Prelude to a Scorcher

sonshine777 · August 03, 2007, 09:24:33 AM

Here is my latest image. I haven't had much time to post latley as I have been finishing up a canoe I have been working on the last year.(I will post pictures when its done) Any way here you go.

Tangled-Universe · August 03, 2007, 09:58:20 AM

Wow, this must have took ages to render

I really like the mood in this image, achieved by the lighting.
Don't know what you did with the grass lumbs, seems like they have small spotlights inside? (especially grass at the far left)
A nice effect, but maybe a little bit overdone.
The agaves look very nice, so does the lighting on the flowers (don't know which model that is).
Maybe you could add a little more variation in the groundcover. More bumpy mixed fractals and some small fake stones.
The texturing on the fake stones look good, nice bumps and fractal variation. Don't want/like to 'promote' my post about cracked stones, but you might consider to read it, since it can give realistic results.

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1939.msg19180#msg19180

You also might consider to work a little on the thick low clouds by lowering the glow amount and to add more softness and contrast.
The POV is very well chosen, I'd keep it that way for sure.
So in conclusion a very nice image with great potention and which can use some touch-ups, but I think they aren't impossible at all or extremely much work.
I'd certainly like to help you.

Martin

old_blaggard · August 03, 2007, 11:29:31 AM

I really like the lighting here. The terrain and plants look a bit oversharpened to me, but all in all it is a very pleasing image to look at.

rcallicotte · August 03, 2007, 12:03:36 PM

The lighting is nice, but I'm not sure about the clouds. They are too bright and I'm not sure why they are there.

sonshine777 · August 03, 2007, 12:54:10 PM

Render time was 28 hours
Detail at 0.7
AA at 4
GI detail at 2
GI quality at 0
Envio lighting at 2.2 for Strength on surfaces
Camera Exposer 2.2

The "glow" on the grass seems to be a product of the combination of enviro lighting and camrea exposer. I think it is reflected light from surrounding plants, and I have seen this effect in real life before. To answer calico's question about not knowing why the clouds are there in the first place, this happens from time to time in desert areas with canyons. The clouds form in the low areas in the morning,(this is also something I have personally seen) and usually precede a very hot day. The brightness of the clouds is directly proportional to the level of the sun which causes a great deal of reflection.

This is still a work in progress, and as I stated when I first posted I have a canoe to finish.

Tangled-Universe · August 03, 2007, 01:08:47 PM

Quote from: sonshine777 on August 03, 2007, 12:54:10 PM
Render time was 28 hours
Detail at 0.7
AA at 4
GI detail at 2
GI quality at 0
Envio lighting at 2.2 for Strength on surfaces
Camera Exposer 2.2

The "glow" on the grass seems to be a product of the combination of enviro lighting and camrea exposer. I think it is reflected light from surrounding plants, and I have seen this effect in real life before. To answer calico's question about not knowing why the clouds are there in the first place, this happens from time to time in desert areas with canyons. The clouds form in the low areas in the morning,(this is also something I have personally seen) and usually precede a very hot day. The brightness of the clouds is directly proportional to the level of the sun which causes a great deal of reflection.

This is still a work in progress, and as I stated when I first posted I have a canoe to finish.

Ah well, that explains certain things. I guess you also had raytracing enabled? Because I think the reflections of the surfaces is lighting the grass?
I certainly believe you have seen it in real life, but as I already stated it's perhaps a bit too much. Nevertheless it's still a WIP and you better finish the canoe to us it before weather changes

Oshyan · August 03, 2007, 04:36:39 PM

Raytracing doesn't affect the reflection of light from surfaces onto objects. That's handled by GI. I would guess that the strangely bright appearance of the plants is due to the low GI sample quality or overall GI settings plus the increased enviro light strength.

- Oshyan

Tangled-Universe · August 03, 2007, 08:16:24 PM

Thanks Oshyan for the learning moment

)
Seems I've been mistaking. Thought it was handled by raytracing, but it's GI.
Does raytracing affect the atmosphere then, instead of surfaces? I vaguely remember I've read something about this a few days ago here.
(no intention to hijack this topic)

Oshyan · August 03, 2007, 08:29:34 PM

Raytracing in general affects many things, but I think you're talking about the Ray-Trace Shadows options in the Cloud and Atmosphere Quality tabs, which both control shadows cast *from* terrain *onto* clouds or into the atmosphere, respectively. Generally neither is needed. More generally raytracing is used for shadow rendering of objects for example and the overall Raytracing check box control in the Renderer settings will control this, but it is not recommended to turn it off in most cases.

- Oshyan

ozijon · August 04, 2007, 04:09:55 AM

Its very refreshing i like it like a tropic morning

bigben · August 04, 2007, 06:37:56 AM

Very nice image. Increasing the GI quality will give a bit more "shape" to the shadow areas of the plants and rocks, but it's certainly interesting seeing the result from this combination of settings.