A very simple image from about a week ago, I was trying to make the Luc Bianco clouds (as have we all) and came up with this. While they are not perfect, I do think that they are close (although the distribution still needs to be fixed).
Just so you know this is set at render quality 0.5, so it can look better. ;) I also brightened it up just a tad.
Nice Clouds, I like your lighting....Did you do anything perticular with it?
No, I just lowered the sun angle. Nothing special.
Nice job. I've seen a few other people get pretty close to duplicating his detail, but the distribution into a coherent, straight tower is something I haven't seen yet.
Right. I was trying today and thought increasing the Y noise value would do something, but I'm not sure how he got the height. Is it possible he cheated? LOL
Quote from: old_blaggard on June 13, 2007, 03:02:59 PM
Nice job. I've seen a few other people get pretty close to duplicating his detail, but the distribution into a coherent, straight tower is something I haven't seen yet.
The noise directional values only control relative scaling in each dimension; they will not make a cloud layer taller. Try using really, really big values for Cloud Depth. You might also try stacking a few layers at different altitudes.
- Oshyan
Thanks Oshyan. I'll try this today or tomorrow.
I've been toying around with clouds as well, and one thing I found is that you often forget to think of fractals as 3D. Just because you set a high thickness doesn't mean the clouds will actually be that thick. Vertical variation in the fractal can result in shorter clouds and/or multiple clouds at different heghts. Finding the right seed value (or vertical displacement) is the first thing you need to do... or hunt around for a tall cloud and move it to where you want it.
Rather than going to and fro between the cloud shader and the density fractal I start with the density settings in the fractal as well as adjusting the scale. Lowering the fractal's coverage at the start usually makes it easier to find the bigger clouds.
Here's a draft version of a cloud I'm working on. The relationships between the different settings is relatively complex and it's one time that I'm really glad I bought the animation version.
:o What exactly did you model that cloud on?
nvseal - it looks like you're on the right path. Have you been messing with clumping? I tried the depth thing without any great results, though I think this is a good idea.
bigben - that cloud on the left looks vaguely familiar... :o (and thanks for all of the help; I plan to try what you're talking about tomorrow - I'm almost at 700 hours render time)
The cloud on the left was just a tall leaning cloud on the left until I saw it come up in the post... but I though I'd leave it anyway. By the time you tweak the fractal scale it'll become "less recognisable" quickly enough ;) While trying random seeds I only came across about 1 in 8 that had high clouds (without moving the camera).
I'd crop your first image to the bottom 1/3 of the picture.
I've been working on the big clouds recently as well. Best of the lot so far is here:
http://www.ashundar.com/CPG/displayimage.php?pos=-4235 (http://www.ashundar.com/CPG/displayimage.php?pos=-4235)
No kidding. These are awesome.
Quote from: RArcher on June 19, 2007, 05:34:45 PM
I've been working on the big clouds recently as well. Best of the lot so far is here:
http://www.ashundar.com/CPG/displayimage.php?pos=-4235 (http://www.ashundar.com/CPG/displayimage.php?pos=-4235)
While not exactly what I would call realistic ;), this render shows that you can make some pretty large crazy objects out of the clouds:
http://www.ashundar.com/CPG/displayimage.php?pos=-4241 (http://www.ashundar.com/CPG/displayimage.php?pos=-4241)
It looks as if a huge space faring vessel were hidden in the cloud itself. Nifty stuff! :)
@ Luc Bianco: Thanks. Will you not tell us how you did it? How about another hint? ;)
@RArcher: Those do look pretty neat. Nice big sky.
Quote from: lucbianco on June 21, 2007, 06:51:44 AM
Maybe in a future tuto or book ;-)
luc
I'll be looking forward to it.