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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: Goms on October 25, 2010, 05:34:23 PM

Title: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Goms on October 25, 2010, 05:34:23 PM
Good evening folks,

induced by an (finally!) again rising motivation to play around with tg2 and a project that came back to my mind again lately, I want to kick off something that we did in the terradreams.de-forum some years ago again with tg2 in this forum.
The idea is to pass an tgd from one person to another, while everyone makes some changes.
(another approach could be to just keep working together on one image, until everyone is satisfied.)

I just wonder what could be done if all the great artists I see every day around here confederate. :D

to illustrate what I'm talking about, here are the pictures from (nearly) 4 years ago with tg1 by the users.
The terrain came from nikita, I did most of the organising when I remember correctly.

Grosch:
(http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/9283/stillepost01ut9.jpg)
Erik:
(http://img289.imageshack.us/img289/9904/stillepost02dw2.jpg)
Kranky:
(http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/2807/stillepost03dh9.jpg)
Topsider:
(http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/2320/stillepost04ap0.jpg)
Orca:
(http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/899/stillepost05ry5.jpg)
Holtsmichel:
(http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/4016/stillepost06vv2.jpg)
Henning:
(http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/8841/stillepost07wv9.jpg)
joshus_Hund:
(http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/1456/stillepost08xa8.jpg)
Tinga:
(http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/9462/stillepost09ff9.jpg)

and the final result from JSJ:
(http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9946/stillepost10ru4.jpg)

what do you folks think? :)
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: cyphyr on October 25, 2010, 05:47:53 PM
An excellent idea :) One that I've toyed with myself but never went anywhere with.
Love the sunset sky by the way :)
Go for it  I'd say :)
Richard
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: freelancah on October 25, 2010, 05:58:32 PM
Sounds good to me!
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: dandelO on October 25, 2010, 07:43:49 PM
Where's the .tgd?  :P
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Goms on October 26, 2010, 01:52:59 AM
ok, lets give it a try.
ill post a starting tgd this evening with some basic terrain; after that, i would suggest the following:

as in this forum so many great ideas and expertise come together, lets say everyone can edit the file whenever he wants.
i think this will give the best result as we can help each other.
If you have an idea but don't know how to accomplish it, this way we can help each other.
but i suggest some rules:

- no premium presets, as everybody should be able (and allowed) te edit the file. and don't forget to give credits.
- same for objects; if you use any, please post it or a link where to find it.
- if you edit the file, try to use clear names for shaders or groups (most difficult for me!). i think the best would be to add a description of what you did in your post here. this way everybody can understand what what you did and learn from this.
- respect the work of others; don't just delete, edit if its a good idea.

apart from that, change everything and be creative. :)
i think this is a great possibility to a) make a stunning image and b) learn a lot from each other.

any ideas, additions or "what the heck are you talking about, lets make it completely different" welcome!
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Dune on October 26, 2010, 03:20:18 AM
Good idea, but I'm on alpha, so out.
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: DVA99 on October 26, 2010, 03:51:19 AM
All the images look brilliant to me.

The only thing I would like to add in the old images, as a beginner, would be myself and my fishing gear  :)

It will be fun to see what you experienced people create
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Goms on October 26, 2010, 04:28:46 AM
ok, its not evening, but lets start anyway. :)

(http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/5459/psforum00.jpg)

a very basic setup with just a few octaves in the perlins to get started.

(http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6481/clipboard01to.jpg)

i used two power fractals with the same seed and settings to get some hills and more plane areas with blending one of the fractals by the other (initial noise -> huge structures).
then i added some strata and some more noise, both controlled by the initial noise again (after adjusting the gamma), to get first some stratas, and then vary the strata and the top of the hills by the "small structures" power fractal.

and now: play around with it, change it, add something!
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: RArcher on October 26, 2010, 10:18:28 AM
I'll play along.  Here is some surfacing.  Just a stack of brown colours and a stack of green colours.
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: airflamesred on October 26, 2010, 11:52:08 AM
Ooh how exciting. I shall be keeping an eye on this
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: RichTwo on October 26, 2010, 12:45:14 PM
Nice colors, Ryan.  Now I'll give it a shot: added some rocky displacements.  Disclaimer - the clip for that is not my invention.
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Hetzen on October 26, 2010, 01:51:41 PM
Thought I'd add a little.

I'm not sure how this is going to work with overlaps. Anyway, I've put in an erosion mask, which could do with some tweaking on the displacements, and added a basic rock structure. Also broke up the hard ridge edges with a redirect.

The mask can be downloaded from here

www.motion-graphics.co.uk/TG/ErosionMask.jpg
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Hetzen on October 26, 2010, 02:02:08 PM
I've Combined Rich2's work in the attached. I've put a blending mask on it Rich, you might want to play with it a little more.
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: RArcher on October 26, 2010, 04:17:45 PM
Just a bit of a cosmetic change with the camera, POV, and sun position.  It looks like some of the rock displacements need to be toned down a little bit.
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Oshyan on October 26, 2010, 05:05:28 PM
Cool idea, this is already coming along quickly!

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: jbest on October 27, 2010, 01:34:06 PM
Ok, well I'll try.

I added a strata and "something" shader to the terrain - it might be too heavy. Added clouds too, really didn't do much. Feel free to remove the strata shader if you want to.
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: inkydigit on October 28, 2010, 07:50:56 AM
got one cooking now, some tweaks to lighting and modifying the strata etc...post tgd shortly...
EDIT:
here ya go, minor tinkers completed feel free to delete modify at will!
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: inkydigit on October 28, 2010, 11:48:39 AM
ok looking at the work that has been put into this, I feel guilty for almost obliterating it...I should have taken more time and juggled with the layering of effects/fun(c)tions etc...instead I have handled it like a hot potato...mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Ironshirt on November 03, 2010, 08:23:35 PM
Nice idea !

Well, here we go  ;D

I've modified the small displacement of the Rock Outcrops slightly, moved the sun a little bit and put in an additional Powerfractal to blend the Strata some more - mixed it with the existing one, maybe it is too much 'blending' now. Finally I added a big and a small crater.

Feel free to modify/delete here as well!

Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Tangled-Universe on November 04, 2010, 03:08:18 AM
The displacements on the crater wall look pretty cool :)
In overall a nice improvement anyway Ironshirt.
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: inkydigit on November 04, 2010, 07:08:14 AM
nice work ironshirt...a good improvement!
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Floating.Point on November 04, 2010, 02:49:25 PM
Ironshirt... very nice... I want to fly over that region in a chopper... I can see this developing into an early morning shot, where the mist is parting- revealing the ancient craters...
(Im going to grab the TGD to have a go, but I thinks its best to leave this one in the hands of the masters)
Looking good!
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: RArcher on November 04, 2010, 03:05:12 PM
Quote from: Floating.Point on November 04, 2010, 02:49:25 PM
(Im going to grab the TGD to have a go, but I thinks its best to leave this one in the hands of the masters)

Forget that nonsense!!  This is a fun project for anyone and everyone to have a swing at.  Add what you are comfortable adding, learn from what is there already and then pass it along!
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Goms on November 04, 2010, 03:09:10 PM
Quote from: RArcher on November 04, 2010, 03:05:12 PM
Forget that nonsense!!  This is a fun project for anyone and everyone to have a swing at.  Add what you are comfortable adding, learn from what is there already and then pass it along!

right, just play around with it!
i'm currently adding some muddy water into that crater and doing some stuff with the illumination, but that can wait. just do it! ;)

edit: addition to this: maybe you have an idea to add something and noone ever thought about your way doing it or even do it at all!
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: domdib on November 04, 2010, 05:51:56 PM
Yes, just go for it Floating.Point!
Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Floating.Point on November 05, 2010, 01:39:18 PM
Okay okay guys I will have a go! thanks for the supportive words :) ...
But I might jump on board later on down the train- as I am finishing off some pressing work this weekend & early next week.
Please don't wait for me, keep the ball rolling with this one!

Perhaps this could be a chinese whisper 5 second animation...
Once the terrain + atmo is done, someone could script a nice camera move
and then the final TGD could be distributed amongst the contributors to render x frames each...
then we could assemble it together and allow a second round of whispers for the post work?

has that been done before??

Title: Re: Chinese whispers v2.0
Post by: Goms on November 06, 2010, 08:53:35 AM
ok. some snow and a nice hot swimming pool :)

(http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/5594/next.jpg)