Mountain Lake Animation

Started by DocCharly65, December 13, 2014, 08:51:12 AM

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DocCharly65

Long Time and only a little step forward... But I know now, what is NOT working...  :-X

The falling leaves and the rising camera are OK in my opinion but the swimming leaves are ugly. I bought some new leave-objects for tests from turbosquid.com. There are new experiments to start  :)

But anyway I have got some new experiences and hope it does not look too bad:


And of course I could not leave it: A single shot in 3D testing the new TG version   ;).

[attach=1]

I stopped rendering the animation and changed the camera focus from the leave to the boat so the blur effect is now on the leave and not the boat - I think it looks better...
For the 3D view you will need red cyan glasses.

Anyway I will work on the scene and especially test other leaves.


DocCharly65

Thanks Kadri,

One frame needs app. 30-60 min to render (Detail 0.35, AA 4) The closer the camera is at the water, the more time it needs.


Kadri


I see. There are noise obviously. Are these settings only for testing purpose?
Do you plan to render at higher settings Doc?

DocCharly65

#4
As you perhaps see, the parts with the rising cam are not as noisy as the parts with the boat/leaves. And most noise is in the water - I must find out why - the less noisy parts have the same render quality... Hope I find out.


...5:35 pm: I try new settings: soften shadows OFF  /  Details 0.4  /  AA 6
Just to check rendertime and changes in the quality of a single frame.

Kadri

It depends on many factors of course but for animation i don't go lower then 0.7 detail and AA 8 mostly.

Oshyan

I don't think the falling leaves look so bad, really. But the whole thing is a bit dark on my screen, so it's hard to say for sure, heh. Maybe increase the GI a bit or up fill light strength if you're not using GI. Is it dark for anyone else?

- Oshyan

Kadri


Judging by some part of the animation it looks more like because the scene is mostly in shadows Oshyan.
Could be brighter but wasn't a problem for me.

DocCharly65

#8
As you say Oshyan I feel ok with the falling leaves. In fact youtube videos are usually always be a little bit too dark. I heard that youtube darkens them after the upload. I don't know if it's true. On the other side my monitors and TVs are all set to quite bright settings.

I made some experiments with AA settings:

[attach=1]
AA 06 Rendertime 4 min.


[attach=2]
AA 10 Rendertime 8 min.


In fact the second pic has smoother grass. But I am more intersted the diferences from one frame to the next - thats the flickering.

GI quality in the film was 3/3/14
Steps 7 frames  / blending 14 frames



Beside: Here comes the new leaves, I buyed today (they really look better - you can see, that there is not just an absolutely straight edge like the old leave.

[attach=3]
new leave (has a more detailt mesh)


[attach=4]
old leave

Dune

The falling leaf is very subtle. As for render time; maybe for shots where the transparency of the water is not really needed (angle or fast moving), you may turn it off, that might reduce rendertime. Or fake it by using darkened ground colors in the 'lake line' before a reflective shader, or restrict real transparency only to shore areas by masking. If it does really improve render time, you'd have to check and decide.

WAS

Wow, this looks really good for the detail provided. Is it scaled down? I really like the water and the leaves, it actually makes me feel like I am there. Is there anyway to add pond vegetation below the surface? When we look at the shore I feel like it's photo realistic except for any water plants.

Ps When reviewing it again, and when I imagine it afterwards, my brain matrix's in bug chatter and flies and dragon flies buzzing about. Maybe add some to the scene? I imagine flies could be done somehow procedurally being so small. Not sure about dragon flies.

DocCharly65

Thanks WASasquatch  :)

When I started the idea, I had just the basic plants from the TG3 licence and didn't find any plant matching the scene. But you're right.

Actually there's running the renderjob for the revised boatscene but unfortunately still without underwater fauna. In the revised scene the focus keeps on the boat so underwater fauna will be not missed so much, I hope.

But thanks -- you make me an idea: I could add a new scene with a passing leave (of course the new one :) ) and perhaps I can try to choose the perspective that underwater fauna is visible... I have got some ground-covering plants now from XFrog - perhaps they look good. Let's see what I can conjure :)

For a "perhaps" remake of the still shot I could think about some flying insects. For the animation it's just impossible at the moment with my knowledge. I had a similar idea and looked out for some animated greenscreen butterflies... I must see what  I can find.

WAS

Quote from: DocCharly65 on December 21, 2014, 06:40:53 PM
Thanks WASasquatch  :)

When I started the idea, I had just the basic plants from the TG3 licence and didn't find any plant matching the scene. But you're right.

Actually there's running the renderjob for the revised boatscene but unfortunately still without underwater fauna. In the revised scene the focus keeps on the boat so underwater fauna will be not missed so much, I hope.

But thanks -- you make me an idea: I could add a new scene with a passing leave (of course the new one :) ) and perhaps I can try to choose the perspective that underwater fauna is visible... I have got some ground-covering plants now from XFrog - perhaps they look good. Let's see what I can conjure :)

For a "perhaps" remake of the still shot I could think about some flying insects. For the animation it's just impossible at the moment with my knowledge. I had a similar idea and looked out for some animated greenscreen butterflies... I must see what  I can find.

This one is free http://xfrog.com/product/SH16.html and if you transform the Z axis into the pond floor it may give the impression of those whispy-single-stock leafed plants that like to drowned swimmers like underwater ivy. Just needs a bit richer of a green color probably.

All in all this scene is just fantastic. Can't wait for a update. Subscribing to this thread for sure.

DocCharly65

#13
Oh, good idea  --  at the moment I just have no more free PC and fingers ;)
In parallel, I am developing my desert scene with R2D2 ...

I'm really looking forward to see what I can make of the underwater plants idea.

WAS

#14
Quote from: DocCharly65 on December 22, 2014, 03:28:52 AM
Oh, good idea  --  at the moment I just have no more free PC and fingers ;)
In parallel, I am developing my desert scene with R2D2 ...

I'm really looking forward to see what I can make of the underwater plants idea.

Yeah ive been working on a tatooine scene as well ironically. Lol