Dutch for a simple fortified wooden or stone building on a hill, usually inside a circular canal and some defense stuff around it. This a very premature WIP. Lots of stuff will be added and changed.
it is the same in English too... (Motte & Bailey)
the beginnings of another intriguing scene Ulco!
:)
Yes, that's right, now that you mention it.
Here's a slight update (a freshly built model as the client wishes it to be). Now for the greens.....
So jealous of your modeling abilities (in addition to already being such an expert in all things Terragen) and your composition skills. Thanks for sharing all these projects with us! They always provide so much inspiration.
Thanks. Then here's something to drool over again ;D Not finished yet though....
Show off....................... :)
man whatever u touch that turns to gold... :)
Drooling all over myself. Terragen is your kaleidoscope ...this is outstanding.
The cloud lifted 10m so you get a tad more light on the building, added a area of fields, more shrub and distant trees across the river. I think I need another tree type (beech) in the woods.... and angle the shrub on the hill a bit, and edit some shrub near the bridge out.... etc.
You've transformed this very nicely.
Yeah this is pretty awesome Ulco, nice job
Awesome.
from test-4 to test-5, contrast is so improved. give a nice deepness
I added some big old beech trees, but I'm not satisfied by how they turned out.
Maybe just make them a bit farther apart?
I made some new ones, with more subtle leaf 'planes'. But it's getting very wooded, and I don't know if that's what is asked of me. Have to check first. There's supposed to be some distant villages with fields, but from this POV they won't be very noticable. A little smoke might be enough. With just these fat medieval (1300 AD) woods it's a bit boring, I'd love to add some fields up close.....
All that is here is made beautifully by the light and shadows.
First one is my fave here. Not sure why. I just like it.
That bald first test? You're kidding? Did I do all that work for the monkey's...
Sure he is kidding. From step to step, it is improvement.
Ok here's my penny worth for what it's worth.
I would have thought that the area close to the fort would have been considerably more cleared. As it stands there's plenty of cover to get close enough to set the place on fire. So maybe some tree stumps and wood piles. After all where did they get the wood from to build the fort in the first place? You know your local archeology/history of course so I bow to that. :)
Also it is very green, almost luminous. I'm not saying it is wrong, it just looks wrong if you understand my meaning. I'm often surprised how vibrant the colours are in Somerset (where I live) in the spring and summer and often they do seem unbelievable.
Looking forward to the next iteration.
Richard
Not saying anything bad about the variations and development.
Just something about the first one connects with me. Sometimes some renders just hit me harder when they are bare and raw, other times not.
There is a lot to be said for the energy and power of a first draft of something that can get lost as its refined and "cleaned", so to speak. Not here maybe, just sometimes.
Perhaps that the POF is a look-out tower from a period in human history of intense and unending violence, just fits better in a desolate land scape?
Lets play word association.... You say Roman. The first words that come to my mind are death, blood, pain... See?
But someone else may say, development, architecture, renaissances. But if you say renaissances, then I again think of death, blood, pain, and also nude. ;)
Anyway, the last image is very good too. I just liked the first one for some reason. I will make an appointment with a shrink when Obama care becomes aforadable ;D
@ Michael; you're right, and I agree with your word game, but it depends on your mindset of course. No need for a shrink, a little happy deviation is all the better. Strangely, I like desolate landscapes as well, as well as dilapidated, broken buildings, ruins, dirt and smears of unidentifiable stuff on walls, smoke, you know. Luckily we do have a good health system ::)
@ Richard; You're also right, I was a bit carried away with the trees, but already realized it would be too much. Same with my earlier Limes image, these guys would have chopped every tree, not merely for firewood and building, but also for views at the enemy.
I heard from 'the boss' that I located the motte totally wrong. There you go. People who commission stuff and don't give accurate maps or descriptions of what they want, end up with the artists artistic freedom. But it's all changed again, hopefully for the good. Michael; here's your barren terrain again!
This one looks great Ulco.
You know, I saw this at lunch time today on my phone, which has a more advanced screen then my desktop. I have a great monitor, but its from 2009. I really noticed the difference in color/tone and light from your image relative to my desktop.
Now I really want to buy a new monitor... Which I can't right now. So thanks for that Ulco! >:(
Also, it makes me wonder what comments I would make if I was looking at all the images in this forum on a newer screen. On the other hand, I have long noticed that scaling down even high quality and large renders makes a big difference, Like rendering 2x film, and then scaling down to film rez in post. So viewing a render on a phones small screen might be similar?
Sorry, off topic, I know.
Now that is looking good. Sometimes a more barren area combined with dense trees in the distance makes for greater depth.
Quote from: choronr on November 09, 2013, 10:06:45 PM
Now that is looking good. Sometimes a more barren area combined with dense trees in the distance makes for greater depth.
Yep.
They all look good but i like the last ones more Ulco.
Thanks guys. You know I'm never really satisfied with the photographic quality of my renders. I wonder how I could get more out of that. Maybe more AA (now standard 6, but I'll experiment again with those special settings that came by a while ago), or take more care in making the ground surface. It's hard to make believable heathland without objects. Maybe more GI? I'm putting so much time in getting together a landscape that renders are often done just at detail 0.65 and AA6 and soft shadows. And again, that's easier if you're high up, but this a hard distance. Or it's just me.
A good screen is paramount and gives so much more pleasure working, go for it!
That ramp seems awfully steep. How'd they ever climb up, especially with a load? Or are there supposed to be some wooden steps?
All is very good but I very like the last one !!!
That ramp is supposed to be steep, it's a 'staircase' of wood poles, and needed to get in in emergencies, but not for the enemy. And not for hauling up stuff. It's really a last defense tower. Although I'd fear for the worst if the enemy came with torches :-[ That's probably why they later made them of stone, and even later made larger castles of them, with ring walls, housing, entrance porches, etc.
^^And later still, made a treaty. ;) ;D
A study of history and details makes it right.
Update, but not right yet.
I like this one a lot, not only for the cloud shadows cast over the terrain; but also for the great details in the foreground. The ground surface is very good.
The tower makes a lot more sense to me in this context. Do a whole village Ulco!
I love your illustrative style, your very consistent. And I don't believe everything always has to be photo real. This has the look of a very high quality animated film. Once you learn to rig you can learn to animate. Then you can make little movies of these places you build. Would like to these places come alive.
Agree with Bob and Badger. Nicely done!
- Oshyan
But I want it photo real! This is of course not the highest quality render settings. By the way, the pallisade on the right is just a line of long stone objects, following a thin line. Works quite well, but probably won't hold up from up close.
Oh yeah, the latest one is freakishly awesome! The transition from grass to brown (dry?) ground is perhaps a bit too abrupt. Missing a bit of ground cover in that expanse, but I am sure you have a reason :)
Render settings are rarely the source of "photo quality" results. Much more I find it's to do with surface colors, scene detail (number of objects/populations and detail of them, for example), lighting, and atmosphere.
- Oshyan
So I'll have to experiment more with lighting etc. I was also just thinking that I needed to have the ground displacement depend on the colors as well, not merely a random bunch of nice colors and separate dispacements. The 'dry ground' is supposed to be heathland, interspersed with grasses in several varieties and states of being. It's too far from the camera and extensive to work with some millions of heath and grass objects, I suppose, so I need it procedural. Challenge.
The green grassy areas are supposed to be quite devoid of shrub, as the cows are eating it all away, but I've already made a map to get more gradients in it. It's a marshy area bordering the slightly dryer heathland. It's too hard surfaced, like the ditch around the farm.
Update again. Now the displacement at the front is too much.
Agree about the foreground displacement; but, the image as a whole is superb, especially what you've done with the dry areas blending into the green.
Yes, one of the greatest challenges for me is the transition from model based to procedural for small object populations (grass or small shrub sized) for scenes like this. Just getting the colors right is really tough. I think you are absolutely right on the displacement needing to be associated with the colors/textures to boost realism. What I would also suggest is that there is seldom an area of large trees and low grass only (even in pastures). There are plants that livestock will not eat, there are dead trees, thorny shrubs, rocks, etc. Maybe man-made features, like fences, walls, ditches. Animals create their own paths which are discernible from above. Just lots of variety in general. The higher the resolution the more of these 'small' things are needed for realism's sake.
That village is looking really nice I must say. Good stuff!
Thanks guys. Maybe some warped voronoi will give me the lines (paths) and uneaten areas... experiment...
Man I truly enjoy your ART and how it develops. Another great stuff ;)
Not possible to publish here in full, but I can do this. Final, reduced from 5x3k (and horrified).
Very nicely done Ulco. :)
Spectacular image.
Nice image,there's just one thing the trees on the lower right corner.
Especially the light green ones look really strange somehow.
That's probably the mesh I used in the trees. Since then I've made better trees. I wasn't altogether extremely happy with those trees, fine for distance, but up close you really need very good quality, and thus high poly. A bit green also, but the client was very happy with this.
Quote from: Dune on December 03, 2013, 10:29:29 AM
....... A bit green also, but the client was very happy with this.
As for contract work that's what counts.
A tremendous panorama, definitely the work of a Terragen Master. It's been entertaining and educational to watch this develop, thanks for sharing the process.
Fantastic as usual............... :) Be sure to post the finished scene when you can.
It's ok. :)
No really, once again a joy to marvel at. How you achieve that sharpness (without oversharpening anything) is just beyond me. The details look right, which is simply amazing. Often renders that seem just fine reveal many flaws when rendered at the target level of detail and resolution. Not here of course. My only question would be that winding road. Why not more straight since it's on level ground?
It must be a joy to be able to work with Terragen and have a brain that delivers one's moves as if by second nature. This has come out beautifully. The client must be very pleased.
Thanks guys (and Yossam; this is the final, only 1/4 size). That is often my main challenge; getting the details in foreground and background to be good when rendered big (like this one at an original 5x3k). Faking vegetation is hardest, it's not as 'hard' and solid as rock, e.g., and I can't put heather pops all over. This was already using 8GB to render.
Regarding the winding track; you're right, it is quite winding. On the other hand, this is supposed to be dry and wet heathland, so they might have chosen the dryest areas to lay out the track, circumventing wet patches. In fact, in those days the track would change every so often, wagons riding different tracks, finding their way across the moor. You can find those old tracks on aerial photo's. Like here (1km from where I live): https://maps.google.nl/?ll=52.790034,6.384301&spn=0.00656,0.016512&t=h&z=17&iwloc=3011559733237870689 (https://maps.google.nl/?ll=52.790034,6.384301&spn=0.00656,0.016512&t=h&z=17&iwloc=3011559733237870689)
And with distance, it's aggegerated of course.
Love all these scenes Ulco and the progression and variations....Beautiful composition !
Paul