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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: Gothic on February 20, 2007, 04:26:05 AM

Title: Cloud tests
Post by: Gothic on February 20, 2007, 04:26:05 AM
Hi all. I've been trying to figure out how to make the nicest looking clouds, and I decided that the best way to do this was to use an empty landscape and then put in some clouds. So far I've come up with this, a render of some cumulus congestus clouds. This is my first full render, so please comment so that I can improve. Hope you like it!

Note: I have a really lousy rig, so this render took something around 7 hours. Or maybe it's just that I'm just a tad overzealous on the quality settings.
Title: Re: Cloud tests
Post by: Volker Harun on February 20, 2007, 05:06:02 AM
Beautiful clouds. I would reduce the 'edge softness' just a little bit. Else flawless!
Title: Re: Cloud tests
Post by: Tangled-Universe on February 20, 2007, 05:11:01 AM
Edge sharpness you mean Volker???

I really like the cloudscape, pretty convincing/real looking, great work!
Now work on the terrain, add some nice soft reflecting displaced fake stones in the foreground and yoú'll have a hell of a "classic" TG2 render  ;D

Martin
Title: Re: Cloud tests
Post by: Gothic on February 20, 2007, 05:44:14 AM
Thanks guys. I'll add in the landscape later. This was just a test to see how the clouds would look like, so there isn't any landscape at all.

@Volker: I set the edge sharpness higher because I was looking for this (http://www.dhv.de/typo/typo3temp/1f020cec3d.jpg) look. I'm trying out one with a lower edge sharpness setting now.
Title: Re: Cloud tests
Post by: Volker Harun on February 20, 2007, 06:37:16 AM
Yep - still the edge  ;D

Try the following on your density shader:
Lead in Scale: 2000
Smallest Scale: 2
Then cut down your edge-sharpness down to ... hmmm ... well ...  8) 8) 8) ... 0.001 ... or lower ...

Before you get weird and jump through the screen to kill me, you might want to have a look at Luc Bianco's hint about clouds.

This should do it.

Regards,
Volker
Title: Re: Cloud tests
Post by: Gothic on February 20, 2007, 07:37:14 AM
I just finished another render. This one has softer cloud edges and the clouds are smaller.

EDIT: Hmm... I'll try your suggestion Volker. I'll post up the results soon as the render is done. I think what screws up the image is the cloud base at the centre right; it's a little too sharp in my opinion.
Title: Re: Cloud tests
Post by: Volker Harun on February 20, 2007, 08:00:22 AM
Hi Gothic,

I thin that your clouds are good. The point is the following:
You use as reference a photography of far away clouds. On short distance you will always see whispy edges, though.

As an error in my previous settings, leave the lead in scale as it was, maybe play with coverage. For your kind of clouds I would go for edge-sharpness of about 0.01 and a depth of about 5.  8) 8) 8)

Regards,
Volker