Planetside Software Forums

General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: RArcher on August 27, 2012, 12:35:33 AM

Title: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: RArcher on August 27, 2012, 12:35:33 AM
Continued experiments with my last canyon setup.  This time with vegetation hanging off the sides and some trees at the bottom.  So many great viewpoints possible in this canyon.  The only postwork this time was a curves adjustment.
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegitation
Post by: Upon Infinity on August 27, 2012, 12:37:01 AM
Nice work!  How do you make a canyon?
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegitation
Post by: FrankB on August 27, 2012, 07:22:30 AM
Looks great, Ryan! How did you make the vegetation below the overhanging parts of the terrain? Or is this an optical illusion?

Regards,
Frank
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegitation
Post by: Tangled-Universe on August 27, 2012, 09:04:28 AM
Great work Ryan, really like this. The displaced canyon walls are well done. It doesn't have weird spikes and pretty balanced amplitudes. I find that the hardest to do.

Frank, the vegetation is probably using the relatively new lean function for populations in combination with regular slope restriction.
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegitation
Post by: FrankB on August 27, 2012, 09:12:56 AM
yeah, but (although I haven't tried), I wasn't aware that it will be able to sample slopes of less than -90 degrees???
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegitation
Post by: Tangled-Universe on August 27, 2012, 09:16:55 AM
I managed to get that before and without the lean factor function. Check my inside deep forest image.
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegitation
Post by: inkydigit on August 27, 2012, 01:28:43 PM
looks excellent Ryan!
:)
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegitation
Post by: RArcher on August 27, 2012, 03:53:52 PM
Thanks guys.  I was a bit worried about the vegetation not populating on the undersides as well Frank, but it didn't seem to be an issue.  I did mess around with the new options (which are fantastic!) to get the stuff on the wall to stick out correctly.

@UponInfinity - There are quite a few different ways to create canyons.  You can do it procedurally with the blue nodes, or with two parallel heightfields, or likely many other ways as well.  I would take a look here first as the definitive source for canyons: http://www.nwdanet.com/buy/7-preset-packs/36-canyon-and-rock-surface-pack-by-tu (http://www.nwdanet.com/buy/7-preset-packs/36-canyon-and-rock-surface-pack-by-tu) 
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegitation
Post by: TheBadger on August 28, 2012, 07:29:28 AM
Another great image! I would like to see it completely covered in green plants too.

On a side note. I bought T-U's canyons pack the same day I bought RArchers dirt pack, that was the day I bought Terragen.
I only recently became confident enough to alter the dirt pack. It will probably be another two years before I'm confident enough to mess with the canyons :o

The canyons pack is very nice though. Theres a lot in there to play with. Dirt pack is darn useful too. :)
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: RArcher on August 28, 2012, 10:05:04 AM
Bigger version - hopefully not too many compression artifacts.  Increased the haze density considerably and changed some render settings.  Nothing changed with the vegetation yet.
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: Jo Kariboo on August 28, 2012, 10:23:40 AM
Very nice and big. I like the detail and the natural light.
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: RArcher on August 29, 2012, 12:05:27 AM
So many people are making night scenes I couldn't resist.  Disabled the sun, switched enviro light to Ambient Occlusion and slapped in a star field.  Pointed up.
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: Dune on August 29, 2012, 03:24:26 AM
It's contagious, isn't it? I prefer the day scene though, great stone structures and the GI under the left overhang is really nice (makes me wanna do a canyon as well). Although on my monitor the whole is quite washed out. What trees are those in front?
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: Upon Infinity on August 29, 2012, 04:06:38 AM
Is ambient occlusion better than GI for bouncing light off a specific object?
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: Tangled-Universe on August 29, 2012, 05:14:54 AM
Quote from: UponInfinity on August 29, 2012, 04:06:38 AM
Is ambient occlusion better than GI for bouncing light off a specific object?

Here you go:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_occlusion
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: Upon Infinity on August 29, 2012, 05:20:59 AM
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on August 29, 2012, 05:14:54 AM
Quote from: UponInfinity on August 29, 2012, 04:06:38 AM
Is ambient occlusion better than GI for bouncing light off a specific object?

Here you go:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_occlusion

Thanks.  I also just did a test to prove it to myself.  This image is lit only by the panel, the panel itself it lit only by it's luminous value.  It projects light much like a panel of light would.  And this is GI.  Ambient occlusion is apparently just general ambient light. 
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: Tangled-Universe on August 29, 2012, 05:33:01 AM
Ehhrrrr....I don't understand your explanation. Is it AO or GI?
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: Upon Infinity on August 29, 2012, 05:34:25 AM
The test I provided is GI. ie. the good stuff.  ;D
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: RArcher on August 29, 2012, 09:29:42 AM
Ulco, the trees are from the Xfrog Africa package:  The big one on the left is the African Mahogany and the smaller ones are the Wild Peach with the spiky plants on the ground being the African Boxwood. The scene is washed out because of the high haze values I used to get some extra light bouncing under walls.

I certainly like the daylight version better myself, but couldn't resist giving a night version a quick try.

UponInfinity, GI is generally the way to go provided that there is a lightsource in your scene.  In my night version there is no direct lightsource at all, so I used the Ambient Occlusion mode to bring light in.  I set the strength on surfaces to 0.3 and the strength in the atmosphere to 0.
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: Dune on August 29, 2012, 12:00:25 PM
Thanks, Ryan. Maybe a very low (-90) warmish fill light without shadows may help with some light on undersides....
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: choronr on August 29, 2012, 01:42:27 PM
Some much to learn with all these interesting comments. Ryan, you've got me thinking to maybe start another canyon image. This is beautiful!
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: Upon Infinity on August 29, 2012, 09:14:43 PM
Quote from: RArcher on August 29, 2012, 09:29:42 AM
UponInfinity, GI is generally the way to go provided that there is a lightsource in your scene.  In my night version there is no direct lightsource at all, so I used the Ambient Occlusion mode to bring light in.  I set the strength on surfaces to 0.3 and the strength in the atmosphere to 0.

Well, in this case, wouldn't the stars be the light source?  As you can see in my test, I lit the scene with nothing more than luminous value.  You might have to rachet up the strength on surfaces value, but it technically 'should' work.  I'm not guaranteeing better results, but it might be worth a try.
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: TheBadger on August 30, 2012, 05:46:51 AM
The conversation in this thread is giving me lots of good info. Thanks guys.

Like the day light version best Archer. But the night shot is cool.
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: Tangled-Universe on August 30, 2012, 06:50:02 AM
Hi Ryan, you said no direct lightource? Makes me wonder how you get that striking light on the vegetation on the right wall? Seems there's a direct lighting source to me?
Title: Re: Canyon with Vegetation
Post by: RArcher on August 30, 2012, 09:25:26 AM
Hi Martin,  Just to clarify, it is the night version we are talking about the daylight version absolutely has a sun. For the night version the sunlight node is disabled and the only light is from an enviro light set to:

Ambient Occlusion
0.3 strength on surfaces
1 Colour on surfaces
0 Strength in atmosphere
1 Colour in atmosphere

I did not bother to assign any luminosity to the star field because it wasn't really needed for my quick test.