Iceland - The Kick-Off

[Marty]

Saw a great time-lapse 'Midnight Sun on Iceland'-video today on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/30581015) and ended up making a sunset image (if not a midnight sun). Hope it's okay to contribute with some quickly made work just to give this competition some start-up content. No objects used and no terrain files imported. 

[Tangled-Universe]

For a start this is already quite nice, the rays are quite vivid!

Of course it's ok to just post whatever you doodle around.
The more the merrier and it will help you find out what direction to go I think, so bring it on!

Cheers,
Martin

[zaxxon]

Great start Marty!

[Oshyan]

Quite a promising start! As a relatively recent visitor to Iceland, I can say that the terrain in the foreground actually looks fairly true-to-life already, at least in some areas. The large flat parts are less common, but the roughness and coloration are very good. I'd be curious to see that surface at a high detail.

The progression from rolling terrain in the foreground to really dramatic mountains in the background is also good. Iceland is highly volcanic and so it is basically full of high and unusually shaped mountains surrounded by the long outflows of lava that have been eroded and broken up over eons. So you do get this interesting progression, from the coast where it is often quite low land, not far above sea level, and then slightly inland you have some medium mountains, then really big mountains further in, with huge glaciers, etc. Of course there are some places that defy expectation (like New Zealand), where huge mountains descent right into the sea, and with no apparent lava flow or related features:
http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/2013-11/enhanced/webdr03/21/14/enhanced-buzz-wide-19526-1385061965-19.jpg
https://plus.google.com/photos?oid=109370272325706318796&pid=6037113795376605106
This oddly lumpy ground is also a very common feature which I rather enjoyed:
http://onebigphoto.com/little-church-made-wood-peat-iceland/
http://www.icelandunlimited.is/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Iceland-pictures-88.jpg
Sometimes covered in grass that is blown by the wind and you get very interesting contoured-looking features.

Anyway, good start.

- Oshyan

[choronr]

Very good Marty. We're looking forward to the fun project.

[Marty]

Thanks Everybody! Yes, I felt I quickly got something with a touch of Iceland even if not a complicated scene, so I went for a quick kick-off instead of trying to hard at the start. To summarize: If people like it I must give more credit to Terragen than myself. Great images Oshyan: Iceland is so strange at times. Never been there but living in the nation often considered Icelands big brother, and it's peoples origin, we are not unaware of Icelands originality. But images like you have there show me that it's a lot I have not seen or know about this nation.

[TheBadger]

http://www.icelandunlimited.is/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Iceland-pictures-88.jpg

places like this make me crazy. Its like a acid trip or something, some dream. I would spontaneously combust in a place like this. I don't know what it is, but these green cold places are like an idea of heaven for me.

Good start on the OP!

[choronr]

Michael, you need religion.

[Marty]

Thanks TheBadger! I can imagine that people who really likes the LOTR etc will find places like the image you posted great. It's something fantasy'ish over Iceland for sure.

[bigben]

Any advances on terrain data at higher resolution than 40x90m/px?
[update]
Here's a geotiff: http://files.bigben.id.au/terragen/terrains/eu/iceland.tif (275mb)
Just a composite  of the files from here: http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/dem3.html#nat

[Marty]

I will check it out later and come back to it.

[bobbystahr]

Any advances on terrain data at higher resolution than 40x90m/px?
[update]
Here's a geotiff: http://files.bigben.id.au/terragen/terrains/eu/iceland.tif (275mb)
Just a composite  of the files from here: http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/dem3.html#nat

Thanks Ben

[inkydigit]

The rock surface in the FG is awesome... the clouds are a little harsh maybe?
still great start!

Cheers
Jason