It's been a while since I've posted anything and it's been even longer since I started working on this scene. The start of this one has been sitting around for nearly four years if the last edited date is to be believed. I left the POV relatively intact but changed the surfacing, vegetation, talus slopes, lighting etc to be up to date with what I've learned. The color variation on the trees in the mid ground is not as noticeable as I had hoped so I'll have to keep toying with that. I also want to improve the water's appearance. I don't know how I want it to look, but I know I'm not there yet. I also think I'll zoom out a little to add some more sky into the image to balance things out with the ol' rule of thirds. Thanks for taking a look.
Nice one..................I think backing the camera up is a good idea. Waiting for next one. :)
Very good start. I agree about changing the POV slightly, even lowering camera and tilting upwards may help, without losing a stretch of water between 'island' and mountain. I would also add some (lighter/greyer, freshly broken off) rubble/rock/boulders on the talus slopes to give it a bit more color variation in the whole scene. And work a bit on the shoreline.
yes very nice start! Great mountain. Agree with changing the pov to get more sky.
Lowering the camera a bit, like Ulco suggested, could work for improving the POV.
I do like that stretch of water in between though, so I'd be careful with adjusting the camera position.
What you could also try is to make the camera angle a bit wider (~5-10mm wider) and tilt it a bit more down.
If the mountain and the flow into the foreground is the subject, then don't use the wider shot to include more sky, but use it to include more foreground. That's my idea.
If I consider the render so far the water would be the least of my concerns.
As you said vegetation variation and surfacing probably deserve most attention I suppose.
Do you work from a reference or just the 'good old' mind?
Anytime you're online here I'm thinking "will he post a new one"?
So I'm keen on seeing where you're taking this one.
Martin
I agree with changing the POV and developing the shoreline - you may find adding some clouds may help the water. My main concern though is the rocks which to me need more break up as, at the moment, they look more like a pile of earth than rock - sorry. Trees and tree placement are nice, don't go overboard with the colour variation as confers are pretty regular in colour.
Nice! can't wait to see it with all the little finishing touches; boulders, rocks, little plants, ect...
Maybe a bit too brown mountain? Is there a real world inspiration source for this image?
All good comments from everyone, but just to say, I definitely like the basis that's here. Very promising. My main question echoes mhaze and Badger: the mountain looks more dirt than rock, certainly a possibility in this varied world, but I'm just curious if that's intentional or not. Either way I think the talus slopes need to be a bit rougher/rockier. That being said somehow I absolutely love the subtle dark surfaces in the upper-left part of the mountain where there is finer ridging. There is something about that specific detail that somehow really works for me, very evocative of unusual surfaces I've seen before in the real world. I suppose it appeals to me a lot because I've seldom - if ever - seen such things pulled off in TG...
- Oshyan
Thank you for the input everybody, I'll certainly your suggestions a try to see how they impact the image. The terrain is based off of Heavy Runner Mountain in Glacier National Park although I'm not being completely faithful in creating a reproduction. I used the attached image as a little bit of a reference for colors and initial (very early) POV.
In that case I say fairly well done! I guess yours needs a bit more strata and grays, but overall you've done a good job. The reference shows a mountain that does look like rock, but less like the more common granite that we often see. It seems a bit harder to depict perfectly.
- Oshyan
That is a fantastic mountain to see. I like the deep and long fluvial erosion cutting through. A very good source of inspiration there.
It would need some of those square outcrops in the strata, and then you're really close.
Progress has been slow. I've spent most of my time working on making the foreground more interesting and adding better definition to the shore stones and talus fields. I think I'll lower the camera elevation a bit more since I kinda like the little forested area I've got going on. More work needs to be done on the rock surfacing, especially strata and more outcrops, but I've always been a little slow with the blue nodes so I'm putting that off haha.
Despite the great shallow water effects now, to be honest I think the composition of the first is far better. The cut off mountain peak reflection and new shore seems distracting in the new one given the vertical format. If the render is not about the reflection then maybe it could be reduced. If it is about the reflection maybe it should be a complete reflection.
I agree with fleetwood. Also I find this reflection too soft, the reflection in the first one, with the differences in waves, is much nicer, more interesting.
I agree on all counts ;)
The good ol' two steps forward, one step back routine.
In some regards may be a step back, but in others a step forward. Indeed.
I think with this new pov you can focus on all aspects of the scene, as everything is well visible.
After that you can tune your pov and atmosphere to give the correct sense of scale.
Here is the experiment with further lowering the camera altitude even further in addition to adding some more mountains behind the main one. I like the result since it makes the background seem not quite as empty which also helps with the reflection in the water. The foreground tree distribution needs some work and all the work on the rock surfacing still needs to happen, but I think this is the POV I'll stick with moving forward.
very good. :D
The last POV is very good!!
Beautifull!!!
Very nice pov and forground.
great work... the last one is very nice!
maybe a hq tree (or 2) closer to camera?
:)
Here's a close up of the steep mountain face. I've been working on adding more subtle texture to the rock in addition to some strata. The strata is a bit more dominant than I want so I'll keep messing with it. Additionally, I've increased the number of background tree populations from three to eight to increase the variety and break down on repetitive shapes.
I like being able to see the detail in this larger crop, so I'll have to render the final version large to make sure it's noticeable.
I like the strata as it is but even if a hint is there, it does make a difference. Looking forward to more updates.
Like it too! 8)
Beautiful work
Thanks all. Here is a shot of the work I've been doing on the strata. It's not quite as noticeable as I'd like, but (I think) better than the crop render I previously posted. I'm also experimenting with the water, making the reflections blurrier and adding an appearance of glacial silt. I kind of like the color it adds to the image, but please let me know what you think.
The blue-green looks nice as it stands.
The strata works for me, more would be overdone to me and the water is very apropros to the scene.
Keep the strata as it is. I like it :)
The small cropped part is better with the smaller fake stones. Also seems there are more variations of the stone size. looks good! And the water is great!
The only thing I can possibly think of is making the rock debris/talusfields a bit greyer, slightly lighter than the rock they came from. There tend to be more broken rock, less covered in algae and such. Unless the talus is old as well.
I like the water colors and strata as they are.
Beautiful.
really like that foreground in the last images. 8)
Thanks all! Here is the full version with the new water. I changed the talus fields to a lighter color but I forgot to also adjust the shoreline stones. I kind of like the subtle contrast, but I think I'll lighten the shore just a bit. I've also done some fiddling with the shrubbery but haven't changed it significantly. Overall, I think it's close to finished.
Beauty :)
This has grown into a great image...well done.
Having more of the grey made quite a substantial difference to the entire color theme which compliments very well.
Terrific piece.
A masterpiece!
Sweet :)
8) 8) 8)
super cool.... a real beauty!
:)
J
Spectacular! The talus, the water, the vegetation, everything! Congrats on this achievement :)
Thanks all ;D
I'm rendering a bigger version which will probably be the final. I'll post it when it's completed.
Thanks watching the process
Great image! Everything looks real and the camera view/design is well done.
Here's the final, a bit bigger as promised.
Looks great :)
Beautiful, I'd be patting myself on the back right about now...very well done.
Lovely work, a superb TG image!
Beauty, very natural and nothing really giving away it's not real.
Fantastic. Well worth seeing this complete now.
Superb.
Fantastic, beautiful and realistic!
Great work, I think this turned out quite exactly I hoped for :)
Looking forward to see your next one!
Stunning piece!
Can I have your permission to print a copy for myself? I want frame it.
I'm probably the 50th one who writes something like "beautiful" or "beauty", but since it's really beautiful, I'll write beautiful:
Beautiful!
Thanks everybody! ;D
@archonforest: Go for it!
Excellent work as usual
Quote from: Gannaingh on March 09, 2016, 09:06:03 PM
@archonforest: Go for it!
Thx man. I printed on an glossy A3. Looks great. My wife loves it too. Ended up in my bedroom :D
Man that's impressive!
Really like this, great natural lighting
Excellent and beautiful!!! I also like the color hue changes you have made to water. :)
It's been a long time since I've posted anything, but since I got a new rig, I just had to give it a workout by returning to one of my favorite, but RAM intensive, scenes that nearly melted my old computer. I've widened the FOV to a 16/9 landscape aspect ratio, modified the shorelines, added a couple new populations to cover some areas that were bare. I think I'm going to render it at full 4k just for kicks.
Quote from: Gannaingh on October 28, 2019, 10:02:49 PMIt's been a long time since I've posted anything, but since I got a new rig, I just had to give it a workout by returning to one of my favorite, but RAM intensive, scenes that nearly melted my old computer. I've widened the FOV to a 16/9 landscape aspect ratio, modified the shorelines, added a couple new populations to cover some areas that were bare. I think I'm going to render it at full 4k just for kicks.
Wow, I'm guessing you're quite pleased already and encouraged to go BIG...It's a lovely realistic scene.
Congratulations on your new rig. It's a great scene and very natural/realistic. But before you go rendering it big, I would take a look at two things I noticed. The front pines are probably XFrog, and they have a corkscrew-like distribution of branches. Which is very visible. If these are the only ones you have, you could add a second pop (half distribution of both) and make the object size -1/1/1, and flip normals. So they are counter corkscrewed.
Secondly; I think the quite still water is too soft near the opposite banks. Some softness is nice, but this is really too blurred, IMO.
Very realistic render and very beautiful! Like! :)
Thanks!
Dune, thank you for the suggestions. I'll give them a try before rendering the final version.
Superb!
Great new look at this scene. Vegetation distribution and landslides are really well done. I agree with Dune on the Trees, I often recognize them because of this.
Really nice render!
Quote from: Dune on October 29, 2019, 03:01:24 AMmake the object size -1/1/1, and flip normals
Never thought of it!
Thanks for the tip
Quote from: Gannaingh on October 28, 2019, 10:02:49 PMIt's been a long time since I've posted anything, but since I got a new rig, I just had to give it a workout by returning to one of my favorite...
My favorite too! ;D
imho, this new aspect radio makes look the foreground a little bit generic. if you gonna adjust the trees objects, i would take the opportunity to add some scattered flowers, big rocks, and some fallen trunks in the foreground, especially in the shoreline, you know, more natural variation. of course that you already have a beautiful image!
A real beauty! I agree about the tree variety Ulco mentioned, but all in all already a superb image.
I followed Dune's advice regarding the reducing the fuzziness of the water and in adding a population of 'inverse' trees to break up the repetitiveness. I might remove a few more instances and replace them with single tree instances to further break up the foreground trees since they are so prominent. Additionally, I've reduces the atmosphere haze and added a cloud layer which I think help make the scene pop more. Next I'll work on trying out Ariel DK's comments to see how they impact the scene.
That makes a lot of difference! An exquisite piece! Still I think the trees are not the best, but it's not very obvious anymore now.
The new atmosphere with the cloud layer looks much friendlier! I like it even more now!
Great improvement!
Thanks everybody!
For this next iteration I've continued to mess with the foreground vegetation to get better variety and make it more interesting. I've also lowered the camera by about 15 meters and moved it forward a but.Additionally I have added a choppy surface to the water to break up the rather pristine reflection. I like the effect but I need to tune it so it is not as overpowering as it currently is.
Wow, this gets better and better!
It certainly is. But.... if you're moving camera anyway, I'd suggest trying a bit more distance and a bit to the left. Reason; the landspit on the left sticks out in contrast on virtually the edge of the image, which is kind of distracting. You may well know that contrast draws attention and should preferably be placed in the golden triangle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_triangle_(composition))
And maybe also take some trees out in front of the landspit and make it more like a 'center of attention'.
Tree variation and water is a great improvement.
Nice update! I like the wind patchiness of the lake!
Very natural in apperance, well done!
STORMLORD
In this latest iteration I haven't done too much with the vegetation, instead focusing on camera placement (coincidentally following Dune's advice before I even say his suggestion) to get that finalized before moving onto the trees and plants. I've tweaked the water surface and also moved it up a couple meters. Something funky looking is happening with the specularity on the rocks in the shallow water so I'll have to figure that out.
That is what I mean, so quite a coincidence indeed. The specularity underwater should be taken off by a mask with minimum water altitude set, that's what I always do. Pinpricks of light underwater don't exist, afaik.
Ah, a definite improvement! Looking very good.
- Oshyan
I've done some more foreground work and I think I'm happy with the result. I might play around with the water some more, but I think overall it's pretty finished. I've done a lot of work on the foreground adding in larger stones on the shore as well as a population of reeds. I've also tweaked the ground cover and tree populations to give a bit more variety.
Top notch, you took care of underwater reflections too, I see. But there's one more thing that would bother me, see attachment. Plant some trees up in the hills to get rid of that reflection, I'd say.
The last additions - especially the big stones/rocks increase the realism even more! Absolutely great!
Dune, you and I are very much on the same page! I've added some groundcover to that area to get rid of that grey area in the water reflection and I think I've gotten to the point where I'm ready to move on to another project...after rendering in 4k of course.
Seems like it! It's wonderful now.
Perfect! Stunning image!
Amazing! Looks perfect!
Fantastic result, looking forward to the next project
Thanks everybody!
Truly beautiful! :o
Excellent Job, Superb!
I'm eager to see your next project here.
STORMLORD