Mellow Morning - Finished :)

Tangled-Universe · January 20, 2009, 06:10:18 AM

The name of a drink at the coffeebar in the university I work...thought it might be somewhat suitable for this image.

The grasses are from Klas. 10.005.720 instances! That's no typo!
Trees from Xfrog Europe 2.
Rendersettings: 0.85, AA 8, GI 1/1 + SS-prepass.
Rendertime: < 3h!
No postwork!

Will improve this one further with an extra tree-species and also denser vegetation in the distance.
Also think of giving the fog a bit more glow, but I think it's almost right. I shall see.
Depends also on what you guys think

Thanks for stopping by again.

Martin

rcallicotte · January 20, 2009, 07:20:37 AM

I like the lighting on the trees.

Tangled-Universe · January 20, 2009, 07:29:17 AM

I'm glad you like the lighting on the trees because that was the most challenging part of this image and also the most fun.

I've found that increasing the diffuse color from 0.5 to >0.5 along with some translucency gives better results than rather increasing translucency alone.

Seth · January 20, 2009, 07:44:05 AM

love the big sun and the atmo !
i just wish to see more of the ground...

Tangled-Universe · January 20, 2009, 08:24:05 AM

Thanks Franck,

I'll see what I can do about it without losing the lighting or make it unnaturally bright.

Seth · January 20, 2009, 08:33:30 AM

hehehe yeah, turning up the GI may crash your contrast here...
oh, and i was expecting another render

Tangled-Universe · January 20, 2009, 08:51:42 AM

Quote from: seth93 on January 20, 2009, 08:33:30 AM
hehehe yeah, turning up the GI may crash your contrast here...
oh, and i was expecting another render

RArcher · January 20, 2009, 09:22:35 AM

I really like the mood and atmosphere. One thing that does stick out for me is that the four trees you can see are all clearly the same tree model. Perhaps play around with the rotation so they look a little different.

Tangled-Universe · January 20, 2009, 09:30:58 AM

Quote from: RArcher on January 20, 2009, 09:22:35 AM
I really like the mood and atmosphere. One thing that does stick out for me is that the four trees you can see are all clearly the same tree model. Perhaps play around with the rotation so they look a little different.

Yes you're right. I already mentioned I'm planning to add another extra species. Don't know if you've read that info

Though this is a beautiful model the problem is that it is very symmetrical and thus rotating doesn't have that much effect. The population is randomnly rotated in the whole range of 360 degrees.
I had the same critique once before using this model and the answer is thus the same: because of the reason stated above I can't help it

So the ultimate solution would be to use another model, but I think using a bit more size variation (= near zero now) and introducing another species will break up the "pattern" a lot

I really like this model so I definitely will keep it.

FrankB · January 20, 2009, 10:54:52 AM

Very nice start, Martin. I have two recommendations:
1 - I think the sun disc is too big. Half the size, and it will still be big, but will integrate with the scene much better
2 - I thought it would be nice to add some broken old wooden fence somewhere in the mid-ground, and maybe some other stuff that could belong there, like maybe a hay fork or a cattle watering tank or something along those lines...

Cheers,
Frank

Tangled-Universe · January 20, 2009, 10:57:05 AM

Thanks Frank,

I agree with both recommendations. The sun is a bit to the left and you can already see some lens distortion on its shape...making a bit smaller might first look better and maybe also decrease the distorted look, although it is not that worse.

I'd go for a wooden fence then. However, I should check where to find such a model. Maybe you already know?

Martin

Marcos Silveira · January 20, 2009, 03:39:21 PM

Quote from: seth93 on January 20, 2009, 07:44:05 AM
love the big sun and the atmo !
i just wish to see more of the ground...

I'm begining to think this "ground" thing is stuck in you...

Volker Harun · January 20, 2009, 05:16:36 PM

A very beautiful render. I really love the lighting.
I'd rather only move the sun a bit more to the right, for the composition drags my eyes to the left and out of the image.
Keep on!

Saurav · January 20, 2009, 07:20:06 PM

An excellent start, the scene does need an object to focus though, as Frank explained. Other than that maybe increase GI to see a bit more of the foreground.
The rest including the composition and colours are looking great as they are.

Tangled-Universe · January 21, 2009, 02:56:13 AM

Quote from: Volker Harun on January 20, 2009, 05:16:36 PM
A very beautiful render. I really love the lighting.
I'd rather only move the sun a bit more to the right, for the composition drags my eyes to the left and out of the image.
Keep on!

Thank you Volker.
I agree with you that the sun could be moved a little further to the right. I'll look how far I want to move it, because on the other hand the composition is quite balanced, although there isn't a real focus then.
I might introduce something new to focus on maybe

Quote from: Saurav on January 20, 2009, 07:20:06 PM
An excellent start, the scene does need an object to focus though, as Frank explained. Other than that maybe increase GI to see a bit more of the foreground.
The rest including the composition and colours are looking great as they are.

Thanks Saurav,

Increasing GI will probably destroy the contrasts and lighting on the trees, so I'll have to be careful with adjusting it. I'll try for sure.

Tonight after work I'll have some time to get on with this. Hope to post an update within 24h

Martin