Just a creek in the woods somewhere

[cocateho26]

Lighting in dark areas like woods always seems to be a challenge in Terragen. Here I lowered the sun strength a bit (4 I think) but cranked up the exposure to 2 and soft clip to 2.5. I think I might go with less soft clip and more exposure next time. I did some contrast and color work is post as well.

[micvswind]

awesome .like it .

[WAS]

Really nice scene. I like the lighting. However for some reason I feel like we need something ont he right side. A bluff. Or a little cliff, or something.

PS if you use Hannes trick and stick an inverted plane into the sky you can actually use the enviro light modulator for PT.

Here is my solution. Luminosity is very low for very little initial effect, but ramping up enviro light on surfaces, etc, will respond. You could tint the luminous colour if you wanted too.

Code Select Expand

<terragen_clip>
<plane
name = "Enviro Light Plane Fix"
gui_use_node_pos = "1"
gui_node_pos = "0 -120 0"
gui_group = ""
enable = "1"
visible_to_camera = "0"
visibility = "0"
visible_to_other_rays = "1"
cast_shadows = "0"
center = "0 0 0"
length_a = "10000"
length_b = "10000"
edge_vector_a = "-1 0 0"
edge_vector_b = "0 0 1"
surface_shader = "Luminosity"
displacement_tolerance = "1"
render_method = "0"
sorting_bias = "0"
>
<default_shader
name = "Luminosity"
gui_use_node_pos = "1"
gui_node_pos = "200 -60 0"
gui_group = ""
enable = "1"
input_node = ""
gui_use_preview_patch_size = "0"
gui_preview_patch_size = "1000 1000"
diffuse_colour = "0 0 0"
colour_image = ""
colour_function = ""
translucency = "0 0 0"
translucency_image = ""
translucency_function = ""
luminosity = "0.009999999776 0.009999999776 0.009999999776"
luminosity_image = ""
luminosity_function = ""
specular_roughness = "0.8"
specular_roughness_image = ""
invert_specular_roughness_image = "0"
convert_specular_roughness_image_to_linear = "0"
specular_roughness_function = ""
specular_roughness_model = "3"
metalness = "0"
metalness_image = ""
convert_metalness_image_to_linear = "0"
metalness_function = ""
reflectivity = "0.75 0.75 0.75"
reflectivity_image = ""
reflectivity_function = ""
reflection_tint = "1 1 1"
index_of_refraction = "1.5"
displacement_direction = "1"
displacement_multiplier = "0.01"
displacement_image = ""
convert_displacement_image_to_linear = "0"
displacement_function = ""
displacement_offset = "0"
opacity = "1 1 1"
opacity_image = ""
use_alpha_channel = "0"
invert_opacity_image = "0"
opacity_function = ""
alpha_from_colour = "0"
alpha_key = "0 0 0"
key_tolerance = "0.1"
image_projection = "4"
projection_camera = ""
unpremultiply_colour = "0"
unpremultiply_metalness = "0"
unpremultiply_translucency = "0"
unpremultiply_luminosity = "0"
unpremultiply_reflectivity = "0"
unpremultiply_specular_roughness = "0"
>
</default_shader>
</plane>
</terragen_clip>

[DocCharly65]

What a lovely forest render! Good work!

[N-drju]

Great work @cocateho26. I like the soft, shaded look this image has. Actually, reminds me of a very climatic, nature-themed song (if you are interested). Your image looks like an illustration I always wanted to give this music.

If you find the shadows too dark, I'd suggest you look into leaf translucency settings. This is one of the main reasons why some artists find shaded and forested areas so dark. For some reason, many tree objects in TG (XFrog included) have 0 translucency set when imported.

I have made a few tests back in the days and there is a world of difference between black-0 and green-0.3 translucency. Take my word for it.

[Dune]

I like it too. Very natural and nice pops with a good diversity. Was this PT? If you continue working on it, I suggest looking at the trees; some on the left have a very hard shadow edge. Perhaps increase polycount or take through Poseray and smooth trunk normals.

[masonspappy]

My only suggestion would be, it would be nice to see a bit of sunlight illuminating the stream. Not all parts of the stream, just random places here and there.
Having said that, I really like this! Lovely work and very peacefull.

[cocateho26]

Thanks guys, here's v2, though not a final yet. Messed around with the pops a bit. Not that I disliked the first arrangement, but like Mason's Pappy pointed out the stream could have used some illumination. Dune - it is PT, and I agree with the trees. Unfortunately I've not really gotten into the modeling world, though it is on my to-do list. WAS - that's a cool idea, I'll have to check that out at some point. What actually started me on this render was trying to find standard lighting settings that would achieve better results in scenes like this that typically end up much darker than desired. So far dialing back the sun strength and then cranking up the exposure seems to have yielded a decent result. with a higher soft clip helping as well but to a lesser extent.

Taking the lighting to more of an extreme I think I'm going to attempt a night scene with some bioluminescence and hope for the best.

[Jo Kariboo]

I really like this latest version. The light is very beautiful. The variations in light intensity on water are very realistic.

[Dune]

Yes, quite some update!

[DocCharly65]

Great! Love it!

[mhaze]

Great scene!

[RogueNZ]

Wicked latest render! I could share with you my set up for fireflies that I used in the NWDA comp if you'd like?

[cocateho26]

Night version, more as proof of concept. I'm going to make some maps for luminosity for better effect. Settings: Sun strength @ 0.005, Exposure @12, soft slip @ 2. RogueNZ - That'd be great, I was going to ask specifically about that actually haha

[Hannes]

Fantastic!!! I prefer the realistic ones, I'd say. It's hard sometimes to find a sun position, where enough stuff is illuminated naturally. The second one is a winner for me.