Hi guys !
Thanks for the comments on my first post in years coming back to this wonderful software and community !
Love the fact that people on this forum share things and help each other with the learning.
Also the fact that the Planetside staff are keeping a close eye on the forum is also appreciated.
Took a short cut for this one in that I kept the same terrain modelled in WM and changed the camera and mostly the sky and atmosphere.
Have to give credit to DandleO for those beautiful grassy hills.
The sky and atmosphere were derived from "godly sandbox" by N-Drju....and thanks a lot as this was very appreciated !
Wonder if there is a better way than I took to localise the openings in the sky.......kept hitting the Random Seed on the Fractal till something nice happened.....any other way ???
The 4000 pixel render took about 50 hours....but the quality setting were high for the clouds and atmosphere.
Postwork in Photoshop, levels, curves and some shadow enhancements in the bottom parts with a layer mask.
Take care and have a great weekend !
Paul
Great render.
I really love the ground. Would prefer a different look on the clouds.
You could use an image, simple shape shader as a mask or paint over and use that for a mask etc.
Majestic scene. I think though that your clouds may have some more softness or grander scales, and speaking of clouds; something you see here - it happens to my renders too - the clouds themselves are grainfree, but the shadows have a lot of grain (front area). I wonder why that is so. I also often notice it in reflections of clouds on water, e.g.
QuoteWonder if there is a better way than I took to localise the openings in the sky
You could make a black square with a soft white dot, covering almost all the square (or use this one), and project that (image map and camera) towards the sun. Place the camera where you want no cloud shadow. Take values form sun angle and height to feed camera, and set angle. You also have to invert the mask before connecting it to the final density input (or mask the cloud fractal by it). Takes a bit of experimenting...
Hey pclavett. Glad the godray sandbox proved useful. ;) And may I add that these godrays indeed look beautiful - sharp in terms of quality and soft on the eyes at the same time.
Note however, that if you use multiple sun solution, you can easily reduce the number of atmospheric samples - that's the whole idea! :D Each sunlight fills gaps that, normally, the atmo sampler would have to take care of. Keep this infographic in mind for future reference:
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,23919.msg241733.html#msg241733
As far as cloud localization is concerned, I think that more precise masks like SSS can help control the clouds. Or SSS "holes" thereof... Of course, you still want to use the power fractal along with them.
Looks epic. Nevertheless I would like to see a less heavy atmo version also. :)
Hi Paul,
Beautiful picture. I really like your terrain, vegetation and light work.
Just a matter of personal taste I would get for a tighter framing eliminating the left part of the image that seems to me less strong.
Lovely work. Agree with Jo.
Another excellent representation. :)
Impressive image! A fantastic sense of scale.
I have to agree about the clouds. These are V2, right? I could imagine that V3 clouds might look a tad more realistic, although render times might increase even more...
I like the landscape so much, that I'd like to see it without those dramatic clouds.
Will take all this in consideration and try to improve the image.
Will try another sky that is less moody and dramatic........had just gone to a funeral in the last week.....that must be it !
Thanks for all the comment and suggestions.
Ulco....will try that mask pointing towards the sun and experiment a bit !
Appreciated all !
Paul
I for one am not against the mood or dramatic effect. I like it actually. I wouldn't change that.
It is just that i don't like the chaotic kind of look of the clouds.
Hard to say what i mean. The shapes don't look heroic enough against the rest of the image.
Moving right along are we? This is beautiful and anything I'd have added has been posted so I'll settle for. carry on, as it's working for you.
Wow, what a sense of scale and what kind of lighting! Cool thing!
Awesome scale. I heard the theme from the magnificent seven in my head when i looked at the image.Beautiful.