In this first work I am to make a meandering river eating away at a huge area (12x2km) of raised (about 12m) sandy ground with dunes (and some layered sand colors). I usually make maps, but tried this procedurally, so I had to find a way to mask the eroded areas in. Simple shapes, warps and masking....
I still have to hear if they want veggies, but I think they do for this era (interglacial warm).
First and second test, more to follow.
Very convincing stuff. Love the 2nd one.
I like the second too. Especially the slight foam borders at the coast lines!
Both nice.....second one is my favorite.
Love the sandbar areas. Would love to see more texturing to make it pop.
I'd say you're off to a good start. Definitely has the look of a river in the southern U.S.
I am in awe...well done Ulco
I'm also partial to the 2nd image. Major 'wow'!
The difficulty lies in the sandbars. You can't easily get their specific shape. Maybe a real voronoi setup will help, have to try that. And I need to keep them flatter. I also had to keep the islands from clogging up the eroded areas, but that was not too hard. Work to do.....
Extra nice!
Quote from: Dune on September 23, 2018, 01:36:31 AM
The difficulty lies in the sandbars. You can't easily get their specific shape. Maybe a real voronoi setup will help, have to try that. And I need to keep them flatter. I also had to keep the islands from clogging up the eroded areas, but that was not too hard. Work to do.....
looking good, fase_5_Eemien-v1-3.jpg looks most real to my eyes.
An interglacial warm era airplane, fascinating. ;)
Wow this is fascinating. Think I'll try rivers one more time ... Lol
Love the fine detail (and the sea plane jet!).
Very fine details. Beautiful view!
Thanks all. Some new WIP's; with larger trees on the islands (mmm), just shrub (better), and a change of sunlight to evening. Used a voronoi island setup this time, mixing 2 sizes and a PF mask, with some adjustable smaller 'cross-bar streams' (cracks, basically). That works a bit better. I think less waves would be nicer, and smooth reflections of course.
They still render pretty quick (1hr) at 0.6 AA6, soft shadows, upped subdivison level to 0.5 and v3 cloud.
I think the large tree version is a no no. They are kinda blocking the view. 2nd and 3rd are spectacular!
Great work but would there really be so much foam around the edges in such a placid looking river?
No, you're right. I was already thinking about changing it into washed up debris, so darker colored stuff.
Quote from: Dune on September 24, 2018, 02:48:01 AM
Thanks all. Some new WIP's; with larger trees on the islands (mmm), just shrub (better), and a change of sunlight to evening. Used a voronoi island setup this time, mixing 2 sizes and a PF mask, with some adjustable smaller 'cross-bar streams' (cracks, basically). That works a bit better. I think less waves would be nicer, and smooth reflections of course.
They still render pretty quick (1hr) at 0.6 AA6, soft shadows, upped subdivison level to 0.5 and v3 cloud.
Shrubs are better, only the odd tree would grow and nearer the center of the sandbars where they could extend roots enough to keep them upright. Maybe a fallen one near the edge of a sand bar being slowly reclaimed by erosion of the river...I like the evening setting...
Though it does somewhat look like a spring river, somewhat flooded? Maybe just me.
The last two with the lower vergetation (shrubs) looks better in my eyes. Very beautiful evening mood version!
Seems like they (client) wants something completely different than this.... we'll see what it is to be...
Anway, another thing; does this look like a decent autumn tundra to you? Not too bright?
I think the brightness is fine for autum colours but I would use a depth pass to desaturate the more distance parts.
Looking good.
Agree with Richard..but it is very autumnly.
QuoteThanks all. Some new WIP's; with larger trees on the islands (mmm), just shrub (better), and a change of sunlight to evening.
Looks like I'm going to be the sole voice in favor of the first version with the trees. This type of terrain is very familiar to me and looks pretty close to being right. I grew up in Nebraska, which has perhaps the best example of a braided stream in the continental U.S. with the Platte River. Lots of sandbars and trees (and trees
on sandbars) in an otherwise tall grass prairie (now cultivated) landscape.
(http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l314/ducktracker/platte_river_-_platteriverunkedu.jpg)
Tree species matter – if my memory serves they include cottonwood, honeylocust and willow.
I say go with it! :D
Quote from: Dune on October 06, 2018, 11:15:17 AM
Seems like they (client) wants something completely different than this.... we'll see what it is to be...
Anway, another thing; does this look like a decent autumn tundra to you? Not too bright?
Perhaps tighten up the orange, with some boundary dark bushes. Tundras seem to have a lot of different types of ground cover, some of it is very "temperate" leaning and stays a evergreen without seasons.
This image shows a bit of the pine-like brush and darker ground cover you'd get up there: https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/Ry2HM_gKoyPhCqMG1ivR19EPDSc=/768x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/92292471-56a005035f9b58eba4ae83e0.jpg
Thanks guys. Steve; the river is off, as they probably want a sea estuary knocking down the sandy elevation (they still have to find out the probable 'reality'), but I've found sandbars popuated with trees on the web as well. Thanks.
Richard; good idea, though I can do that with a distance shader, which saves me the passes.
Nice image, Was. Lots of color (gradations) indeed.
QuoteThanks guys. Steve; the river is off, as they probably want a sea estuary knocking down the sandy elevation (they still have to find out the probable 'reality'), but I've found sandbars popuated with trees on the web as well. Thanks.
Appreciate the explanation. (I wondered why some of the river banks seemed so steep.) Good luck with the client and project.
There's a pretty large (5x30k) bank of sand in the south of our country, elevated to about 12m by interglacial erosion and weather. I know it sounds ridiculous in global terms, but this is an important area to visualize for these guys. I struggled with the trees, as you don't see the bank at all, only that small part. So I hope they want it eroded by sea, with no trees ;)
Test from another series, but also about water. Needs work, as I want the white flowers on the right to 'sprout' from fake waterplants, without grass being present there. And a better distribution for the yellow flowers.
Great view.
I like the breadth of the landscape.
Nice placement of everything and colors look great, especially the sagebrush. The one thing is the near horses could use a little variation, they are all the same tannish. Maybe add some random spots or something to the whole group.
Thanks guys. The horses do have some random added variation, but you may be right it could be a little more. I don't really know about these przewalski-like wild horses, but they were probably a bit varied indeed.
Here's a crop of another scene is this series I'm working on. Still some things to do....
Quote from: Dune on October 20, 2018, 07:18:46 AM
Here's a crop of another scene is this series I'm working on. Still some things to do....
cool scene and lots of potential for other set ups...
Quote from: Dune on October 12, 2018, 01:56:20 PM
Thanks guys. The horses do have some random added variation, but you may be right it could be a little more. I don't really know about these przewalski-like wild horses, but they were probably a bit varied indeed.
I guess a good question is if they are/we're part of domesticated breeds. That's where the colours came from from breeding sub species
Yes. At that time they were purely wild horses, with likely only minor color differences.
Here's another scene, rendered with PT. I was wondering about the reflection being so soft. The water is 100% smooth, so I would expect a hard reflection (like in RT), unless it's a 'long exposure render'. Added some photo's as refs.
Or maybe I forgot to set a variable again?
I remember Matt, or Oshyan mentioning something about PT being able to achieve softer reflections. I wonder if this is something that is currently hard coded for testing purposes? It'd be odd if the path tracing muddles the reflections that much.
It's so soft it looks like the water is frozen itself, aside form the actual ice. Reminds me of the flash freeze (or maybe it's slow? we don't get ice often but when we do it's usually cause we suddenly dipped well below freezing) ice we get here overnight that's totally translucent.
I remember the same what WASasquatch says, but I'm still remaining on 4.1x and didn't test PT so far.
Did I miss the description somewhere? Are the last renders in your project about salt production?
Nope, this should depict a sandy floor, with puddles of water, and higher banks of hard seaclay (where the veggies reside), like a tidal area. But maybe the sand should be brown-greyer, I'll have to ask the client (specific location, you know).
uups... :)
Thanks for the explanation.
I thought it could be a salt crust due to a few sharp edges I thought I have seen.
With PT you currently control base reflection softness with the Min Highlight Spread (in Water Shader's Reflections tab). It uses very small values. 0 will give you the perfectly sharp reflections you want.
- Oshyan
Ah, I thought I'd forgotten something. Remember that now, indeed. Thanks Oshyan.
Quote from: Dune on October 21, 2018, 05:24:22 AM
Nope, this should depict a sandy floor, with puddles of water, and higher banks of hard seaclay (where the veggies reside), like a tidal area. But maybe the sand should be brown-greyer, I'll have to ask the client (specific location, you know).
I should take some low-tide pictures of this sea-grass fields and it's silt/mud and ponds for ya if I can before I leave this park. This is high tide here by the lagoons creek, which is a high-tide creek. May help with projects near and future. Tide is currently going out during sunset so not a good photo.
Nice area you live in. Thanks for these. Our situation is a little different, but refs like these are certainly interesting. Nice challenge for a render too.
The second lake picture is exquisite!
Caveman doing Yoga LOL
Quote from: bobbystahr on October 22, 2018, 11:33:56 AM
Caveman doing Yoga LOL
I thought maybe Pan popped in there ::)
Agree, exquisite lake scene. :)
Quote from: luvsmuzik on October 22, 2018, 04:45:34 PM
Quote from: bobbystahr on October 22, 2018, 11:33:56 AM
Caveman doing Yoga LOL
I thought maybe Pan popped in there ::)
Agree, exquisite lake scene. :)
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who that Peter Pan.
These clients are nitpickers >:( The bigger green leaves they find too green. I don't think they really are, but well, no problem changing that. And do you guys see anything very wrong about the leg sticking out? Something about muscles that isn't right, as they say. I know the DAZ people aren't perfect, but I wouldn't know what to adjust (in ZB). Even stood in front of a mirror yesterday to see what they meant ::)
Some clienst are just no fun working for; every time I adjust a 'complaint' they have, and render a new version, they find something else. Specific plant or bird instances they want removed, sky too blue, or not blue enough, etc.
Sorry to hear that.. poor Ulco! I know this kind of customer... " Make the photo in greyscale but it must look colorful..."
With the leg: Perhaps they mean the wade, throwing a shadow they don't like. Sometimes it helps just to move the light position or alternatively the angle of the citicized object to get a completely different view. Sorry that I can't help more. Good luck for you to get the customers happy :)
Quote from: Dune on October 23, 2018, 01:21:57 AM
These clients are nitpickers >:( The bigger green leaves they find too green. I don't think they really are, but well, no problem changing that. And do you guys see anything very wrong about the leg sticking out? Something about muscles that isn't right, as they say. I know the DAZ people aren't perfect, but I wouldn't know what to adjust (in ZB). Even stood in front of a mirror yesterday to see what they meant ::)
Some clienst are just no fun working for; every time I adjust a 'complaint' they have, and render a new version, they find something else. Specific plant or bird instances they want removed, sky too blue, or not blue enough, etc.
I hope you're working for an hourly rate...(I guess you do) I only once did a fixed price thing, never ever again.
I guess they do mean the wade (new word to me), and I've already softened that area by changing the light (so I had the same idea, indeed). I'll ask them to be more specific (they probably can't).
No, Martin, fixed (but good) price. And they take advantage of it :P But I also have very nice, professional clients, so I don't care too much. I just let them wait a little longer 8)
Had a Chinese client once who kept finding dragons in the work we submitted. Again and again. They were superstitious of them and continually saw forms in the scenery and particle sims that looked faintly like a dragon if you squinted, stepped back 5 feet then stood on your head.
Quote from: ajcgi on October 25, 2018, 10:12:34 AM
Had a Chinese client once who kept finding dragons in the work we submitted. Again and again. They were superstitious of them and continually saw forms in the scenery and particle sims that looked faintly like a dragon if you squinted, stepped back 5 feet then stood on your head.
Ha ha ha ha, and don't put anything resembling a 4 in what you do for them. I once did a business card/stationary set that I had to redo 6 times for a Chinese pal's business as he kept seeing that 4 in my work. Had to change styles to art nouveau from art deco style to avoid the straight line inter action. Only figured it out after iteration 5 when he finally pointed out what bugged him...I think he was a tad embarrassed which is why it took so many iterations for him to tell me.
;D They were very pleased after all, so I'll get over it.
Some small crops of another one.
Nice details. I like the mossy trees very much.
woo hoo, damn amazing Ulco
Thanks. I needed to give these hunters better clothing; an example, Path traced in the latest build.
Here's what I needed the soft eastsides for. Too bad you're looking west, so the eastsides are not very obvious. Needs work. Just made some new autumn birches to replace these flimsy ones, rendering now.
Very realistic in the foreground! Things look a little confusing at a distance though...
- Oshyan
Looks like a desert entering a temperate/sub-tropical climate with vegetation and trees starting to take root
I like where this is heading, been there lately myself.
It's a former lake at the right side (the one I posted earlier with all the reindeer: https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,25718.30.html (https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,25718.30.html)), now filled with sands, behind it there's thin riverdune formation, then a river (invisible) and in the distance more sands and barren grounds. There will be reindeer in here again.
Quote from: Oshyan on November 01, 2018, 07:25:31 PM
Very realistic in the foreground! Things look a little confusing at a distance though...
- Oshyan
Echo :)
What do you mean by confusing, btw?
I don't get the confusing bit either but I'd consider adding a water source to go with the main course heh heh...over all I really like this.
I meant that it confused the eye, it looked odd, a bit "busy" (messy), and also like a bunch of little partial-opacity clone stamps of trees. I think it had a lot to do with the small vegetation interacting with a dust layer in the background.
That being said, the latest version basically fixes the problem and looks much better. It also better establishes scale with the animals, which I previously saw as very different (it's a larger-scale scene than I realized, judging by the animals).
- Oshyan
Yes, the scale was an issue I saw too, before the animals. The trees are bigger than expected. And you were right about the opacity thing; I cleared a lot of leaves by opacity mask, and it was only 2 simple and straight trees then (and no world opacity of course, as that doesn't work).
No water here, Bobby. This is supposed to be made to specific environmental basics applying to this area in this era.
One thing I'd like to do is get the reindeer walking in tighter lines, but that is harder to do with only a few objects, as similarity gets too obvious. I have to make more poses, I guess.
Now that I can understand the proportions it is more pleasant to look at :)
More poses for the reindeer is a good idea. As for the distribution, I think they are too evenly scattered, maybe you need more spacing variation. Or you could paint a mask. Wouldn't it be possible to generate a flow mask through the erosion shader and use that? If you look at pictures of herds of reindeer you' ll notice that there is some kind of semi random distribution, there is some kind of dynamics going on(flocking?) Otherwise it all looks good. :)
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/herd-wild-reindeer-top-view-aerial-which-ran-snow-tundra-52472755.jpg
https://19mvmv3yn2qc2bdb912o1t2n-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/science/files/2015/11/Elephant-Aerial_%C2%A9-Ami-Vitale1.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c0/6c/f0/c06cf01e3ee6e40f11b028c7a1d2fdbf.jpg
I am sure you have seen this .....Neanderthals PBS with Serkis.
http://www.pbs.org/program/neanderthal/
While channel surfing caught this a couple weeks ago. (I actually had it saved as a must see, hehe) ;D
I know you are working a completely different timeline, as they seem to be progressing back in time. I still found the representation interesting if not controversial.
Ever enjoying all renders. :)
Thanks Luvs, I've seen the BBC documentaries. I guess these are those. Not sure, as the site is not available to me (Europe).
Thanks René. Nice refs. I've been thinking about that too, but I hate to do much editing on maybe a thousand reindeer. I used a RGB+black mask for at least 4 pops, not to get them overlapping (I wouldn't really know how to mask 8 pops off eachother in a simple way), and a stretched and warped, ridged, hard fractal as flocking lines. Also just a bit (40º) of rotation. I could easily paint a simple tif with some flocking lines, but the animals still have to rotate such that they more or less follow eachother, and that's the hard part. Rotation should be warpable and by input too. But you are of course right about the too even spread. I wil attend to that, while I will also add 2 more poses.
Two new poses, and a variety of antlers, in a little test I did. I hope (one day) it will be possible to load a complete set of object parts belonging to eachother as one pop, and mask out some parts. I tried world opacity for the antlers (2 sizes within the object), but 1. that could delete only part of an antler, and 2. it doesn't work on world scale. So I had to resort to 3 pops, with the same seed, and a mask to enable one, or the other, or none. But I hate to do that with 8 poses :(
And another first setup for a river eroding a large sandbank.
Neat!
Nice combination of a group of random running but belonging to each other animals! Great!
Thanks. I quickly painted a mask, combined with RGB mask to spread these 2 pops. But it's hard to avoid overlaps despite the masks, and still get tight ranks. Let alone with 8 poses...
You can always say those are genetical aberrations/mutations. ;)
Quote from: j meyer on November 06, 2018, 01:41:27 PM
You can always say those are genetical aberrations/mutations. ;)
ha h ha
My client is a uni professor, I'm sure he'll fall for it ;D
Quote from: Dune on November 05, 2018, 12:03:29 PM
Thanks. I quickly painted a mask, combined with RGB mask to spread these 2 pops. But it's hard to avoid overlaps despite the masks, and still get tight ranks. Let alone with 8 poses...
Have you tried using the same seed and changing the variation scale to "Push off" the second pop from the first pops spacing variation? Coupled with the distribution mask it may work to keep them away from each other based on an actual scale.
I didn't use the variation scale, but did shift the whole pop a meter or so; that also works. I will dive into this again soon. Wish there were a way to rotate instances by mask or some sort of vector stuff, so animals will follow eachother in curving lines... But perhaps I will just need to spend an hour or so editing instances (which already is a great feature of TG).
Quote from: Dune on November 07, 2018, 03:06:52 AM
.. But perhaps I will just need to spend an hour or so editing instances (which already is a great feature of TG).
when it works, I find editing locking up/not functioning on this old DELL but that may be due to RAM.
Rotating by mask is planned for the future.
- Oshyan
Ah! Good to know, thanks Oshyan.
Simple beaver lodge by stone pop. ;)
Quote from: Dune on November 14, 2018, 12:01:15 PM
Simple beaver lodge by stone pop. ;)
Wow Ulco, that's rather clever. Just elongated stones and some texture work?
What!? Hah, that's brilliant. You need to share that here, or at least on NWDA.
- Oshyan
I'll put it up soon, no problem.
Its available now-
http://www.store.nwdastore.com/objects/dunes-beaver-lodge- (http://www.store.nwdastore.com/objects/dunes-beaver-lodge-)
This thread started with a river, and this is still the same thing I'm working on. Client wants specific things, so it's a struggle. Still not satisfied myself, but we'll see what they say first about this WIP. Probably needs more erosion. River is 250m wide, on the right is that pack of wolves, left some mammoth. A bit boring, but well...
Quote from: Dune on November 16, 2018, 12:48:25 AM
This thread started with a river, and this is still the same thing I'm working on. Client wants specific things, so it's a struggle. Still not satisfied myself, but we'll see what they say first about this WIP. Probably needs more erosion. River is 250m wide, on the right is that pack of wolves, left some mammoth. A bit boring, but well...
I like it a lot. Is the sedimentary ground supposed to be thawing permafrost? It sorta looks like it being so smooth, but very like like salts.
It could use a bit of finer erosion with a hint of flows. But I think what would really make those steep banks pop is rougher detail -- following the erosion.
It's supposed to be Weichselian period, frosty. And yes, the bank needs erosion and roughness, but I wanted to know of these guys if this is the river/bankshape they want first. At first I spent a lot of time tweaking details, and then they want a different view altogether :P
Flat Dutch landscapes are often boring, at least compared to the part of the country where I live (yes, I am biased. :)) What adds interest are the clouds and the shadows they cast. But maybe your clients don't want dramatic clouds. :-\
I'm trying to convince them to have at least a sunset, though they wanted plain bright sunlight. I had sunset as a concept at first, but they said the sand should be grey, not with an orange hue :P I can always throw in a nice sky after all issues are settled.
Ah well, the customer is always right...
Yes.
Quote from: René on November 16, 2018, 01:48:23 PM
Ah well, the customer is always right...
but often not 'right on' heh heh.
We'll see what they think of this.
And another version of the other render. Both still WIP.
Good luck with your "favorite" customers... ;)
I like the renders very much. I really enjoy the expanse of the country in the picture with the peat cutters (are they peat cutters?).
Yes, they are. Strangely these customers want another hole in the ground that's submerged, but I explained to them that that's not logical; the other digs would have been submerged too without pumps. A continuous struggle.... ::)
Quote from: Dune on November 20, 2018, 04:00:50 AM
Yes, they are. Strangely these customers want another hole in the ground that's submerged, but I explained to them that that's not logical; the other digs would have been submerged too without pumps. A continuous struggle.... ::)
Sigh... been there.
Update. Still work to do... making better folds in clothing has priority now. And I think this may be a little gloomier, conforming the muddy business these poor people are in.
Any comments are welcome of course!
Stunningly real except that kid in the boat is preternaturally clean.
for those with more modern vocabulary:
Preter comes from the Latin word praeter which means "beyond"; so something preternatural is beyond nature. It is less commonly used than unnatural or supernatural but means the same thing
They also have very clean boots! ;)
Stunning render again! Must have been a dirty business, indeed! Definitely grime needs to show on these people's outfits.The guy in the foreground shoveling something into the wheelbarrow is in motion and therefore will stir up the water around him. Right now it's perfectly still and therefore feels unnatural.
Thanks. Yes, dirt is still to be applied. Wouldn't have forgotten that, but I don't know yet whether to apply on the objects or just in post. Moving the water is a good idea. Actually this calls for a rainy, dark mood, but that's up to the clients.
Btw. if anyone is interested; simple shapes all around and cubes for the peat (displaced by a painted mask). Dikes are just a painted soft blob, some color adjusts, inner area subtracted from outer for embankments, and inner for masking water to keep it inside (and it's 2m higher than the land). Far villages are just 3 pops of house, church and barn, and some oaks, all masked by a hard blobby fractal. Subtle ground displacements, masked by the inverse of a pools fractal. Reflective (RT) shader masked by the same pools fractal.
Great development and a marvelous background.
I knew you would work on the clothes and moisture and dirt on them some day so no special comment about that :)
What is strange for my eyes are some parts of the peat. The bright areas on the top and the vertical cut glossy parts (clay layers between the peat?) look strange to me. But I would have to see such a scene in real live to tell you what exactly is disturbing me - sorry.
I was not entirely satisfied with the glossy sides and it was on the to-do list; they are too glossy, but should be a bit wet. There should be three layers; topsoil (dirty brown), then a yellowish grey clay layer and then the dark brown peat. And to make it harder; the yellowish clay has been dug out and should be on the sides where the holes are (SSS's again).
Quote from: Dune on November 22, 2018, 02:22:46 AM
Thanks. Yes, dirt is still to be applied. Wouldn't have forgotten that,
Heh heh I know but well, it was the only part that my eyes perceived imperfection heh heh
Crop of another reconstruction.
A beautiful render with great details.
I only can't identify the black glossy item in the bottom...
Yes, this looks very good.
I`d say the "glossy item at the bottom" is some sort of housing.
Did you notice the brownish item to the left of the trees next to it? Same form different colour.
And there are people walking towards it close by. That`s my guess.
CHeers, Klaus
Yes, they are nomadic tents with hides across. The black/white are reindeerhides, but indeed look a bit odd.
Wow, the detail and complexity of the vegetation there is pretty impressive.
- Oshyan
I find myself once again agreeing with Oshyan...Must be your painter background/education that has given you the great composition ability...really looking forward to seeing the watermarked final of this project heh heh, Keep.The.Faith. heh heh artistically, not so much spiritually.
First another detail. Some objects were not good enough yet, so replaced.
Wonderful!
One day when I retire I at first must get something like a 2x5m print of such a render of you... then I could study all the beautiful details for the rest of my life :)
This is soooo cool! I love images, where you can spend a lot of time discovering all the details.
Quote from: Hannes on November 28, 2018, 07:20:05 AM
This is soooo cool! I love images, where you can spend a lot of time discovering all the details.
Agree