Long time no see- some astro fantasy

[Mahnmut]

Hello dear fellow forum members.
It has been some time since I last used TG.
After my pc refused to load the newest nasa maps of Mars that I had been looking forward to (well, 11 gb) I decided to make some quick astro-fantasy pics instead,
here is the start. No claim to realism whatsoever.
Best Regards,
J

[Dune]

Yeah, I thought I remembered your name from somewhere
I like the second render best. Good to see your work again. Keep coming!

[Mahnmut]

Thanks!
my plan was to make rather quick and abstract pics, in order to save time...
Already I feel the call of the detail again.

[Mahnmut]

Plants ar Wallis.

[Hannes]

Cool!!! Very unusual images. I like that! Especially le petit prince!

[Stormlord]

It stretches the fantasy, they look pretty nice and spacy.

May I ask...
Why downloading the latest Mars Map?
Better use an older one and make it true color instead....


My True Color Mars Map from 2014

https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,29354.msg288558.html#msg288558
Some renderings with the map.

STORMLORD
 

[Mahnmut]

Thanks Hannes,
your space pics where one reason for me to try TG again after some years of Palaeo-modelling!

Thanks Stormlord,
I was not talking about Mars colour maps, but the latest displacement maps:
https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/map/Mars/Topography/HRSC_MOLA_Blend/Mars_HRSC_MOLA_BlendDEM_Global_200mp_v2
The best I could use in TG yet is this:
https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/map/Mars/GlobalSurveyor/MOLA/Mars_MGS_MOLA_DEM_mosaic_global_463m,
resulting in this:
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,15070.msg288633.html#msg288633

so the new one would give more than twice the resolution for closer views, if I could get it to work.

After some frustrating attempts I decided to make some astro-fantasy instead, for now. And I am really happy with the results, especially the last one, I think I will explore that direction somewhat more.

Best Regards,
J

[Mahnmut]

Hmm, not yet halloween...
The terrain looked somewhat apelike, I tried to enhance the effect with a populated object.
Kong meets anihilation.
I can imagine a less scary version of teh red veg.
Cheers,
J

[Dune]

This is very cool as well. Apeface indeed, great effect.

[Hannes]

So cool!!!!

[Mahnmut]

Thank you, I do value your opinion!

The following picture is relies strongly on the great free objects the following artists and institutions provided via sketchfab, although i am not sure if all their contributions are still visible:

Sara Carena
Nik
Captain obvious
Thehydrous
RISD Nature lab
Mbari
youniqueideastudio
Michael Campagnaro
Digital atlas of ancient life
Chei UC San Diego
assetfactory
replika8 studios

Thanks!

[Dune]

I think the graphic/hard appearance is your intention, but I prefer the onces with the mysterious haze. This conglomerate of sponges and corals is great as a basis for an underwater scene, but that would be reality instead of the more arty approach you take.

[Hannes]

Wow! This looks insanely cool!! I instantly thought, how would this "thing" look with subsurface scattering?

[Mahnmut]

Thanks!
Yes, in this case it was my intention to make it look like the dry skeleton of a reef (for two reasons, first I have a hard time seeing pictures of happy reefs considering the situation we are really in, second I was not sure about how to get the correct colours and fine detail for living coral.
That thing is a planet with 2 populations and 13 hero objects.
Its been 6 years since I used TG frequently, so i missed all of the new subsurface scattering options. Where can I find that?
I also pondered creating a landscape using your human surfaces Hannes but could not get them to work.
Another question, although I kind of like the grainy look of the last image, which setting could reduce that?
Best regards,
J

[Hannes]

Its been 6 years since I used TG frequently, so i missed all of the new subsurface scattering options. Where can I find that?
I also pondered creating a landscape using your human surfaces Hannes but could not get them to work.
Another question, although I kind of like the grainy look of the last image, which setting could reduce that?

Are you referring to these subsurface scattering shaders of mine?:
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,27382.0.html
Actually I don't think they work at all for landscapes. But I could imagine the skin shader for example might work for your objects. It might be a bit tedious to replace all shaders by mine (and don't forget to add your textures into the according image map shaders), but it's worth a try. Maybe you'll have to change the color of the decay tint (SSS skin (glass shader)/subsurface), since it's kind of pinkish, but maybe it looks good (somehow strangely organic?).

Regarding grain: depending on your lighting you might use a quite high anti aliasing value. There are some other settings in the "Edit sampling" tab, but I'm afraid I don't remember, which ones to edit. However, anti aliasing is a crucial factor. You shouldn't go less than 9 in this case, maybe even more...