Clifftop With Windmill - Final

EoinArmstrong · January 01, 2010, 03:27:58 PM

happy new year everyone! My new year's resolution is to come up with more imaginative titles

There is some weird artifact running along the clifftop - it looks like I have badly layered in the foreground in photoshop. Anyhoo, enjoy. The windmill was modelled by me in C4D - it just has 1 specular mat as it's meant for middle distance viewing. I have a TGO of it if anyone's interested.

The plants are XFrogs (I forgot to mention this in my previous posts).

Linda McCarthy · January 01, 2010, 05:53:42 PM

Happy New Year, Eoin!
Great windmill model and a cool perspective, and I like the trees topside.
Not sure I can distinguish the shrubs on the side of the cliff. On my screen, they look more like shadows.
Nice rock texture, by the way.
Linda

dlefik2008 · January 02, 2010, 04:15:15 AM

nice shot. maybe taking some of that reflection off the side of the cliff would make the appearance a bit more realistic. but other than that, awesome work!

schmeerlap · January 02, 2010, 06:55:01 AM

Nice panoramic perspective. I find the bushes on the cliff face a little dark, especially when compared to the more brightly saturated grass. With the sun hitting the cliff face, they too should be catching the sunlight.

John

dlefik2008 · January 02, 2010, 05:02:39 PM

actually i satnd corrected about the reflective surface of the cliffside. had i looked a bit closer. it just looked like all the lighter parts were just shiny reflection. but yeah, like schmeerlap said, the bushes could use a little more brightness to them. they seem more like shadows at first glance.

Oshyan · January 04, 2010, 01:01:58 AM

The line on the cliff may be an issue with raytraced objects. Try customizing the antialiasing sampling and going to "Max Samples". If that fixes it, it's a known issue.

- Oshyan

EoinArmstrong · January 04, 2010, 04:13:41 AM

Thanks Oshyan - I'll have a look at that again this evening. In the meantime, I've adjusted the bushes as per comments, and altered the PoV and added water/shore.

mhaze · January 04, 2010, 04:22:27 AM

I think you have made great progress with this. Whilst the second images pov is more "realistic," I prefer the drama of the first. The rocks are great and the vegetation convincing. I'd get rid of some of the atmosphere blueness and increase the clarity and contrastof the pic. Great work.

Mick

EoinArmstrong · January 04, 2010, 06:39:14 AM

Thanks Mick - doy you have any suggestions for removing blueness/haze whilst retaining luminescence and contrast? A third light perhaps? Or does anyone have any other tips?

Henry Blewer · January 04, 2010, 08:22:34 AM

I like the channeled erosion of the slopes face. Looks good. I have not tried this, but it would look better if the channel centers were a little lighter. More debris scars the channels at the low points of the trough.

mhaze · January 04, 2010, 11:04:36 AM

I tend to drop haze density to 0 then increase slowly until I get what I want. The rest is experimentation to taste.

Mick

Thelby · January 04, 2010, 03:47:47 PM

Quote from: EoinArmstrong on January 04, 2010, 06:39:14 AM
Thanks Mick - doy you have any suggestions for removing blueness/haze whilst retaining luminescence and contrast? A third light perhaps? Or does anyone have any other tips?

If you are using your Enviro light as 'Ambient Occlusion' it defaults to a blue color. You can change that to Gray. Gray is a Neutral color and will not project itself onto surfaces the same as Blue or other colors do. You can actually use any light and soften it by pulling the slider down from the white area into the gray area in the color pallet.

Linda McCarthy · January 04, 2010, 04:57:39 PM

Eoin.. This latest version is lovely and photorealistic. The 1st image may be more dramatic, but this one is better, in my opinion- in every aspect. I like the POV. Could use a tad of contrast, though not much. Sometimes lowering the gamma settings help..and do you have all shadows and glow off with your 2 additional suns/lights? Maybe decreasing the glow will help the clouds. I think the haze is perfect, so the challenge would be to keep it while realizing more contrast to the landscape. One other thing; I've found that decreasing the saturation of the blue (atmosphere settings) helps to make the sky color more realistic. Water is great. Very nice work! Linda

choronr · January 05, 2010, 01:24:51 AM

I agree with some of Linda's suggestions, especially the reduction of glow and glow power for the clouds. Also, for increased contrast on the vertical terrain, I would suggest perhaps another layer of a lighter color with lower coverage. Additionally, consider adding a wee bit of specularity/reflectivity to the vegetation. Maybe a second population of shrubs of another color. In all, you have a very good composition going here.

EoinArmstrong · January 05, 2010, 03:23:45 AM

Ok - really liking this version. Oshyan: I set AA samples to max and yes, that aliased line at the top of the cliff has disappeared, and has the added benefit of greatly enhancing the water, so yay! The clouds are a little too 'glowy' so I'll try Linda's and Bob's suggestions tonight.

I post-pro'd this one a bit: colour balancing and KPT Equalizer mostly...