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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: nvseal on October 18, 2007, 05:43:06 PM

Title: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 18, 2007, 05:43:06 PM
No clouds, just surfacing. It's not exactlly finished; it's just big.  ;D
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: dhavalmistry on October 18, 2007, 06:43:27 PM
nice work....did you mask the land or use planet shader???
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 18, 2007, 07:22:30 PM
Power fractals and surfac layers, it's all procedural.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: dhavalmistry on October 18, 2007, 07:28:50 PM
oh kool....
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: sjefen on October 18, 2007, 08:38:12 PM
Very nice, but why don't you have clouds on this one.
I'll bet i will look ten times better with some clouds. Especially since it's going to be your clouds ;)
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: rcallicotte on October 18, 2007, 09:36:13 PM
I like everything, except that sunshine spot and yet I know you know.  Anyway, with your clouds it will be fantismo.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 18, 2007, 10:03:23 PM
Well, if I added the clouds that would probably push this render (at this resolution) to at least three or four days, maybe a week.  :o That makes me scared.  ;D
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: sjefen on October 18, 2007, 10:06:38 PM
I like to watch people get scared ;D
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Hannes on October 19, 2007, 05:33:53 AM
Wow, that looks very realistic. What are your athmosphere settings? I also tried to create something like this, but the "continents" always look kind of pale. There's also this falloff from a lighter blue to a darker blue in the center of the planet. Is this the reflection shader?
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Hannes on October 19, 2007, 05:35:58 AM
Btw, how did you create the transparency of the water, is it also procedural?
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: cyphyr on October 19, 2007, 06:47:25 AM
Very nice work here. I was wondering when you'd take the next logical step. I always found it hard to get convincing cloud scape's and still see the land masses below, it always seemed to be one or the other. I'm sure you'll go as far with this as you have with the planetary atmosphere.
Richard
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 19, 2007, 08:44:18 AM
The atmosphere has a haze density of 0.5 with a Blue sky density of 0.8. The fall off from dark blue to light blue comes from the water shader attached to the ocean surface layer. It is just reflecting the atmosphere. The fake transparency is indeed procedural. By using two (or if you want, more) surface layers using the same fractal you can change the colors to fake the transparency and alter the coverage as needed to derive the desired effect.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Hannes on October 19, 2007, 09:08:25 AM
Great, thank you!!
I have one more question: How did you get the shape of the continents? I can't create a fractal that looks like yours. Either it's too fuzzy (small scale) or it's too round (greater scale - less octaves).
Would you share your file? That would be fantastic!!!
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 19, 2007, 10:15:31 AM
First, the continent shapes are made by the "ocean" surface layer being placed over the "land" shader. That said, getting the actual shapes has to do with a balance between the smallest scale and color roughness (for th most part). Perhaps the file will help.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: bigben on October 19, 2007, 11:00:10 AM
Coming along nicely although it still looks like fractal surfacing.  Trying to put my finger on what else you could do so bear with my rambling  (it's late here... or at least that's my excuse  ;))

The patches of colour vary in size across the terrain, but the pattern of variation with contrasting colours is relatively uniform. If you mix it up with some distinct patches of colour with less variation in them, and other areas with smaller scale variations it may start to look a bit more natural.  I guess you could draw an analogy with your clouds.... sharp fluffy clouds, wavy clouds, diffuse clouds, wide coverage, widely spaced etc....

I'll have a look at the TGD later and see if I can explain it better there but I suspect you may have some ideas already...
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Hannes on October 19, 2007, 11:02:14 AM
Thanks a lot. That'll help me!!
I did it quite different. I didn't use water. I just separated some blue shiny surface from the land by using some fractal breakup shader.
It doesn't nearly look as good as yours but I like it anyway.
(http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3052/planetyq7.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Marcos Silveira on October 19, 2007, 06:43:34 PM
I wonder when we'll be able to shape our continents exactly the way we want them.
If we can allready do it, please tell me how... :(
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 20, 2007, 10:02:36 AM
Another version.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: zionner on October 20, 2007, 10:06:36 AM
Nice Work,

Ever thought of Adding N + South Poles into the render?
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 20, 2007, 10:10:46 AM
I've done it before. I'm yet to decide if I want to do it in this render.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: zionner on October 20, 2007, 10:13:30 AM
Well, In my view It could add something to the render that feels missing,

as the planet as a whole would have some sort of ice, somewhere at least
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: bigben on October 20, 2007, 11:07:53 AM
I'd stick with the surfaces first... less distraction. ;) The light patches around the coast are a nice addition. If you can do the same thing with some of the other colours, or mix up the patterns for the contrasting colours it will really start coming together.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 20, 2007, 07:07:42 PM
A bit off topic from what I'm actually working on, but I thought  would put this out here too being that is along the same lines. No atmosphere (yet). Inspired by Io, this supposed to be a moon. It may not look like. To me it does but at the same time it doesn't. But here it is.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: old_blaggard on October 20, 2007, 07:27:04 PM
These are really cool colors!  This actually looks like a thick and swirling atmosphere to me.  Your progress with space shots is really amazing :).
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: rcallicotte on October 21, 2007, 08:43:41 AM
I like the last two versions.  The Earth version is believable and makes me want to explore it.

The second version is well done and belongs in a sci-fi story.  Totally want to see this in the next Star Trek or in Serenity 2.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 21, 2007, 08:53:27 AM
A higher res version.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: bigben on October 21, 2007, 09:07:02 AM
Looks like someone moved their cloud setup to surface layers   ;)

Some of the patterns look a little too cloud-like but the overall distributions are looking much more believable. There are certainly aspects of this you could apply to your original project.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Mr_Lamppost on October 21, 2007, 09:10:23 AM
I like the moon

A couple of those impact craters with the long pale rays spreading out from them would finish it off nicely; I have no idea how you would do those. 

Your colouring makes me think more of Callisto than IO but there is a lot of variation in the colouring in these NASA photos

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03456

Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Will on October 21, 2007, 09:12:42 AM
Neat I like the colors. I can see some Io in there.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 21, 2007, 03:35:38 PM
Okay, I tried to add some mountains. I think I need to add a bit more variation and I might add a desert or a polar cap (or both).
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 22, 2007, 08:21:07 AM
An ice cap.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: rcallicotte on October 22, 2007, 08:58:31 AM
NICE!  An ice cap that looks real.  Good job.   8)
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Hannes on October 22, 2007, 03:07:10 PM
Fantastic. Can't wait to see your planet with clouds!!
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Will on October 22, 2007, 03:17:24 PM
great job, can't wait to see more mate.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: overlordchuck on October 24, 2007, 05:58:27 PM
You're crazy.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: FrankB on October 25, 2007, 07:36:01 AM
Hi Nvseal,

how's the ice cap done? Mind to explain a bit?

Thanks,
Frank
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: nvseal on October 25, 2007, 08:54:44 AM
I don't have this exact file in front of me right know but I can still give you the technique. In the surface layer's slope constraints tab you need to enable the "Use Y for slope Slope Key" check key at the bottom. Then you need to change the drop down menu from "Final Normal" to "Planet/object Normal." And that is pretty much all there is to it. In this image I had to do some tweaking to get the fractals the way I wanted and I also added another restricted surface layer to fill out the top half of the ice cap. If you would like, I can try to upload the file sometime so you can take a look at it.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Volker Harun on October 26, 2007, 07:43:31 AM
Amazing, I am blazed!
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Falcon on December 20, 2008, 09:54:25 AM
Ok, this is more than a year old, but - it's exactly what I'd need.

This project still alive? Is there a .tgd available somewhere?

I'd pay money for a "basic planet" .tgd where stuff like ocean, continents, etc. are set up. It doesn't have to be perfect, but getting simple things like continents right is way too much trouble for my small budget of time.
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Blonderator on December 20, 2008, 07:21:17 PM
Quote from: Falcon on December 20, 2008, 09:54:25 AM
I'd pay money for a "basic planet" .tgd where stuff like ocean, continents, etc. are set up. It doesn't have to be perfect, but getting simple things like continents right is way too much trouble for my small budget of time.

Please don't dig up year old threads to ask for someone to hand their hours of work to you on a silver platter.
If you want a .TGD of this scene it would have been more appropriate to contact nvseal via PM.

I learned his method of planet creation in minutes. Refining his method and making it look realistic took me days. Don't complain that you have a short budget of time; creating something good in Terragen will take effort and time. It is not meant to be easy, and there are a lot of tools to learn how to use.


If you do a little searching around these forums, you will find that nvseal has, in fact, described in detail exactly how to create planets like this. He even describes how to make his perfect procedural clouds.

Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: rcallicotte on December 20, 2008, 09:54:43 PM
...like he (Blonderator) said....
Title: Re: A Simple Planet
Post by: Falcon on December 21, 2008, 08:48:31 AM
Quote from: Blonderator on December 20, 2008, 07:21:17 PM
Please don't dig up year old threads to ask for someone to hand their hours of work to you on a silver platter.
If you want a .TGD of this scene it would have been more appropriate to contact nvseal via PM.

Err, sorry? I said "I'd pay money", so I don't get the accusations of wanting freebies.

And yes, I know there's a lot of stuff to be found on the forum. I lack the time to do all the searching, adapting to the current TG2, testing and fiddling. If someone wants to do it, as I said: I'd pay. Make me an offer.

Not everyone in here lists TG2 as their main hobby. For some of us, it's just a tool to create some landscapes, heightmaps, skies or whatever for the real project.