Castle Rock (working title)

[cyphyr]

Here's one that's most of the way done now.
Made with the latest Beta version, painter shader used on the foreground trees and the rocks on the shore line are Rock populations.
My only real issue is that the trees on the left are "flat", this is because the sun is more directly angled upon them so that there is little shading to show there shape.
Also initially I had a thin fog layer (like the high one) at water level but this caused rayTrace errors with un-rendered boxes:(
I'm rendering a 1600 x 800 version that shows up the castle model better.
C & C welcome as always.
richard
ps what I'd really like some hints on is how to get the castle to be illuminated by a "god ray".

[dandelO]

To illuminate the castle with a ray you could create a new cloud layer, use a mask that will let through the sunlight as the density function and uncheck enable primary, that way you'll render the rays but not the clouds themselves.
Alternatively, I've just read elsewhere here in a recent post from Matt, you can use the painted shader to erase parts of the cloud, this would need to be pretty carefully and accurately done though, I'd imagine. You can't undo brush-strokes.

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=5139.msg53247#msg53247

[cyphyr]

To illuminate the castle with a ray you could create a new cloud layer, use a mask that will let through the sunlight as the density function and uncheck enable primary, that way you'll render the rays but not the clouds themselves.

Ok that kinda works but the ray density is way low, is there a way to have a more visible denser "ray"? Also although the clouds cant be seen their reflection in the water can be.
richard

[dandelO]

Ahhh, sh*t! I forgot about the water reflection thing, I reported that a while ago.

You should try Matt's method. ^^ Your sun seems to be high enough above the camera to safely remove a hole in the cloud fractal without seeing it in the shot. I might be wrong though and it could be a tricky procedure to get the hole in the right place to cast onto the castle, I wouldn't want to ruin a nice set of clouds like these. Make a backup.

[cyphyr]

Cheers Yeah I've already painted an mask (trad method in photoshop), took a while to get it all lined upright, I just cant a visible "shaft of light". I'll keep trying
Richard

[Matt]

Was it a previous version that crashes with the clouds low over the water, or did the Beta crash too? I fixed something in the cloud acceleration cache which might explain the crash, so the Beta might be better at this.

Also want to reiterate that you should be able to undo brush strokes. If there are some situations where that's not possible then it's a bug we need more information about. But still, always save often and save with version numbers

[FrankB]

ps what I'd really like some hints on is how to get the castle to be illuminated by a "god ray".

Richard, it's pretty easy to poke a hole through clouds. All you need to have a is a black image with a white dot, which you plug into the blending port of the distribution fractal for your clouds. Then you select invert blendshader.
The only difficult bit is to exactly position the image map and it's white spot over the castle.

Don't try the painted shader for this: it takes forever to render, when used to mask a cloud.

Cheers,
Frank
[attachimg=#]

[cyphyr]

Thanks, but getting the hole in the clouds is the easy part, thats how come the castle and foreground trees are illuminated. What I'm having difficulty with is getting a visable ray of light to shine through illuminating the atmosphere on its path.

@ Matt, it was the latest version (Terragen 2 Beta 1.10.23.1) that didn't crash but gave rayTrace errors with only partially rendered blocks. I figured the close proximity of effectively two transparent surfaces (one of them reflective) was just asking too much

Richard

[FrankB]

Richard, I concur that getting bright rays indeed is problematic. I haven't found a good solution for this. With extreme settings and high contrast, it's possible to create visible rays, but then usually the lighting settings don't leave anything good for the rest of the scene.

I have attempted to up the haze glow a lot, but that results in the entire scene glowing white. I also attemtep to create a thin cloud layer in between, so that the fog like cloud layer gets illuminated instead of haze. It works somewhat, but the required atmo detail is insanely high because of grain, and at the same time, I cannot get the fog layer to really glow bright. If you find a solution somehow, I'd really like to learn about it.

Regards,
Frank

[Mandrake]

What I'm having difficulty with is getting a visable ray of light to shine through illuminating the atmosphere on its path.

cyphyr, I don't know what the scale of you render is but if it were a bit on the large size, you can add a very very thin cirus layer and that will create rays.

[Mandrake]

now that I think a bit more on it you could probably alter ogre's meteor trail.

[rcallicotte]

Great idea, cyphyr.  This is on its way to being stellar. 

[cyphyr]

Ok, here's an update, gave up on the "God rays" as I figured in the real world you can only see them against a dark background and not at all if your actually in one, so another time maybe
Added some foreground elements, hopefully giving the scene more interest and proportion. Going to re-model the foreground properly, add a couple of ships and render it BIG
C & C very welcome
richard

[buzzzzz1]

Really nice composition so far. Been following your progress on this one and like where it's going. Very Fantasy looking!  Not sure if I would add ships or not because the water looks too shallow, in the foreground anyway. Maybe off in the distance would work though? Are you going to render the final larger? If so I would love to see it when finished.

Have a Good One!

[PorcupineFloyd]

Impressive! I really like the castle's position and how it's lit.