Planetside Software Forums

General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: zaxxon on October 29, 2014, 09:32:00 PM

Title: Big Oak Flat
Post by: zaxxon on October 29, 2014, 09:32:00 PM
All flora modeled in Speedtree. The sky is a reverse-engineered-reduced file from Frank B's cloud pack at NWDA (a must have resource!). These are Live Oaks (or at least my take) and this scene is very reminiscent of many parts of Northern California. Comments and Critiques always welcome.
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: bobbystahr on October 29, 2014, 09:42:22 PM
Lovely...beautiful ground covering veg work...trés natural...well done..love the Oak Trees as well; refresh my memory...these are speed tree?
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: Dune on October 30, 2014, 04:09:00 AM
Well, there's hardly anything to critisize here, Doug, a really very well done render, and superb trees. Simple, but therefore quiet and peaceful composition. Something for me to keep in my favorites folder as very inspirational. Thanks for showing this.
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: Tangled-Universe on October 30, 2014, 05:40:45 AM
Excellent render once again :)

The road and groundcover small vegetation is very realistic!

The trees stand out a bit too much if it were to my taste for two reasons: leaves look harsh/sharp and too green.
Maybe slightly desaturate the textures?
You can do that in TG by tweaking the diffuse colour setting of the parts shader for the leaf texture.
Usually the colour is 128 for RGB and then I reduce G and B by 24-32 or so. This should make the leaf browner.

For the sharpness hardness I need to think. It's interesting, because all the other vegetation looks damn excellent.
Perhaps it's something technical about the model?
I'm afraid I can't give you any suggestions here right now.

Looking forward to see your next one!

Martin
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: alessandro on October 30, 2014, 05:52:18 AM
Great image, i like the POV so close to terrain, and the way you disposed the items.
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: mhaze on October 30, 2014, 06:50:27 AM
Excellent. The trees and vegetation are very well done and there is a lovely peaceful mood.
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: DannyG on October 30, 2014, 08:24:21 AM
Foliage is really well done. Nice realism in general
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: Oshyan on October 30, 2014, 03:20:28 PM
Fantastic! As a long-time resident of Northern California this is indeed highly reminiscent of many places I've been in this area. Very well done in that regard. It's quite a "naturalistic" portrayal. I do agree with Martin that the leaves of the oak maybe *slightly* too saturated, they often have a more "dusty", slightly grayer quality in my experience. I don't personally think they look too "sharp", and I think a slight saturation adjustment on the leaves would probably take care of making them look more "settled" and integrated into the scene. That's really my only criticism, otherwise it's superb.

By the way, I love that you've been very restrained with the clouds. They contribute to the scene and help establish realism, yet are hardly noticeable in an overt way. When I look at an average photo of such a scene, I am not usually struck by the clouds (at least on an average, sunny day like this), so your approach is very realistic. It's a snapshot I might take if a friend and I were taking a hike, perhaps with them in it, though I am not suggesting you add a human figure. ;)

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: Marty on October 30, 2014, 03:41:53 PM
Awesome! :D
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: Mahnmut on October 30, 2014, 04:28:01 PM
I love it!
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: choronr on October 30, 2014, 07:11:37 PM
Pure perfection! I see your work and I get inspirations. Extra fine work Doug.
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: DocCharly65 on October 30, 2014, 10:45:34 PM
Absolutely peaceful, realistic and inspiring! Can't stop watching it...
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: zaxxon on October 30, 2014, 11:58:27 PM
Thanks Folks! Truly!  TU and Oshyan, yeah I agree. Saw that in the higher res render tests, sloppy on my part not to fix that before posting ::). With the lure of so many personal projects in mind I was a bit anxious to free up the machine. I'll tweak with it a bit more. I think that when you're dealing with your own well known environment that  there's always a little bit more knowledge, from a synergistic interaction, that comes into play. This is certainly a fun theme for me.
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: otakar on October 31, 2014, 02:01:09 AM
Really nice scene. The ground in particular looks perfect to me. I guess you could do more with the trees, add some color variation especially, but that is almost nitpicking :)
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: Saurav on October 31, 2014, 08:30:08 PM
Beautiful render again, the ground vegetations, surfaces and the colour tones as per the prior render are excellent. I like how you add in decaying models as well as lush vegetation models, mimics nature very well.   :D
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: zaxxon on October 31, 2014, 09:57:23 PM
Thank you so very much Saurav. I really appreciate your feedback and kind words. It was some marvellous pieces of  your work that had captivated me for so long, and eventually were  big factors in my decision to leave Vue and concentrate on Terragen. Thank you.
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: TheBadger on November 01, 2014, 04:45:40 AM
Dang thats nice! Love the oaks.
Oaks are really interesting I think. Where I live oaks do not look like in your image. But your image looks just like what I have seen of out west. The english oak also looks very different from where I live. Pretty awesome tree, thats all.

Great render
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: Hannes on November 02, 2014, 06:00:12 AM
Incredibly natural! Agree with the others about some minor things like the leaves' saturation. Otherwise no crits. There's a great sense of depth and I really love these oaks. Where are they from? In Germany we have this kind of oaks as well, so this image reminds me of some German places as well. Maybe a bit less dry...
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: archonforest on November 02, 2014, 02:36:37 PM
Very nice one. Oaks are very nice. Looking oak models since a while without luck...
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: zaxxon on November 03, 2014, 10:36:09 AM
Here's a new render with some more appropriate leaf shading for the Oaks, I also modified the shading in the large green shrubs to fit better with the Oaks. I think these changes better serve the image, thanks for the feedback folks!

Hannes and Archonforest: The Oaks are my work out of Speedtree. If anyone here has ST then I certainly could post a video on how to construct them and provide some textures. The ST base model library serves as 'seeds' if you will  ;). From those it is relatively simple to tweak and vary using ST's tools to create an endless variety of that species. Still a little surprised that we don't see more ST and The Plant Factory work here. Per my reading of the ST Eula there is no problem if original work is shared as 'work-product' between individuals within a common company, provided each individual owns a 'seat' (individual license). So were we as TG users to form a company, we could share assets and ST files (SPM - Speedtree Procedural Model) with each other. Any interest?

TheBadger: I love Oak trees: all sorts and sizes; where I live we are surrounded by thousands of Black Oaks - several hundred just on our property , and nearby is one of the last large preserves of an ancient Oak forest (it's being threatened - of course).
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: Tangled-Universe on November 03, 2014, 10:41:34 AM
Absolutely great work!
The adjustments to the leaf texture of the Oak is exactly how I had in mind :)
The other adjustments work well too, it's all blending nicely togeter.

I guess you'll be heading on to the Iceland Challenge now? ;)

Cheers,
Martin
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: zaxxon on November 03, 2014, 10:59:22 AM
Thanks TU! Right-on, off to Iceland!
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: Hetzen on November 03, 2014, 11:10:54 AM
I have to agree with others, beautifully subtle.
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: choronr on November 03, 2014, 11:53:30 AM
Outstanding improvements you have made here!
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: bobbystahr on November 03, 2014, 11:57:32 AM
Before the tweaks I'd have said hard to improve but wow now...photo real.....
Title: Re: Big Oak Flat
Post by: Oshyan on November 03, 2014, 02:11:31 PM
Boom, done. Awesome.

- Oshyan