Artby - Final

Started by Artby, January 27, 2015, 03:09:17 PM

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Artby

Hi all,

I have learn a lot on this forum, and I am happy to join your community! I am quite new to Terragen, but more experienced in vfx, matte painting and CGI in general. Because there is a small amount of time to finish this contest, I will try doing my best...

Here are some moods I made to help me "think iceland" during my work :
[attach=3][attach=2][attach=1][attach=4][attach=5]

My first try :

[attach=6]

I liked the mood but found it was not "icelandic" enough.

So I started a new image from scratch, and this is were I am at the moment :

[attach=7]

For me it still need some work on the cloud, the water, and the plants. I am also looking for some composition adjustment, here is a research I've done in photoshop :
[attach=8]

Please let me know what you think so I can improve my render :)



archonforest

Looks fantastic to me already. :)
The only thing that I am not sure about is the brand new looking church? building. The weather can be pretty rough there and nothing really stays like this. Well this is my viewpoint on your render. One thing for sure. U are on the right track.
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Kadri


Looks already nice. New to Terragen maybe but your experience is showing. Welcome by the way.

TheBadger

#3
GREAT start! Glad to see these. I like the church just fine. It is still in use, and would not be worn down at all. The people would take care of it every season, and it looks just like your photo reference.

Great mood in image 1.
I guess that you are using an image mask for the river shape? No reason for asking, just thought that is what you are doing.

Welcome to the forum from me too. Hope to see a lot more from you.
It has been eaten.

zaxxon

This is a wonderful set of first image posts, especially considering the subject.  The texturing and atmosphere are very, very nice. The dark shadows break up the composition to my eye and the lack of detail in those areas detracts from the overall level of realism. Welcome to the forum, hope to see more.

inkydigit

Epic first post... Welcome!
No real crits ... These are both great, I like the church... Good moody feel
Cheers
Jason

Oshyan

I think this looks *very* nice, especially for your first images (here, at least). So, well done! My main critique would be about the relatively even sense of roughness and texture on the ground. It needs to be broken up more, to follow and react to the terrain shapes more. So you have smoother areas in the flat sections, rougher areas in steep sections or in little gullies and ravines, etc. And more break-up in general of things like the light rock (or snow?) surface.

I like the heavy shadows, it's very dramatic, but will probably need some adjustment to improve balance with the foreground and overall composition.

Regarding the church, they make many buildings there out of metal now, due to the lack of trees and the harsh seasons. They paint them bright colors, and they seem to last, maybe due to consistent repainting. I saw a church almost exactly like this high on a hill beneath a ridge, so this struck me as immediately quite realistic. Attached is an example image, hopefully helpful (or at least confirming your idea, hehe).

- Oshyan

Dune

I agree with all (easy for me), and was struck by the dark frontal shadows. That's something I like very much (used that 'trick' in photography often). The drama makes it a very strong image, but I wouldn't mirror the image, I liked the middle one better. I also liked the way you gathered your samples to make what you want.
Hope to see more work from you here.

Oshyan

Yes, I liked the middle one best too, before the mirror/flip of composition.

- Oshyan

bla bla 2


RogueNZ

I personally like the first one the most, I think the dark shadow is a bit too dark but love the way it frames the image and contrasts with the sunlit mountain. I think you have some very nice setups to refine with improved surfacing and vegetation, please continue  :)

DannyG

POV and mood rule the 1st image, like the foreground in the second. All look damn good.
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choronr

You are going to go places here with your work. Your display confirms that.

Artby

Hi all !
First of all thank you for your reception, your feedbacks and your encouragements!
For the shadow density, I wanted from the start something quite dramatic and contrasted, but realised that my screen isn't well calibrated. On my screen it is not so dark, I may try to finalize my image at work on a better display, within nuke (I just tried the render passes and it works very well!).
I did the church in Maya, and the river is from a draw I did in Photoshop. I used it as displacement with an image map shader.
Thank you Oshyan for your references! I am agree with your advices and am trying to do my best. A lot of testing (and waiting), still not have what I want.

My main problem at the moment is the render time, it is hard to work without fast feedback... (and it is longer with render passes). I render one image each morning, and sometimes it isn't ended when I come back from work (the last one took 14h with render passes, atmo quality 32, there is 9 3D clouds nodes at 0.4-0.6 no acceleration, detail is 0.65, AA 7). I may consider to lower these settings and de-noise some of the passes in nuke...
The ground part is very long to calculate, maybe AA 5 can be the solution, I will try it tomorrow.

Here is my last iteration, still need work. I am not satisfied with the ground just after the river (actually I preferred my last version for this zone). I am not sure with the snow, I think I should add more on the top, or remove it. And I don't like the grey rocks after the church. I am still thinking of adding a foreground rock, and maybe something to look at behind the lake on the right, where the eye is attracted....


Dune

This is going to be really nice. I like the mood very much. The foreground blur may be reduced if you ask me. I don't know if this much is a 'photographic reality' with such wide vista and normal lens. Takes more time to render also.
You could also try some fractal warp on the foreground for a more interesting shore edge (it's quite soft and plain now).