...and not liking what I see out the window render. Found an old project and fixed what was wrong, added the front two conifers I had picked up somewhere since then and and a leaf I extracted from a tree to populate on the water to hide an artifact I couldn't isolate so it was unremoveable. Turns out I like em.C&C welcome
Hi Bobby,
To me it seems very underexposed. I see that a lot with Terragen renders from many artists here, not just you.
Matt
Quote from: Matt on January 28, 2018, 04:28:51 AM
Hi Bobby,
To me it seems very underexposed. I see that a lot with Terragen renders from many artists here, not just you.
Matt
I hear you and raise my hand as guilty of ignoring the exposure...will re render as it wasn't a long one...thanks for the input.
Doing some exposure tests and wow RTP is THE handiest for this...
If you save as .exr then there's a lot you can do with the massive dynamic range in the exr format. You probably don't need to re-render.
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on January 28, 2018, 01:38:03 PM
If you save as .exr then there's a lot you can do with the massive dynamic range in the exr format. You probably don't need to re-render.
heh heh Thanks but too late, but I would have had to as I adjusted the AA and mpD up, plus I wanted to rotate the right hand tree to avoid some bad U/V mapping and re do the water leaves.
Add in an antebellum mansion and you've got a great old plantation scene.
Following Matt's direction and a couple of personal tweaks I have this much improved version. took just over twice as long. C&C welcome.
Idk why, just reminds me of this place:
Love the setup, but wondering if the leaves in bath are masked right? I see a gray shadow edging, but not sure if it is made to be that way to highlight the contrast? I see them pinkish, not matching trees overhead?
Quote from: luvsmuzik on January 28, 2018, 03:05:12 PM
Love the setup, but wondering if the leaves in bath are masked right? I see a gray shadow edging, but not sure if it is made to be that way to highlight the contrast? I see them pinkish, not matching trees overhead?
No they're a pop of a leaf I made from one of the maple trees ...they blew in from an early release from the Maple tree behind the camera heh heh heh, sorry it's the only leaf I had to hand.
I may redo the leaves entirely, but on an invisible plane instead of the lake as the pop even tho run thru a Distr. shader seems to follow the radial lines in the lake and it bugs me.
Well shamed into it I grabbed an alpha map from an xfrog leaf in Imagine3d and did the object from image routine so the next render will have appropriate leaves a float.
hehe...float some of those pesky cherry/apple blossoms in there...love how those look like popcorn on the tree and then snow when they fall off. :)
Quote from: luvsmuzik on January 28, 2018, 03:35:29 PM
hehe...float some of those pesky cherry/apple blossoms in there...love how those look like popcorn on the tree and then snow when they fall off. :)
well those are actually crabapple trees, I made the leaf to match the trees it's under but I did think about it and they'd be so tiny the effect might be lost on an average viewer
So, in the pic you'll see a vertical/perpendicular line crossing the leaves and water. I suspect, as nada I've tried has had any effect, that is an artifact caused by the sun facing the camera as it's there with no population as well. I seem to recall this turning up in a water scene and a solution may or may not have been found. So this is on hold till I can fix that, any idea's? I'll re buff ones I've tried gently.
Great image!
Quote from: bobbystahr on January 28, 2018, 08:57:47 PM
So, in the pic you'll see a vertical/perpendicular line crossing the leaves and water. I suspect, as nada I've tried has had any effect, that is an artifact caused by the sun facing the camera as it's there with no population as well. I seem to recall this turning up in a water scene and a solution may or may not have been found. So this is on hold till I can fix that, any idea's? I'll re buff ones I've tried gently.
No clue. water is on plane? Do you have sun heading at exactly 0 or 360? weird phenomenon for sure
Quote from: luvsmuzik on January 29, 2018, 08:31:51 AM
Quote from: bobbystahr on January 28, 2018, 08:57:47 PM
So, in the pic you'll see a vertical/perpendicular line crossing the leaves and water. I suspect, as nada I've tried has had any effect, that is an artifact caused by the sun facing the camera as it's there with no population as well. I seem to recall this turning up in a water scene and a solution may or may not have been found. So this is on hold till I can fix that, any idea's? I'll re buff ones I've tried gently.
No clue. water is on plane? Do you have sun heading at exactly 0 or 360? weird phenomenon for sure
Well after waiting and getting no replies I got bloody-minded and rebuilt the scene, but 100m left of center and the problem went away. the scene has changed a bit but gonna re render it today...will post it later..... your guess on the sun was accurate.
Yes, I did what I thought was going to be a beautiful rainbow mist on river shot IRL.....only to have a red streak right down the center, since I had aimed directly into the sun with my little camera. :) But it was soooo pretty.
As I mentioned I just grabbed the bull by the horns and bit the bullet and started fresh. This works way better but C&C still welcome
Very good! I really like the lighting, and coverage of grasses is great. Two things that bother me; the strange displacements at the sides of the pond, and the color of the brick thing. I'd tone that to the greys as well (though I know what an immense problem that would be :P).
Very climatic. Contrary to what Dune says, I actually like the jagged edges of the pond. It looks more dilapidated and historical that way which plays well with the general composition.
The highlight on the water could use some more spread perhaps.
Quote from: Dune on January 30, 2018, 02:20:24 AM
Very good! I really like the lighting, and coverage of grasses is great. Two things that bother me; the strange displacements at the sides of the pond, and the color of the brick thing. I'd tone that to the greys as well (though I know what an immense problem that would be :P).
I was aiming at corroded/eroded without using the plugin as I wanted the pool to look old and abused and admit to failure there and the "Folly Wall"(look that up)came textured that way so the best I could do re: your suggestion is desaturate the textures to grey it down...that's a thought though.
Quote from: N-drju on January 30, 2018, 02:35:35 AM
Very climatic. Contrary to what Dune says, I actually like the jagged edges of the pond. It looks more dilapidated and historical that way which plays well with the general composition.
The highlight on the water could use some more spread perhaps.
Well I'm glad my attempt at corruption of the pool base had some resonance...Dune didn't see it that way and I thought it failed as well so thanks for the comment on it. I'll take another stab at it as we've blow and snowing blow all day here; verging on blizzard conditions so I ain't goin anywhere today.
Is your pool an object, or your double-triple simple shape shader trick? Overall great improvements!!
Quote from: luvsmuzik on January 30, 2018, 11:00:20 AM
Is your pool an object, or your double-triple simple shape shader trick? Overall great improvements!!
It's 2 SSshaders with the edge using Stroke and run thru a displacement shader as Stroke isn't available in displacements and the pool's a neg displaced rectangle using bevel..working on a new pool surface atm as I, as well as Dune, wasn't happy with the results I got here.
was wondering about cube displace SSS too, but sure you will get it right :)
Yeah, sink a hole in the ground by SSS, add a cube, sink it in the hole and displace like a pool.
Quote from: Dune on January 30, 2018, 12:28:27 PM
Yeah, sink a hole in the ground by SSS, add a cube, sink it in the hole and displace like a pool.
I was feeling confused till I figured the cube was the water in the SS shader pool...heh heh,,,foggy blizzard brain today
Quote from: Dune on January 30, 2018, 02:20:24 AM
I'd tone that to the greys as well (though I know what an immense problem that would be :P).
I think I got a pool tex I like and the "folly wall" was a dawdle as it was all open de-sat save as for each file and you're so right as it now fits rather than stands out..also re did the ivy as the large one irritated me from the start
Bobby, alternatively you could perhaps make the pond edges imitate cobblestones with some tiles missing or damaged. FSS could be a nice addition. Doing something like this as a pond's edge:
[attach=1]
:)
So here's where it went. A bit much Ambient Occlusion but I like the pool now and the ivies on the folly wall are better as well....maybe still a bit under exposed over all?...C&C please
I like how this has developed. Regarding exposure.. yeah maybe. On the other hand, perhaps what might really set this render off is a second sun (in the same position as the first) with a large soft shadow diameter (e.g. 10 or 15 degrees), similar intensity to the first sun. The two suns together will effectively double the exposure, but in a really beautiful way.
Matt
AWWW that is soooo pretty!
Quote from: Matt on January 30, 2018, 03:42:19 PM
I like how this has developed. Regarding exposure.. yeah maybe. On the other hand, perhaps what might really set this render off is a second sun (in the same position as the first) with a large soft shadow diameter (e.g. 10 or 15 degrees), similar intensity to the first sun. The two suns together will effectively double the exposure, but in a really beautiful way.
Matt
Good thought I'll give that a try, thanks
Quote from: luvsmuzik on January 30, 2018, 03:43:21 PM
AWWW that is soooo pretty!
thanks...edit on the way tho
....I think maybe I should have set the exposure back as stop or 2 as it was set at 4 for the previous render. This shows the pool well but the water less well. And you'll notice 2 suns more than doubled the render time.
Both are excellent renders. Depending on if you want it a pure Terragen render or not, one could adjust exposure in a simple filter. I like them both very much.
Quote from: luvsmuzik on January 30, 2018, 08:33:42 PM
Both are excellent renders. Depending on if you want it a pure Terragen render or not, one could adjust exposure in a simple filter. I like them both very much.
Doing a smaller test of this with the exposure lowered from 4 to 2.2 but keeping the doubled sun. and it seems to render faster. will continue posting versions till we're all happy LOL
Getting better and better. Still not satisfied with the pool edges. You see the straight edges are ugly. What I actually meant in my previous post is to make the pool itself from cubes, not just the water as you mentioned. 4 cubes as the sides, and a plane/cube as water. Displace planet ground by SSS, no matter what the sides look like, they'll be hidden by the cubes.
OK I get that Ulco, but as each succeeding render doubles in length (4 hours for this one) I think this one is a final. RE: the pool's construction, the project started as a build it all with SS shaders and how to use it's Stroke feature, I have built stuff in that manner but the exercise that started this was as I stated. I did realize the utility of remembering that in the final analysis it all depends on the camera and it's adjustments just like when you shoot a photo and the double sun trick from Matt really did it so this was a valid learning experience.
Excellent. It's great to see someone thinking photographically.
It's an interesting project.
I think this is one of your best yet. Great use of the two suns trick. I'd move them off centre and behind the tree branch to cast some rays (but that's just me lol).
Quote from: cyphyr on January 31, 2018, 06:26:49 AM
I think this is one of your best yet. Great use of the two suns trick. I'd move them off centre and behind the tree branch to cast some rays (but that's just me lol).
Thanks Richard, I'd considered that and may still try that on. Odd how one experiment leads to so many other ideas eh?
Great improvement. I still think it could be at least twice as bright as this (+1 stop, or double the exposure number on the camera), so that it really pops where the sun hits the trees and grass, while the rest is softly lit but clearly visible. Especially if you decide to move the suns so that they don't shine directly on the camera. Or is it just me? And don't be afraid to add a small amount of contrast in post.
My least favourite part is where the sun hits the water. Somehow there is too much roughness on the specular highlight if this is supposed to be calm, smooth water. If it becomes difficult to find good specular settings, consider disabling specular highlights completely (on the water, NOT the light source). The water will still reflect the bright sky.
Matt
Quote from: Matt on February 01, 2018, 03:06:20 PM
Great improvement. I still think it could be at least twice as bright as this (+1 stop, or double the exposure number on the camera), so that it really pops where the sun hits the trees and grass, while the rest is softly lit but clearly visible. Especially if you decide to move the suns so that they don't shine directly on the camera. Or is it just me? And don't be afraid to add a small amount of contrast in post.
My least favourite part is where the sun hits the water. Somehow there is too much roughness on the specular highlight if this is supposed to be calm, smooth water. If it becomes difficult to find good specular settings, consider disabling specular highlights completely (on the water, NOT the light source). The water will still reflect the bright sky.
Matt
Thank Matt, tried a few sun rays but I like it better the way it started. Will test your suggestions all round as the water was bugging me too, and I'd not thought of that. On that last one I'd dropped the exposure to 2.2 so am testing it at 4.4 but lo res so I can see it before bed time heh heh
most the way through a center strip crop full size render and the water is fixed nicely now by my eye and I see real improvement in detail through out the crop are...very encouraged and will likely do a full over-nighter tonight. In deference to Ulco's sound advice I re-did the pool edge as the original point of the image (the displaced stroke thing)was ruining the picture that evolved. Will add a bit of rendertime but I'll be asleep so no problem.
O K here's where this got to after 5+hours rendering. I've noticed a few things but I'll let y'all spot em in case I'm hallucinating on this image heh heh heh
Well, first off congrats on the pool edges! That now looks awesome! I like this but prefer previous reflections. I see the floating population on the water. Dang it! Your efforts are not going unrewarded, it is still a fantastic setup! :)
Quote from: luvsmuzik on February 02, 2018, 07:13:23 AM
Well, first off congrats on the pool edges! That now looks awesome! I like this but prefer previous reflections. I see the floating population on the water. Dang it! Your efforts are not going unrewarded, it is still a fantastic setup! :)
Thanks but I suspect Ulco will say I should have eroded the edges more heh heh but I was getting a tad frustrated and hit on this which I at least like if not love.
You should have eroded the edges more heh heh ;D
No, it looks really good. The only thing I miss is a bit of a wet area around the water. Water-dry is a bit abrupt. Why not darken and add a reflective shader ending a few centimeters above water level?
Really nice one Bobby. :)
Listen to Ulco and it'll be excellent. ;)
Quote from: Dune on February 02, 2018, 01:03:35 PM
You should have eroded the edges more heh heh ;D
No, it looks really good. The only thing I miss is a bit of a wet area around the water. Water-dry is a bit abrupt. Why not darken and add a reflective shader ending a few centimeters above water level?
I had considered that, but as the water is maybe 6 inches deep and leftover from a rainfall I thought the evaporation in a stagnant pool might not show the wet/ dry boundary...I'll have a look later but at 5+ hours rendering it'll be a day or so off as I got something else on the go...busy busy busy...it's the snow keeping me locked in that does this....
Quote from: j meyer on February 02, 2018, 02:08:04 PM
Really nice one Bobby. :)
Listen to Ulco and it'll be excellent. ;)
Thanks man...as much credit for the look goes to Matt for his invaluable help with the lighting. It was fairly pedestrian at the start.
Lighting and composition are everything.
This shot has really improved.
Take a look at the trailer for Tarsem's "The Fall" from 2006.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO0LYcCoeJY
He's currently directing the series "Emerald City"
Quote from: SILENCER on February 02, 2018, 03:39:11 PM
Lighting and composition are everything.
This shot has really improved.
Take a look at the trailer for Tarsem's "The Fall" from 2006.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO0LYcCoeJY
He's currently directing the series "Emerald City"
Indeed a strange lil trailer and thanks for the comment.
Very nice. The sharp highlight isn't working as well as I thought, but that's my fault for suggesting it. I suppose in real life the leaves would distort it quite a bit (and there's a challenge for you if you're up for it). What shader is on the water?
Matt
Quote from: Matt on February 02, 2018, 10:51:45 PM
Very nice. The sharp highlight isn't working as well as I thought, but that's my fault for suggesting it. I suppose in real life the leaves would distort it quite a bit (and there's a challenge for you if you're up for it). What shader is on the water?
Matt
default water shader, and it may not live up to what you expected but I was most pleased, that 2 suns is a great technique. Not sure if I'm up to that as right now TG is resisting me adding a wetness layer to the pool surface as per Ulco's last suggestion...think I just got it. If I can nail this and touch up the edges I think this will be a finished image...wish me luck heh heh heh
Beautiful, Bobby!
I looked at this again on my mini tablet, and I saw the neatest glow around your water-sun highlight! In that case...I love that! Perhaps I do not have my new monitor set right yet, I just plugged it in and went with default stuff.
Quote from: luvsmuzik on February 03, 2018, 02:27:52 PM
I looked at this again on my mini tablet, and I saw the neatest glow around your water-sun highlight! In that case...I love that! Perhaps I do not have my new monitor set right yet, I just plugged it in and went with default stuff.
I decreased the spread on the water to near zero fo that if you refer to what I'm guessing
Quote from: Hannes on February 03, 2018, 01:22:27 PM
Beautiful, Bobby!
I'm thinking that may be nearly the final render. Ulco suggested a darkening 'water line' but have been unable. For some odd reason, I can't suss it out, get a Surface layer to do it so cancelled that part but have figured out some cool displacement for the pool edges so he'll be plesed at that heh heh heh.
So...here's the problem I have and which dissuaded me from putting a wet layer in the pool as I couldn't get the layer to cover correctly. I tried all yesterday and nada....comments welcome.
Probably a dumb question, but why is your color function_grass layer?
Quote from: luvsmuzik on February 03, 2018, 07:43:48 PM
Probably a dumb question, but why is your color function_grass layer?
Pardon? I don't understand. This is about the pool so I had no focus on grass.
Was going to post my most recent render when a light went on and I realized I hadn't tweaked the poolside stones roundness or displacement tolerance so I've done that but I won't be posting till tomorrow as I'm gone now till well after it finishes at an out of town party/gig and everyone but me will be too hungover to get back before I'm guessing, supper tomorrow...will post the last render then.
Safe travels! I was just looking at your surface layer there w/o magnifying the other node setup....Gotta learn to think before speaking, haha
Strange color blob. Did you set an absolute altitude for the wet border?
Quote from: Dune on February 04, 2018, 01:52:41 AM
Strange color blob. Did you set an absolute altitude for the wet border?
Would that be using a Blue node?...if so no, and in the full screen grab I was simply trying to fill the complete pool area, but I gave up on the wetness and went with your suggestion to work on the edges. With the state of my computer these renders are taking too much of my fun time heh heh, when it works it's fun; when it don't, not so much.
Having said all that allow me to present iteration 12 of this scene....btw, the .bmp looks a lot nicer unless it's just this old monitor making it look a bit awful.
Awesome awesome awesome fix on pool stone edges! :) Hand crafted wear just terrific!
Quote from: luvsmuzik on February 04, 2018, 10:35:53 AM
Awesome awesome awesome fix on pool stone edges! :) Hand crafted wear just terrific!
thanks muchly.
Great piece, Bobby :)
Really cool, and one of your best so far. But I keep nagging about the watersides. I meant just using the surface shader's altitude. Another option would be to raise the water level 10cm, so it hits the grey vertical sides. And , btw, I would reduce reflection to 0.8 or so.
Quote from: Dune on February 05, 2018, 06:16:16 AM
Really cool, and one of your best so far. But I keep nagging about the watersides. I meant just using the surface shader's altitude. Another option would be to raise the water level 10cm, so it hits the grey vertical sides. And , btw, I would reduce reflection to 0.8 or so.
As a trade-off I did raise the water slightly so it lies barely under the horizontal line of the tile texture on the pool, kinda fools the eye, well my eye as you weren't fooled heh heh heh...If I can squeeze another 4-5 hr render in I'll address the reflection..thanks for your input...you and Matt have been most helpful and I feel I should sub credit y'all.
And I never did figure out why it wasn't covering the full layer, never had that happen before.