I'm sure everybody who lives near a river or an old harbor knows what I'm talking about: There's always a seemingly random group of wooden poles sticking out of the water somewhere. Who knows for what purpose.... Anyway, it was my inspiration for doing this render, in fact a couple of renders , where I tried to reduce it down to the very basic elements that make an image: Color, texture,shape, composition, rhythm.
I think many will call this kind of renders crap, bull etc. and possibly think of it as blasphemy but just let me know what you think, that's why I posted them.
I don´t call this anything bad!
Although in my humle opinnion the first one could gain a lot by a more contrasting lighting.
The second is wondeful as it is!
My best regards,
Jan
I agree with Mahnmut, the 2nd is excellent, first just needs more dramatic lighting and/or higher contrast. Well, with the first I think the water could be deeper, it looks a bit shallow for the size of the poles.
Anyway, not a bad idea for an image at all. People make composition studies and aim for simplicity in photography all the time. Those kinds of things shouldn't be off-limits just because you're using TG. :-)
- Oshyan
I would work on some wear on the pole tops also. They tend to split and decay from the tops quickly when exposed like this. I agree with Oshyan, Terragen 2 is a great tool for many types of photographic studies.
I like these photographic studies. I've put something like this together a while ago, but with elongated 'rocks'. I'll locate it and put it up at file sharing, as it may have some interest to others as well.
Nice images :-). The poles are never really that random as they used to be part of a jetty or quay or breakwater etc. so there is usually some general underlying structure even if things have gone a bit askew. In what seems like a previous life I used to sail my dinghy out past a number of old jettys like this. When I looked at your images I couldn't quite figure out what might have there :-).
Regards,
Jo
Thank you all for the replies/comments.
In retrospect I have to agree with the shadows on the water needing more contrast; will start working on that.
QuoteI would work on some wear on the pole tops also.
That's beyond my/the software's capabilities: The poles are actually cut down, branchless trees
BTW, I like the term (photo)graphic study, never thought of it that way.
Oh, and about the poles: A colleague, who's into fishing, also had an explanation: Eel fishers use them to attach their eel traps and other fishermen plant them to attract fish because fish do like the shelter they provide.
In order to get more contrast the lighting was set to default, sunlight strength upped to 5 and three of the four cloud layers disabled, also camera exposure went back to the default value of 1.
Normally I prefer more exposure and values for enviro light on objects between 2 and 3.
And yes, I'm more happy with this render now. Thank you all for the advice!
Looks good. 4 cloud layers seems like a waste of render time anyway given they're not visible. ;)
- Oshyan
Even though they're not visible, they do have an influence on the light (QED). In general I like the way the sunlight is filtered and how it changes in character with different clouds used. In this case it was too soft.
Yes, of course it does influence the light, but you almost certainly should be able to achieve the same effect with just 1 layer.
- Oshyan
Blaspheme at Will, whoever that poor soul may be.. :P. to tweak and push and shove and squeeze every little nuance that TG2 can do is what you've done and what I'd strive for if I can find the time and get down to it. Keep on keeping on, my friend!
Here's an iteration on the second render: Different seeds for the pole populations, a couple of SSS's used to create dry land and two populations of autumn trees (one is from dandelO's Seasons Pack), an extra fog layer and a slightly different camera position.
The inspiration came from a bitter cold morning this week where there was a lot of groundfog over the marshes and streams near the office.
Nice pics. Oh, about the poles? Fishermen place fishing-nets between the poles, to catch fish.
The last one is superb!
The last render looks very nice Andy!
When I firat saw this thread I thought that the first two images were photos you were showing as a reference for a TG2 work to come. Good job.
They would definitely pass the quick look test. But after I realized that they were renders I went back a looked and saw a tell tail sign of cg. The sharp edges of the caustics. But I still had to look for a min to pinpoint it.
So like I said, good job. Like the compositions too.