Boring little scene with some dead trees and a distorted sphere for a rock tower. Something with the composition bugs me, but since I bothered to render it fairly large I figured I would post it anyway.
Big changes with the update here:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,16280.msg159551.html#msg159551 (http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,16280.msg159551.html#msg159551)
More updates here:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,16280.msg159629.html#msg159629 (http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,16280.msg159629.html#msg159629)
Still a nice one Ryan!
Great clouds in the distance. Especially on the left part as I like how they blend in with the atmosphere :)
Yes, the composition is a bit off.
At first glance I think that the top of the tower is too close to the border, so tilting the camera a bit up may help.
You can either widen the shot a little or just remove the tree on the far left. I think that might help the framing of the shot.
I'm curious how this looks with more shadows and lower GI strength on surfaces.
Cheers,
Martin
Thanks Martin, I think my biggest issue is the close up trees, they make the tower look too small, but the top of the tower near the frame is too damn close too. Heres another one from a different point of view closer to the base of the tower. No postwork on this one.
Why not have more towers and more plants? Not like these links exactly but just to show a little better what I mean http://blog.oregonlive.com/terryrichard/2009/06/large_DSC_1525.JPG
http://fourcornersinn.com/images/home/preview-gallery/2-Rock%20spires-near-Blanding-Utah.jpg
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6024/6003251558_117c7e4509_o.jpg
http://s3-media3.ak.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/syQOy4BY1j2MeSwnPfUFGg/l.jpg
Probably you would have to go wider than you planed. THe spire in your image looks like a good size. Quite nice Maybe just two or three more towers moving into the background? I think the only problem with the scale is there is not enough to base a sure idea of what the scale is, for the viewer.
I like the image you made Archer. And I agree the sky is great. Just trying to give some ideas.
From the thumbnail I already thought that the composition is 'too balanced'. Tower left, big (nice) tree right. I would probably move my cam to the right, have the tree a bit more to the front just off center and the tower kind of behind it. And add some more (of these) trees (1-2) near the tower's base for size reference. I also think the loose grasses are too 'loose'. They would stand in groups or be with some other grass, I'd say, or some pebbles or stuff.
But I do like the scene (and sky) very much. Is that tree some existing species?
Thanks for the suggestions Ulco and TheBadger, I'll see what I can do to incorporate them in a revised image. Ulco, the big tree in the front is a Baobab from the Xfrog Africa package.
Excellent detail on all surfaces, the trees, the rock....even the sand surface. The balance does seem strange....I think this image needs to be in portrait rather than landscape. Try .8 by the image height and make the image longer rather than wider. You may need to pull the camera back a bit. Of coarse I'd add a nice large moon...LOL....don't listen to me you know what your doing!!! Keep on man!
Heading in a slightly different direction now, but there is still much more to do.
That looks incredibly good. Maybe a bit too sharp.
This is one of those images that drags the viewer inside.
Thanks Hannes, I've pushed a few settings further than they realistically should go. I'll be toning it down quite a bit.
You made those rocks with vector displacement, I guess? This is very nice, Ryan.
The last one is excellent.
Quote from: Dune on July 04, 2013, 02:52:40 AM
You made those rocks with vector displacement, I guess? This is very nice, Ryan.
Is that right?!!
Looks much better now. Exotic.
Much better Ryan, the latest one is really good. Those rocks kinda look like 'termite mounds'.
I like that last one. I'd put rocks in of more various sizes. Have some big crazy ones but have smaller ones.
Thanks everyone. Ulco, the rocks are just the internal sphere object distorted and textured. The cracks are from some very large scale voronoi.
The rocks rock! 8)
awesome displacements and towers Ryan!
can you get vertigo whilst standing on the ground??
these almost make me dizzy!
:)
J
Here is a smaller lower res test, same set up as previous but from an alternate point of view. This POV gives a better sense of the difference in scale for each tower.
I like this last comp a good bit better. But now I can really see that the right most tower in really to big, I think. Looks nice though, just crazy big.
Very cool stuff, the last one is just great.
Aww, i like it a lot in all aspects!
Madagascar comes into my mind. The home of lots of rly strange looking rock structures and plants/trees..
The lighting is incredible! Looking forward to put my hands on TG3. We need a drooling smiley here!
Ah, got one...
Wow! The last one is amazing! great light and a wonderful feeling of scale.
Beautiful rocky creation. The first right of its close distance seems to me less realistic. Nice refreshing light !
Maybe the final update here. Similar to the last POV but much lower on the ground with some other things going on. Here is a list of everything in the image:
6 Internal Sphere objects - distorted and textured.
Flock of Birds from Hannes
5 Elephant models posed in DAZ years ago
1 Baobab tree from the Xfrog Africa DVD
3 populations of Umbrella_Acacia from the Xfrog Africa DVD
1 population of Arrow_Poison from the Xfrog Africa DVD
2 populations of Egyption_Carissa from the Xfrog Africa DVD
2 populations of Dry_Grasspatch from Walli
1 population of Ryegrass from Walli
1 population of Dirt_Cluster from Walli
Terrific! It all comes together nicely. The elephants give it a very good sense of scale. Almost frightening, these huge rock outbursts. If they're termite hills, beware!
The last one is great, love the sense of scale and the details on the rock towers. What were your render settings in the render node? GI, quality, AA etc.
Fantastic work, Ryan!
These are beautiful! I'm loving the lighting in the shadows
Oh, I'm really still impressed by the lighting! This is wonderful!
I am assuming this was rendered in Terragen 3. The lighting is fantastic................gimme, gimme, gimme.
Even greater POV, niceee!
You could try or test some reddish sands/ground now for more color variation. This could underline/bring out even more the elephants and rocks and it's structures..
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTpiQiSEQnj-5wSScU3AZogeCvxX5p_d-76hgwA3JTl9Dklge_g)
Absolutely beautiful; and, you've got my enthusiasm going. Been playing with my distorted sphere files trying to get the colors/textures to work properly - no luck so far; but, I'll need to wait for TG3 I guess. You said 'internal sphere', I assume that is new to TG3?
Looks real good! The large tower on the right side now makes more sense to me. Did you change it? Or is just reading better now because of all the other elements are helping with scale?
The animal helps a ton, for me.
This is looking really good but to be honest I'd tame the rocks down a bit. I like the spikey smaller ones and maybe some big ones like a hill but with the trees and elephants etc, the big surreal overhangs look a little out of place.
Thanks for the comments everyone.
Saurav: Detail 0.9, AA 8, GI 2/4, GISD 2/2
Bob: You can absolutely make the towers in TG2 using the sphere object. Just warp the spheres using some power fractals and maybe a redirect shader and then texture them.
Badger: Not much changed with the tower on the right, just the sunlight postion and the lower camera. Must be because of the additional elements helping with the scale.
Black and White square format of the Baobab and one of the rock towers.
Re-postworked the previous full size render to give it a more "photographic" feel. Major colour grading, a tiny depth of field, a little chromatic abberation and a little touch of film grain.
Love that black and white treatment, looks like infrared. :D
- Oshyan
Wish you were my neighbor ...fantastic work Ryan.
The BW looks like a photo to me.
I might be the only one here but I prefer the one without the photograhic filters applied on the colour versions. The previous render had a nice light quality about it, I feel the filter flattens the lighting and reduces the dynamic range (highlight details) of the render quite a bit. B&W is very nice though. :)
I totally agree with Saurav. In my opinion the postwork was a bit over the top. I preferred the previous ones too.
yeah, you lost it a bit over post working this :-)
I "fourth" this :P
The one Saurav referred to was of eerie good quality.
Fair enough! I might take another swing or two at it... there is just something in the saturation and colour tone that bothers me a little bit. Thanks very much for chiming in, it can be very helpful to have a second (third, fourth, fifth...) opinion.
How do you get that pock marked texture?
The new GISD Mick.
It's what I meant recently with the "you'll think twice when adding displacement with the new GISD in TG3" to which you replied understandably that displacement can never hurt (or something along that line) :)
This is another example where the new GISD adds so much detail to your displacements which would otherwise remain completely unnoticed in TG2, causing you to exaggerate the displacement greatly to get a similar effect in TG2, which in turn will lead to very ugly results if you would render that with the new GISD in TG3.
Thanks TU for that explanation. Really looking forward to TG3.
Hi Mick,
The pock mark displacement (and the overall tower displacement shapes) was created with a couple of new noise functions that I'm sure will be announced sometime in the near future. As Martin mentioned, I pushed the GISD settings a little beyond what might be considered natural to highlight the displacements a little more.
Ah I thought that might be the case as I needed something like that for an image I was working on... but I couldn't even get close.
they all look great, but this one:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=16280.0;attach=43954;image
wins it for me, hands down!
:)
Agree with that Jason, looking forward to TG3.