So it took me a while to figure out masks (I know... utter noob) but that's cool. I'm finally starting to get the hang of this although admittedly most of the scene at this point is from trial and error (happy accidents if you will) along with many hours of reading forums and reviewing tutorials.
This is by no means a finished scene...
Things I know I need to clean up:
1) Background mountain as it really doesn't play a role in this scene ( I guess I could just add more trees in that portion of the mask to block the land from view)
2) Too many small stones on the path
3) Need more texture on the path itself
My goal with this is to eventually put some godrays crossing the path. I am also contemplating putting an old fence along the leftmost portion of the path but a lot of that depends on my modeling abilities.. :)
I did a little bit of post render with GIMP to adjust contrast and brightness.
Comments and suggestions always welcome, that is how I learn.
This is rather good. You got the balance really natural. And the feel of it it reads as pretty much real in terms o what is here and how it it is arranged, thats 80% of it right there.
The back ground is fine, you just need to dress it through trial and error. Just make sure to not add too much, whatever too much is.
I agree there are too many stones,but anyway the size should also be varied and the color should be dirty like the ground, more scatter too.
More texture/detail never hurts as long as it is natural looking.
I would also add patchy-ness to the grasses, and variation to the underbrush. Maybe just a few very young trees mixed in. And depending on the season and location you are thinking of, perhaps a wild flower here and there?
Quote from: TheBadger on July 11, 2015, 10:05:19 PM
This is rather good. You got the balance really natural. And the feel of it it reads as pretty much real in terms o what is here and how it it is arranged, thats 80% of it right there.
The back ground is fine, you just need to dress it through trial and error. Just make sure to not add too much, whatever too much is.
I agree there are too many stones,but anyway the size should also be varied and the color should be dirty like the ground, more scatter too.
More texture/detail never hurts as long as it is natural looking.
I would also add patchy-ness to the grasses, and variation to the underbrush. Maybe just a few very young trees mixed in. And depending on the season and location you are thinking of, perhaps a wild flower here and there?
Thank you and you are right, there is a fine line between detail and clutter (too much stuff). I really didn't want the stones to appear like that, I just wanted them randomly throughout the path at varying sizes and colors (as you pointed out) but need to work on that. I thought I had sufficiently varied the grasses but clearly they are too similar in their variation.. hahahaha.
I hadn't really gone all the way through the scene in my head yet so I don't know what season it is yet. I will figure that out as the scene develops. Sometimes I like to let the scene be in charge.
Very nice already, indeed. I don't mind the hill in the back, just leave as is. You are right about the other points. Depending on how you made the path (Simple shape?), you can add some tracks, or just random holes and ridges with a power fractal. Then you could either use less stones, and more varied in size, but with a more pathlike texture on the path (greyish, sandy), or throw in a lot of stones and make it a complete gravel path. Perhaps with some larger stones near the edges. Add some power fractals (no displacement) across the stones for more diversity in color, but keep the colors subdued. If you add a power fractal after the stones with a subtle displacement (but no color) you can vary stone size too, but play it carefully.
For real godrays you have to check shadows by surface in the cloud node, but it renders slower.
At first sight, I thougt, the stones were down fallen leaves.
Very great mood.
Some random holes as Dune said could improve very much.
Dune, the path was created by using a mask I generated in GIMP, see attached. This may not be the most efficient or effective way to use masks in TG but it works for my limited knowledge base. I will add some "texture" to the path. I could probably splatter some light gray onto the black parts of the trail mask to allow some patches of grass to show through as well. I will definitely work on changing the colors of the stones.
I am now seeing the problem with using masks as I am using them. I tried throwing a lot of stones and making it a gravel path but unfortunately the SW doesn't know that I am limiting the stones to just the black part of the mask (I inverted the mask for the small stones) so it puts them EVERYWHERE else on the scene that is not the white part of the mask, as well. Maybe I just need another image map that is larger than the current image map to tell the SW to NOT put them there.
As for the God rays, I will try that again. I "checked" that box during one iteration of this scene which took 3 hours to render. Yeah, I am using a dual core @2.16 Ghz machine to do this work ... sigh :-[
I am still learning about the effects of shader placement within the node list so I am sure I have things out of order or "connected" improperly.
DocCharly65,
Very interesting thought, leaves. Maybe I will do a fall variation of this scene and make those leaves. Thanks for the good words!
You can use color adjust shaders and merge shaders to construct all sorts of submaps from this map. Making whiter and subtracting from inverted, things like that. You can also start with a more blurred map, so only the center is really black and adjust the coverage of black and white in TG with a color adjust shader. I would invert the map to start with! White lines on black.
Quote from: Dune on July 12, 2015, 08:48:03 AM
You can use color adjust shaders and merge shaders to construct all sorts of submaps from this map. Making whiter and subtracting from inverted, things like that. You can also start with a more blurred map, so only the center is really black and adjust the coverage of black and white in TG with a color adjust shader. I would invert the map to start with! White lines on black.
Thanks, I will try the shaders and see what I come up with. It is very hard to see but there is a very, very light gray border around the black to blend the two together so it is not a stark contrast which allows the tapering along the edges of the path. I will certainly invert it as well as you suggested to see the results.
Edit: I inverted the mask and that is EXACTLY what I wanted to happen. Now the grass spans the extra terrain outside of the mask and the path is simply the dirt/stones. Thank you!!!!
Been in somewhat of a holding pattern lately as I try different things that I absolutely hate and since it takes over an hour to render even simple scenes I am not making much progress. So I thought I would work on a fence to see if I would like it in my scene. I have not put it in the scene but here's my first cut...
The edges are too straight so I will have to fix them so they look a bit more worn with age. Other than that, the fence is NOT going to be that prominent in the scene so I could probably get away with using it as is.. we'll see.
Tweaking the textures as well..
Still tinkering with some things. Due to long render times with atmospherics turned on, I am still messing with the terrain, vegetation, and path.. basically everything else..
The second image has atmospherics on. I am getting happier with it and am learning a lot. This second image was almost 11 hours to render on my machine :-(
Looks great! Rendertimes are higher, but I think it's worth the waiting. Looks even better with a little bit of mist.
The second image is lovely!
Quote from: Hannes on July 19, 2015, 10:41:11 AM
Looks great! Rendertimes are higher, but I think it's worth the waiting. Looks even better with a little bit of mist.
Thanks Hannes, if nothing else this has taught me patience when it comes to rendering. Typically I will start a render before I go to work and then by the time I get home it's done... I don't like it and then make some changes and start another render the following morning. One heck of a workflow! hahaha.
Quote from: DocCharly65 on July 19, 2015, 12:43:37 PM
The second image is lovely!
Thank you!! It's only partially where I am looking for it to be and that's okay. I am in no rush.
last one has a great feel to it.
Thanks Badger, I appreciate it. I'm learning and we all have to start somewhere. The only downside is this ridiculously slow render time on things really tests my patience. Maybe I've been a good boy this year and I'll find a new system under my tree for the holidays!!!!
I like this image. Can you tell us what were your render settings ?
It's best to test the terrain, texturing and object distribution first until that's all fine, then increase samples, detail and enable the atmosferic extras (such as mist and shadows off objects) and soft shadows and so on, do some small test renders with these settings on important and potentially troublesome areas, then go for the final big one.
Thank goodness for happy mistakes. I screwed my file up without a sufficient backup and had to effectively start over. I must say that I am happy as heck with the new results..
There are some tweaks to be made but I dig this one better than the last.
Edit: Tweaked with the lighting by adding a no-shadow fill light to show more of the trees. It somewhat takes away from the "dark" but it adds realism as well. You can compare it to the earlier version. I will likely tone down the fill light to a happy medium between the two versions. Oh I also removed all the vegetation other than trees for a faster render time. They'll be back though..
Quote from: Dune on July 20, 2015, 01:58:54 AM
It's best to test the terrain, texturing and object distribution first until that's all fine, then increase samples, detail and enable the atmosferic extras (such as mist and shadows off objects) and soft shadows and so on, do some small test renders with these settings on important and potentially troublesome areas, then go for the final big one.
Dune,
Great advice. In fact, I had been doing that at the outset then got impatient with my progress. I am back to doing that though.
Quote from: Antoine on July 20, 2015, 01:04:14 AM
I like this image. Can you tell us what were your render settings ?
Antoine, unfortunately, I screwed my scene up pretty bad before I could capture everything. If you like the new scene, let me know and I can post all the settings.
its cool for sure. But depends on what you wanted when you began, if you were successful.
To me, I like it as is as a, sorta, fantasy image or even a kind of illustration. But not as a photo. If you wanted a photo result, then some more work needs to be done on the shadows just to start. But again, if you wanted a made image (rather than a captured image, if that makes sense), then I think its really good.
Nice.
Thanks, since I am relatively new to Terragen and landscape scene generation as a whole, I just wanted something that I liked. I am not anywhere near photo ready from a composition and skill level yet. Probably not even ready from an equipment perspective either.
Thanks for the words and I agree that it has a "feeling" about it. This version is much closer in line with what I was going for. An old path. I'm not done yet but I don't want to tinker too much.
QuoteI just wanted something that I liked
Thats mostly all I want from my self too. Its hard enough to make ones self happy, trying to make some general idea about realism, as well as who knows how many other people happy, is quite the endeavor ;D
Perhaps thats the real reason people like Vincent van Gogh hurt them selves :-[
Very true Badger. At this point in my limited experience I am shooting for myself, the rest will follow ;)
If I didn't know any better I would say Van Gogh hurt himself because he was using my PC to do his masterpieces on and it was taking forever!!!! :D
Still tweaking... this was a 16 1/2 hour render... at this point, this is more of a learning experience project for me. It's done when it's done :)
It's a great improvement. But still I think the path is too clean and flat. Some dents can improve it. Puddles even; billows used to displace down by displacement shader and used as a mask for a reflective shader. Or even add a local very much reduced lake or plane with water shader for 'real water'.
And a pop of dense grasses between the herbs!
Hmmm, a bit dark it seems but that may be intentional... but the darkness is believable, which actually can be tricky to achieve at times with very shadowy scenes, so good job! Reminds me a bit of when I was working with Fish&Wildlife in the pine woods in south Georgia, you got the undergrowth pretty right for some areas...
Quote from: Dune on July 27, 2015, 01:43:18 AM
It's a great improvement. But still I think the path is too clean and flat. Some dents can improve it. Puddles even; billows used to displace down by displacement shader and used as a mask for a reflective shader. Or even add a local very much reduced lake or plane with water shader for 'real water'.
And a pop of dense grasses between the herbs!
Agree and I've struggled with that confounded path but that's how I learn. Thanks for the suggestions and insight.
Quote from: Cocateho on July 27, 2015, 09:13:45 AM
Hmmm, a bit dark it seems but that may be intentional... but the darkness is believable, which actually can be tricky to achieve at times with very shadowy scenes, so good job! Reminds me a bit of when I was working with Fish&Wildlife in the pine woods in south Georgia, you got the undergrowth pretty right for some areas...
Thanks, it's very tricky to get the depth of the shadows right. I need to add some more "nature", stumps, fallen trees, etc. I appreciate the review and comments.
20 hour render and a little post processing. Still fiddling around with lighting and such but I am learning a lot. I like the path much better now. It shows some usage by bicycles or motorcycles or just people.
Need to knock some trees over and put some weeds/flowers in the mix as well.
Thanks for everybody's comments and reviews. I appreciate the support.
Very nice.
Now we have to work on getting your times down!
This looks really much better. One more thing you can do is give the main tree object a slight tilt (1-2º), so they're not all dead straight up.
Quote from: TheBadger on July 29, 2015, 12:30:48 AM
Very nice.
Now we have to work on getting your times down!
Thank you... yes, I have been looking at the specs for a separate computer to just do this kind of stuff but some of the rigs that I have seen people put together are still in the $1K range and that is just not in my future any time soon. I'm sure I could tweak some settings and knock it down some with marginal loss in quality, that will have to be my first avenue of investigation at this point. My 2.16 GHZ processors (dual) and 4 GB of RAM are not cutting it!!!!
Quote from: Dune on July 29, 2015, 02:09:51 AM
This looks really much better. One more thing you can do is give the main tree object a slight tilt (1-2º), so they're not all dead straight up.
Thanks, I am quite happy with how it is progressing. Great suggestion... I can only shake my head at what is a simple yet effective change that was completely lost on me.
There have been many iterations of this as I am just using it as a learning experience for me. While this version isn't EXACTLY what I had in mind when I started. I like it and am going to call it done, for now! There reaches a point of diminishing returns when I start to lose interest in a scene. I will shelf this one for the time being and start learning on another scene to keep my interest.
Okay so I started working on another scene and I liked the lighting so much that I transferred the scheme to this scene. It has a very Fantasy Art kind of feel.
Now this last one looks VERY good. Very nice work!
big LIKE from me as well.
Good one. Camp can't be far off, I can smell the wood smoke.
Looks good.
Quote from: archonforest on August 15, 2015, 04:06:07 PM
Now this last one looks VERY good. Very nice work!
Thanks, a lot of trial and error until I got the look that I was mostly going for.
Quote from: fleetwood on August 15, 2015, 07:27:02 PM
Good one. Camp can't be far off, I can smell the wood smoke.
Thanks. That is exactly the same feel I get when i look at this. I've learned a lot which makes it all worth while.
Quote from: Kadri on August 15, 2015, 09:05:33 PM
Looks good.
Thanks Kadri, not to the caliber of other work on here but that's okay. I'm a relative newbie so there's plenty of room for growth...
The last one is really fantastic! I'd like to see this one in better quality.
Quote from: Hannes on August 16, 2015, 05:43:58 AM
The last one is really fantastic! I'd like to see this one in better quality.
Thank you.
I'll see what I can do. I'm still learning how to improve the quality of the renders and this one was 18 hours. :-(
Last one is really great indeed. It deserves a HQ render.
David
Quote from: Stranded on August 16, 2015, 07:40:35 AM
Quote from: Hannes on August 16, 2015, 05:43:58 AM
The last one is really fantastic! I'd like to see this one in better quality.
Thank you.
I'll see what I can do. I'm still learning how to improve the quality of the renders and this one was 18 hours. :-(
I have 16 cores here doin' just nothin' ...hint....hint... :D
If u want to upload the full project somewhere I can render it for you in HQ.
Sure, I don't mind, thanks. I am sure you will look at it and say "What the he** is all this". Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. I have not gone through the node network and cleaned it up so it's pretty much spaghetti at this point.. hahaha.
Let me zip it up and then I'll post it later today. It's a pool day and the kids are staring at me ready to go....
Quote from: kaedorg on August 16, 2015, 08:39:09 AM
Last one is really great indeed. It deserves a HQ render.
David
Thanks David, I will put a zip together.
Love terregenners...had this happen on another tg forum I used to frequent and got a stellar render that my version could never have done....awesome community/family here.
Quote from: archonforest on August 16, 2015, 08:50:58 AM
...
I have 16 cores here doin' just nothin' ...hint....hint... :D
...
I have 2 computers rendering day and night and they are not enough...i hate you :P ;D
Quote from: Kadri on August 16, 2015, 10:47:25 AM
Quote from: archonforest on August 16, 2015, 08:50:58 AM
...
I have 16 cores here doin' just nothin' ...hint....hint... :D
...
I have 2 computers rendering day and night and they are not enough...i hate you :P ;D
I am not doing much renderings these days as I am pretty busy....getting married next month with an angel 8)
That it a good excuse of course. Congrats :D
As far as I Know, getting married is always with an Angel, at least most of the time.
Congrats.
16 cores + 1 Angel = 1 Very Happy Man
David
Quote from: kaedorg on August 16, 2015, 11:17:12 AM
As far as I Know, getting married is always with an Angel, at least most of the time.
Congrats.
16 cores + 1 Angel = 1 Very Happy Man
David
Yep that is true :D
Hey stranded my 16 cores are whispering into my ears to get that zip file. They are so ready to work hahaha...
Agree to married is always an angel...mine was...R I P...but a heartfelt
Quote from: archonforest on August 16, 2015, 11:28:56 AM
Quote from: kaedorg on August 16, 2015, 11:17:12 AM
As far as I Know, getting married is always with an Angel, at least most of the time.
Congrats.
16 cores + 1 Angel = 1 Very Happy Man
David
Yep that is true :D
Hey stranded my 16 cores are whispering into my ears to get that zip file. They are so ready to work hahaha...
I know... I know.. hahaha. it looked like I was online but I wasn't. I was at the pool with the kids. Is there an easy way to zip up all the project assets other than finding each one and dropping it in a folder with the .tgd file and zipping them all up?
Make a new folder anywhere you want and then use the "File"+"Export gathered project" option in the file menu
and use the new created folder as the destination.
It will copy all the necessary files in your project and copy them in that folder.
Then you can zip that folder and uploaded it.
Thank you Kadri, that was muuuuuuuuch easier!!!!
Can u upload it to dropbox? As far as I remember I have access there. :D
Quote from: archonforest on August 16, 2015, 02:35:03 PM
Can u upload it to dropbox? As far as I remember I have access there. :D
Okay uploading it there now. Team folder "Stranded". Do I have to invite you to be a team member or anything?
Possible yes....
I am not into these clouds stuff.
Usually when someone send something to me via dropbox I am getting a link...
Or use this to upload the file to me:
https://www.dropbox.com/request/f0lMUN4rj5nhpdhxonYK
Uploading as we speak...errrr, type...
I got a 78Mb file zip. Is that correct. It is the full upload?
Yes, that is correct. I followed the instructions on packaging it all up.
OKay. I will try to run it over night. Will post as soon is possible. :D
Great, thank you. Feel free to pass along whatever mistakes I made or ways I could have improved what I had done. This was my first real project and I am still grasping the concept of the nodes.
Quote from: Stranded on August 16, 2015, 05:14:44 PM
Great, thank you. Feel free to pass along whatever mistakes I made or ways I could have improved what I had done. This was my first real project and I am still grasping the concept of the nodes.
Your very welcome 8)
Quote from: bobbystahr on August 16, 2015, 10:38:06 AM
Love terregenners...had this happen on another tg forum I used to frequent and got a stellar render that my version could never have done....awesome community/family here.
I quite agree bobbystahr!
So your pix is almost done.(90%)
So far 7 hours render time. Resolution will be 1920x1200. Quality:0.8 AA: 8.
I will post it tomorrow when I get back to my work place. (Got no net at home now :(...)
Anxiously awaiting, thanks again!!!
They look real good !
Thank you! I'm sure trying.
So here it is! ;)
Quote from: archonforest on August 18, 2015, 09:11:53 AM
So here it is! ;)
Well rendered...sure makes a difference...yer a good dude for doing this...
A real beauty!
it deserved this render
David
Quote from: archonforest on August 18, 2015, 09:11:53 AM
So here it is! ;)
Wow!!!! What a difference. I need to fix the stones but I must say, I'm quite happy with that. That really brought out the colors and the shadows. I definitely need a new system just for renders!!!
I can't wait to see it at home. I'm looking on my phone and I know it's not doing it justice.
Edit: Okay, looking at it on the PC.... looks great!!
Thank You again!!!
Quote from: Stranded on August 18, 2015, 01:03:30 PM
Quote from: archonforest on August 18, 2015, 09:11:53 AM
So here it is! ;)
Wow!!!! What a difference. I need to fix the stones but I must say, I'm quite happy with that. That really brought out the colors and the shadows. I definitely need a new system just for renders!!!
I can't wait to see it at home. I'm looking on my phone and I know it's not doing it justice.
Thank You again!!!
Welcome! ;)
The colors and shadows were post processed a bit. It is not straight out of TG. That was a bit dull for me so I did some slight modifications. Hope u don't mind that.
BTW well done for the composition. It is definitely a great artwork.
Quote from: archonforest on August 18, 2015, 01:19:46 PM
Quote from: Stranded on August 18, 2015, 01:03:30 PM
Quote from: archonforest on August 18, 2015, 09:11:53 AM
So here it is! ;)
Wow!!!! What a difference. I need to fix the stones but I must say, I'm quite happy with that. That really brought out the colors and the shadows. I definitely need a new system just for renders!!!
I can't wait to see it at home. I'm looking on my phone and I know it's not doing it justice.
Thank You again!!!
Welcome! ;)
The colors and shadows were post processed a bit. It is not straight out of TG. That was a bit dull for me so I did some slight modifications. Hope u don't mind that.
BTW well done for the composition. It is definitely a great artwork.
Don't mind at all. Just let me know what tweaks you made so I learn from it for my next piece.
Quote from: Stranded on August 18, 2015, 01:37:03 PM
Quote from: archonforest on August 18, 2015, 01:19:46 PM
Quote from: Stranded on August 18, 2015, 01:03:30 PM
Quote from: archonforest on August 18, 2015, 09:11:53 AM
So here it is! ;)
Wow!!!! What a difference. I need to fix the stones but I must say, I'm quite happy with that. That really brought out the colors and the shadows. I definitely need a new system just for renders!!!
I can't wait to see it at home. I'm looking on my phone and I know it's not doing it justice.
Thank You again!!!
Welcome! ;)
The colors and shadows were post processed a bit. It is not straight out of TG. That was a bit dull for me so I did some slight modifications. Hope u don't mind that.
BTW well done for the composition. It is definitely a great artwork.
Don't mind at all. Just let me know what tweaks you made so I learn from it for my next piece.
Picture was post processed in Photoshop. I only modified the overall tone and the contrast a bit to get rid of the dark haze and get the shadows more rich in black.
Excellent work, thanks. I'm never going to want to render on my dual 2 Gig processors again!!! Hahaha
Yeah understand. I started with an AMD dual 2Ghz rig. I realized fast that this will not cut it so I found a refurbished monster. This one definitely cutting it :))
I would say so.. good choice!
Superb!
Great job there. I like this a lot.