Hi all,
Done a little work on cloudscapes this weekend, thought I'd share.
Still needs work on the individual scatter settings, and some more organisation of elements to bring out the scale a little better.
C+C welcome.
Chris
Great complexity. I really like the rim light you have on the clouds lower down, who themselves also have great shapes. The foreground ones look a little bit too solid to me, but that's hardly a game-breaker.
Pure cloudlove! If you move the sun slightly would you get a reflection from the ocean? Perhaps change the water shader to have higher spread too.. I'd imagine that bringing even more awesomeness!
Great Chris! I like the subtle ocean waves which can be seen through the clouds and indeed the complexity. Three or four layers? Do I detect the masked hurricane on top?
Thanks guys,
Good tips too.
Can definitely get more out of the water yet.
It currently uses four layers, 3 procedural and one mask for the top layer.
Cheers
Chris
nice one :)
did you render this one on a brand new machine ? ;)
The left third looks epic, Chris. There seems to be not as much going on in the middle and right third, though, which is probably due to the lower albedo from the increased angle sun <-> camera look direction.
I suggest you take in a smaller portion with a narrower FOV.
Cheers,
Frank
reminds me of the opening of back to the future II :)
looks fantastic, looking forward to seeing the next version.
Hey. How about animating this with just a simple and slow camera flyby?
The image looks terrific and it would be awesome to see it in motion.
Regards,
Terje
Quote from: sjefen on March 28, 2011, 04:55:55 PM
Hey. How about animating this with just a simple and slow camera flyby?
The image looks terrific and it would be awesome to see it in motion.
Regards,
Terje
i agree.
Thanks guys,
Seth, not quite a new machine (it was done on my home setup) roughly the same spec though, you're gonna love it!
Composition and formations are still very much at the early stages for now, but the plan is, that this will form part of a short animated film / trailer.
Can't say much about that right now, but for me it means a break from natural history work, which I seem to have been doing for ever.
Finally starting to work on more narrative based work :)
Finishing at 422 this week and starting at the BBC next week, doing stuff like Dr Who and Being Human, can't wait to see my environment work used in a different context.
Chris
Awesome picture Chris.
I agree with Frank's crits and suggestions.
If I may add to it: it looks the different cloud layers each have their own lighting settings, probably because there are differences in cloud layer densities for instance. One of the layers is a bit off (too bright). Maybe toning that lighting difference a bit down, but retaining the difference still, would be a good next step.
How long did this render anyway? Did you use raytraced atmosphere?
Quote from: chris_422 on March 29, 2011, 05:00:31 AM
Thanks guys,
Seth, not quite a new machine (it was done on my home setup) roughly the same spec though, you're gonna love it!
Composition and formations are still very much at the early stages for now, but the plan is, that this will form part of a short animated film / trailer.
Can't say much about that right now, but for me it means a break from natural history work, which I seem to have been doing for ever.
Finally starting to work on more narrative based work :)
Finishing at 422 this week and starting at the BBC next week, doing stuff like Dr Who and Being Human, can't wait to see my environment work used in a different context.
Chris
Congratulations! Sounds very exciting!
I'm looking forward to see you work in those shows.
Would you like to mention here which episodes we can see your work? :)
This week I will recieve a proposal from 422 about joining the project.
Pity I probably won't meet you, since you're leaving end of this week.
Cheers,
Martin
Hi Martin,
Thanks, and thanks for the tips.
Render time was about 1.5 hours, with raytraced atmosphere on.
As I haven't done any work for them as yet, I have no idea which episodes are involved.
Shame we won't be working together, but as there are going to be a few terragen artists at 422, I think we should all definitely catch up for a beer while you are here.
Chris
excellent work, I saw clouds like this out of the easyjet window today as I flew from Bristol back to Belfast.... :)
goddamn !
We'll catch up to drink that beer as soon as you come Martin !!! ;D
nice to hear about your new job Chris.
Gorgeous gradient from yellow through green to violet.
The weakest parts for me are the medium-density clouds in the middle of the picture, and the lack of definition in the shadowed areas which are only catching GI. Providing detailed self-shadowing in GI is on my long term to-do list, but maybe some additional light sources (perhaps even strategically-placed local point lights with a maximum distance to keep render times down) would help. You could probably add a negative light to compensate, or gamma the image down.
For the medium-density cumulus, because their edges are partially transparent at this distance I would break them up with some wispy fractals. A power fractal with a roughness of 2 or 3 mixed in very lightly with existing density shader could work wonders in this situation.
Matt
Thanks guys,
Great feedback, from everyone, I'm looking forward to working on this at the weekend.
I'm sure I'll be able to post one or two updates before I have to shift to incorporating the shot specifics and then I'm into NDA territory until the project is done.
Detailed self-shadowing in GI sounds like a great feature, I'll look forward to it, but I do understand why it's more of a long term goal.
Many thanks
Chris