I was talking to Bob about waterfalls, and thought it would be possible to use the cloud as a 'particle system', so I made some masks (one white triangle image map in PS, projected by camera, one simple shape), a small particle, but dense cloud, and a waterfall. With some more thought this can work quite well, I suppose.
The other one is another cave test.
Very good tests indeed.
On 1st i would put foam to make a transition betwenn waterfall and quiet river
On 2nd Smoke column can't be straight up if the train is moving.
Cave is really nice
The first one was just a first rude test, I'm working on it right now to get it better. Indeed, making foam on lower end.
I know how to bend the smoke, and I might/should have done that, but let's say the loc is standing still here ;)
I had a look at Cave Bridge tgd file that Mike shared with us and
it seems that to connect the 2 renders is difficult (i mean for colour shaders).
I think a single colour could be betterfor a cave, (simulating rock and darkness).
Maybe someone found a way to connect them properly
I don't quite get what you mean, connecting 2 renders? I used a combination of reddish rock and algae gree, and patches of wetness (refl) in my soils.
In mike tgd he uses 2 SSS and they connect in the middle of the canyon.
But if you apply a colour shader, it appears that it is not continuous, you see like a cut line.
But maybe you use a different technic for your cave.
I haven't looked at his file, but I guess if you put the colors last, it needn't have a cut line. I used a VDisp map to get this cave, in fact the same as an earlier big cave, but now reduced to 15m across or so.
If you add further displacements to my file the line will disappear.
Nice work Dune, playing with waterfalls myself at the moment planning to add clouds in a similar way but haven't got to it yet.
Thanks for the info Mick, i'll try that
Dune
How would you go about bending a column of cloud?
Mick
Using a distribution shader (not final position!), a vector displacement and a warp shader. I've just bent my splatter that way.
A triangle of the water plane hasn't rendered, hmm.
very nice but dangerous place to stay for the reindeer ;)
Cheers Dune I'll work on that. Nice rocks btw!
How would any of you go about making cloud quite dark in shadow and light where sun hits? I can't get the cloud dark in my shadows, though I'm still working on it.
Looks damn good there Ulco
Got the cloud working now. Now some more details...
Now that is almost perfect - definitely the best I've seen in TG
Very, very interesting. This would be a wonderful subtool to include in a future TG release, provided Dune would be so gracious. Superb.
Wow, this is great! I'd like to see a little more water off to the sides towards the bottom as it impacts the pool, but this definitely another step towards realism. Still don't understand how you can work on multiple complex projects at the same time, Ulco. I can't even stick to completing one in a reasonable amount of time :)
A Terragen Renaissance man at work. The last waterfall image is exceptionally realistic ...can't wait now for those details. Your masking technique; is that a white triangle with many small and numerous black dots?
The waterfall looks great Ulco!
Thanks for your positive feedback, guys. I'm quite pleased how this works out, but it can be better (as always). Basically, it's simple (as always); the falling foam is a localized cloud (dense), a max height (distribution shader) as final cloud input, the main cloud is stretched in Y (4), some very hard fractal, and warped by a distribution shader (through a vector displacement shader of course), where Z is bent 20m from the distribution lower end of 0 (base of fall) with fuzzy zone of 30m, so a gradient is there going up towards white. This bends the cloud to the fall.
I dropped the image map (white triangle), projected by camera, as this is easier.
The cloud fractal is also masked by 2 simple shapes; an oval at the bottom of the fall, slightly wider than the fall multiplied by a longer rectangle about the width of the fall, to harden the sides, but not the soft ends above the stream. Very workable.
Oh, and the fall cliff is redirected with a soft distribution shader as well, to get more vertical. The area around the fall area is negatively masked by a soft simple shape, like the default scene. The stream itself is displaced down (normal) from the basic soft terrain through a simple shape (again), to a gully. The same simple shape acts as negative mask for further rocky displacements. With some color adjust shaders in between nodes you can shape the masks however you like (within limits). The basic soft terrain is also fed into a plane (through a default shader to act as opacity mask), so an extra surface is present in the gully (the waterfall and stream). You can build that up with waves, water and foam.
The only problem I encountered here is GISD on the edge between fall plane and planet.
it's getting better and better
This is freaking brilliant and I am intrigued by the write up....but will only truly understand this when I can see the whole thing on my monitor....here's me hoping for a .tgd to study.....
That would be too easy ;D ;D ;D I'll let you guys work on it a little. If you can't work it out, post (the tgd) and I'll have a look. Keep it simple from the start; first thing is making a ledge from which the fall falls... make surrounding terrain masked by soft circle SSS around that, use that terrain for input in a plane at Y=0, no compute terrain needed. Then make the river (either warped or straight), and displace a gully (SSS) down. Now the plane will stand out in the gully. You can play with extra displacement up or down. The rest I described earlier.
Go for it ;)
Thanks Ulco for the steps you describe. I'll be trying another with maybe a closer view.
Quote from: Dune on January 17, 2014, 09:36:10 AM
How would any of you go about making cloud quite dark in shadow and light where sun hits? I can't get the cloud dark in my shadows, though I'm still working on it.
"Receive shadows from surfaces" in the cloud layer.
Matt
That one slipped my mind, thanks Matt. I was only thinking in the lighting tab settings. I have made the color very dark now (0.04) and the light propagation at 0, and same with enviro light and enviro light tint.
That's incredible, Ulco!
I have to say that I don't really understand your description yet on how you did that, but that's not your fault ;)
The cloud seems to be a bit too violet (at least on my monitor). Is this maybe intended to show where the cloud actually is?
Quote from: Hannes on January 20, 2014, 04:51:54 AM
That's incredible, Ulco!
I have to say that I don't really understand your description yet on how you did that, but that's not your fault ;)
The cloud seems to be a bit too violet (at least on my monitor). Is this maybe intended to show where the cloud actually is?
Glad to see I'm not the only one who has problems with written descriptions, heh heh heh....
Quote from: Dune on January 20, 2014, 02:57:01 AM
That one slipped my mind, thanks Matt. I was only thinking in the lighting tab settings. I have made the color very dark now (0.04) and the light propagation at 0, and same with enviro light and enviro light tint.
I hope you'll try it anyway, and reset the enviro light/tint settings. As it is now, your cloud appears slightly too magenta for the shadows, and it doesn't have the appearance of catching sunlight at the top and falling into shadow.
Matt
I will have another go at it. Regarding the magenta; I changed the color of the cloud to slightly bluish.
Guys, read carefully, and you'll find out. Basically a planet for normal terrain, with a gully (SSS mask displaced down), and a plane with the same displacement as the terrain, but without the gully displaced. Well, here's a very quick base as a starter...
Thanks very much Ulco, this should open my feeble brain a bit wider; and hopefully, I'll get the waterfall show on the road.
One more, with shadows in atmo enabled.
Nice definition in the water at the top and the transition towards the lower part. Maybe a bit more mist at the base.
The new lighting is more believable, but I think I prefer the old shape. I'd probably make the "falling" cloud layers less dense. I liked the wispiness apparent in the first couple of images.
Matt
I agree.
The part I like best here is the part of the falls coming into play after the curve of the fall. I like all the difference there. THe variation in levels and color and shapes of the motion lines. Just that alone is highly interesting to me.
I agree with the previous comments. top of the fall is really realistic with a lot of details. Down seems too misty
The top is the easy part, as that is just a bent plane in a gully with some PF's (not even a water shader, and I believe I even forgot RT reflection in the latter, it looks a bit dull). It is quite hard to get the vertical cloud to extactly weld to the falling water and make a believable transition where the water gets loose and foamy. If it's too thin at the bottom, you'll see the 'bent plane' behind it, which compromises believability. Not from right in front maybe, but from the side it will. I might have another go at this setup. Maybe loose part of the bent plane behind the foam...
I made a different setup. Now without an additional plane or lake object for the water. It's just all terrain, masked by SSS's (for river and valley edges) and then colored/displaced. Not pleased with the sandy low part though...
First one looks better for me.
Not sure if waterfall can have so much reflectivity.
In the second, river is too white and regular, losing water aspect.
David
http://www.sharewonders.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/frozen-falls.jpg
Looking good - combine with the clouds and you've cracked it!
Reflectivity can be adjusted, so can white in river (luckily). But the nice thing about this is that there's no water shader involved, nor a lake. Just an RT reflective shader.
I added a SSS for a lake (same RT reflective shader used), but with colors taken from first surface shader and decreased saturation. Not perfect yet. Cloud is also a bit grainy.
I thought of the frozen falls as well.
These four images certainly fire up my enthusiasm. Regarding the sandy low area, maybe consider the sand ripples (remember those) where the base (sand) is relatively smooth. This would make a nice contrast to the rough vertical terrain.
Ice falls endeavour.
You can almost feel the cold. Like the looks of this. Coupled with some snow would eve look better.
Yeah, needs snow. Hard to understand it without prior knowledge, so snow would help. Looks interesting anyway though.
I had a version with snow, but I went for the contrast here. Might do another one...
Did something else. Got the idea of making a valley to accomodate a river, which works. Just a SSS again, warped, displace a kinda V-shaped gully down, then add a river with the same warp, etc. Terrain is a bit rough though, but it was the principle to be tested.
Looking good; and, it runs the distance all the way to the horizon. Like the erosion you've attained as well.
First render with the next public release, due soon. New displacable and populatable object (cube) simply used as bridge. Works like a charm.
The river ideas look great, very useful. It would be even better if you could change the texture with the slope i.e. flatter areas less foam. Looking forward to the next release - all we need now is metablobs and terrain modelling will be a piece of cake - or a walk in the park!
The displacable cube and sphere can be used as metablobs, and you can virtually make anything, I'm sure. Like a complete tunnel, strange balancing rocks on top of eachother....
It's quite a fast river, but I had the foam slope restricted to -5 fuzzy 30, a bit too low perhaps.
This looks great Ulco. :)
Superb idea !
Those browns are just gorgeous!
More to learn; that's a good thing - looking forward to it!