Here is my latest creation.
A prehistoric scenery with a nasty predator observing the landscape while flying very high.
Pteranodon Hunter 2023.jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2023
The Pteranodon is from the De Espona Collection and has been converted and edited until it fitted perfectly into my scenery.
But at the end I decided to render the hunting bird separately to embed it later in the Adobe Poposhop postwork.
This has been done due to the inconvenienced lightning condition in the landscape scenery.
Otherwise, the shadow would have been fallen over the face of this bird of prey... so... this is the way I decided to go with.
But I will show you a TG render from within a true scale scene, which has been made to compare sizes at the first glance.
The silhouette on the right side displays an average man, 1.80m tall. Sorry... sexy females were out...
By the way, you can download my true scale scene here. Good to scale or compare correct sizes from within TG.
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,26585.msg265073.html#msg265073
Pteranodon Hunter (Wingspan 3.6m).jpg
Pteranodon Hunter (Wingspan 3.6m)
The Pteranodon hunter has been scaled to have a wingspan of 3.6m, which fits to adults of this species.
This final size of this bird has been estimated by looking at a lot of images and researching prehistoric references with real life data.
Finally, allow me to show you a screenshot of this beautiful scene as seen in Terragen 4.7.15.
The rendering took only 6.2 sec in the preview, unfortunately the final render took a little bit longer.
Pteranodon Hunter 2023 - SCREENSHOT.jpg
Screenshot TG 4.7.15
The funny thing is, it is the same terrain you end up, when you follow the "Texturing with Surface Layers" tutorial in the Planetside Wiki.
I followed it closely to get more educated in shader design... I learned a lot here...
https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Texturing_with_Surface_Layers
https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/images/a/ab/Final_take2.jpg
Final render of the terrain from the tutorial
But I took it further while fine tune it and adding more fine terrain details with the classic erosion plugin (rendered in 16K).
Somehow I created a pretty color range which looks somehow prehistoric-like, especially when grass clumps are added.
Surface Layer Tutorial and Classic Erosion.jpg
Texturing Surface Layer Tutorial taken further with the classic erosion plugin (16K)
Surface Layer Tutorial Taken Further (SLTTF).jpg
SLTTK (Surface Layer Tutorial Taken Further)
After putting so much work and energy into this undertaking, it is an image I would not hesitate to send it to a contest.
But comments and constructive thoughts about improving my "Pteranodon Hunter 2023" scene are highly appreciated.
So feel free to comment my work! Has it emotionally touched you in a way, how would you try to do such a scene, ect. ?
STORMLORD
Cool scene, Dirk. And very nice that you break it down this way.
I do have some comments, if you don't mind. They would be my personal changes, mind you.
1. The haze below is very thin. I would soften that and make the cloud higher (in meters), so it would perhaps obscure a bit of the right side higher up.
2. That would also be my position of the Pteranodon, not so centrally located. With some haze behind it would 'jump forward' more automatically.
3. I would also clump the trees more to the valleys, like it's a harsh terrain where they hardly survive, only in secluded places. I would also check out what trees (if any) were present at the time of those dino species! And is this the right habitat? Not on coasts? I don't know actually.
4. You could also work with shadows of clouds, so if you have a shadow on some hillside, put the P. in front of that and have it light up like that. I sometimes use an invisible card with some reflection or luminosity placed near an object to give it just a bit more light.
I was waiting (like the wimp I am) for Ulco to give his expert opinion. Yes, that low-lying cloud would be better if it was raised to the level of the Pterothingy, given more depth, and made less dense, wispier. Maybe having the Ptero appearing out of that cloud would give the scene more dynamism, add to the scariness of the dino. The clumping of trees was the first thing that struck me when viewing the scene, the smaller trees are far too scattergunned. A couple more Ptero's in the background would add to the authenticity of the scene.
Textures are to much white!
Thank you guys for your constructive criticism, which I really appreciate!
Exactly this is what I want to hear, because only true input brings you forward and helps you to improve.
Just to say, "well done" or "great", didn't help you to see what's wrong or could be done better?
"With some haze behind it would 'jump forward' more automatically."
Yes, that's a very good idea, thank you Ulco.
But what I do not understand, why my textures "are too much white?"
Do you mean, too much clouds here, -> to be more precisely, the cloud are to dense?
I alreday made 2 groups of Pteranodons, one with 3 and one with 5 of them.
Pteranodon Hunter Group.jpg
Pteranodon Hunter Group 3x
A first test wasn't that successful, they didn't seem to really fit?
Maybe I have to find another way to place them inside the scene or change the scene arrangement?
I thought also, maybe I should do a small river in the top left position between the trees.
But after you mentioned mainly the clouds, I will first focus on the cloud situation...then the population arrangement...
So thank you all, I wish you to have a pleasant Christmastime !
STORMLORD
You could also try to bend their wings differently for some different poses. And/or bend their head to one side. Shouldn't be too hard. It would make a group more interesting.
Quote from: Stormlord on December 23, 2023, 09:56:07 PMBut what I do not understand, why my textures "are too much white?"
I think Uwe was referring to your rock colour. Does it come from a power fractal?
This an excellent piece of work. The trees are too spotty and need more variation.
Pteranodon Hunter 2.0
-------------------------------
Thank you mhaze for your nice comment.
I respect you as a very talented artist and so I really appreciate your kind words very much!
Thank you all for your constructive criticism.
I developed another scene (based upon the first) in which I tried to bring in your great ideas.
1. The scene has been slightly modified to cluster the trees more in groups to give them a more natural look as most of you mentioned.
I added some more red ground dirt below, then reduced slightly the yellow sand field in the left upper corner and set the grass clumps (~1.35million) a little bit higher up into the mountains.
Surface Layer 4.0.jpg
Surface layer 4.0 with plants (created after following closely https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Texturing_with_Surface_Layers, then spiced up with classic erosion)
-> Yes Smeerlap, the Shaders are mainly designed with Power Fractals (procedural).
Here is a screenshot of my Node Network for you.
Pteranodon Hunter - Shader Node.jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2023
Shader Node Network for Surface Layer 4.0
2. I created one more dynamic model of the Pteranodon Hunter as Ulco suggested.
Pteranodon Hunter (Pose 1).jpg
Pteranodon Hunter (dynamic pose designed to fit perfectly into the already existing scene)
3. Also smeerlap idea to make the scene more dramatic while a Pteranodon comes out of some foggy clouds is excellent, but hard to bring into reality.
So Johns idea was the next step, but a very hard one to take! I took the other posed Pteranodon additionally inside, instead of using only one Pteranodon.
Then I created a new set of clouds and set the second bird of prey in the midst of the carefully designed cloud layers. I earned a fresh and more dramatic look.
-> The scene received some shadow, occultation, fog, another more dynamic hunting bird. Nearly all things you mentioned are now in this updated scene.
(Maybe I could further do some shadowing on the flats and the mountains with clouds.)
Pteranodon Hunter 2.0.jpg
Maybe I could bring in other lightning and another sky or some snowy mountains to get more details into a version 3.0... well... I will see...
But now, It has become a really nice and cool scene!
Terragen is awesome!
STORMLORD
Quote from: Stormlord on December 25, 2023, 10:11:05 AMTerragen is awful!
Did you mean Terragen is awesome?
Not to keep harping on, but I will. Clustering of trees is good, but it might be a good idea to have more trees in the clusters so they can shake hands as it were. This will also help darken and add more shadow to the ground.
Quote from: schmeerlap on December 25, 2023, 01:07:03 PMQuote from: Stormlord on December 25, 2023, 10:11:05 AMTerragen is awful!
Did you mean Terragen is awesome?
Not to keep harping on, but I will. Clustering of trees is good, but it might be a good idea to have more trees in the clusters so they can shake hands as it were. This will also help darken and add more shadow to the ground.
AWESOME !!!
Thank you...
Ok, now I reduced the spacing in the vegetation by 40% (from 10x10 to 6x6) and gave my plant mask a slightly higher contrast offset (from -0.15 to -0.3) to make the trees more shaking hands.
I also rendered a clean version with a neutral shader, so that it is pretty easy to spot my own vegetation, and you know what? You're absolutely right!!!
The outcome looks much more natural than the previous version!
-> I'll keep the idea of making a clean and neutral vegetation test render for distribution evaluation for the future!
I did this the first time, and it is so much better to get a new and fresh look upon the vegetation distribution in your own scene.
Pteranodon Hunter (Vegetation Test).jpg
Vegetation distribution test
STORMLORD
Good advice, your render has already improved a lot.
I wrote something about its environment earlier, but did you check out some facts? It's more of an ocean/water dwelling fisheater, so a water body would be appropriate.
Check out this: nice images too: https://dinosaurpictures.org/Pteranodon-pictures (https://dinosaurpictures.org/Pteranodon-pictures)
Also: New oceans flooded the spaces in between. Mountains rose on the seafloor, pushing sea levels higher and onto the continents.
All this water gave the previously hot and dry climate a humid and drippy subtropical feel. Dry deserts slowly took on a greener hue. Palm tree-like cycads were abundant, as were conifers such as araucaria and pines. Ginkgoes carpeted the mid- to high northern latitudes, and podocarps, a type of conifer, were particularly successful south of the Equator. Tree ferns were also present.
See here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/jurassic (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/jurassic)
So you'd need some palms, treeferns and pines...
Thank you for your compliment, Ulco!
I also appreciate your research and the input about the Jurassic time period.
STORMLORD
After going through all these new informations, I realize, that I made a mistake here.
The time to change the whole setup, because the Pteranodon lived in regions with much water like lakes or an ocean, is a little bit late now.
But these predators lived mostly in the US. So the best I can say here, I try to emulate a terrain, like in Canada or Mid-West towards the ocean.
To be honest, first I didn't expect this project to go any further as the first render!
-> But I have learned here, that It makes absolutely sense to start with a more in depth research before starting to do a bigger project like this.
Now, I really like it, to dive more and more into it... it's so cool. Even if the terrain isn't one with water in it. So here is an update how I proceed.
I started by arranging another plant setup with the ones you already suggested, making my scene more realistic.
First I had two sorts of King Palms, three different trees, one prehistoric plant, two sizes of an Asparagus Fern and one grass clump ground cover.
But I changed the vegetation and created another setup with many pines instead. I also paid attention to a very natural clumping of the plants.
The final scattering of all vegetation can be clearly seen in the next picture... I think, now I can really go on with this one :-)
Pteranodon Hunter (Vegetation list).jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2023
(Vegetation)
STORMLORD
You could easily add a water body and a waterline in this setup, make it coastal.
I thought I'd add my tuppence worth of research: see attached info sheet.
I have a feeling that you've become attached to your current terrain. It is a nice terrain, but perhaps save that for another project.
And start afresh for the Pteranodon scene with your Ptero swooping over coastal waters, and maybe have an erupting volcano in the background, I believe they
were quite popular at the time. :)
We'll all soon know our Pteranodons from our Nyctosauruses ;D
Pteranodon Hunter.jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2023
New vegetation setup
By the way...
Does the new vegetation scattering now looking natural?
Quote from: Dune on December 27, 2023, 11:41:55 AMYou could easily add a water body and a waterline in this setup, make it coastal.
Quote from: schmeerlap on December 27, 2023, 02:14:45 PMI thought I'd add my tuppence worth of research: see attached info sheet.
I have a feeling that you've become attached to your current terrain. It is a nice terrain, but perhaps save that for another project.
And start afresh for the Pteranodon scene with your Ptero swooping over coastal waters, and maybe have an erupting volcano in the background, I believe they
were quite popular at the time. :)
We'll all soon know our Pteranodons from our Nyctosauruses ;D
Make it coastal he said...
Add an erupting volcano he said... (what the fu** is a Nyctosaurus?...)
STORMLORD
(14.2 GB of Data are now in my Pteranodon Hunter folder on hard disc and there's no end in sight... how this will end ?...when this will end?... :o )
I'll fix you a setup in a minute...
Here you go, plenty of possibilities (also has a nice cliff for the Pteranodons)... or for other projects. Needs Daniil's erosion shader, but you have that, I think.
And here's another version with some changes. Have fun.
And here's a volcano I rustled up in Gaea
If you want it I'll email you the tor because .tor doesn't seem to be one of the allowed attachment formats.
O thank you so much John !
Pretty cool, such a volcano... Yes, why not. So please sent me your "volcano.tor" file.
-> Mostly trouble while sending unknown file formats can be prevented, by just zipping them into a zip container.
I've found out, that it works for 99.8% of all cases.
And also thank you Ulco for your starter coastline.
That's a very nice terrain and yes, I have Classic Erosion.
I'm sure I will use all that after examining these files...so one more time, THANK YOU !
-> A water sphere... you're full of surprises !
-> But I'm too!!!
In my standard Classic Erosion Setup, I embed also a mask output and an inverted mask output (swapped black and white points).
Classic Erosion Setup by Dirk Kipper.jpg
Classic Erosion setup by Stormlord
In the meantime, I have rendered overnight my next evolution of the whole scenery.
As Ulco suggested, I have created a coastline (with a wet water zone), added some underwater fake stones (masked with a deposition map from classic erosion) and created a tropical water body.
Further, I pimped up the very dark vegetation by rendering a vegetation only layer.
I rendered the vegetation on a black surface and without the sky. I got a vegetation only render, which I then used to light up the dark forest inside of Adobe Photoshop.
In Adobe Photoshop, this can be done with two layer modes. Mostly I use "Negative multiply" (~25%). But because the vegetation here is so dark, I used "Exclusion" (~35-50%).
Depending on the situation, I always try which mode is best? In this rendering, layer mode "Exclusion" is more subtle, than "Negative multiply". So I used exclusion mode.
20 - Pteranodon Hunter 5a (Adobe Photoshop).jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2023
(Adobe Photoshop CS 5.5)
And this is my result so far...
Here maybe the saturation is a little bit too heavy, but I have also another new idea in stock to take this image further!
The vegetation let me think more of a typical Canada scenery. So I think, snow on the mountains will also a good idea.
Pteranodon Hunter 5a.jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2023
(Water, shoreline, fake stones, tree enlightening)
Stay tuned...
We're not done yet!
STORMLORD
Here is the volcano tor in a rar archive file
A 'tor' or a 'ter'?
Quote from: Dune on December 29, 2023, 02:15:57 AMA 'tor' or a 'ter'?
".tor" is the extension for a native Gaea file.
"whit a rer ter" is Glaswegian for "we're having a wonderful time". 8)
:D
A ".tor" file is the saved "tgd" for GAEA, when working with TG but not with LW!
I hope, it is more clear now....
STORMLORD
Quote from: Stormlord on December 29, 2023, 09:48:58 AMA ".tor" file is the saved "tgd" for GAEA, when working with TG but not with LW!
I hope, it is more clear now....
You've managed to make it less clear Dirk. .tor is the native Gaea file as in mywonderfulfirstterrain.tor
It has nothing to do with Terragen or tgd files. "When working With Terragen", i.e. importing a heightfield into Terragen from Gaea, you need to first do a Build in Gaea with an exporting image format such as tiff, psd, png, raw, etc.
Pffff......
STORMLORD
It took a while for the next level of my Pteranodon scenery.
First I added foamy water.
Thank you Dune for the great idea to add some foamy water (in your example scene, your water is foamy).
Mhaze had once posted an example scene with foamy water, which is really great and the best I've seen so far!
Luckily, I saved his example to my library (even if I didn't understand at that time, how the shader really works?).
So the credits here are going to mhaze for his fantastic foamy water.
22 - Water Foam by mhaze.jpg
Foam example by mhaze
After transferring his example into my landscape, I rendered two close-ups for my next level of development.
For the first viewpoint, I was searching for a classic "look through the trees" spot. I found a good one here...
26 - Pteranodon Landscape 2.jpg
Pteranodon Landscape 1
Foamy water shot
And to get a better idea of the coastline, I also rendered a perspective of the shore.
To show more clearly the water foam, I imprinted a zoom from the original 4K rendering in the second render.
25 - Pteranodon Landscape 1.jpg
Pteranodon Landscape 2
Foamy water shot
You may have noticed, that here a snowy mountain pops up. This lead's us to my second improvement, snowy terrain higher up.
The snow here is basically designed upon Dune's snow Shader, which I also found somewhere here in the forum.
The version here is an enhanced version, which produces vector based snow with combined ice as well. So thx Dune for sharing!
Pteranodon Hunter (Screenshot).jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2023
Preview window
The first Pteranodon Hunter render is a clear shot to show the landscape very clear.
The second is made with clouds. Here I added a very subtle lens flare effect in the misty cloud.
Allow me to point out the shadow from the second bird of prey falling over the dense white cloud.
23 - Pteranodon Hunter.jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2023
Snowscape version
24 - Pteranodon Hunter.jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2023
Snowscape version
It's a lot I've done to make this scene a good one.
I have put most of the knowledge I earned over the years into this scene, even If I will not say, that I'm an expert.
But here is what I've done and learned so far.
- Terrain erosion with the classic erosion plugin
- Designing better terrain shaders for convincing renders (ground, snow, ice)
- Developing natural looking vegetation populations
- Manipulate renderings in Photoshop with rendered (plant) masks
- Converting models, manipulate (scaling, transforming) and importing them into TG
- How to create a scene (More informing before start creating a Jurassic scene!)
- Working with Fake stones
- Making cool tropical water
- Pushing the limit by adding foamy water to it
So, at least, I really hope you like it!
Probably this version will be the final one.
STORMLORD
Great work Dirk. Your effort on this project was Herculean and the result clearly reflects your assiduous labour.
Landscape render in a portrait format.
This time a more coastal view of this predator in a dynamic pose.
Pteranodon Hunter 2023 - Portrait.jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2023
STORMLORD
I like this version more, actually. The beast jumps forward, more depth!
Only, for such calm water, less foam distance would be appropriate. Unless there's submerged rocks.
Good work, Dirk!
Love this pov. and the coastline scene is great as is . . . . . . . but
Are you up for more tinkering with this project?
If so . . . . . ROCKS.
The way some of the terrain slopes into the water could be enhanced with a more definitive shore. A rocky shoreline, and rock screes on bare slopes might do the trick.
see attachment for what I have in mind.
Thank you so much for your encouragement and constructive critic.
This helps me to hang on this truly big project (for me) and keep on bringing in more and more details :)
STORMLORD
Hi Guys,
this week I worked on a more natural underwater stone environment.
So I added more fake stones and rendered a new setup for my underwater stone distribution.
30 - Underwater Stones.jpg
Underwater Stones 2.0
Underwater Stones.jpg
More natural underwater stone distribution
Underwater Stones Rendering.jpg
Pteranodon Hunter Landscape 2023
Then I went on to transfer John's good idea to render more rocky stones on the beach.
So I tried to mask out only a heightline profile of the shoreline in my terrain to use this mask for a specified stone distribution area.
Usually I use a shape shader to mask my distribution area, but here I intend to render out a mask as a DOT product for further use.
I admit, that I wasn't able to mask out only the pink shoreline.
I intended to get a clean mask as a DOT product, but I failed.
28 - Heightline Masking.jpg
Pink terrain heightline problematic
Has somebody a procedure or an idea, how I could mask out a simple height line in a terrain?
The idea I have in stock is to render a separate pass, like I did before with the vegetable/botanic mask. All in black except the heightline.
Sure I could do that, but I am looking for a simple way of masking a given heightline in a terrain, for further use as a seperate mask (DOT Product).
So I stuck here for a moment...
Try to find a solution...
Any ideas...suggestions...maybe a sample tgd...???
STORMLORD
I actually don't understand why you're using these elaborate masks. Why not use the altitude settings in a distribution or surface shader? You can easily make a narrow line, or an underwater mask, whatever... within TG, so in one go.
Even a get altitude or get position (in texture) and some smooth steps can do the trick.
I know, that it is simple to mask it out via the altitude settings. I just tried it the complicated way, because I never did it this way.
And now I am so glad, that I have ask!
I studied surface shaders, I read a lot in the Wikipedia, I examined .tgd files, I constantly add new infos and files to my own Terragen Library.
But sometimes you simply have no clue. How you can really work with all these blue nodes?
So by your given example I have learned something new to me. It's so precious to me Ulco!
It's humbling to ask maybe simple questions, but it's far more better to say "I simply don't know" (and learn something new from others),
instead of posing to be the Terragen hero. Sure, I've learned a lot, and mostly I did it by reading and study the contributions in this forum.
But at the end, it's sometimes the chance to ask an experienced user to get a breakthrough and enlightening in problem areas.
Well... the Planetside Wikipedia is great, but often I miss a example how I really can transfer the information to a real life solution in Terragen.
Multiply complement scalar... ok... wow... but what the hell am I doing with this Multi Complex Shi... Shader Dingelsbumsgedöns at the end?
How do I apply it at the end?
So to find out and get a real life example I just ask. So one more time... thank you Ulco for showing me how I can mask out a heightline in a terrain.
-> By the way... this is, what I saved in my private Terragen Wikipedia Folder for future use of your example.
Multiply complement scalar (Masking out a heightline in a terrain).jpg
Masking out a heightline in a terrain
STORMLORD
Well, the blues are just one way, and I put them in just to show there's more than one way. But easier is surface shader or distribution shader, like the first, purple one.
Next variant of the scene...
A minor change refers to the snowline, it has come down a little bit. Just a little bit fine tuning here..
I experimented a lot with variations in the water and with the underwater stone environment.
The water became transparent, the sea foam here is heavily reduced and limited to areas, where the rocks are going into the water.
The water shall look tropical, but I'm afraid that it is now too transparent?
On the other hand, it looks more interesting because of all the details underwater... difficult question. But I decided to start here with this transparent water.
Finally, I decided instead of doing some bigger fake stones at the shoreline, to create a sandy beach. It looks now way better with the new sandy beach.
(There are small sandy stones at the shoreline, but they consist of zones with small gravel and pebbles. So you don't really see much of them in this resolution.)
Pteranodon Hunter 2024 - Portrait.jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2023
STORMLORD
Terrific! But maybe the water is indeed to transparent and too blue. I'd say a lot of algae would thrive in a warmer climate, so greenish would be okay.
But I don't want to spoil the fun, but the snow shouldn't really be there (but maybe this was a brief period of glaciation).
" The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was largely ice-free, although there is some evidence of brief periods of glaciation during the cooler first half, and forests extended to the poles."
Yesterday I updated my water settings and rendered my scene with various water colors for comparison.
The average water colors which I used here are from areas in true color satellite images, with mostly the same average water colors.
Open seawater (average ocean color), Phytoplankton Bloom areas and ocean zones filled with Chlorophyll.
It ended up with four test renderings, which displays the new and updated average water colors in my scene.
Pteranodon Hunter 2024 - Water Color Test.jpg
Average water colors
At the end, I cold not finally decide which color range is the best?
I think something between Phytoplankton and Chlorophyll in this case.
So I made a water color mixer to create a mix of subtle colors here. LOL... 8)
SCREENSHOT - Pteranodon Hunter (Water Color Mixer).jpg
Pteranodon Hunter (Water Color Mixer)
I also rendered a version without ice+snow, this variant looks rather boring...
So I will stay with ice and snow. It looks much more interesting and yes there were glacial periods in the Jurassic.
Pteranodon Hunter 2024 - Surface Shader Check.jpg
Rock or ice and snow?
(Surface Shader Check)
Pteranodon Hunter 2024.jpg
Pteranodon Hunter 2024
(Updated scene with new water colors)
STORMLORD