Q: Realism

[Sp34k]

Are they planning a TG3? What about making a 64bit TG2 first?

[Henry Blewer]

I'm sure they are someday.

No, I was just making a comment about the current users sort of starting out again 'new to the program'.

[Tangled-Universe]

You can increase/decrease exposure in your camera-node, first setting.
If you work in EXR you don't really have to fiddle with this, because you will save the entire dynamic range of lighting.

Remember that TU, FrankB and others you mention have been working on TG2 for YEARS, learning the system from its early alpha stages - so don't beat yourself up if you can't emulate them immediately. To really get the best from this program you have to put in the time and effort - but don't forget to have fun!

I'm using TG2 since december 20th 2006. That's the oldest file I can find Unfortunately for me I wasn't member of the alpha team until end of last year, something like that
So the head start wasn't there for me at all. Though I used TG0.9x intensively for about 3 years or so before and that helped a lot in developing principles of scene build up regarding composition, lighting, shading etc.
Just to remember you all that with some commitment and determination one can get really nice results.
It was all magic to me as well in the beginning.

Alrighty I have made something like 15 renders with the help from http://www.motionmagnetic.com/a_terragen2/atmosphere_examples/atmosphere_examples.html ..

But I don't think I can hit the BEST spot to make the lightning look realistic on the scene... Maybe there's 1 problem, I keep looking at these prof. pictures like: http://www.planetside.co.uk/gallery/f/tg2/TU-A-Brand-New-Day-Full.jpg.html

And wonder how he/she made the lightning so darn perfect.. Look at the grass, the haze, everything is just so realistic... Maybe that's what is wrong? I keep searching for the perfect lightning to hit my scene so beautifuly people will be like "wow, that's nice made!"..

My current lightning render looks like the one I uploaded, still not impressive I think:P

That "she" would be me lol

I've attached a reduced version of the tgd which should give you insight on how I did the lighting. You'll see it is nothing really fancy. This was made during my "second sun era" when I had an ultra slow pc and didn't want to render with GI >1/1.

The models and lots of displacements and other confusing stuff have been removed. Take a look at the enviro light, suns and atmosphere node and you should get a fair idea how it's done.
Keep in mind that this setup fits nice for this scene. Hence, I didn't do any postwork at all.
For other scenes it might work not so well. Each image requires its own lighting-setup. In my experience there's no golden-standard for lighting which will always give optimal results.

Cheers,
Martin
(or should I say Martina )

[rcallicotte]

I watched Seth and others come in here like him with nothing and they just jumped in and tried stuff and asked questions and learned and did better than not quit.  They loved every minute of it.  I had a year on them and they surpassed me in execution so I was asking them questions.  Everything is relevant, I guess.  But, enjoy it.  Don't pain about what others might be better at (you know, comparing).  It'll come and I hope you'll find fun in it, too.

I guess your right Richard, but im not giving up Ofcourse I know theres a long way to go before I can make anything NEAR what you experienced users makes, but it's not impossible
Guess I'll have to make my own style when I learn how to use TG2, let's see what will happen within a year or two..

[Seth]

I am using TG2 since August 2007

[keraj37]

tfat is fantastic therad thanks for sharing

[PG]

I am using TG2 since August 2007

Daym, I've been using it since it came out in Jan 07 and I'm still pants.

[Sp34k]

That "she" would be me lol

Cheers,
Martin
(or should I say Martina )

haha.. Please accept my apologi, I didn't know if the artist was a he/she or fema..... Anyways......

I'm very pleased with the attacted TGD file, tomorrow when I wake up I'll be taking alook at it and learn from it I just came home from town so im pretty tired..
But eventhough your lightning may not fit my scene, then I'm sure I'll learn something by looking at your settings.. I appreciate it alot and thank you for sharing it. I look forward to learn from your file Much appreciated ma'am..........  

@calico - I'm trying to learn as much as possible eventhough I keep looking up the the more experienced users, it's something hard but it's inspiring aswell.. One day, oh one day I'll be in control here on the forum and sharing my wisdom with the younger ones ........ Dreaming is not illegal hehe..

My bed is calling, my brain is literary floating in beer..

Cheers,
Mike
(don't know the girl-name for that  )

[Henry Blewer]

As far as images go, the oldest Terragen 2 file I did was Feb. 2008. I did not really get a handle on the program until May 2009, when I started hitting the forum here. There is still so much too learn...

[Sp34k]

@Tangled-Universe:

I have your attached TGD file open right now.. Beside being a great scene then I'm facinated by the 2 suns (again) - I never found a functional way of using two suns but in your scene they fit great..

I also learned that, when I used 2 suns I applied shadows on them both and thought it would look more realistic, but I can see you only applied shadows on the strongest sun.. I also never went higher than 4 in sun strenght, while you use the strenght of 6, it's interesting:)

Another thing that I would like to ask about is the "Visible disc" under lightning - sunlight, I haven't used it before. Do you always use Visible Disc? If no - Why not? and if yes - Why?
You also increased the "redsky decay" from 1 - 2, why is that?

[Tangled-Universe]

@Tangled-Universe:

I have your attached TGD file open right now.. Beside being a great scene then I'm facinated by the 2 suns (again) - I never found a functional way of using two suns but in your scene they fit great..

I also learned that, when I used 2 suns I applied shadows on them both and thought it would look more realistic, but I can see you only applied shadows on the strongest sun.. I also never went higher than 4 in sun strenght, while you use the strenght of 6, it's interesting:)

Another thing that I would like to ask about is the "Visible disc" under lightning - sunlight, I haven't used it before. Do you always use Visible Disc? If no - Why not? and if yes - Why?
You also increased the "redsky decay" from 1 - 2, why is that?

Seems you paid quite some attention to my file, nice to hear it is of use to you

The reason I only enable shadows in the stronger sun is simply because that is my main lightsource which has to tell the viewer from which direction the light is coming.
The other sun is on the opposite of the main sun, has lower strength and doesn't cast any shadows, just because I want the light from that sun to lighten up the shadows. Otherwise you would have shadows on both sides of an object/terrain and that would look rather unrealistic.
You can increase detail in shadows with higher GI settings, but this scene is very heavy because of the models and the required detail settings of the renderer to get a nice crisp image. The second sun is a simple/crude way of getting lighter shadows. It's essentially a fill light and you'll see in many non-landscape 3D images that people use more than one lightsource up to many even.
At the time I made this image it didn't come to me yet I could use a 2nd enviro light with ambient occlusion enabled (reduced values for strength), which is another way to make shadows lighter.

Visible disc is visible disc, it has a straight-forward meaning. When you render an image with the sun in the middle of your picture and you disable visible disc then you won't see the sun's disc. Simply that.

The reason I increased redsky decay from 1 to 2 was probably because I wanted a slightly more yellowish lighting in my image. When increasing this image you'll "thicken" the atmosphere and thereby the influence of redsky decay will become stronger. Logically you would need a sun elevation which allows you to get that effect.
If you have your sun at an elevation of 45 degrees or higher the influence of the redsky decay is way less than when your sun is set at 20 degrees for example.

I hope this is all a bit more clear now.
More questions?

Cheers,
Martin

[Sp34k]

@Tangled-Univers

The description about using 2 suns has been very useful, I often experience some heavy shadows but using the "2nd sun" to lighten them up is not a bad idéa! - Using 3 suns is maybe too much for me to handle right now, my next project will be using 2 suns

At the time I made this image it didn't come to me yet I could use a 2nd enviro light with ambient occlusion enabled (reduced values for strength), which is another way to make shadows lighter.

Using two Enviro light wont be messing up the picture? So far I haven't found any difference between Global and Ambient light.. Is is something I should learn about now or, isnt it that relevant?

Visible disc is visible disc, it has a straight-forward meaning. When you render an image with the sun in the middle of your picture and you disable visible disc then you won't see the sun's disc. Simply that.

That sounds pretty simple but it's nice to know anyways..

If you have your sun at an elevation of 45 degrees or higher the influence of the redsky decay is way less than when your sun is set at 20 degrees for example.

In otherwords, it has a better effect if the sun elevation is lower, like a sunset or behind some mountains, then the effect increases?


This helped alot along with the TGD file you shared.. I can't wait to try these things out and see what I can make Soon I'll get back to my picture (related to this thread) - and work with my new knowledge about atmoshpere and lightning..
It has totally been worth making this thread, so thank you once again

Right now I don't have any questions and even if I did, I wouldnt be asking right now, I have learned alot from this thread and it's time to test my knowledge before moving on:)


*Edit*

I have done a new render after playing with the lightning, I need some hornest, hard and no-mercy response to what I could do better..
I rendered this test with:

Quality: 0.7
AA: 5
GL: 2/4
Supersample prepass: ON

New lightning: www.sp34k.com/ps/lightning_new_render.bmp
Old lightning: www.sp34k.com/ps

Cheers!
Mike