Archaeology

[Hannes]

I wanted to make a desert image. No plants, no clouds. At least I have no plants. The ruin and the tents are made by me. The trucks and the gentlemen running around are not (yes, they are there! Look closely!)

[inkydigit]

looks great Hannes, maybe the ruins could be a bit more 'crumbly'?
still, love the concept and colouring/pov etc...
you are onto something, I love the barren somplicity that TG does so well (in the right hands of course!)

Jason
edit...the terrain work here too is most excellent, and the sand/dust cloud adds scale and movement too!
)

[masonspappy]

With one exception, everything is right about this image. Very well done.   
My only quibble is that the ruins look too clean and new.

[Dune]

An absolute stunning terrain and very convincing. When watching it, you get the urge to get closer and see what's there. The whole settings with tents, dust and ruins is great. My only point would be the color of the ruins; I would give it a more subdued color, like the soil. It stands out just a tad too much, IMHO.
Copied it to my selection of favorites!

[Hannes]

Thanks guys. Yes, you are right. The ruins could be a bit more aged looking.

@Ulco, I know what you mean. Kind of weird since the ruins have the exact same colour like the sand. It's probably the bouncing light that makes them look somehow oversaturated?!
After spending a lot of time placing the parts in the terrain, I may have lost the attention for the details. I'm going to improve the ruins and it's colour.

[AP]

This looks sweet so far, if you could try running the terrain through the height field node using the shader input and then the erode node, it certainly would give the impression of convincing age here.

[mhaze]

Great terrain but I agree with the comments about the ruins , they look too new!

[Hannes]

Update: I ruined the ruins and desaturated the colour a little bit. Additionally I attached a closeup crop in the original render size of the archaeological site.

[wiwine]

A very nice render. Reminds me the mountains of Petra (Jordania) with "Palmyra-like" ruins.

Just a suggestion : the fake stones have a color that does not totally fit with the rest of the landscape (perhaps to much yellow). And because of supposed human activities, there should not be so much stones inside the perimeter of the ruins

[Hannes]

Funny that you mention Palmyra. When I was searching reference images of ruins I found that Palmyra was exactly what I had in mind.
The colours: this is really weird: in the original image the sand, the ruins and the fake stones have the exact same colour. Nevertheless they all seem different. I already desaturated the ruin's colour, but now I think I leave the scene as it is.

[masonspappy]

All-in-all it's a really good image. The rock texturing is photoreal

[TheBadger]

great terrain, Hannes.

May I sugest using an image map or set of simple shapes to create geometric dig patterns, such as you can see here:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yoZVx644Jak/TE0IYfx3gtI/AAAAAAAAAEU/PspvyizArhQ/s1600/1.jpg
and
http://www.dignubia.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/digsite.jpg

place at and near your ruins, it will really help to drive your intent home. In that regard your tents are very nice. But I think this little extra will help.

That circle of rocks is also very effective in this regard.

[wiwine]

The colours: this is really weird: in the original image the sand, the ruins and the fake stones have the exact same colour. Nevertheless they all seem different.

I've noticed this problem on some renders too. Perhaps a effect of light ?
Your fake stones look like... ahem... giant pop-corn scattered in the ruins ? 

[Hannes]

@Badger, I think I can read your mind. In the meantime I made an update doing exactly what you suggested without having read your post. I used an image map shader. I am going to improve it still a bit, but I think it's quite nice.
@Wiwine: it's the ancient temple of a cyclops who loves to eat popcorn in front of the TV.

[Zairyn Arsyn]

cool, neat idea, the modeling work looks good.