Render Process: A Journey!

[BPauba]

I have had some trouble getting a good concept/direction with this scene. In most cases I have a short story in my head and I know what sort of details I need to create for it, but I have been sitting here for hours looking at this picture and not much has come up!

There is something though, I really think a nice trail would do this picture justice. This trail would end at some sort of architecture. I am thinking of a storyline that involves a safe or secret room, and this small building would be the entrance to it. We shall see where it goes.

The white lines are obviously the path and where the structure would be. The red line shows the path of the eye (or at least how I want your eyes to move through the image). Finally, the blue areas are where I need to create directionality to keep the eye on the right path. The easiest solution for the blue areas are hills or mounds, but I really think it will be difficult to find good stock that matches the geology of the terrain. We will see...


(sorry for not adding the image!)

I am going to start building the path today. Instead of trying to paint it in I will be actually rendering 3 more renders. I think it will be much easier to just create a new texture in Terragen, and then mask it into the .PSD. Furthermore I am angered that I didn't have water in the first renders... I believe it would have gone well with the developing theme, but argh I do not know if it is worth trying to add it in post or even to re-render the scene...

Tell me what you think...

That makes sense for your stitching method, but you might consider using some proper stitching software to stitch them together.. posssibly remapping the images to a cylindrical projection. In practise you would then need 0 overlap (faster rendering) and there would be no distortion at the seams (no masking/ brushwork required).  I'd be happy to help if you want to try it.

Hey Ben, I have no experience in that sort of thing at all, but I would love to hear about it more. I might take you up on that offer sometime... Do you use MSN messenger?

[rcallicotte]

I like the potential you're setting up.  It doesn't need water, in my opinion.

[cyphyr]

Very interesting process you've got there, I'll be watching and learning
I see what you mean about the water, theres a definite ridge behind the house and I can see how the low area to the right and beyond the ridge could be a lake or sea.
Richard

[bigben]

Hey Ben, I have no experience in that sort of thing at all, but I would love to hear about it more. I might take you up on that offer sometime... Do you use MSN messenger?

Yes, although I only access it from work, so if I don't reply it's just that I'm not at my desk (or I'm actually working )

You can start by getting the software from this post <http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=853.0>   There's a bit extra in there to what you need, but it will become clear once you do it once.  Just let me know the FOV and dimensions of your stitched image and I'll give you a script that you can use to stitch the images together.

Then all you need to do is select the script and image tiles and drag them onto the app (PTSticher) and enter a file name when prompted... then sit back. I'll give you a couple of notes on editing the script file (also pretty straight forward)

[BPauba]

Hey Ben, I have no experience in that sort of thing at all, but I would love to hear about it more. I might take you up on that offer sometime... Do you use MSN messenger?

Yes, although I only access it from work, so if I don't reply it's just that I'm not at my desk (or I'm actually working )

You can start by getting the software from this post <http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=853.0>   There's a bit extra in there to what you need, but it will become clear once you do it once.  Just let me know the FOV and dimensions of your stitched image and I'll give you a script that you can use to stitch the images together.

Then all you need to do is select the script and image tiles and drag them onto the app (PTSticher) and enter a file name when prompted... then sit back. I'll give you a couple of notes on editing the script file (also pretty straight forward)

Ah, bad news bud, I use OSX. My little brother have a PC running vista that I can try these programs on, which I will in the next couple of days. I will get back to you!

[bigben]

There are some Mac versions around as well. Image stitching has become a lot more popular with the spread of digital cameras so you should be able to find something that is easy to use.

PTMac is a derivative of Panorama Tools.

http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/tutorials/360/background/projections.html
This is an old page I made up to explain image projections which you may find useful when deciding which one to use for your final image.

[BPauba]

There are some Mac versions around as well. Image stitching has become a lot more popular with the spread of digital cameras so you should be able to find something that is easy to use.

PTMac is a derivative of Panorama Tools.

http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/tutorials/360/background/projections.html
This is an old page I made up to explain image projections which you may find useful when deciding which one to use for your final image.

Awesome stuff I will be sure to check it out, thanks for the link and help bud. I might have to try it out on my path plate, even though it wont match the original plate it would be a good learning lesson. Thanks again.