Some neat strata rock wall

[Tangled-Universe]

Hi all,

This is my latest iteration on a rock surface I'm working on lately. I like this version very much so far.
I used 2 strata shaders in here.

One for the rough big strata features and one for very small stretchy details.
You can see this best in the directly lit part.

Further I spent some time on adding rocks. I didn't plan to do that initially but after encouraging critics by for example Bob (Choronr) I decided to give it a go.
Thanks for this Bob et al.

I hope to make more images with this tgd-file. I think the lighting can be optimized a little, but I'm pretty close to what I have in mind.
More to follow soon hopefully!

Cheers,
Martin

[FrankB]

great (!) render Martin

I *absolutely* love the bottom left quadrant most

Cheers,
Frank

[domdib]

This rocks! (OK, that's a bit cheesy.) Seriously realistic.

[Tangled-Universe]

Thanks guys!

I *absolutely* love the bottom left quadrant most

Ghehe, I'm glad you like it, but why? Sometimes you look quite differently to TG-work than me, so I'd like to know why you like this in particular.
I honestly think the bottom left part is the worst. It contains the most flaws.

Cheers,
Martin

[Tangled-Universe]

Click image for slightly bigger version please

[domdib]

Looks even better! The lighting is superb, and the vegetation complements the surfacing.

[FrankB]

Ghehe, I'm glad you like it, but why? Sometimes you look quite differently to TG-work than me, so I'd like to know why you like this in particular.
I honestly think the bottom left part is the worst. It contains the most flaws.

hehe, I almost knew you would say this
Besides that a bush is growing out of one big rock, the stones are just so natural, and ingeniously colored, and perfectly embedded into their environment. Seriously, this looks great!

The central part of the image is probably what you have been working on the most. I see 2 stratas that both tilt against each other to create these rectangular shapes, and I understand what you are trying to achieve with this. I've tried to create these hard rock outcrops as well numerous times, but never got a got solution for it.
Your is a step ahead, but in my view it's still not 100% natural, whereas in the bottom left part, you clearly achieved that!

Cheers,
Frank

[Kadri]

...

Great !

Kadri

[CCC]

Reminds me of the pass through Black Rock Canyon in Arizona. I like it!

[Seth]

my favourite part is on the bottom left part : the little rocks on the flatter place ! ^^
very good job, dude !

[Gannaingh]

I too would agree that the bottom left part is my favorite.

[RArcher]

The whole left side is very realistic to me.  Hell the whole image is great.  Your dedication to the procedural solutions really shows Martin.

[fxsculpt]

Very nice indeed. I have been trying to get a similar effect for 2 weeks now You say only 2 stratas? No Fractals? Is this before or after the Compute Terrain? Did you need to use Twist at all?

Anyway thanks for the post.

[FrankB]

Martin definitely had to use many fractals here. I think he meant that the rectangular little outcrops in the center were made using to strata nodes.

[Tangled-Universe]

If I recall correctly this setup uses 3 or 4 fractals for the displacements. The main shapes are controlled mainly by one fractal.
There are 2 strata, the first tilts from the top left to the bottom right direction and the second strata tilts from the bottom left to the top right.
They both have quite different settings as you may notice.
I also used twist and shear here, but very very gently. I use them with tilt directions of around 0.1, positive or negative and on both X and Z axes.