Clouds are a *****

[MGebhart]

I was working with clouds today. Not just a basic cloud layer, adjusting samples and so on. I wanted to create the big bad cumulus kind. It's not easy.

Here is what I came up with after a half a day effort.

HELP! What a mess.

Marc

[TheBlackHole]

Ugh, I know. I had trouble making the clouds for my asteroid impact (it's in File Sharing)(sorry, no pic. Render one yourself! ) I just cloudn't (pun intended) get the explosive look the original had (lost it when someone rebooted my computer via the "reset" button ).

[Henry Blewer]

Marc, the clouds density is set too high. The default of 0.01 is usually good. I sometimes halve this value. I would also lessen the edge value. High values can make the clouds look solid.

[choronr]

Agree with Henry's assessment. And, you might experiment with 'flat bottom' clouds in this instance. Looking forward to your progreee.

[old_blaggard]

In your noise function, a good rule of thumb for cumulus is to have the feature scale be about 1/4 the size of the lead-in scale. Try starting out with 5000 and 20,000 respectively.

[reck]

I would say clouds are probably the most difficult aspect of Terragen to learn.

You could purchase the cloud pack from NWDA to see how the experts do it, but then you still need to understand what all the nodes are doing.

[Henry Blewer]

I have been playing with voronoi noise lately. Simple stuff. Try adding a 'A' type to the density shader. Plug a Get geometry  into the voronoi's input and set the scale and seed by hand. Mixing several types from large to small may be a good way to get the puffy look.

[MGebhart]

Thanks for the tips.

Here is another render. Getting closer but no cigar.

Henry, I can't figure out the Voronoi 3D A Vector noise and the Get geometry. I get multi colors throughout the render. So, I'm sure my wires are not input correctly.

Marc

[j meyer]

Hi,
there are several example files that have been posted earlier on these
forums and amongst them there should be one by the celebrated Luc Bianco,
iirc he posted it in one of FrankB's threads.Try the search engine,please.

[Henry Blewer]

Put the merge shader into the density shader's input. It should negate the colors and do the displacements.

[MGebhart]

You guys rock.

Thank you.

I'll post another result when I get it rendered.

Marc

[MGebhart]

OK. This is my next iteration. I think I'm getting closer however, I need more contrast in the cloud color and the bottom looks kinda strange to me.

This is a fairly low res render. I noticed as you build these babies the rendering time increases exponentially.

Marc

[Henry Blewer]

Try a lower cloud density. This is starting to shape up. edit : (Not the coverage value)

[TheBlackHole]

And I think you should use a brighter cloud color.

[CCC]

Yes, the clouds are missing that silver lining highlight along there tops. Overall they should be brighter as well without washing out the distinctive details.