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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: Njen on September 08, 2007, 09:16:34 AM

Title: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Njen on September 08, 2007, 09:16:34 AM
Deep in the desert, there is a rock formation known as the Claw of the World Beast...

I have worked on it enough to know to stop working on it now.

[attach=1]

There are some technical problems due to TG2 not drawing the terrain properly, and I was considering in waiting to show this image once the problems have been fixed (I read in another thread that it is being looked into). But I decided to show it anyway and move on to something new.
(Image below has areas labeled as follows)
A = Terrain not being rendered in the bucket (or the TG2 version of a bucket, I guess)
B = Self shadowing stops at random heights on different pillars
C = Similar to B, but more clearly shows the tops of pillars not casting shadows
D = Light dots in the shadow, which appear to be geometry holes. You can't see it clearly because I used soft shadows to minimise the effect, so see the next image as a better example of it.

Any idea when these issues will be fixed? Just wondering...

[attach=2]

[attach=3]
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Buzzzzz on September 08, 2007, 09:22:07 AM
I knew you were up to something cool. This is sweet!  :o  Of course I'm overlooking the TG flaws for the time being.  ;)
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: nvseal on September 08, 2007, 09:40:57 AM
Wow!! Three questions. How? How? How?
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: cyphyr on September 08, 2007, 10:02:27 AM
Wow cool image you got there. Are the "claws" an imported object or a manipulated terrain?
richard
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Seth on September 08, 2007, 10:16:40 AM
really great !
it's a wonderful view !
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: efflux on September 08, 2007, 10:35:11 AM
I like this a lot. At first you don't sense the scale then you see the trees which completely throws you. Very effective.
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: rcallicotte on September 08, 2007, 01:57:20 PM
Very nice work.  And thanks for standing up and asking a question like this for all of us, njen.

Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: sjefen on September 08, 2007, 02:09:28 PM
I agree with everyone. Very nice.
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: dhavalmistry on September 08, 2007, 02:30:08 PM
damn thats BIG!!!......but to me the scale seems kinda off.....but thats just me.....

adding a planet in the background would give more depth....
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Saurav on September 08, 2007, 06:03:00 PM
This is very cool. Agree with efflux. Some very good renders to come out lately.
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Lucio on September 08, 2007, 06:15:01 PM
njen, putting apart all the technical problems, this is a truly impressive work. I'm looking forward to see it completed somehow! Congrats :)
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: old_blaggard on September 08, 2007, 06:55:51 PM
Very nice job!
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: NWsenior07 on September 08, 2007, 07:46:07 PM
This is one heck of a render, I love the way the sense of scale plays with your preception of the scene! Honestly I didn't even notice those problems you picked out so I wouldn't worry too much about them. Very nicely done!
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: inkydigit on September 08, 2007, 08:05:08 PM
wow...a scary place for sure!!...excellent work!
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Njen on September 09, 2007, 04:47:47 AM
Thanks for all the kind comments :)

nvseal: I used an image map of a radial gradient to displace the terrain, I then merged a number of these displacements together and positioned them around the edge of a crater. To curve them I used a Twist and Shear shader in combination with a Distribution shader. Each pillar had a different Lean Direction in the Twist and Shear shader.

cyphyr: It's all 1 terrain, only the trees are imported.

efflux: I am happy to hear that, it's the effect I wanted to give.

I will be rerendering this scene in the future when the problems I have mentioned have been fixed.
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Tangled-Universe on September 09, 2007, 05:47:05 AM
Awesome work njen! I really like the majestic scale  ;D

Martin
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Volker Harun on September 10, 2007, 04:58:21 AM
Agree with Martin - and I can bin my current project ,-)
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Will on September 10, 2007, 05:26:42 AM
Nice, I would love to see a tutorial on this some day.
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: FrankB on September 10, 2007, 05:42:10 AM
great concept, njen, thanks for showing this!

Frank
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Matt on September 12, 2007, 09:33:08 AM
Quote from: njen on September 08, 2007, 09:16:34 AM
A = Terrain not being rendered in the bucket (or the TG2 version of a bucket, I guess)
B = Self shadowing stops at random heights on different pillars
C = Similar to B, but more clearly shows the tops of pillars not casting shadows
D = Light dots in the shadow, which appear to be geometry holes. You can't see it clearly because I used soft shadows to minimise the effect, so see the next image as a better example of it.

Any idea when these issues will be fixed? Just wondering...

I am currently working on some big changes to the renderer to address a number of problems, and with these changes D should be (mostly) eliminated and the likelihood of A and B/C will be reduced. It may also be possible to tweak certain parameters to eliminate these problems for particular renders in which they occur. These changes are scheduled for release near the end of this year, as we will need to put the new render engine through a good amount of alpha testing.

Matt
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: cyphyr on September 12, 2007, 09:41:10 AM
New render engine, Hmmm intriguing :)
Bring it on :D
Richard
err . . . of course if you need any help with testing it . . .
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Njen on September 12, 2007, 12:04:14 PM
Matt, thank you very much for this information. It's good to know that these fixes are already in the pipe, I'll be looking forward to rerendering this scene once they are done.
Title: Re: Claw of the World Beast
Post by: Oshyan on September 12, 2007, 01:47:33 PM
It's a really wonderful scene so I'm looking forward to seeing it finished too. ;D It reminds me of the thing at the end of Star Trek V (I know, I know, nobody saw it - with good reason :D). But the huge scale did throw me off at first too...

- Oshyan