The Approaching Storm WIP

[leafspring]

The pics are looking amazing.
What I'd suggest regarding the last one is to increase the size of the features/details and reduce the contrast for the huge wall of clouds. It looks a little too noisy at the moment. This kind of cloud is usually more diffuse and smooth and tends to have larger features. Also a decrease of the edge sharpness could be advantageously since the cloud seems a little too definite for me.

[Bluefinger]

This is the way I handled rain (and snow) as well, and also found it hard to get it exactly as I wished, as you see from attached images. For more streaky effect, I suggest using an extra power fractal with hard edges and simple shapes (low on octaves, high on contrast), as a blender. That's what I did. Ah, and another thing; I think the smallest size of your main cloud should be 50 or so, not as small as 10. They are very 'fractured'.

---Dune

Good tip. The rain does look a little more definite, but now I just have to deal with the noise somehow. Also, your second picture example has great potential for a good pic, if you really nail the lighting and get some more interesting stuff thrown in there.

Also, with the feedback given, I've modified the clouds so the edge sharpness is about half of what it used to be, and with a bit less density. I also tweaked the density shader colour roughness down a tad so to smoothen out the cloud features. Looking at real world examples (I have a really good view of lots of billowy cumulus where I am), I seem to be at least hitting similar features. Plus, I've increased the haze density in the atmosphere. The picture is looking much better now, and all that is left now I think is tweaking the rain a bit and concentrating on the objects. I'll also see into adding more to the cirrus.

[domdib]

Yes, this is looking mighty impressive now.

[Dune]

Indeed it is. It's going to be a winner. The contrast is great. Wouldn't you raise your POV just a tad? I think the spiky grasses in front don't need to be so 'up front'. They distract a little bit from the wide and dramatic vista. Be sure to post big when finished!

[dandelO]

It is going to be a very nice render, nice already. Full size will be great. I feel the cloud-tops are a little hard/dense but it's all there!
I'd love to see this in a wider shot, maybe 16:9, 16:10 ratio. 

Cool, I like it a lot.

[Bluefinger]

Okay, I'm playing around with the scene a bit for now before going all out for a full render. I've increased the POV, added a bit more haze, and added an extra object (care to guess just what it is? ) so to help build up a better contrasting foreground. I've also adjusted the grass population, and tweaked the size and variation of the population. The rest was slight modifications on the postwork, for example, using a toned down hard light layer instead of a soft light layer, so to bring out a little more colour and contrast. Still figuring out how to eliminate the noise on the rain, though I have some ideas. For the mean time, another image to pick apart:

[Henry Blewer]

I would add just a few more pines. Looks ready for a full render to me.

[domdib]

I actually prefer the scene without the pine, as it feels more open then, and the pine hides a bit of that awesome cloud and throws the balance of colours a bit too. But it's your scene!

[inkydigit]

looking real good, love the rain/clouds...bigger is gonna be a winner!

[FrankB]

looks fantastic so far. If I may say so, I suggest to reduce the saturation of the yellow on the ground, and also reduce the postwork glow on the ground. On the clouds, this works well!

[dandelO]

Raytracing the sky and compositing afterwards would help with the noise in the rain-sheet, uncheck 'render surface' on the planet node. Or you could wait on the possible renderer updates, that Oshyan talked about recently, which would let you choose which parts/objects use the raytracer and which parts don't.

[Bluefinger]

Raytracing the sky and compositing afterwards would help with the noise in the rain-sheet, uncheck 'render surface' on the planet node. Or you could wait on the possible renderer updates, that Oshyan talked about recently, which would let you choose which parts/objects use the raytracer and which parts don't.

I'm doing a larger render now with increased settings, but the noise issue was to do with the extra perlin fractal I put into the rain. I've removed it and the problem was resolved. Only problem I've had with the first initial larger renders was the fake stone surfaces, and after fixing the issue, then having problems with the displacement I've put in. I've left the fake stones without extra displacement, but I'm certainly going to go over how I deal with surface layers and displacement distributions.

One thing I've noticed is that when distributing a surface layer, displacement applied directly on the surface layer is not mapped to the coverage blending shader. I have to put the displacement as a child layer. Only colour distribution and child layers are affected by the coverage blend shader. Is there something I'm doing wrong, or is this an ongoing problem or an actual feature?

[Bluefinger]

Alright, I've done the big-ish render at 1280x720 initially, and will probably do a 1680x1050 pic later. Overall, I tweaked various aspects, relocated the pine tree, and tried adjusting the postwork a tad so the ground isn't as saturated or glowing as before, whilst maintaining that really gorgeous look on the clouds. I bumped up the GI with this render and in 1 hour and 49 minutes, I got a real nice look on the clouds. Only one bit on the clouds I'm not that happy with, but I'm not sure on how I'd remove it. I might do some cropped renders to see just if I can do anything. I think I do have a winner with this one.

[TheBlackHole]

EPIC WIN.

[Henry Blewer]

Sweet looking! I like the old pine where it is. Looks like it's been there forever!