Desert Geology

[choronr]

A simple scene depicting spring in the southwest where for only a short time do the mountain grasses display their green to the slopes; then, as temperatures rise, they turn to the color of straw. It's a delight to view the glowing silvery/blue/green of the Brittle Bush growing in many places throughout Arizona and eastern California; and, some of the cacti which put on their early blooms. And, of course the mountains are always a pleasure to see.

Some of you may wonder why I didn't place some vegetation on the mountain; mainly, for two reasons: First, it's been my experience that added plants always seem to displayed too much contrast and sharpness making them appear cartoony. It would be convenient if controls for adjusting sharpness and contrast were available for objects and populations. Finally, the other reason for not adding vegetation to the slopes was that I continually received Runtime errors in trying to do so even after reducing the coverage of existing populations.

Included here are the stone bed and Hero rock from FrankB's site: NWDA; and, bushes and grass by lightning. The cacti are from a friend.

[Volker Harun]

In my humble opinion, you could use colour adjust shaders to get an even colouring. For example use it as last shader before planet and lower the gamma to your needs.
Another way would be to raise the gamma of each texture of your objects.

,-) Volker

[FrankB]

I like the serenity in this, Bob, I really do.

Regards,
Frank

[CCC]

Not a bad depiction there. I think the colors need to be a bit richer in the dirt and more rigidness needs to be on the hills with eroded parts. This kind of reminds me of what i photographed while on a road trip heading toward arizona.

[choronr]

In my humble opinion, you could use colour adjust shaders to get an even colouring. For example use it as last shader before planet and lower the gamma to your needs.
Another way would be to raise the gamma of each texture of your objects.

,-) Volker

Thank you Volker for the information. I will give your suggestions a try.

[choronr]

I like the serenity in this, Bob, I really do.

Regards,
Frank

Glad you enjoyed the scene Frank. Still trying for a picture that gives me total satisfaction ...someday maybe.

[choronr]

Not a bad depiction there. I think the colors need to be a bit richer in the dirt and more rigidness needs to be on the hills with eroded parts. This kind of reminds me of what i photographed while on a road trip heading toward arizona.

Thanks for visiting; I understand what you are saying - however, the details in the distance disappear; and, the focus here is on the foreground.

[Dan]

i would blur the background a little to get that focus (but that's me i just like images better when they look like a photo)
Dan

[Henry Blewer]

My only thought here is the sharp horizontal line at the hills base. Could that be broken up a little? As was posted earlier, it's a nice peaceful scene.

[choronr]

My only thought here is the sharp horizontal line at the hills base. Could that be broken up a little? As was posted earlier, it's a nice peaceful scene.

Thanks for visiting. I agree about the horizontal line. You'll note to the left, the line is not there. I believe the line might be eliminated by adjusting the 'a' and 'b' settings used for the restriction of populations. 

[Henry Blewer]

Sounds right. A distance shader may help keep the distant objects from becoming too dense, extending the render time.

[choronr]

Sounds right. A distance shader may help keep the distant objects from becoming too dense, extending the render time.

Sounds good; both your suggestions may be a good remedy - I'll be trying them on future renders ...thanks.