Two versions of rock; combinations of fake stones, voronoi diff noise and an image map. I didn't like the grass after all, so in the latest I deleted it again. The water is just a default shader, with metalness at 1, for speed. The birds are auk and guillemot. Enjoy.
Awesome!! I prefer the second one. Somehow the rocks look better.
One thing I noticed: the black color of the birds is extremely dark compared to the dark areas of the rest of the scene which makes them look somehow comped in (at least in the right half of the image). If you'd make the black color a little brighter it may look more natural?
That coast looks very natural. Very good.
On my computer monitor it seems as if the birds are not "affected" by the haze which makes them stand out so much.
Are they comped in after the rendering? Their colours look completely saturated against the rocks.
Or is that because of image compression maybe?
CHeers, Klaus
Yes, I noticed that too, though you have to take into account that they fly in front of the haze. But the texture of the birds is indeed pure white and black, which isn't right (hasty job). I have to put more time into them. But they are really sitting and flying there, not comped in.
Another rockface, this time with some horses.
Wow, that looks really stunning! The lighting and the rockface look fantastic!
I don't know very much about horses. There are mountain horses as Google told me, but would they climb up such a terrain? Maybe some mountain goats or capricorns might look more appropriate?
The horses were an afterthought, just to have something happen, and give the rock a size comparison. I will get rid of them 8) and also make the cloud a bit thinner, as it's very dark around the lit area. I don't think I have a mountain goat, but maybe a wolf or an oil drill base or campsite will do.
This is stunning!
Romanticism in the UK and the US of A featured painters which used exactely this technique of contrasting overbright spots in the landscape with brooding skies above.
The colours and the structures of the mountains are like pastells here. And the horses - even though they might seem out of place in a way - convey that romantic idea of a wild and powerful nature.
Man is just a small and insignificant part in there. I really think this is a absolute top notch picture! I wouldn`t change a thing...
CHeers, Klaus
ps: Albert Bierstadt (1830 - 1902) was a remarkable German-American painter known for his vast and luminous landscapes. He did those kind of paintings.
https://drawpaintacademy.com/albert-bierstadt/
Thanks Klaus. I know the guy, and I like his work. But it's too late, I've already dumped the horses and quickly build me an adobe (Indian-like) ruin, and added some wolves as new occupants. I'll keep the light, but changed the seed of clouds and coverage. And POV. To be continued....
There are some glitches, so this is not the end of experimenting.....
I did find a problem with slope restrictions too that I need to examine; even with a compute normal or compute terrain (either small patch or large) at the end of the line, the instances still populate on steep areas.
Wow, just WOW!!!!
Beautiful work! What's that dark patch in the center of the picture?
There are some glitches that I have to remedy; areas where the folding overlaps or turns inside out, turning black. I tried to overcome that by converting all displacements to greys first and then displacing in one go, but apparently not totally.
The rockface is unbelievably good!!!
Yes, these "displacement folds" are really annoying! I wish, there was a way to automatically clamp the displacement (only where these folds occur).
Somehow I prefer the lighting of the previous images. These dark clouds in contrast to the sunlit area looked so dramatic!!
Excellent! Love the coloring! Is the light a 'cloud hole' spotlight, or another light source?
Thanks guys. Yes, I'd love a way to get rid of overlaps, but I'm afraid that's not possible without some major surgery to the software. You just need to build up the lateral volumes carefully.
The light is very simple; I used to project an image map through an extra camera located at the location for the lit area, directed at the sun, but the projection is always with a certain angle, and it leaves a narrowing beam at the camera location. Which is kind of opposite to what you'd expect.
Now I use a rotated simple shape (soft circular), which gives out a straight beam. I know, there are no handles, but you can use a transform shader, and figure out the angle from sun parameters. I'll make it easy for you; for a sun at 300 and elevation 25; set transform shader Y to (270=west) +30, and Z to (90= straight up) -65.
Both used as masks for cloud fractal or final density.
Smart!! :)
The rock faces are pretty extraordinary: each time you invest time exploring these techniques you come up with even more realistic and impressive results! TG is such a mind-puzzle and I'm always amazed at the possibilities. I too prefer the scene with the horses and the dramatic lighting! The composition and impact as an image are far superior (imo) to the other examples. Eliminating 'wild horses' is a moral mistake in Nature, and dare I say it? in Art as well! ;) As far as the 'believability': indeed, small mountain and desert pony's can be very adept at scrambling over rocky areas and steep inclines. Save the Wild Horses! Great work Ulco!
Nice renders Dune! Some very nice rock displacements with a dash of moody lighting, well done Sir.
Thank you guys. TG is indeed a very deep and dark toolbox, you'll never know what's under the next tool combination. I'll bring back some of the darkest lights in renders to come 8) And horses!
Here's another iteration of the same file, but slightly different. Here I flattened the lower end (under 182m) for 95%, masked the squarish rocks above that and added some rock debris. Maybe not dark enough?
Awesome! The rocks and the vegetation are superb!!! The lighting is fantastic! Maybe a little more work on the clouds?
That is simply wonderful!
Oh hell yes! Everything is looking even better and that lighting, nice!!
Beautifull !!!
Another rock study.
And last for now.
Strangely, I cannot upload a small file.....
Great work!
Thanks, Mick.
I'll try upload another iteration...
Oh yeah! I like the veg and color variation in the rock on this one.
And yet another one.
Terrific clouds!
One last, without clouds ;)