10 hours to render on 4 cores.
Quality 0.8
The rock displacement is an image map heightfield I drew up in photoshop. I then added additional displacements as fake stones. Then I "surfaced" it using image maps for color variation only (and to speed up the rendertimes somewhat). I think this could have been done just as well with power fractals and some more work.
The background was created using 2 cloud layers. The first was a high cloud layer to simulate marine layer stratus. I wanted the sun coming down and illuminating the rock, so I created a hole in the clouds for this to happen. I originally wanted to use an inverse distance shader to create the hole, but this didn't work, and I can only chalk it up to a bug, as it works otherwise on surfaces. I ended up having to use a custom image map, negated to create a hole.
I also wanted rainy/misty fog with visible layers and depth to add to the "ominous" feel. This was the second cloud layer, which was filtered out using a distance shader. This worked out well.
The water is a standard TG2 water plane, with the wave scale jacked up a bit. For the foam, I used 2 power fractals merged using the "difference" parameter, which gave a really nice looking foam look. To make it constrain around the rock, I had to use a custom image map based off of the original displacement image map. This is the only way I've been able to do it so far. Additionally, with so much wave activity hitting the rocks, I attempted to show this as water flowing down the rocks as the waves pulled back, but the effect didn't fully come out.
The birds were originally added as billboard images, but as such, didn't look right in the lighting (too dark). So I placed them in in photoshop.
The image itself was color/contrast corrected, with some mild sharpening. All in all, not much post processing, which is what I love about TG2. The images come out looking pretty sweet already.
Cons:
I really don't like some of the rock displacements.
Water should be more up on the rocks and washing down them, as well as splashes in the air - something to try on a new image.
I wanted more sun rays breaking through with slightly darker clouds and background. But I'll take this for now.
Many thanks for looking...
Great mood! There is a little bit too much warping here in the foam and in the rock textures.
Quote from: old_blaggard on May 24, 2008, 12:41:34 AM
Great mood! There is a little bit too much warping here in the foam and in the rock textures.
I know. I'm still trying to find out the cause.
Quote from: old_blaggard on May 24, 2008, 12:41:34 AM
Great mood! There is a little bit too much warping here in the foam and in the rock textures.
Aye... but the distant waves/swells look so cool! ;) The birds should be about 50% smaller and well, should be gulls (which have long slender wings to take advantage of the wind currents over the water)... But I will say, as a starting point, this is fantabulous! The fog is just right and the rock formation is spot on. Now just to tweak those displacements a bit... maybe a diminished reflective shader along the water line where the water might splash? Still... awesome work so far! Keep pushing forward! :)
This is great, I like it a lot! Keep it up.
Great stuff! As a composition it looks pretty professional.
I know what you mean about the rock displacements- being a terrainer the outcrop could pass for a tree bole or stump; probably the fractal functions/settings you used.
The water is superb.
monks
Can you use a cloud layer with high edge sharpness and desity for water splashes? Would take a lot of time to get it right...
I like the foam a lot, but as OB said, the warping on the rocks is a shame...
Good Job though!
I like it, warp or not. This is a beautiful scene and reminds me of paintings I've seen. Just FABULOUS!
you are too hard on yourself!!...i like this alot...look forward to seeing this evolve!
Never mind the warping, this is excellent.
I understand and appreciate O_B's observations, nevertheless. His critical eye has challenged me many times to just do better. And I appreciate that.
Moodflow, this is marvelous work. Do what you can and then let us know how you make these beautiful stones. Maybe we can learn together how to improve these by removing the warps...or whatever it is. I still want to learn how to make my fake stones look like that. ;D
Splendid scene Moodflow with impressive rock and foam simulation. Looks like a great home for a colony of Puffins. Thanks for your technique info on the foam procedure.
Arisdemos
AMAZING scene moodflow love everything about this scene the rock the foam the water the sky and clouds!!!
reminds me of the sub antarctic campbell islands which are about 900 km of the south island of newzeland.
Many thanks for all of your comments. I definitely want to refine this rock technique some more. I can't wait to see what we'll all have in a couple of years. The quality of all of our images has increased tremendously over the past year, and the new TG2 release has really made a big difference in researching new techniques.
Good work, I like the atmo !
Image of the week I'd say. If there was a larger version I'd choose it as my new desktop wallpaper ;-)
For sure it's a very nice image. Bravo!