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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: pclavett on November 01, 2022, 10:29:07 AM

Title: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: pclavett on November 01, 2022, 10:29:07 AM
Good day all ! I seem to binge work on Terragen and hope to settle for some more regular work in the coming months ! Playing with GAEA for the last few months and produced this one to import into Terragen. Used a lot of the texturing in GAEA to make the base colours for the terrain and distribution maps for the rivers, river-shores and vegetation to follow the likely water areas ! The clouds are from a NWDA preset that was purchased years back and was tweaked to fit this project. Will continue to work the plains surface on this one and probably render some other view and closeups ! Have a great day all and take care ! Paul
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: pixelpusher636 on November 01, 2022, 11:25:00 PM
WOW!! Truly a spectacular view pclavett. Those clouds!! I also love the perspective, vegetation and the snow dusting the mountain. Great work man you nailed it. 
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: Dune on November 02, 2022, 03:04:12 AM
Very spectacular! The mix of clouds is wonderful.
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: Stormlord on November 02, 2022, 06:19:44 AM
Amazing Clouds and a spectatcular Landscape.
A very good start to go with it...

STORMLORD
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: Hannes on November 02, 2022, 10:25:47 AM
Wow, indeed spectacular!!! I love the terrain, and the clouds are the icing on the cake.
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: KlausK on November 03, 2022, 12:17:59 PM
This is absolutely gorgeous. Wow.

CHeers, Klaus
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: RogueNZ on November 03, 2022, 07:19:34 PM
Incredible work!
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: masonspappy on November 03, 2022, 11:37:06 PM
That cloud formation is incredible!
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: pclavett on November 05, 2022, 12:59:55 PM
Thanks guys for the generous comments ! They are appreciated ! I have done another render of this same project with change of the camera to better see the rivers and some adjustment in the light.....earlier dawn with sun lower and some change in the atmospherics ! I learned on this one that you can actually use water without a lake, that is hook a water shader to a surface layer that was mask with a river mask generated in GAEA. Think it would not render OK on closeup but from a distance, it seems to give adequate results as on this image. The settings for the water shader have to be tweaked and it does not behave the same way as when delivered on a Lake node ! I have also changed the fields shaders after noticing some problems in the higher resolution image. The fields are totally procedural except for the few Dune bushes that follow the erosion lines. BTW..... the Dune bushes are my use-all bushes on most of my projects. They are perfect ! Again thanks for your comments and have a great weekend ! Paul
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: Jo Kariboo on November 05, 2022, 02:30:53 PM
Wow !
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: mhaze on November 05, 2022, 03:14:50 PM
terrific !
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: Hannes on November 05, 2022, 06:04:48 PM
Wow, amazing!!! Maybe a little too crisp, but quite an improvement.
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: Dune on November 06, 2022, 03:05:52 AM
This light is wonderful. I like the river too. It would be good if you could eliminate that one cloud on the right, which looks like it's cut off at the top. You could try by masking it out by a simple shape in that location, you'd have to manouver a bit to find the exact spot.
And the trees bug me, the firs almost look like shadows from the other trees. I think you should use only (more species of) deciduous trees, no pines, firs or so. If you do, locate them at higher altitudes.
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: pclavett on November 06, 2022, 07:10:10 AM
Thanks for he comments Ulco ! That cloud bugged me too and debated whether to Photoshop it out ! I could try to mask it out but wonder how much of work that would entail ! As for the tree...... you are right again and figure that I should have used some birches or aspens for this type of landscape.... high altitude meadows. I will work on this and try to come up with an even better image ! As for Hannes comment on crispness...... did go overboard on the Unsharpen Mask in Photoshop ! Sorry about that ! Appreciate the comments ! Thank you so much !
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: pclavett on November 09, 2022, 12:03:28 AM
I was looking at a few posts and saw a suggestion from Hannes to another artist that he should PATH TRACE his render when there are lots of veggies ! I should come more regularly to get these kind of hints ! I had never pushed that button in the Render node..... and always was dissatisfied with the look of the vegetation at low light..... ie sunset or dawn ! I went back to my project and did a few trials..... what a difference !!! I fixed the trees, put in a few more varieties, did some tinting on them, rearanged the atmospherics after seeing a nice pink dawn a few days back and here is the result. I included the other one (for comparison) with the less than pretty trees done with the default renderer, and note as well the corrected clouds in the RT render. I sincerely thank you for your suggestions and help ! Appreciated ! Have a great week all ! Paul
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: Dune on November 09, 2022, 02:43:11 AM
You mean Path tracing. Ray tracing is the standard method and indeed has a flatter light in veggies. Your PT render comes out really well, very much improved and a great scene altogether. The cloud is gone, great; photoshop or simple shape?
Two more things I'd like to suggest. The river is part of the landscape, you said, and does have a problem. Is it that flattish overall that you could use it mask to lower it into the ground and add a plane/sphere as real water instead of just the water shader? That would get rid of the water being higher than the shores, which is visible in front. Too bad actually, as further down the river it looks just right. Perhaps a local soft sss can repair the displacement so to speak, smooth it a bit there (by surface shader after main displacement).
Another thing would be to add the internal grass pop to give the open ground just a little softness. Subtle green/brown color variation (through transform to world in the object), have it's object sunk a little in (-0.2) reduce X and Z to 0.7  and make it 0.6 high or so. To make a gradient use a distance shader to fade the grass out to distance, and try to get the ground color as grass color, so it won't stand out too much.
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: Hannes on November 09, 2022, 03:28:38 AM
I agree with Ulco about all points!!
Yes, it's the path tracer. Makes quite a difference, right? ;)
Very cool improvements so far.
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: mhaze on November 09, 2022, 03:33:14 AM
Superb work!
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: pclavett on November 09, 2022, 03:44:37 AM
Sorry for using the wrong term.....  went back to fix that with an edit of the text ! Thanks for all the suggestions for the river.... will study that and see to fix it ! At some point I might get the thing close to optimal ! For the clouds, eventually did an edit with Photoshop after spending so much time on the atmospherics and veggies...... and those hours of test renders ! Again Thanks ! Appreciated !
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: pclavett on November 10, 2022, 09:32:40 PM
This is the final that I will present on this one ! I did correct that water wall that Ulco pointed out and also improved the fields with some grass clumps ! Think that this is as good as I will be able to make on this one ! Again, your help has been appreciated and hope to be back with another one soon ! Take care ! Paul
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: Dune on November 11, 2022, 02:27:58 AM
Turned out really well! So, looking forward to your next adventure.
Title: Re: Early dawn on the Pyramid !
Post by: Hannes on November 11, 2022, 04:15:15 AM
Beautiful! A great improvement!