Horseshoe Bend - V5

[darthvader]

In this one I'm trying to recreate the Grand Canyon's Horseshoe Bend. It's  a start but a lot of things need work before it can be considered finished. My biggest problem is with my inability to create giant cracks in the terrain's walls, even after following TU's canyon wall tutorial, like you can see in photos of the location in real life. In addition to this pretty much everything needs work from the texturing, and plants all the way to the lighting. Looks like I have a bit of a project on my hands. Comments, critiques and suggestions are much appreciated.

Render Time: 6h 27m
Detail: .9
AA: 12
GI: 1/1

http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Horseshoe-Bend-WIP-121305250

[Tangled-Universe]

Very interesting start! Good POV.
As you mentioned yourself this still needs a lot of work, like texturing, lighting, stones and vegetation.
I'm looking forward to see where this is going!
Where did you get the DEM/ter of this terrain? I'd be very interested in using it, because I have some clear ideas how to get those huge cracks and crevices

Martin

[darthvader]

The DEM is from http://seamless.usgs.gov/index.php

[Tangled-Universe]

The DEM is from http://seamless.usgs.gov/index.php

I was "afraid" for that answer Would you mind sending me it, because I hate that site's interface and really don't know how to use it...yep, me's lazy

[darthvader]

Hahaha that is understandable, it took me a bit to learn how to move around the site. I uploaded the geotiff and ter to mediafire so you can get it here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=cea2803e14fc214636df4e8dca141969e04e75f6e8ebb871

WARNING: the file is 57 Mbs so it may take a bit o' time to download depending on your internet speed.

[Tangled-Universe]

Thanks a bunch for doing this and supporting my sunday-lazyness (though it is monday already here, oops...bedtime)

Martin

[darthvader]

No problem, lazyness on the weekend is how I live too. Here is a slice of a bigger image for an update, the texturing is getting there...the strata looks bad so I'm going to get rid of it for the next one. Still needs lots of work but fortunately it renders fast.

Render Time: 2h 34m
Detail: .9
AA: 12
GI: 2/2

[attachthumb=#]

[Oshyan]

Hmm, I don't think the strata looks bad.

- Oshyan

[darthvader]

Thanks , I guess "bad" is the wrong word...more like the strata is not accurate to pictures of the location in real life.

[Martchi]

Thank for sharing!

[Tangled-Universe]

The second version looks better already, good scales. The strata could use some work indeed, though they aren't bad at all. The plateau steepness and buildup have good settings if you'd ask me.
Maybe the biggest improvement is the atmosphere and POV. You made the shot wider and the atmosphere clearer, which gives a much better sense of scale/vastness.

Martin

[darthvader]

Here is version 3. The colors are almost where i want them and the surface texturing is coming along. I am thinking about increasing the scale of the cracks so that there are less of the but so that they are more impressive. Once I get the terrain done I'm going to start on a bit of vegitation down by the river...I may increase the haze to make the scale of the image seem more impressive.

http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Horseshoe-Bend-V3-121305250

[rcallicotte]

This last one has some great surface texturing, but the strata has disappeared.  Is this what you wanted?

[darthvader]

I've been playing with the strata, I tried the last one without it because none of my reference photos have clearly defined strata in them, although I may bring it back if t adds to the image. For version 4 I added some clouds to give a greater sense of atmosphere but in my opinion the image doesn't look hot enough with them so they will probably not be in the next one.

http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Horseshoe-Bend-V4-121305250

[rcallicotte]

This is very nice work, though.  I actually like this last one better.