say red, then reduce the RGB value for red in the enviro light colour for surfaces. Say from 255 to 215.

Zairyn Arsyn

AO light has been now been disabled
WARNING! WIZARDS! DO NOT PREDICT THE BEHAVIOR OF OTTERS UNLESS YOU OBEY BIG HAPPY TOES.

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Zairyn Arsyn

ao light disabled, fixed break up fractal, added some clouds, about to add another variety of grass.

comments & Critques welcome
WARNING! WIZARDS! DO NOT PREDICT THE BEHAVIOR OF OTTERS UNLESS YOU OBEY BIG HAPPY TOES.

i7 2600k 3.4GHZ|G.skill 16GB 1600MHZ|Asus P8P67 EVO|Evga 770GTX 4GB|SB X-FI|Antec 750W
http://zlain81.deviantart.com/

Tangled-Universe

That's quite an improvement already :)
Did you also reduce the "strenght on surface" parameter for the (GI) enviro light?
I still think it can use a bit more shadows in the vegetation.

From now it's polishing/refining until it's "done"...if that's possible :)
You can think about adding fine bumps here and there in your road, may be a bit of grit/stones here and there, just not too many.
The background trees are a bit "out of the blue" so you can think of ways to make their appearance and position a bit more natural.

Cheers,
Martin

Dune

Indeed, very nice. And good to be able to judge it this big. So.... I have a few comments; with a sky like you have and the sun still quite high I would expect more light on the terrain and also more 'blinding' light, as you look straight into the sun. Perhaps a low cloud layer, low density, even without fractal, can produce that, overshining (or however you call that) the trees. I really like your path surface but there is one dark patch with a straight edge which should be broken/removed/warped more. Also, I would brakup the pop of grasses in the central part of the path. It forms a too well defined line, especially further uphill.
But definitely a great image.

mhaze

looking good, looking forward to the final image. definitely feel like it needs a temple in the background.

TheBadger

Its good Zlain. I like it the best of your images so far this year, and one of my all time favorites of your work. Keep tweaking.
It has been eaten.

Zairyn Arsyn

lighting changed... looks ok?

added some fresh wild grass from NWDA

going to start tweaking the break up on the grass pops.

C&C welcome.
WARNING! WIZARDS! DO NOT PREDICT THE BEHAVIOR OF OTTERS UNLESS YOU OBEY BIG HAPPY TOES.

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yossam

For some reason, the dry grass and flowers look over exposed. May be my monitor.