2 cinemascope sunsets

[FrankB]

here are 2 new sunsets in cinemascope AR.

Two times the same scene, one with a horizontal FOV, another with a vertical FOV (same value). Both scenes have been rendered in quality 0.8, took ~35 minutes.
What I'm doing here is testing a few new techniques for the sunset pack II.
Before i continue down that road, I would be happy to hear a little bit from you on what you think about these two renders. Both renders have been postwork only slightly to add a little more contrast to the sky, so that the lit clouds come out better and more prominently.

Cheers,
Frank

[cyphyr]

Both really lovely I'm leaning toward the first but its very close. It would be great to get a popper "path of light" running from the sun to the foreground but I think thats another issue.
Richard

[Tangled-Universe]

Very nice! I agree with Richard, am leaning towards the first a bit more too.

Perhaps a dumb question, but it seems that the type of FOV really gives different results, why/how is that?

Martin

[FrankB]

thanks for the comments Richard and Martin.
On the wide AR the narrow horizontal FOV is essentially a zoom. I'm fitting 25 degrees horizontal FOV to 2.55:1 AR

If you look closely you'll see that the second render is just the center of the first render. The ship is fooling you, because I have pulled that closer for render 1. Just look at the sky and you will see.

Regards,
Frank

[goldfarb]

the first image without question...
the detail in the clouds is really nice...

[Tangled-Universe]

thanks for the comments Richard and Martin.
On the wide AR the narrow horizontal FOV is essentially a zoom. I'm fitting 25 degrees horizontal FOV to 2.55:1 AR

If you look closely you'll see that the second render is just the center of the first render. The ship is fooling you, because I have pulled that closer for render 1. Just look at the sky and you will see.

Regards,
Frank

Ah yes, of course....you fooled me, easily Where's my tg-sharpness gone?

[domdib]

I'm in the minority - the second one is far nicer in my opinion. In the first one, the detail in the clouds just seems a little too sharp.

[Hetzen]

Both very nice images, I'd agree with others, my preference is for the first.

Is there a stronger post contrast on the second? Certainly looks as if there is.

[FrankB]

Ah yes, of course....you fooled me, easily Where's my tg-sharpness gone?

you still score 12:1 against me in that visual recognition of techniques used
It's frightening at times how well you know the program! 

[FrankB]

I just figured i need another ship. I like this one, it was a free model, but for a change, I need one with sails set. Preferrably a free model. Anyone know such a model?

Thanks,
Frank

[j meyer]

Hi,
you could try sharecg there is a nice schooner model(obj) and some pretty
decent historic vessels (bryce 5 models) iirc.

[FrankB]

thanks, I'll check that out. I have also found a free texaco freightliner as 3ds, but I can get poseray to convert this successfuly to obj... some object groups are "moved" against each other, so that the op and the bottom of the ship don't match anymore...

[j meyer]

That's kind of common behaviour for many 3ds files unfortunately.

[efflux]

Nice. I like these ship scenes. They give a good sense of mood and space.

One thing I notice with skies is that real skies tend to have a lot of subtle variations like colour and atmosphere and of course a lot of variations in clouds. The cloud forms are obviously more difficult to vary that much however I find a little a little colour washing in post can dramatically improve skies. Not that I've done this that much but the images where I have done it are much better. It's best if it's very subtle. I find this app I use called Lightzone to be extremely useful for this because you can draw shapes on the effects layers and alter the blending areas. It's all non destructive so you can tweak around very subtly to get it just right.

[FrankB]

thank you efflux. Thanks also for the tip with Lightzone. I will have a look at it. I agree that these subtle color variation greatly add to realism, if done right. I have attemped to use TG2 natively to create those color variations, in these 2, but also in a few other renders, such as this one here: http://nwda.webnode.com/album/photogallery/#anewdaydawns-web-jpg

I think it works pretty well. The abiIity to use multiple clouds layers at varying alitudes and densities gives you a lot of possibilities in this regards.
I had to "enhance" skies more in TG0.9 renders in the past. For example in this one here: http://www.planetside.co.uk/gallery/f/tg09/GalleryImage499686.jpg.html

Regards,
Frank