Explorers - NWDA Contest Final

Started by darthvader, May 19, 2009, 06:54:40 PM

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darthvader

An idea I am thinking of submitting to the NWDA contest. It needs some work pretty much everywhere so I better stop typing and get tweaking. My biggest problem is with the trees, one of the three populations just doesn't look natural. Also, that little bit of shore is just begging for some fake stones...if I can't make anything suitable myself I'll probably just fork over some money for the NWDA fake stones pack ;D Comments, critiques and random advice are always welcome and appreciated.

Render Time: 14 hours 11 Seconds
Detail: .9
AA: 10
GI: 1/1

http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Explorers-WIP-123058917

Zylot

1) Yes, stones would help, or better surfacing near the shore/beachy area.
2) I think it's not the trees that are the problem, it's...  again...   surfacing.  Trees don't normally just sit around on rocks like that.  The floor near them should have dead needles, sticks, ground cover, etc...    Since that's not so easy, I'd recommend adding some surfacing under the trees, ground cover, or bushes.

FrankB

I should probably better not comment on the image itself, but I think it's safe to give you the advice to refrain from using such high AA values until you really have your final render. AA 10 is probably 2-3 times slower than a render with AA 3. It's perfectly ok to use a low AA while developing the image.
I am really curious on where you will take this image next :-)

Cheers,
Frank

darthvader

Yeah, normally I wouldn't have set the settings so high for a first draft, but since I was asleep and going to classes during the render I figured that I might as well bump the settings up a bit.

FrankB

I know what you mean. In cases like these I tend to bump up quality parameters as well ;D

tumasch

I completely agree with Zylot:
1) Yes and
2) Yes
;D
But that's a nifty little image you've got there. I really like it. Look forward to seeing the final result.
Décider c'est mourir un peu.

Seth

looking good so far, you really need some fake stone to add some details to the ground ^^

rcallicotte

I like what you've done.  Some good suggestions here.
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

darthvader

A little square I rendered while I was at school.

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dwilson

This is definetly looking better.  It might just be me, but the tree textures don't look as good as in the first image.  I think it is just the resolution and detail of thed second render though.

tumasch

#10
Muuuuch better! I really like the feel to this. Looks very real (to my eyes, anyway). I don't think there's something wrong with the tree textures. I like them even better, to be honest - did you change any populations?
Décider c'est mourir un peu.

rcallicotte

So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

darthvader

#12
Thanks all! The only change I made to the populations was making them have more object and any lack of quality was probably due to lower render settings. Unfortunately I don't have something this time around, Tg2 decided to give me a bunch of  bucket render errors last night >:(

Zylot

definate improvement, looking good.  Can't wait to see it at higher settings.

darthvader

A little bit of an update. I've added three more ships to the image but only two of them are in this crop render. The cloud layer that make up the fog just murders the render time.

Render time: 1 hour 28 minutes
Detail: .9
AA: 6
GI: 1/1

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