Worth the Climb - WIP

[ZStar]

Here is my latest WIP.  The trees are XFrog, grass is three populations of TG grass clumps, and a simple pyramid object with a fake stone shader for the stone cairn.  The tan grass has a simple stalk and seed head I whipped up in MSPaint  and applied as an image via a default shader. 

I am still working on the stone cairn.  I like the variation in color for the individual stones but I would like to get some additional displacement to rough them up a bit.  However, whenever I apply a shader to get the displacement, it seems to override the fake stone color variations resulting in a pile of uniformly colored stones.  Does anybody know what I'm doing wrong?  Or is this a case of "can't get there from here?"

C&C welcome.  Thanks.

[rcallicotte]

This is a very nice render.  Quiet and pleasant.

It might be good to post your TGD to get specific help.  It could be you have blocked the color somehow.  Are you using image maps?

[Tangled-Universe]

This is looking good already for a WIP. I like the clouds a lot, they work perfect for this scene.
Besides the fake-stone problem there's one thing I really would change and that's the scale of the waves. They have to be much much smaller to get the correct sense of scales.

The reason your stones lose their colorvariations are because you override the internal color-generator of the fake stone shader by adding a powerfractal (PF). Whether you use it for coloring or displacement it will replace the surfacing and displacement internal input with that of the powerfractal.
Maybe not an exactly true answer but that's how it more or less works.
You can add a default shader or surface layer as surface input for the fake stones and then add seperate PF's for coloring and displacement. For the coloring you should use scales similar of the stones scales to get the color-variations.

[ZStar]

Thanks for the comments calico.  I have not used any images on the fake stones.  I had tried a PF directly into the fake stones and the same PF through a material shader. 

T-U, I was not real happy with the water either.  At some resolutions the surface looks like depressions on a flat surface rather than waves.  I will definitely be working on it. 

"This is looking good already for a WIP."  - It has gone through many, many versions to get to this point.      I finally got it to where I felt comfortable sharing and I was hoping for some options about how to deal with the fake stones. 

I'll give your ideas a try.  Thanks.

[rcallicotte]

There are lots of TGCs here to use to better understand how many have done something like this.

[ZStar]

Thanks calico.  I should be able to find something helpful.

[rcallicotte]

@ZStar - It might seem like a blow off, but you'll learn loads by using and picking apart many of these files many people have provided here. 

Please repost here so we see what you did.

[ZStar]

calico - I did not take your suggestion as a "blow off."  I have found quite a bit of useful info here.  I did a search on fake stones and came across a .tgc you had posted.  It looks like it might point me in the right direction for what I want. 

Last night I followed up on T-U's water comments and the smaller waves do look better.  Unfortunately the overnight render had some dropouts on the trees so I don't have a good image to post.

[Mr_Lamppost]

Your grass looks very good if you are only using the built in grass clumps. Well done, I gave up on them and started using imported objects months ago. 

[ZStar]

Yes, Mr_Lamppost, the grass is pure TG other than a simple image and matching opacity mask.  I played around with the TG grass clumps one evening and liked the results so much I incorporated them.  I had tried and failed to get procedural grass to look convincing, even with some of the examples posted in these forums.

I'll try to post a sample in the file sharing forum in the next day or two.

[Tangled-Universe]

Looking forward to see your next update.

I have 2 other suggestions by the way:

1)Maybe it's nice to increase the density of the atmospherice hazes a little bit so the far island will have slightly bland look (lower contrast).
I think this could add to the sense of scale and realism.

2) slightly decrease scale/size of the grasses and render them at higher detail and especially AA.

[ZStar]

Here is the latest version.  I think I may have reduced the cloud density a little too far.   I managed to get the stones looking better but some are still a little too angular, especially when rendered at higher resolutions.  I also boosted the sunlight intensity.

I forgot to mention in my first post that I was using Oshyan's fill light setup.  There is no GI.  In this version I have modified the fill light set up.  I raised the light elevations from 45deg to 60deg.  I also moved them so that one is directly behind and above the camera and the other two are 70deg to either side.  That puts all three behind the camera's perspective and tends to even out the faint shadows better.

T-U, I appreciate your suggestions.  I did reduce the wave scale and I think it looks better.  I also increased the quality setting for the grass but it probably doesn't make much difference at this resolution.  I tried raising the haze level but I felt it washed things out too much and the horizon seemed to disappear completely.

[Seth]

very good tree distribution and nice water.
the clouds and the water melting at the horizon look good to me.
the light seems a bit flat though

[zhotfire]

It's great looking inlet. I like the wispy clouds, but agree with seth on the lighting.

[rcallicotte]

Again, I really like this.