An idea I am thinking of submitting to the NWDA contest. It needs some work pretty much everywhere so I better stop typing and get tweaking. My biggest problem is with the trees, one of the three populations just doesn't look natural. Also, that little bit of shore is just begging for some fake stones...if I can't make anything suitable myself I'll probably just fork over some money for the NWDA fake stones pack ;D Comments, critiques and random advice are always welcome and appreciated.
Render Time: 14 hours 11 Seconds
Detail: .9
AA: 10
GI: 1/1
http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Explorers-WIP-123058917
1) Yes, stones would help, or better surfacing near the shore/beachy area.
2) I think it's not the trees that are the problem, it's... again... surfacing. Trees don't normally just sit around on rocks like that. The floor near them should have dead needles, sticks, ground cover, etc... Since that's not so easy, I'd recommend adding some surfacing under the trees, ground cover, or bushes.
I should probably better not comment on the image itself, but I think it's safe to give you the advice to refrain from using such high AA values until you really have your final render. AA 10 is probably 2-3 times slower than a render with AA 3. It's perfectly ok to use a low AA while developing the image.
I am really curious on where you will take this image next :-)
Cheers,
Frank
Yeah, normally I wouldn't have set the settings so high for a first draft, but since I was asleep and going to classes during the render I figured that I might as well bump the settings up a bit.
I know what you mean. In cases like these I tend to bump up quality parameters as well ;D
I completely agree with Zylot:
1) Yes and
2) Yes
;D
But that's a nifty little image you've got there. I really like it. Look forward to seeing the final result.
looking good so far, you really need some fake stone to add some details to the ground ^^
I like what you've done. Some good suggestions here.
A little square I rendered while I was at school.
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This is definetly looking better. It might just be me, but the tree textures don't look as good as in the first image. I think it is just the resolution and detail of thed second render though.
Muuuuch better! I really like the feel to this. Looks very real (to my eyes, anyway). I don't think there's something wrong with the tree textures. I like them even better, to be honest - did you change any populations?
Lovely, Darth.
Thanks all! The only change I made to the populations was making them have more object and any lack of quality was probably due to lower render settings. Unfortunately I don't have something this time around, Tg2 decided to give me a bunch of bucket render errors last night >:(
definate improvement, looking good. Can't wait to see it at higher settings.
A little bit of an update. I've added three more ships to the image but only two of them are in this crop render. The cloud layer that make up the fog just murders the render time.
Render time: 1 hour 28 minutes
Detail: .9
AA: 6
GI: 1/1
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I like where you're going with this. Got to say that reflections and low level clouds = render time x render time. I wonder if a couple of passes and compositing would be more efficient?
Another update that I've neglected to put up since I've been working on my history paper...but now that paper=done, here it is. I'm thinking of either reducing the scale of the grass or moving the camera closer to the ground so that the camera would be looking just over the tops of the blades.
http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Explorers-WIP-123058917
P.S. Sorry about doing this whole link to deviantart thingy but I like it when people see my art there ;D
P.P.S. I should have another update when I wake up...if my computer cooperates...
good job
This looks like a scene from a movie. Excellent work.
Looking good
Another update. This is three seperate crop renders stitched together, as you can see terragen is giving me problems and stops rendering every time it says "An unknown error occured in TraceRay" ...whatever that means. However, I am going to get this image done because I like it, even if it takes 16 crop renders to do it.
Now that my rant is done... really like how the ships are turning out, they look much better than I would have expected from such undetailed models. The midground needs some nice bushes and rocks to fillin the space between the water and the trees.
http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Explorers-WIP-123058917
that's going to be a very good one man !
Likely you're running into memory issues. Are you rendering on a quad core? 64 bit system? What are your render buffer settings?
- Oshyan
Unfortunately my system is neither a qyad core or a 64 bit system :'( have the subdivision cache set at 300 mb running on two threads. Since that last image have reduced the number of trees in the background which so far seems to have helped, though the real test will come when I do a more complete renders.
You can (and probably should) reduce cache even further. With 2 threads I think you could make it as low as 100MB, and that will help with memory issues, even though it may increase render time a bit.
- Oshyan
Another update; the background is mostly finished so though the trees on the left need to have their specularity played with. Also I am probably going ot ncrease the haze density to make the mountain in the background seem more imposing/mysterious. So now to work on the forground!
http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Explorers-WIP-123058917
oh wow
I second Frank on this one !!!
great job so far !
;D Thanks!
This is really beginning to look epic. One minor point - I know you spoke about having to work in crops, and I couldn't help noticing that from the leftmost ship across to the shore, there's what seems to be a faint light brown cast in a straight line from about the middle of the mast to the water. Is that a crop-related issue?
Looks damn good! Looking forward to see the final :)
Martin
Thanks!
@ domdib: yeah that is due to one of the crops, thank you for noticing it!
edit: brown line has been fixed.
Some forground. I want it to look more muddy...also a little boat on the shoreline micht be a nice touch.
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make some wet shore, that'll help the muddy look.
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=6511.0
Cool mist.
A little bit of mud. I think it's coming along, I just bought the NDWA fake stones and hero rock pack so will probably incorporate that into the forground ;)
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:o
Quote from: darthvader on May 20, 2009, 07:23:57 PM
A little square I rendered while I was at school.
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the water/ripples look fabulous
;D Thanks!
This may be my last update before rendering my final image. As you can see I have added a boat to give a better sense of scale for the stones in the forground. The boat is a modified version of an object that I found at some freeware sight...I wish I could remember where since it had some nice models. The boat model came without any textures so all the color is done procedurally in TG2, I'm really happy with how it turned out.
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The boat looks really good judging from the crop. I agree it adds a very nice sense of scale. Can't wait to see the full render!
- Oshyan
I am really looking forward!
This contest goeas a month longer than I thought it did so I'm back to working on my piece. The stones are the fake stones from the NDWA website, I need to tweak the bigger ones to either make them less dense or blend in more with the smaller stones...I also may choose to make the grass smaller and perhaps more dense. This version also uses some post processing (namely small touchup, curves and levels) that I am thinking of using for my submission.
http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Explorers-WIP-123058917
Wow - that's awesome looking - love the mood/atmo, and the stones are fantastic too *jealous* :)
Lovely stones, atmo and mood! :o I really really like it!
It looks pretty real now, so I guess any future changes are now just a matter of taste.
Thanks ;D
The final version on this one, it's been fun!
http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Explorers-WIP-123058917
this is really fantastic! great job!
Frank
really amazing render !
you did a very good job darthvader !
Thanks ;D
Image of the week? Anyone? ;D
Wow. I really like this. I hope this one takes the prize!
we are not even in July yet, there are a few weeks to come ;)
the competition is far from being over ^^
two questions :
1- is that a dead tree in the water (red circle) ?
2- still have these "lines bug" in the water (green circle), damn... this bug is very annoying...
nonethless, great render ! :D
what do you mean with "lines"? I can see no lines that would be unsual....
Quote from: FrankB on June 23, 2009, 02:17:25 PM
what do you mean with "lines"? I can see no lines that would be unsual....
I had also a hard time finding any lines... um, I didn't actually ;)
Hi
realy great realism!
ciao
Naoo
I see what Seth's saying about the lines, it's the parallel lines that 'microvertex jittering' is supposed to help fix.
I suffer this problem with water(it's pretty apparent in the foam.tgd example image I uploaded) and also my grass surface, which occaisionally has these train tracks/fan-lines.
This is a great render, though, and I'm not sure I'd have even noticed the fan-lines on the water at all, it's very slight.
Quote from: dandelO on June 23, 2009, 04:35:06 PM
I see what Seth's saying about the lines, it's the parallel lines that 'microvertex jittering' is supposed to help fix.
I suffer this problem with water(it's pretty apparent in the foam.tgd example image I uploaded) and also my grass surface, which occaisionally has these train tracks/fan-lines.
This is a great render, though, and I'm not sure I'd have even noticed the fan-lines on the water at all, it's very slight.
Exactly, this setting should fix it.
But, I agree with Martin that it's hardly noticeable, so I wouldn't bother it too much.
I also agree this is a great render ;D love it!
If you still have time and motivation to work on this I'd like to make a couple of suggestions.
At which settings did you render this and how long did it take? I'd really like to see this one rendered with better GI (boat and trees) and more samples in your atmosphere and clouds. The settings are already good, but I really would like to see this one ultra-smooth ;D Think it will be even more photorealistic as it already is.
Secondly, the trees on the left are a bit "lonely". I don't know if you have any bushes for example. It would be great to see some ground cover and perhaps, if I'm not asking too much, one or two different tree species mixed in for variation. Of course you can only crop-render this to save much time.
Fantastic work so far, for sure!
Martin
wow Martin, you're pushing it far here ;)
I think there is not much to improve anymore. Unless, of course, it's desired, but I read the thread title said "final".
Cheers,
Frank
Quote from: FrankB on June 23, 2009, 05:42:01 PM
wow Martin, you're pushing it far here ;)
I think there is not much to improve anymore. Unless, of course, it's desired, but I read the thread title said "final".
Cheers,
Frank
True, but I think when you can make it like this so far it won't be too difficult to add some extra elements.
Regarding the suggestion on render-settings, that's a different story and really dependent on current rendertimes.
Like I said it's already good. So perhaps one should consider it rather a wish than a suggestion :)
Thanks for the comments everybody! I called it a final since I'm heading down to Peru on July 1st and I won't be back in time for the end of the competition, but I'll probably (will) continue to work on it until I leave.
@TU/: the render time was only about 30 hours, down a lot from the 120+ it took before I got rid of a pesky reflective shader on the rocks that were hanging things up. The render settings were
detail: .8
AA: 8
GI: 1/2
so I'll probably increase those a bit and play around a bit more, thanks for the suggestions :)
@Seth: Yep, that is a dead tree floating in the water, increasing the GI like TU suggested wll probably help make that clearer. Also, I see the lines in the water now that you've mentioned it, thanks for spotting that :)
I still can't see the lines ;D Call me blind 8)
90 hours simply because a reflective shader? I think that's tough! :o
My kudos again for your work, it's perfect from my POV and I think it can only get better with Martin's advice! :)
Wow, this is certainly one of the most amazing renders I've seen so far. Excellent work, great artistic setup and composition. I really like this.
Quote from: darthvader on June 23, 2009, 07:40:19 PM
Thanks for the comments everybody! I called it a final since I'm heading down to Peru on July 1st and I won't be back in time for the end of the competition, but I'll probably (will) continue to work on it until I leave.
@TU/: the render time was only about 30 hours, down a lot from the 120+ it took before I got rid of a pesky reflective shader on the rocks that were hanging things up. The render settings were
detail: .8
AA: 8
GI: 1/2
so I'll probably increase those a bit and play around a bit more, thanks for the suggestions :)
@Seth: Yep, that is a dead tree floating in the water, increasing the GI like TU suggested wll probably help make that clearer. Also, I see the lines in the water now that you've mentioned it, thanks for spotting that :)
Hmm...still 30 hours though...so you better not crank things up too much.
I'd say: increase GI to 1/3 and maybe add a very weak fill light @ ~0.1 strength. Then do a crop render of the boat with ray detail region padding feature set to cropped area and @ at least 1. This should give a fairly accurate result compared to the final.
Most bang for bucks to me is GI 2/4, but that will add too much rendertime I think.
Did you use a raytraced reflectionshader earlier? I'm surprised by the huge decrease in rendertime.
Martin
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on June 24, 2009, 09:20:21 AM
Most bang for bucks to me is GI 2/4, but that will add too much rendertime I think.
Thank you for sharing this info :D
Quote from: darthvader on June 23, 2009, 07:40:19 PM
Thanks for the comments everybody! I called it a final since I'm heading down to Peru on July 1st and I won't be back in time for the end of the competition, but I'll probably (will) continue to work on it until I leave.
So what should I do now? Take the image from deviantart as your entry, or wait?
Thanks,
Frank
Sorry for not getting it to you earlier Frank, I had some unexpected computer trouble so I haven't been able to get it to you until now.
This is it! The final for the contest...although I may come back to it since it was pretty fun to create.
http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Explorers-WIP-123058917
Nice entry, Darth!
Neat work :D Very nice entry, thank you!
Martin
nice job !