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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: Ethrieltd on April 10, 2017, 08:43:44 AM

Title: Fractal Island
Post by: Ethrieltd on April 10, 2017, 08:43:44 AM
So, I suddenly realised the one type of fractal I hadn't been playing with today was the Mandelbrot.

I got from a picture from Google images and adjusted the levels and did some touch up and blurring in Photoshop, made it greyscale and saved as a 2048x2048 .tif.

I loaded the saved .tif into World Machine and added an erosion. After building the world, I output it as a .ter (it got BIG) and loaded it into Terragen.

It was REALLY spiky. I added a smooth erode. It still looked like Billy Idol's fringe. I dialled it up...

Somewhat better, but still not right although technically I suppose there isn't a "right" here. I added a heightfield erode.

I ran into some problems with "black holes" that GI supersampling, etc didn't help. So not GI related? Lots of sharp edges/corners on the heightfield, despite those 2(3) erodes. That? I dialled up the smooth erode more.

I added a fractal terrain and cycled a few random seeds until it looked right.

The whole scene needed "atmosphere" and knowing clouds murder my machine (v2/v3, doesn't matter) I thought I'll make it a night scene. I cheated by using dandelO's background node v2 and tweaked it's gamma.

I had a rock texturing clip (can't remember who from) but it was mostly greys. I plugged that in and changed them to more dirt or sand colors. I plugged it in again and added the greens.

Water. I need to study the behaviour of water. So, I put liquid water in there for only the second time ever! The thought occurred to me that there'd better be no mistakes because that would mean that with the reflection, there would be two of

them, I need to think about things less.

I used the Atlantic.tgc that Mr_Lamppost shared in the Water Library post. I deleted the foam layer. It didn't look right and I couldn't be bothered tweaking it.

I added a altitude limited surface layer and a child with white/grey to (in my mind) look like minerals left behind from the evaporating water. It's probably way to subtle and way too zoomed out to see it, but i know it's there. Tried a test render.

The black holes problem has come back. Added the heightfield smooth after the last erode as opposed to before.

I increased the GI cache detail/GI Sample quality to 12/8 to better stamp out those "black holes" This was probably too much. It seemed to mostly work though, and didn't add a appreciable amount of time to the render from my tests so, meh.

On to the rendering and such...

Some, although not as much as I expected, time later.

I loaded it into Photoshop & added a lens blur and some film grain,  gave it a vignette, I like vignettes...

Levels adjusted and such, and that's it done.
Title: Re: Fractal Island
Post by: luvsmuzik on April 10, 2017, 10:36:04 AM
Here is a series you might explore, but you are doing great! Enjoy reading the process.
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,22521.msg227073.html#msg227073
Title: Re: Fractal Island
Post by: N-drju on April 11, 2017, 02:12:08 AM
It looks like a tree stump rather than an island. If you are not after a real-life isle it is always better to create island using power or alpine fractal masked with a simple shape shader (or the whole network of 'em) for the landmass.

Also, global illumination is not intended to make shadows and light brighter. Global illumination calculates the light and how it bounces of surfaces with regards to what the surface is like (reflective, perfect black etc.). It is intended to trace the path of light around the image and just that. It will not magically light up the shadow that has to be in a given place.
Title: Re: Fractal Island
Post by: Ethrieltd on April 11, 2017, 08:17:34 AM
Quote from: N-drju on April 11, 2017, 02:12:08 AM
It looks like a tree stump rather than an island. If you are not after a real-life isle it is always better to create island using power or alpine fractal masked with a simple shape shader (or the whole network of 'em) for the landmass.

Also, global illumination is not intended to make shadows and light brighter. Global illumination calculates the light and how it bounces of surfaces with regards to what the surface is like (reflective, perfect black etc.). It is intended to trace the path of light around the image and just that. It will not magically light up the shadow that has to be in a given place.


Yes. I know. I thought the rambling insanity of the post was a clue. I thought the GI issue was due to the fact there were many sharp faceted holes/contours in the rock that they were being missed in the GI pass. So i was wrong. It happens.

As for the tree stump, it was a Mandelbrot fractal it isn't like I chose it's shape. I mean I chose the shape but i didn't choose the shape.


The tone of some of the replies here now has changed, i might post less.
Title: Re: Fractal Island
Post by: N-drju on April 11, 2017, 08:52:33 AM
Ethrieltd, I meant no harm, relax. :) I never meant to be rude towards you and I'm not disrespecting your work. It's just how I put my thoughts on the paper sometimes and it has nothing to do with personal.

I see there has been quite a lot of work put in that image. The thing is that it is hard to tell what is your final aim just by judging from this preview. Seems like fantasy render at first glance. But it might give you trouble with such exotic displacements and elevation difference. And I voiced my concerns above.

As far as the GI remark is concerned... Well, I am actually making fun of myself right there. When I began my adventure with TG, I actually was thinking that I can just increase GI settings and light up the scene this way! ::) Without making any adjustments in the light section y'know...

Anyway, I'm sorry if you felt offended. That was never my "aim".
Title: Re: Fractal Island
Post by: Ethrieltd on April 11, 2017, 09:12:00 AM
Quote from: N-drju on April 11, 2017, 08:52:33 AMThe thing is that it is hard to tell what is your final aim just by judging from this preview.

There was no real final aim. I was just a case of "yes, I'm using fractals, but WHICH fractals?" I just wondered what a 3D Mandelbrot would look like. I kinda knew it was gonna be weird/problematic.

I'm thinking there were some REALLY twisted vertexes in there now. Then I just started piling things in there to try and kill the thing, it didn't die or make the render time geological like I expected so there ended up as a final output rather than a half finished file that I'd delete at some point in the future when I couldn't make it work or got bored with it.

It won't be going in my portfolio (that I don't have at all, actually) so...


Maybe I both overreact and over stretch, who knows. My objectivity is pretty subjective sometimes...


...and this is why I'm insane.


**EDIT**

There was no aim. That was the problem. I set off with a arbitrary concept with no aim or method. I was too close to the mad idea and failed to see the wood for the trees.

I piled fix onto fix without recognising the original concept wasn't sound. I recognise that now...