I'm making. Must add farms, larger ships, birds, etc. Water is reflective shader for the time being.
That's nice............ :)
Awesome start dude! :)
Really cool place.
Cool, can I ask how are you getting the square fields. Is this an image map or through nodes?
Amazing! The thumbnail doesn't do it justice :)
It's all mapped. I could make the square fields with simple shapes but a total gray scale tiff works easier.
een polder?
love the sense of scale here Ulco,
your renders always inspire, thanks!
(dank je wel!)
Jason
:)
I can feel another masterpiece coming on. :-)
Excellent !!! :D
Beautiful!
I love the colour variations in the trees too.
I think you nailed color, light and sense of scale - great!
Thanks. It needs work on distribution of trees and sandy bits, etc, but I'm glad you like it. It's an area between 2 polders (left and right), where nature needs to be 'managed'. You can see, with a bit of close scrutiny, that the land in the polder(s) is several meters lower than the surrounding water.
For a WIP it looks already finished and photo like Ulco!
This area view reminds me of our last flood disasters in Germany a bit.. :o
I'm still influenced I guess, pls don't care. Your scene is a good one and looks great in all! :)
Another inspiration. Just absolute fine creativity.
Dune, is there any chance of you sharing the basic scene for this?
I am having a hell of a time making something like this and deconstructing your scene would really help.
Thanks
I can't do that, sorry, but it's not too hard. I made a series of masks (trees, roads, fields, whatever you need) in white on black layers in PS with map as background, copied these to the different RGB channels of a same size RGB TIF. In TG import as image map, set size, projection Y, and output to blue nodes (red to scalar, blue to scalar, green to scalar). Attach these to a fractal or distribution shader for further finesse of veggie distribution, and use these as masks for either objects or colors (roads, fields, grass....). Simple actually.
Especially for roads you need big masks, for vegetation they may be reduced (but set same size again in TG).
Hope this helps a bit. Otherwise, ask.
Ah, see that's the problem I am having is the fields part. Never mind.
Very nice work.
Ulco other then maybe memory usage, is there a reason you prefer to use the color channels instead of 3 different images?
Quote from: Andrew March on October 08, 2013, 03:09:59 PM
Quote from: masonspappy on October 08, 2013, 02:02:31 PM
Simple actually.....
:-\ ???
My thoughts exactly. Nevermind, some share some don't. Nay bother to me.
[/quote]
Nah - Dune has always shared when he can and tries to explain things to us lesser folk. It's just that, if he ever declares that something is difficult and complicated, then I am going to run like hell. ;D
@ Kadri; no, it's less kB's, that's all. And I find it handy to have one file with 3 masks. But it's of no great importance how you get the masks into TG, either 3x grayscale file or one RGB channels file. For certain masks you might now even use 256color files, I think, haven't tried that yet. Or bitmap. The lowest in kB, the best. For some masks!
Thanks, masonspappy. I think indeed, I've shared some stuff on this forum.
I'm sure you have Dune but you might as well be talking goobledygook when it comes to how you created the fields. I have no idea where to start. Hence I asked if you could share a basic scene.
Even if it just had the basic node setup I might be able to figure out how to engineer it for my own purposes. Terragen isn't my main app, I am primarily a Lightwave user. Terragen fills my needs for distance landscapes and skies. Don't worry about it.
Ulco , 2-3 years ago i tried 256 color image files but Terragen used them only as grey scale images.
Not sure if anything changed since then. I made a thread about it but got no answer from Planetside.
After Terragen got 64 bit there was no much need for this as in the old days.
Some guys with with crazy projects could use that method for much much lower ram usage with big and-or many 256 color files.
I think my files were 20 000 x 20 000 pixel or so...
Found the thread: http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,8750.msg94038.html#msg94038
'akkers' means fields in Dutch..., Google translate may help with some other nodes being understood... mais=maize, groen=green, riet=reeds, zand=sand etc etc ;)
yeah Ulco, thanks for sharing the insight into your nodes ... these screen shots are always interesting to see how other people set up their nodes... (http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15845.0;attach=42681;image) :D
:)
cheers
Jason
I'm not a worrying kind of guy, luckily. The basic scene wouldn't show you anything, Andrew, because it's just as I told you; an imported mask. So I painted the fields white on a black background, imported as image map and fed into surface shader as mask. The fields themselves are just 2 colors.
Basically, it's like this:
@ Inky; This is a simple setup (and not cleaned up yet), but some of my setups include lots of internal nodes and 'hidden' connections, so a screenshot wouldn't help anyone. And now that I see it again, there's a lot of Dutch-English clutter indeed. Naming is important though!!
@Kadri; I will try, as I believe something has changed (might be alpha though).
Andrew think of one image as layers like in Lightwave.
One image for the fields, one image for the roads etc.
He used them as masks.The main difference is that he combined 3 different images in the 3 color channels in one image .
You don't have to do that. I prefer them as ordinary different images too for example.
But as you may have read from the posts here you have lower ram usage when you use Ulco's method.
Saw your post now Ulco. Curious if anything changed...
Actually now that i thought a little about it i am not sure about the lower ram usage Ulco...
Using 3 different 256 bit gray scale images as masks should be the same as using them in one color image file ?
Or?
Yes, works; 256 colors and 2colors 4bits/channel.
I'll see how heavy they are, you might be right, so I can loose that method... do 2 color files instead of gray scale....
I'm still lost, I am a lighting FX artist guys, never go near modeller. I understand how layers work and have tweaked models in the past but I rely on existing resources to create shots.
Having screen shots or the clip file for the fields setup might help me but beyond that I scuppered.
You know Photoshop? That works in layers. I use those to paint my masks. Otherwise I don't know how you could do that easily. Yes, GIMP maybe.
Here's just a mask. Import in image map shader, set size and project on Y and see what that does...
Quote from: Dune on October 09, 2013, 10:03:03 AM
Yes, works; 256 colors and 2colors 4bits/channel.
I'll see how heavy they are, you might be right, so I can loose that method... do 2 color files instead of gray scale....
Thanks Ulco. Nice that it works now.
Quote from: Dune on October 09, 2013, 01:56:11 PM
You know Photoshop? That works in layers. I use those to paint my masks. Otherwise I don't know how you could do that easily. Yes, GIMP maybe.
Here's just a mask. Import in image map shader, set size and project on Y and see what that does...
I get that but where do I put the mask?
In what channel and what type of shader? What position, etc? I know it sounds daft but just dropping it in anywhere isn't going to have any effect whatsoever. This is the sort of tutorial that would make using Terragen so much less of a daunting task.
Andrew, did you look at this post? (Same thread as this).
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,17025.msg165650.html#msg165650
Dune has labelled the nodes pretty clearly.
Yep but again I'm not understanding the bigger picture of where these nodes plugin to. call me dense but how do you get the variations in colour from a greyscale image. I just don't get it. I'm sure this is nodes 101 for anyone with experience in Terragen but surfacing and displacement in Lightwave are a completely different kettle of fish and perhaps that is where my head is stuck.
My issue is not knowing what node does what in a setup like this. Don't worry, I'm obviously too dense to get my head around it.
Got it, my god....Thanks for the help everyone :)
Right, final piece of the puzzle is now getting the trees where I want them.
Just wanted to add that if you create your masks from images made up of google earth screencaps you can get some seriously stunning results.
I am however having issues with populations. Sure I will get there in time.
Just ask.
Fantastic work Ulco - as always!