All foliage created in Speedtree. Terrain is a combination of procedural and native TG heightfield.
This looks very natural. The lighting is perfect!
I like everything, except the trees. They look very natural as well, but the tree trunks seem way too thick at least at the tops. They should be a lot thinner there imho.
Looks really nice man! 8)
Real glad you figured out all the speed tree stuff. You do quite well with it.
Would like to see one of your trees close up in TG, curious about the degree of real displacement you are getting... Looks pretty real from this distance.
Great work!
The lighting is really nice indeed, especially because of the well lit shadows.
I second Hannes about the tree trunks, but perhaps it's botanically accurate. I wouldn't know.
Outstanding work here! Love the colors, mood/lights.
I agree with everyone else, looks very good! I always love seeing your Speedtree work, it tends to end up looking very natural. In this case I am very much reminded of the High Sierras, near Yosemite for example, which is one of my favorite areas.
I went back and forth on the tree trunks. I saw the "looks too thick" thing too, but then I wasn't sure. Could be some dwarfism or other stunting at high altitudes perhaps? ;)
- Oshyan
Like your render very much, nice color selections. The central build up of clouds might be a "hair" on the hard edged solid object side.
Trees similar to that show up in Albert Bierstadt's paintings, but maybe have a broken top poking out. In his day perhaps stout trunked trees were more common before lumbering got (http://uploads5.wikiart.org/images/albert-bierstadt/sierra-nevada-1873.jpg)hold of them.
Very, very nice. The clouds need that slight silver lining to really stand out. Other then that, the vegetation distribution is very convincing, the colors look a bit unsaturated but that may be the rather hazy setting as objects tend to be more greyed with more haze.
Looks nice.
Just curious is there postwork? There is a slight feeling of a slight kinda HDR work. Maybe it is just me.
Thanks for the great comments!
Hannes: The trees are Jeffrey Pines, a close cousin to the Ponderosa Pine. These trees grow to immense size and can be very 'thick' at their tops. While my goal was not 'botanical' accuracy, nontheless these are fairly honest representations. I must admit that the nature of the composition probably adds to some of the 'unease' with the trees proportions. While the trees would be better served with a portrait aspect ratio, I was determined to present a panoramic vista as a backdrop. So there is a bit of 'license' taken to fit the verticality of the trees to the wide set of the background. I'll probably use these trees in a more common portrait aspect later. I have attached a few pictures of the Jeffrey Pine as many here might not know the tree. It is one of my favorite high mountain trees, and incredibly the bark up close smells strongly of vanilla and cinnamon.
Fleetwood: the Bierstadt is a classic western landscape, and compositionally to my eye suffers from the same kind vertical vs horizontal dilemma. As an easel painter my 'heroes' were the western artists from the 1800's such as Hill. Keith, Moran, Deakins, et al. So this time around it's with TG and ST.
Oshyan: We share some favorite places! This is essentially my riff on the Eastern Slope of the Sierra Nevada. So picture (to those of you who have traveled this territory) looking west from above HWY 395 roughly parallel with the southern boundary of Yosemite. While the peaks and domes in my image are not specific to any area, it is meant to convey the "Eastern Slope" kind of feeling. I could bore all us for hours about the unique geological and climatological information of this area, but no. The image contains elements of glacially carved 'domes' and the 'up-thrust' of the Sierra peaks in the distance. The elevations are roughly 8,000 to 14,000 feet and the foliage is kinda/sorta represenative, I have yet to build the sage and other native plants to complete the scene.
Chris: Yeah the colors are deliberately a bit under-saturated. Nature to my eye in full light seems that way.
TU: Thank you!
Kadri: Some minor post; I adjusted the contrast slightly, grayed the image minutely, and did some very small 'touch-ups' to clean a couple of spots. No HDR, just TG.
Archonforest: (Love that name!) Thanks!
TheBadger: I'll definitely render out a few close ups.
Great reference shots! And yes you captured the Eastern Sierra feel beautifully. :)
- Oshyan
Lots to look at here and its all beautiful, Keeping an eye on this one for sure
Quote from: zaxxon on September 17, 2015, 09:07:43 PM
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Kadri: Some minor post; I adjusted the contrast slightly, grayed the image minutely, and did some very small 'touch-ups' to clean a couple of spots. No HDR, just TG.
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Thanks.
The more i think over it, this render seems to work quite well with the color saturation choices.
Wow, this is unbelievable beautiful and realistic!
I had to show a colleague in office a minute ago. He told me, he will wait here until Ben Cartwright passes riding on horseback :)
Really, really good!
I was wondering when you were going to post this render, Doug. It's beautiful. Speak to you....
I love this. Your object placement is amazing. It certainly helps to have all these unique models, but placing them in a natural way is also very important. Love to look at trees that are not of perfect shape and full of leaves/needles.
Absolutely superb!
This is very well done. You said you used speedtree. Don't know if you're an xFrog user as well but if so, am curious how you would compare the two programs?
Wow...must have been music-ing when this was posted.Beautiful and your mention of your easel painting background makes sense of the great composition in your work. Were I to start again and it was 50 years ago I'd start there as well. Fantastic work, please post more of this inspirational stuff....and thanks for the inspiration...tho I'll never equal your 'speed trees' at least I have a marker to aim at.
MHaze: Thanks Mick!
Bobbystahr: Thanks Man, and keep on rockin'!
Dune: Thank you Maestro!
Otakar: I appreciate the comments. Placing objects and having it then look 'natural' is something that I pay great attention to. Having all those unique models is very much a function of the ease and flexibility of the Speedtree application
masonspappy: I've had xfrog for many years, and during that period it has never had a single upgrade. It's not really fair to compare the two at this point in time in my estimation. Walli's models are superb and can be modified within xfrog with fantastic results. But I never was able to feel like it 'worked' for me, and indeed based on that experience I never considered myself a tree modeler. Speedtree is a whole different creature. It was designed as an 'artists tool' from the beginning. The interface and toolset is intelligent and fast. There are many reasons why the application recently won an Academy Award for "Technical Excellence" and is used by almost all major special effects and gaming companies. If you had asked me 2-3 years ago if I would consider building and populating a TG scene with foliage objects that I had created, I would have had a good laugh! Speedtree has indeed been a difference maker.
OK, I'm convinced. It's always surprising to see what exists in the real world. ;)