Iceland first snow

Started by kalwalt, January 23, 2015, 12:40:05 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

kalwalt

Hi,it is a bit of time that I am not present in this forum. I decided to contribute to this contest with a picture. My idea is to realize an iceland landscape with the first autumn(?) snow and a waterfall. I started from the Ulco Nwda waterfall example. I added the snow some "caves" near the waterfall, and modified the terrain. Not very satisfied with the snow, i think it's too much and also is attached on the overhang on the left of the waterfall. I have also the doubt that this landscape could be everywhere... ???

Walter

[attach=1]
Terragen 3 creative + animation license
WorldMachine
3Dcoat

TheBadger

Well I think you are on to something here.

Snow; try some clips in file sharing sticky. See if there is anything there that can inspire you.
Waterfall; dont ask me. It may be easier though if you make it fall straight down rather than follow the rock face?
Iceland look; After you finish your rock faces then just add moss on everything that you cant see snow on ;D

Its pretty good man, don't doubt your self. Go with your gut and keep working. This is a cool scene, has lots of potential IMO.
It has been eaten.

Dune

Badger is right, this certainly has potential. It's quite daring to try a landscape like this, I appreciate that. I have some suggestions: increase the displacement in the fractal on which the stone population sits, so the stones spread out more in height (for a rougher fall). You should also move the whole fall a bit towards the rock wall, so you loose the straight edge where you look under the fall. It may also be possible to make the fall area 'rounder', but that's up to you, can't help you with that.
Then the snow. Try a displacement intersection and see what happens. You might loose the fall area, then it won't work. Otherwise, restrict the  snow to lesser slopes, so it's not on the ceiling of the caves (which are nice). You could also try to reduce the intial fine roughness of the terrain, then add snow on lesser slopes and add some minor rough displacement where there's no snow, but that takes some fiddling with masks...
And then I'd at least add some patches of color in the valley, like snow or bushes, for diversity.
Good luck.

kalwalt

Thank you @TheBadger for the insights and thoughts. :) I also think that maybe some mossy rocks can add more appeal to the overall scene. i did a quick render at lower res. The moss is only green colour on a power fractal shader for now, For the Snow i used a Surface shader masked by a power fractal. For the waterfall: Now, i want to work on the other parts of the composition i will see this after. I m considering to add a little geyser on the left down part of the picture near the lake, could add more "islandisness" (!) to the image.

Thank you @Dune also for your precious help, i'm reading carefully your post! I wrote my post at the same time you posting it...
Terragen 3 creative + animation license
WorldMachine
3Dcoat

kalwalt

An update: i tried to improve the snow and to add a mossy effect. IMO i think the moss should cover more the rocks, i will see this. For the waterfall: i increased the displacement as suggested by Ulco but i think i have to yet increase it, also i reduced the drops to 2 cm, but i don't see great differences.
Terragen 3 creative + animation license
WorldMachine
3Dcoat

Oshyan

I think you're going in the right direction. Latest update looks promising.

- Oshyan

kalwalt

Quote from: Oshyan on January 24, 2015, 05:57:12 PM
I think you're going in the right direction. Latest update looks promising.

- Oshyan

Thank's Oshyan,i agree with you. Now, i'm working on improving the moss effect and to add some bushes, veggies. Not decided yet about the sky.
Terragen 3 creative + animation license
WorldMachine
3Dcoat

Dune

You could obsure part of the fall that is not to your taste by some shrub, or rock outcrops (cubes or local vector displacement/redirect).

kalwalt

I think the cube method you @Dune suggested works well, looks in the picture. I also added some bushes and grass populations. More will come. ;)
Terragen 3 creative + animation license
WorldMachine
3Dcoat

TheBadger

Is this at scale? The trees look way too small to me. I thought this a much smaller place from the first images. Other than that, its shaping up pretty good. 8)
It has been eaten.

kalwalt

no they aren't. they are Betula lenta from xforg. I reduced them to half size because i hadn't  shrubs. i don't know even if this tree can find in iceland, so if it is correct for the contest. I'm glad you like the picture. :)
Terragen 3 creative + animation license
WorldMachine
3Dcoat

Oshyan

This is starting to look really good! I agree the plants don't seem quite right, but they should be easily fixed. More importantly the waterfall is pretty believable, which is hard to do. It's an interesting camera position, it makes me wonder what the photographer is standing on (or where they're standing). You might consider adjusting that a bit, or maybe changing aspect ratio. But in general it's looking nice.

- Oshyan

Dune

Getting nicer. I would change the POV to a lower camera position, so you see more sky. The rock really helps. Something you can do if you don't have shrubs is sit the pop of trees on a displacement shader (after compute terrain, but not in the main line, so as endpoint) set to some small minus number (the amount you wish the trees to duck), with a white color as input, or a white-black PF, for variance. Or just lower the object a bit, if you want them all to duck the same distance. Then you only have the tops of trees above ground. But I would use larger shrub/trees, as my first idea was that it's a smaller area indeed. You could measure it.

kalwalt

Thank's @Oshyan and @Dune. :) I agree with the camera position. My idea is to take a shot of the place from the the ground to up, showing some mossy boulders on the foreground, the waterfall in the middle right and the "snowy mounts" on the background. I think i will add some boulders  with cubes or/and fake stones shaders in the lower right corner where actually there is the water. For the plant's i will do a little research for some iceland shrubs. But i will consider your input @Dune. Another thing that not convince me is the sky. I think that is not an iceland sky. Maybe it needs some heavy blu nembo clouds. i will see this. 
Terragen 3 creative + animation license
WorldMachine
3Dcoat

kalwalt

#14
An update: most of the changes are in the point of view, ratio of the picture, the athmosphere, and the moss. what about this? sure i have to tweak a bit the position of the clouds... i don't like too much that the foreground is into the shadow, but for now i'm happy with it. :)
Terragen 3 creative + animation license
WorldMachine
3Dcoat