Epic Mountain - Big!

Henry Blewer · October 14, 2009, 11:34:07 AM

It's beautiful. I hate to say that it still looks a little CG. I don't know how to get around this. It's the nature of having limited models of foliage mostly. Not to mention ram and time/render difficulties. This is really good. Well done.

domdib · October 14, 2009, 12:07:52 PM

I wonder - have you tried using TU's Snow pack? I just think the snow layer doesn't look quite right - too thin.

Zairyn Arsyn · October 14, 2009, 10:49:08 PM

EPIC AWESOME.

the trees in the foreground are a excellent addition.

Gannaingh · October 15, 2009, 08:22:23 PM

Thank you all! I have tried TU's snow some but it would probably be worth it to invest more time in that approach.

Gannaingh · October 17, 2009, 07:42:05 PM

I got TU's snow to work for me so it no longer looks like the mountain was painted white. Here is a crop render.

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Henry Blewer · October 17, 2009, 07:48:38 PM

That looks much better. Just at the base of the mountain there is an unpopulated area. I would use a power fractal with a lot of breakup and spacing, so it looks like plants grow there.
The CG look is really starting to look more photo like.

Seth · October 18, 2009, 03:42:42 AM

great !
now, some light on the trees so they stop to look flat

domdib · October 18, 2009, 07:39:17 AM

Yep, that snow is a definite improvement. Seth's suggestion sounds good.

Kadri · October 18, 2009, 09:24:20 AM

Nice render Darthvader1.

The trees...i wonder if there is a problem with the textures? The Sun seams to be at the right side and low.We realy should see one side of the tree brighter.
Are they in shadow or something else?

İf you change this , i think it's done , like the others here said.

Kadri.

Gannaingh · October 18, 2009, 11:29:43 AM

Kadri you are correct, the trees are in shadow along with pretty much the entire planet except for the mountain. I do like the suggestion of lighting up the trees so I will fiddle with the cloud seeds or put in a lightsource to provide some illumination.

Walli · October 18, 2009, 11:30:11 AM

probably make the shader a little bit brighter (the color component) is set to 0.5 or something like that I think.

As the lighting on the background is so nice, it also would make sense to render two passes - one as it is right now. Another one just with the trees and an extra light. nothing else, not atmosphere, no mountains. And then add this extra pass on Photoshop on top of the original render.

Of course later on it would be nice if lights could be restricted to certain objects.

pfrancke · October 18, 2009, 11:49:27 AM

I've been following this thread and am very appreciative. It is really, really cool to watch an OK image grow into an incredible image - which it has. And then Walli drops that nugget of gold. Never in a million years did I ever consider having multiple renders for lighting purposes!!

Gannaingh · October 18, 2009, 12:27:08 PM

Thanks for the suggestion Walli! I am going to echo pfrancke in never thinking about the separate render for the lighting on the trees, I will definitely try that.

domdib · October 18, 2009, 12:56:52 PM

Just to be extra clear on this Walli - you would simply switch off the atmo and mountains and re-render?

Henry Blewer · October 18, 2009, 02:58:55 PM

I was thinking at work last night. It would be nice to be able to render in layers. Also have different component passes,ie; shadow pass, alpha pass, specular pass... Then compositing the elements back together would give excellent control.
I was thinking of how to use alpha channels to combine 3D renders from other programs (buildings) into rendered Terragen 2 landscapes.