Planetside Software Forums

General => Open Discussion => Topic started by: jbest on August 26, 2010, 11:01:21 PM

Title: Cloud photograph
Post by: jbest on August 26, 2010, 11:01:21 PM
Just a cloud photograph I took a park a few days ago. It reminded me of FrankB's cloud: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=8887.0 (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=8887.0)
Not as stunning as those pictures, but still it reminded me of it.
Title: Re: Cloud photograph
Post by: domdib on August 27, 2010, 05:31:57 AM
Very nice cloud - would be lovely if TG2 could do ones like these.
Title: Re: Cloud photograph
Post by: jbest on August 27, 2010, 04:44:52 PM
Quote from: domdib on August 27, 2010, 05:31:57 AM
Very nice cloud - would be lovely if TG2 could do ones like these.

I didn't know it couldn't!
Title: Re: Cloud photograph
Post by: FrankB on August 31, 2010, 02:22:14 AM
it can!
Title: Re: Cloud photograph
Post by: domdib on August 31, 2010, 05:48:58 AM
Mmm - what do you mean Frank? It may be able to do clouds *shaped* like this, as you and others have shown. But it's still lacking in the internal light scattering that would give a *look* like this. If you could prove me wrong, I'd be very happy!
Title: Re: Cloud photograph
Post by: FrankB on August 31, 2010, 07:37:00 AM
quick doodle below.
I can get there (I think) if I spend more time on it.

What do you say?

Cheers,
Frank

Title: Re: Cloud photograph
Post by: domdib on August 31, 2010, 07:58:03 AM
I'd say you've more or less proved me wrong (Hooray!). I'd then scratch my head in puzzlement and wonder what all the lamenting re fake internal scattering is about  ??? Then I'd say, "What the heck are your settings? (and what's that spot in the middle of the cloud)?" At which point I'd probably shut up (for the moment  ;))
Title: Re: Cloud photograph
Post by: FrankB on August 31, 2010, 08:34:29 AM
Indeed, I just proved you wrong *more or less*, but not exactly. Of course the photo remains unmatched by my render, although with some more tweaking I may get a bit closer. I must admit that I don't believe that I could create a 100% convincing still image, that would be able to thoroughly fool your eyes for the real thing.

The spot in the middle is the sun, which is not occluded enough by the cloud. I don't know how to fix that other than by immensely increasing the cloud density.

My settings aren't anything special. It's just a tall, 5000 m cloud that comes with a lucky seed. It's important that the sun comes from behind the cloud, so that the clouds appear transparent somewhat. The rest is just finding the right lighting and exposures. You need to have an edge sharpness of 20 or greater and then adjust the density until you are satisfied with the result. Oh, and you need a lot of atmo samples, and high GI settings don't hurt either. This small image rendered over 20 minutes on my i7. Quite long.

Regards;
Frank
Title: Re: Cloud photograph
Post by: domdib on August 31, 2010, 09:24:35 AM
Another way to fix the spot in the middle is by interposing one of dandelO's meta-clouds between the sun and your cloud, at low quality and high density. Positioning and sizing might be tricky, but I think it would be doable.
Title: Re: Cloud photograph
Post by: Kadri on August 31, 2010, 12:01:23 PM

If you fiddle a little more you will make an indistinguished TG2 cloud from the real one it seems , Frank  :)
Title: Re: Cloud photograph
Post by: Tangled-Universe on August 31, 2010, 12:32:25 PM
Did you try disabling "visible disc" in the sunlight node Frank?
It works here with your file from yesterday.