Lithops, the original fake stones; or, as they are known in the horticultural world by their common name 'Living Stones' a genus of succulent plants in the ice plant family, Aizoaceae a Mesembryanthemum species. A sizable variety of these are found in southern Africa. See these links for some images and videos of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithops , http://www.travel-tour-guide.com/Namaqualand_flowers_photos_south_africa_succulents_trip/07_lithops_photos_conophytum_photos_fenestraria.htm , and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d-6sKc23YA .
During the '60s and '70s I collected these plants for awhile and added them to my cactus collection - a fun hobby. While creating this image using dandelO's streamlined stones clip file, I had thoughts that if made small enough, the fake stones might look enough like Lithops that I would titled the image appropriately.
Elements used for the image include: Dune's heather plants and Walli's Dry Grasses including his ND Grasses available at NWDA. Note: Walli, these Lithop plants might make a great model addition to your collection especially if created in clumps for populating. The terrain was created with TG3 and augmented with glen5700's Voronoi fractalized file, Hetzen's flatten low areas file; and, dandelO's 1m cracks file.
In all, I was pleased with the outcome ...enjoy.
Really like the flattened rock parts. The overall is a big too dark for me.....maybe my monitor.
Quote from: Lady of the Lake on October 25, 2013, 02:33:39 PM
Really like the flattened rock parts. The overall is a big too dark for me.....maybe my monitor.
Thank you. This view looking up a steep hill will give the distance a darker tone than the foreground as the angle steepens upward. The sun is at about 45 degrees. Increasing sun angle seems to flatten the overall perspective therefore losing depth.
A lot of credits here but this scenery is yours and it is very nice.
And thanks for the infos about the plants
David
Thank you David; and, you are welcome. As soon as I clean up the file, I'll make the .tgd available in Sharing.
Nice.............. :)
Thanks.
Looks great. Love the plant distribution.
I like your scene...and the additional info about the plants ;)
Thank you both, gregtee and archonforest, Glad you both enjoyed.
I very like this one chororn !!! :)
Thank you Jo.
There's a slight problem with the flat areas, Bob. It's giving some stretched edges. You might consider changing that (mask the rocky areas by a quite strong not too small smallest sized fractal perhaps).
Curious; what's your sun strength set to? After visiting the link you posted along with this image I feel like the whole render is underexposed by at least a full stop.
-greg
Cool rocks. Title makes sense, but I don't really feel like the rocks are Lithops. But It looks good, and Lithops are a clever source of inspiration.
Modeling Lithops has been on my list for a while. If I ever get to em' then maybe I can share a few.
Quote from: Dune on October 26, 2013, 02:48:03 AM
There's a slight problem with the flat areas, Bob. It's giving some stretched edges. You might consider changing that (mask the rocky areas by a quite strong not too small smallest sized fractal perhaps).
Thanks for bringing that up Ulco, that is the one area that bothered me. I'll go back and try what you have suggested.
Quote from: gregtee on October 26, 2013, 10:35:15 AM
Curious; what's your sun strength set to? After visiting the link you posted along with this image I feel like the whole render is underexposed by at least a full stop.
-greg
The sun's strength is at 4.12 (default is 5). Also, camera exposure is at 1. My thoughts were that the contrasts looked better at the lower sun's strength.
With some clever (sinus and such) functions these lithops may be generated procedurally from surface or simple spheres.
Quote from: Dune on October 27, 2013, 04:38:52 AM
With some clever (sinus and such) functions these lithops may be generated procedurally from surface or simple spheres.
You cannot populate a sphere, right?
No, not the internal. Here's a very small (you may have to increase all) external ball with some math inside. Nice to try some combinations and see what happens. Real displacement can't be done, unless without RTO.
Quote from: Dune on October 28, 2013, 03:57:22 AM
No, not the internal. Here's a very small (you may have to increase all) external ball with some math inside. Nice to try some combinations and see what happens. Real displacement can't be done, unless without RTO.
Wow, a nice Monday morning surprise; thank you. I'll get into it soon as I'm starving for a project. Would really like to simulate these little guys.
First results of Sphere population showing preview and render.
Getting closer. Put an image map (spherical) between the Transform input shader and the bubble shader. Still some goofiness.
Thats really getting nowhere. I might model some (but maybe not today), they're not that hard by the look of it. Any preference, Bob? https://www.google.nl/search?q=lithops&client=opera&hs=kHk&channel=suggest&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=ZF5vUpzzFcSN7QbOroGQAQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1890&bih=1102&dpr=1#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=rowATw8pCBuo8M%3A%3BA6RWLIR2valtVM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F3.bp.blogspot.com%252F_G16_ZEc6srM%252FS_t7RobL0GI%252FAAAAAAAABQY%252Fm7PEs0TU4YY%252Fs1600%252Flithops_terricolor_C134_011.JPG%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Foregoncactus.blogspot.com%252F2010%252F05%252Flithops-terricolor-c134.html%3B407%3B323 (https://www.google.nl/search?q=lithops&client=opera&hs=kHk&channel=suggest&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=ZF5vUpzzFcSN7QbOroGQAQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1890&bih=1102&dpr=1#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=rowATw8pCBuo8M%3A%3BA6RWLIR2valtVM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F3.bp.blogspot.com%252F_G16_ZEc6srM%252FS_t7RobL0GI%252FAAAAAAAABQY%252Fm7PEs0TU4YY%252Fs1600%252Flithops_terricolor_C134_011.JPG%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Foregoncactus.blogspot.com%252F2010%252F05%252Flithops-terricolor-c134.html%3B407%3B323)
Oh my gosh, I feel like a kid in a candy store - this is the largest variety of Lithops I have seen. I'm just up from a good night's sleep. Gonna have some coffee now and drool over these varieties - I'll be back.
Thanks Ulco for your help on this and the models. The image of the population here is just a test. The plant deserves more of a close up for the nice detail of its structure and textures. I plan on doing further experimenting with it to create other color varieties of the plant and its flower.
I'll be doing another scene in the future which will be a close up.
Here is a close up of the Lithops plants models.
Cool. 8)
This is a really interesting thread - are the Lithops in the last image models or procedural?
Quote from: mhaze on October 30, 2013, 05:30:18 AM
This is a really interesting thread - are the Lithops in the last image models or procedural?
Most of the engineering here Mick was by Ulco. The idea started out as procedural and evolved to a model.
Can't beat a good model!
Quote from: mhaze on October 30, 2013, 01:17:19 PM
Can't beat a good model!
Agree; when you check out the link that Ulco posted, you will see an almost endless variety of these plants. And, the details in these things are beautiful. Nature is amazing.
awesome thread indeed... lithops rock!
:)
Quote from: inkydigit on October 30, 2013, 02:55:58 PM
awesome thread indeed... lithops rock!
:)
Thanks Jason, I'm working on a scene that's going to take awhile.
This is the a re-work including the suggestions made. I had forgotten to mention some credits here. They include: Dead tree model by dandelO, Hero rocks clip file by FrankB, Dry shrub model by Walli; Dry grasses from a friend; and, the three Lithops models by Dune. Next image coming up will be a close up of the Lithops.
Interesting note: The final render of this image was 7.57 hours. When I looked at my computer clock, it read 7.57 PM. What are the odds of this ever happening again?
Great render, it's all looking good. I realized these lithops are quite small, aren't they? Perhaps you need something to give them scale, like a lost pack of cigarettes, or a rusty can?
Good idea. I've already completed the next project with them but haven't rendered yet. I will try adding something.
Very nice and beautifull and realistic light. Nice work on this new plants in Terragen !
Quote from: Jo Kariboo on November 12, 2013, 12:49:42 AM
Very nice and beautifull and realistic light. Nice work on this new plants in Terragen !
Jo, thank you very much. Keep an eye for my next image which will be a close up of these beautiful plants. I'm close to doing the final render. Dune has done a fine work of modeling on these.