Pacific Island 2024

[Stormlord]

Thank you John :-)

Allow me to give you some background info, how I am doing stuff...
XFrog is getting better, but the older plants have often very small maps and the masks are crude.
Sometimes you got images as png, or tif, then as tga, even gif. One map comes in 72 dpi, other times it is 247.03 dpi or has 1200 dpi and so on...

Therefore I always make a Photoshop file from the original images, scale them equally to 300 dpi and mostly make a new mask because the originals are often not as good as they should.
Here I blow them up (from a small 512 up to 10000), then apply a gauss blur filter, scale them down again and cutout a new mask with soften edges (I fine-tune the mask after I down scaled it in Photoshop).
This way, the mask is better as the original, especially if they are small! Normally I also like to unsharp the edges only a little bit, so transparency looks more soften and not so sharp at the edges of a leaf.

I know about alpha channels.  So please be patient for a moment Ulco, I will render a new image overnight with a corrected shader settings for the palms.
I also added some different new leafs to the green palms. Originally it had only one leaf which was nasty and has been replaced by a new painted leaf.
In the beginning I painted only one leaf, now I have painted six different colored leafs... this looks very promising...
Your hint to make the leafs a little bit transparent is really great!!! It looks so much more natural, not so dark in the center!!!


Studio Palm Set
Color 1.0 - Translucency 0.0 - Fresnel 0.1 - Opacity 1.0 (leafs only one color)


Studio Palm Set
Color 1.0 - Translucency 0.25 - Fresnel 0.05 - Opacity 0.8 (leafs in six different colors)

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[Stormlord]

 
Pacific Island 2024 (Tropical Version, Ships in Bay)
Screenshot

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[Stormlord]

After changing slightly the viewpoint, I added to my studio palms five more colored leafs.
I had once painted just only one leaf, but now with six different colored leafs they look now more natural and just beautiful.
The opacity, translucency and Fresnel reflection has been adjusted in the shader. Overall, It's an excellent addition to my scene :-)


Studio Palms
Left with only one leaf (previous scene), right with six different leafs (current scene)


Pacific Island 2024
Ships in Bay 2.0

So this is the current look of my pacific island scenery.
In full resolution on my 31.5" monitor it just looks beautiful, maybe I will make a print to hang it in my house?

STORMLORD

[Dune]

The central tree still lacks the opacity map!!

[schmeerlap]

Could it be that central tree has opacity mapped, and it has a leaf similar to the one in the top right of those in the illustration attached.

[Stormlord]

The central tree still lacks the opacity map!!

No Ulco, I have an opacity mask applied, I'm absolutely sure!

Nevertheless I checked it again, and now I finally see, that somehow the checkbox "Use alpha channel" was still activated in the leafs.
And because I use a JPG image as mask (which has no Alpha Channel), any masking will not happen, that's why... shame on me...


Checkbox "Use alpha channel" was still active in the leaf's shader, that's why...
(Preview rendering was done with deactivated checkbox of course)

Thank you John for your considerations as well!
Every helpful advice is always appreciated!

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(Ok, I will render it again... ups...)

[Stormlord]

Another night, another render...


Pacific Island 2024
Ships in Bay 3.0

Improved lightning inside the core of the palms, some shader adjustments.
Opacity changed from 0.9 to 0.6 and I set a second sun to light up the shadows a bit.

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[Dune]

Now the opacity works fine.

[Stormlord]

Yes!
But it is also the second sun placed to the left which gives and spreads more light to the center.
The trees only has been rendered as a separate pass and overlaid in this image.
But who cares? The final result is what counts...

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[Stormlord]

Here comes a new perspective, this time from an offshore viewpoint.
The sky and the water have been changed to get a more paradise shot from a remote island (together with my ships).
I had a more Treasure Island scene in my mind and this is the result so far.

 
Pacific Island 2024
Ships Offshore

I know, there is no waterline, but it is fine, how it is now.
Actually this was a simple quick shot, but the perspective was cool, that I decided spontaneously to start a 4K render.

So when you have set up mostly everything, you just need to adjust the sun position and look for a nice viewpoint.
But that such a beautiful render was the result, is terrific! I really like it and have found another cool viewpoint quickly.

So the story continues... stay tuned!

STORMLORD

[Dune]

Great view, Dirk. You mention waterline, but it would surely enhance the scene, at least the front ship. Just add a dark, stained underside (black surface shader, coverage 80% or so) to waterline on the hull, a meter or so above water level, final position, using Y, a little breakup (through transform, world position). Something like that. You may also need to use the same for the keel part.

[schmeerlap]

Even easier (and lazier way) would be to make a selection of the part of the hull you want darkened in PS and apply the burn brush, or adjust slider in Brightness/Contrast.
Of course Ulco is correct to show you the Terragen way. Being a lazy so and so I'd make the post Terragen adjustment described above.

[Stormlord]

Yes Jon, first I painted a waterline on the hull map.
But because I never made a sail ship render with a waterline, I decided to do it the way Ulco mentioned.
Thank you for your tip!

Thank you also Ulco for the compliment and your explanations.
When I first saw the final render, I though, awesome!

Now I designed a waterline shader as you wrote and see that you're right.
It makes a difference and adds more realism to the scene.


HMS Victory (1737)
Waterline Shader Test


Waterline Shader
With and without waterline

Note:
I stretched the PF mask in Y to get a more elongated/thinner fade between the water line and the hull map beneath.


Pacific Island 2024
Ships Offshore with Waterline Shader and edited water (softer wave surface)

Maybe the waterline isn't dark enough, or I simply used a wrong seed of the PF?
In the Waterline Shader Test rendering, it looked pretty good so far...

However, the render looks really beautiful!

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[Dune]

Yeah, great! It really makes a difference.

[Stormlord]

Same scene but different settings...

 
Pacific Island 2024
(Caribbean Sunset)

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