This is my take on Dune's River scene from NWDA (http://www.store.nwdastore.com/presets/dunes-river-). The amount of useful knowledge contained in this file cannot be overstated, and is a mini masterclass in Terragen technique, highly recommended! Also, the reeds are by Dune and are some of my favorite assets, also available from NWDA. The little egret peeking out in the mid-ground is Dune's as well. I've had this one "in-progress" for a while and finally had time to finish it up.
Wow, this is really a beauty!!!! I looked at it for a while, and I have absolutely no crits. I love the shallow area a lot. Looks incredibly realistic!
Pure Genius!
Genius? Hardly. Ulco's scene contains the "Genius" imo, but thanks nonetheless Mick!
Thanks Hannes. But for some reason the posted image appears more saturated than my original, so I may post a corrected version.
Wonderfully executed render, Doug. As I wrote you, I love the attention to detail. You're a master!
A pearl - a marvel! Great!
Wow this is great! Love the detail here. The mood established here is beautiful.
The only suggests I'd have is varying the lean on the cattails as the uniformity in the model comes out when they're all aligned up against each other in a straight line (repeating shapes in the populations at same angles).
Fantastic! The clouds are amazing and love all the detail, the amount of dead wood alone - non-repetitive to boot - is impressive. I love it all. Belongs to the TG feature gallery for sure.
Oh and that river project is a very worthy acquisition, I absolutely agree. Learned a lot from the master :) .
Dang, I need to pick up TG again.
It's all been said by the others and I whole heartedly agree...a masterpiece of composition executed perfectly. big WOW
Very natural and convincing, good one.
I'm curious, did the clouds taker longest?
The scene without clouds took about 45 minutes, with sky about 13 hours on a dual zeon at 3.5 ghz. Render settings .8/12. Easy Clouds; you have to love them, but there is a cost.
Quote from: zaxxon on November 06, 2018, 10:25:29 PM
The scene without clouds took about 45 minutes, with sky about 13 hours on a dual zeon at 3.5 ghz. Render settings .8/12. Easy Clouds; you have to love them, but there is a cost.
Wow! What a incredible seed you found for your easy clouds. I am assuming growth attribute was changed to get this epic buildup? I haven't really played with them much as I'm always trying to challenge myself to "Create" theme with V3.
Xeons are so nice. I remember getting my first freeware copy of TG2 at home on my Xeon X5450 and was pretty impressed with the render time, especially cause at the time I was doing abstract rendering in C4D on integrated graphics (I believe it used GPU) so it took literally forever. One abstract series of torus took 8 days, luckily I had a trip to keep me away. Lol I used that Xeon until 2016-2017 and I think it's EOL for that specific one was 2004 or 2005 lol Powerful CPUs.
This is definitely a beautiful image! The detail in the foreground, especially on the right, with the debris, algae (or small plant growth), etc. is fantastic. The river itself is highly realistic, while the terrain is nicely understated and likewise very realistic. A great sense of natural scale and distance.
That being said, I have a few notes of feedback. :)
First, the clouds are nice, but I swear I've seen something quite like them before:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9ryEv
Probably nobody else who isn't a close follower of your work would notice though. I'm just a big fan. :) And you've done some other great cloud shapes before, so I'd love to see another new cloudscape from you. Or maybe just hit random seed on these guys. ;D
Second, the colors for all the vegetation are great, except I think for the largest trees. They seem to have a bit too much blue and/or saturation in their color to my eye. The model also seems to have leaves kind of oddly scattered around, though this may be realistic for that tree type. They just look a bit like a more simplistic point cloud tree generator might make, rather than a growth-based model or a well-informed hand-made model. I also think the specular might be just a little too high on the leaves. Overall they just stand out as a bit less realistic than every other part of the scene. They're not bad on their own, just everything else is great. ;)
I also wonder what this would look like path traced, not so much for the vegetation or landscape, but for the reflection on the water. Path tracing enables a new specular reflection model that I think looks rather nicer. But you might have to adjust settings if you enabled it as the new specular model works differently and the reflection might be too soft for your taste (this can easily be adjusted, just in a different way than you're used to (Minimum Highlight Spread in the Water Shader's Reflection tab, very small values, with a 0 for sharp reflections).
Finally, like many of your images, I find this to overall have a rather "dim" and yellow/orange cast to it. It's not quite like a sunset (which I tend to like), but maybe late afternoon, with a very heavy and humid, dense atmosphere. I often think of these oppressive and dramatic weather days in the South-West of the US when I see your images, and this one is similar. It's not a bad thing, but aesthetically not my personal preference. I did a little quick adjustment on my side here and with some minor adjustment in white balance and exposure I liked the image even more, and could appreciate it more as a beautiful view and not more primarily as a great technical achievement. Again this is no doubt personal taste. Which is why I put this last. :D I'm happy to post my quick edit if you're curious what I mean, but I don't want to detract from discussion of your work, so I've defaulted to not.
In general always glad to see your work, it's always up to a very high standard of quality, detail, and realism.
- Oshyan
Thanks for the detailed critique Oshyan, and I agree with some of your points. Yes indeed the clouds are the same as the referenced image, I wasn't really being lazy in this image as the setup originally belonged to this image and it was the other that had the copied clouds. Thanks for noticing the duplication though, but then they do belong to an image Planetside currently uses as an intro banner on the website (hey, thanks for that too!). I'd really like seeing your adjustments, I had tweaked the image and never really came to a 'sweet' spot. I realized that it probably should have been rendered to an exr image and adjusted in something like Nuke (something I have but not really proficient in yet). Also, as I mentioned I really wasn't happy with the image as it uploaded into the Forum, so further tweaking was in order. As to the trees, well this isn't the first time you haven't like them: https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,18986.15.html ;). I'm building some more trees that may work here as well, but that task is pretty slow at present. I also wonder what the path traced version version would look like, but my Maintenance Contract has expired and I'll have to wait to see.
Echo...very high standard of quality, detail, and realism.
- Oshyan
great!
Happy to path trace it for you if you want to satisfy your curiosity. :D I imagine like all your scenes it's a beast in terms of file size though, so I'd understand if you don't want to deal with the packaging and upload. ;D I'm on bi-directional gigabit here at last, so I eat gigabytes for breakfast. :P
- Oshyan
Pack it up man, that's a great offer.
Thanks for the offer Oshyan, but I'll be renewing my maintenance this year and besides I'm probably going to further modify the scene up the road. I think it warrants some more effort.
Sounds good! In the meantime, I forgot to add my post processing attempts. The first one (adjust1) is just reducing the yellow a decent amount, so it looks less oddly tinted (to my eye), but maintaining some of the low contrast and sort of late afternoon look of the original. The second (adjust3) is probably closer to my personal preference, with higher contrast and even further reduced yellow (and a bit of red reduction too). It's arguably a little too contrasty and perhaps a touch oversaturated in some parts, but I prefer the overall aesthetic. Again, individual preference. :)
Like I said this is just a quick adjustment, and you'd have better results with the raw file (EXR), in particular for the slightly blown-out cloud area in adjust3 (though for photographic exposure this might actually be realistic).
- Oshyan
Both of those were similar to a couple of my attempts, and yes I agree that the foreground needs brightening without blowing out the clouds. So this scene goes back on the "needs more work" list (getting longer all the time). Maybe even some new trees.
Quote from: Oshyan on November 07, 2018, 05:12:00 PM
Sounds good! In the meantime, I forgot to add my post processing attempts. The first one (adjust1) is just reducing the yellow a decent amount, so it looks less oddly tinted (to my eye), but maintaining some of the low contrast and sort of late afternoon look of the original. The second (adjust3) is probably closer to my personal preference, with higher contrast and even further reduced yellow (and a bit of red reduction too). It's arguably a little too contrasty and perhaps a touch oversaturated in some parts, but I prefer the overall aesthetic. Again, individual preference. :)
Like I said this is just a quick adjustment, and you'd have better results with the raw file (EXR), in particular for the slightly blown-out cloud area in adjust3 (though for photographic exposure this might actually be realistic).
- Oshyan
The reduced yellow gives a to-the-eye realism imo, it looks good.
Still really love those clouds in the background. Keep coming back to look at them.
---
Zaxxon, I can't wait to see a path traced version when you update. I imagine it will benefit the scene.
I miss the little bird you were planning on the log...
Absolutely amazing render!
Very inspiring.
- Terje
Nice realism in this, shoreline is as real as it gets
Wow what a beauty! Well done 8)
Thanks again for the kind comments. Though at this point there's still some work to be done. Sorry Ulco, but the little bird probably got bored and flew away ;). I had planned on having a small bird on the floating log and it's modeled, but I couldn't find/create a decent set of texture maps. Maybe in the final iteration though. I've attached a render without the clouds that's been tweaked to be a bit lighter (less "oppressive" if you will :)). I'm also up to swap out the mid foreground trees as they are some of my older ones. Also, I've started to mess around with The Plant Factory again and may make that a test project. Given my current task lineup that may take a while. Let me know what you think about the light in the last one, all suggestions are welcome.
were this mine I'd likely call it done. it's already a masterpiece in my books...I like the light fine btw.
Brightness and color look great in that latest version, and I actually like it without the clouds. It does change the feel of the image, but to my eye for the better.
- Oshyan
For some reason the posting of this image on the TG Forum seems to boost the saturation vs my monitor's display. Here's a more de-saturated image.
Oshyan, I'm really fond of them, but you'll be able to have it both ways in a later version.
It might not be a forum-specific issue but a web browser issue. They're probably being displayed either with or without a color profile, i.e. the opposite of whatever you have in your normal image viewers. Try loading the local file before posting just in your web browser, i.e. drag and drop a .jpg or .png onto an empty tab. See if it does the same thing.
- Oshyan
It's definitely a whole different mood without the clouds. With the clouds it gives a bit of a chilly feeling. A storm approaching sort of vibe. While without clouds it feels much warmer.
I'm not sure which one i like more. I do really love those cloud formations, they're really pretty.
To be clear I have a definite bias against those clouds on probably an unfair basis just because I associate them so strongly with a different image. If they were similar in character but a bit different in actual shape I'd be more in favor. But I don't expect you to be worrying about tiny little changes I might want as one person, haha. Just one little blip in a sea of feedback. And regardless I love the image overall, with or without the clouds. Definitely prefer the brighter look though. :)
- Oshyan
Quote from: Oshyan on November 10, 2018, 10:22:13 PM
To be clear I have a definite bias against those clouds on probably an unfair basis just because I associate them so strongly with a different image. If they were similar in character but a bit different in actual shape I'd be more in favor. But I don't expect you to be worrying about tiny little changes I might want as one person, haha. Just one little blip in a sea of feedback. And regardless I love the image overall, with or without the clouds. Definitely prefer the brighter look though. :)
- Oshyan
Oh it's re-used? I struggle making nice clouds so I could see a reason to save them (I do).
Quote from: Oshyan on November 10, 2018, 08:28:31 PM
Brightness and color look great in that latest version, and I actually like it without the clouds. It does change the feel of the image, but to my eye for the better.
- Oshyan
Hear! Hear!
My preference goes to the version with clouds. It smoothly goes from land to sky, whereas in the cloudless version, I miss something. In the latest version I do like the brightness, though I have to say the brooding warm feel of the first is still my favorite. Perhaps that desaturated one a little brighter will be the perfect match. The desaturated version looks more natural. And sorry, Oshyan; I don't like your cool adjustment... too cold blue IMO.
Fantastic work! :) I really love the shore, it's so realistic!
I do have a tiny suggestion though, which is to add some algae/staining to the stones under the water, say greenish tints and add a density colour to the water with density 0.5 for starters. Choose a density colour which is off from the colours you used for algae/staining of the stones.
I'm curious to see how such a setup would look like. I can imagine waters like these have some murkiness to them.
The clouds... Well, this is how I look at it:
Without clouds the composition is slightly out of balance. Quite a bit of the image-space is just empty sky. I suppose in this case rule of thirds applies and perhaps you can make it even 25% sky only if there's something you really want to show off near the camera in the foreground.
With clouds the composition is nice and well balanced. Oshyan is perhaps a bit too sensitive about the clouds being the same as in a previous render, but I admit I recognized them immediately as well ;)
The clouds look a bit broad and flat perhaps, so should you choose to go with a final version with clouds then perhaps you could try different seeds and shoot for a little bit more vertical profile for cloud shapes.
Even with no clouds it looks beautiful ;)
- Terje
Cloudy day or not? Thanks for the feedback. Since this was the scene originally built with the current clouds, maybe I should change the other one? ;)
Let's not lose sight that this scene is built upon Ulco's magnificent set-up, so his opinion regarding the clouds carries additional meaning here. But, I can appreciate where Oshyan's coming from and TU provided some good thoughts along how to modify the existing cloud forms. Also, thanks for the great ideas regarding improving the shoreline details Martin, I'll see if I can incorporate them in a future version. I also have thought about re-introducing some river trout (present in earlier unposted versions) and some flocks of starlings swirling in the background. The base scene is certainly worthy of more of my time, thanks again Ulco for this 'collaboration' opportunity! (and we'll work on that little bird some more!)
Quote from: zaxxon on November 11, 2018, 10:36:21 AM
Cloudy day or not? Thanks for the feedback. Since this was the scene originally built with the current clouds, maybe I should change the other one? ;)
Let's not lose sight that this scene is built upon Ulco's magnificent set-up, so his opinion regarding the clouds carries additional meaning here. But, I can appreciate where Oshyan's coming from and TU provided some good thoughts along how to modify the existing cloud forms. Also, thanks for the great ideas regarding improving the shoreline details Martin, I'll see if I can incorporate them in a future version. I also have thought about re-introducing some river trout (present in earlier unposted versions) and some flocks of starlings swirling in the background. The base scene is certainly worthy of more of my time, thanks again Ulco for this 'collaboration' opportunity! (and we'll work on that little bird some more!)
This sort of setup, for me, begs a timelapse from a cloudy cold morning to a warm afternoon.
Beautifull work again, and photorealistic!