Here is an attempt I made. Things worked out fairly well, thanks to Dune's advise. Thank you very much Ulco!
The render detail is 0.33---- and the AA is at 3. Everything else is set at the render defaults.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/njeneb/5081211328/#/photos/njeneb/5081211328/lightbox/
looks good henry, i should work on my own mask studies at some point.
are you going to be making more mask studies?
Yes. I have been following Ulco's work for some time. It is always very impressive. I believe it will lead to doing commercial work also. Njeneb needs a new computer, Njeneb better get to work. ;D
I also think that building objects in a modeling program will be much easier. Overlaying a known grid size onto a landscape will really help with scale.
Good to see that you get the hang of it, Henry. ;)
looking good Henry, gonna have to get my arse into gear and do some masks in cs 3, I have dabbled with the painted shader, which works well in simple scenes, but the possibilities to be more methodical and structured seem 'easier' in a graphics package...
impressive! i always wanted to make a sky shot but no luck :D
You kind of have to 'fly' around to get a good point of view. I should make a bridge...
There's some free bridges available on the internet...
Well, I built a bridge in Blender. I learned quite a lot from this project. I think for the next image masking, I'll add the man made objects to the terrain. Then render an overhead view. This will allow me to get the scale and positions done much easier.
This was rendered at detail 1 and AA 8.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/njeneb/5086309346/sizes/o/in/photostream/
You're getting there! I would say the (procedural?) grass is a bit too big and dark,and evenly colored. And you should color/texture the banks differently, maybe a little muddy at water level, and less or no vegetation. Will you color the bridge? If you attach a PF to the color function input (size 0.2/1/0.01) you'll get some dirt on it.
The bridge.... Honestly I am glad I did not put too much time into it. It does not really work here. I found scaling it to the proper size a real pain; I never did get that right.
Anyway, I started a new project. I am going to place the objects first, at the right scale. Then do a orthographic overhead render. It should be easier to paint the masks when there is some reference points to work with.