After that utterly intriguing title, it's a miracle you actually clicked on it ;D
Now that you're here anyway: behold the "cloudy day".
I know, the scene is nothing special, however I have been working on that sort of "weather" for a bit, trying to make the sky look realistic. I think this one turned out ok, so here it is :-)
As you can see, it has two cloud layers. The focus is on the cumulus, of course. What I have tried to schieve is to mimic a pretty saturated cloud, with their edges gleaming in the sun. I spent a good deal of time on the lighting of the cloud's own shadow areas (so the darker parts of the clouds).
I'm curious to hear what you think.
Cheers,
Frank
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I really really like the cumulus layer, it looks substantial in a very cloudlike way.
The rays are also good.
I am not sure about the little flakes of the other layer though.
Maybe you have seen clouds like this, I do often see clouds of which I Think "if you did that in TG, nobody would believe you".
Best regards,
Jan
Very nice job all around, Frank. The cumulus clouds look convincing, and I personally like the small, dense little clouds up on top. My only desire would be for you to achieve a little more variation in the height of the cumulus clouds.
I really like the details on the cumulus clouds. Nice work Frank!
Very nice work Frank! I like the upper half of the image the most. The glowing sun in the top left looks really great!
The smaller cumulus clouds aren't that disturbing to me. The cirrus clouds are good, nothing wrong with them. However, the blendshader for distribution of these clouds is quite well visible. Hence the sharp weavy line the clouds follow.
All in all very good work, you've sorted out the lighting very good. Again, the glow is really great. Did you do many postwork in EXR to get this or is this (almost) straight from TG2?
Martin
Great questions and remarks, Martin. I too like the upper half most, but mainly because I simply used my "default" procedural terrain as a placeholder :-)
I agree the blendshader for the scattered cirrus is waayyy to visible, but I've improved that for the next revision. I will do the terrain in version 3 or 4, depending on the progress I make with the sky.
The image came out of TG2 pretty good already, but has been postworked nonetheless. Essentially I made 3 adjustments:
1 - the cirrus shone through the cumulus in a few places, so I copy-stamped them away
2 - the overcast part in the front cloud was very strong, so I mixed that part with a less exposed version of the same exr
3 - I carefully ran the image through Picasa's excellent "glow" filter, which works awesome with skies of all sorts. There you go, I gave away my best-kept secret. I regret it already ;-)
Cheers,
Frank
Well, your secret is in my mind now so you can delete your post ;D ;)
Thanks for elaborating on this. I've never heared about Picasa's glow filter capabilities, nor did I ever get my hands on that software at all...shame on me ;D
Now that you've mentioned what you've done to get to this result I think you did a pretty good job, because I can't see any artefacts quickly.
What are your ideas for the terrain/models?
Similar to the image of yours shown below?
http://www.basinski-net.de/scapes6/pages/valley.htm (http://www.basinski-net.de/scapes6/pages/valley.htm)
or
http://www.basinski-net.de/scapes6/pages/volcanovalley.htm (http://www.basinski-net.de/scapes6/pages/volcanovalley.htm)
Martin
Picasa really isn't that powerful, but it's good with a few of it's instant filters, which have ben created for the average hobby photographer, and hence optimized I believe for landscape scenery and portraits.
As for my ideas for the terrain - I don't know yet. Maybe like in the images you references, maybe something different.
What would you suggest?
If you're interested, you could do the terrain bit and we make it a co-worked image.
Cheers,
Frank
Good work on the clouds !
Quote from: FrankB on August 12, 2008, 06:02:55 AM
Picasa really isn't that powerful, but it's good with a few of it's instant filters, which have ben created for the average hobby photographer, and hence optimized I believe for landscape scenery and portraits.
As for my ideas for the terrain - I don't know yet. Maybe like in the images you references, maybe something different.
What would you suggest?
If you're interested, you could do the terrain bit and we make it a co-worked image.
Cheers,
Frank
Yeah, great idea, let's do that!
You can find my e-mail in my profile so we can sort out things like scales etc.
Just let me know :)
Cheers,
Martin
Very nice cumulus. Good lighting on them.
This is really very good Frank. I particularly like the detail on the underside of the clouds, this is something that I have not spent much time trying to achieve, so I await your next version eagerly.
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on August 12, 2008, 07:59:32 AM
Yeah, great idea, let's do that!
You can find my e-mail in my profile so we can sort out things like scales etc.
Just let me know :)
Cheers,
Martin
Lemme finish my next version, before I send it over. I'm trying something but struggle. If I succeed, we'll have an improved sky, if I fail, I can send you the posted version. It would be too bad if you begin work on the terrain before the lighting is set.
Cheers,
Frank
another attempt at a lower resolution and quality. Modified the cloud patterns and tweaked a little here and there.
I believe the scattered cirrus is much nicer now.
Cheers,
Frank
Nice clouds, though the cirrus is a little CG-y...or maybe I'm just getting overly critical (nature calls). Anyway, lo and behold, Frank does an image with the sun facing us. This has never happened. ;D
Quote from: calico on August 12, 2008, 12:46:55 PM
Nice ...with the sun facing us. This has never happened. ;D
you sure? I'm shocked if it turns out true. Gotta do more of those, then... to make up for the gap in my portfolio :-D
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on August 12, 2008, 07:59:32 AM
Quote from: FrankB on August 12, 2008, 06:02:55 AM
Picasa really isn't that powerful, but it's good with a few of it's instant filters, which have ben created for the average hobby photographer, and hence optimized I believe for landscape scenery and portraits.
As for my ideas for the terrain - I don't know yet. Maybe like in the images you references, maybe something different.
What would you suggest?
If you're interested, you could do the terrain bit and we make it a co-worked image.
Cheers,
Frank
Yeah, great idea, let's do that!
You can find my e-mail in my profile so we can sort out things like scales etc.
Just let me know :)
Cheers,
Martin
Hey great, both Frank and TU working on the same image. This should be one amazing picture :)
Quote from: FrankB on August 12, 2008, 11:28:14 AM
another attempt at a lower resolution and quality. Modified the cloud patterns and tweaked a little here and there.
I believe the scattered cirrus is much nicer now.
Cheers,
Frank
It's difficult to judge at this state, hence it is low quality, but I think the first version is better....lighting-wise.
I like the new cloudformations a lot and the glow looks very very nice.
I also see you made a start for me with voronoi-displacements on the terrain ;)
The reason I think the first version is (slightly) better is that the shadows/lighting of the bottom of the clouds tend to look a bit odd...a problem many people run into when lighting these type of clouds, although to a greater extend I think.
The billowy shapes tend to get too dark here and there. I know when changing the lighting-settings to solve this problem will result in a totally different lighting and glow of the top, which is just fine now.
It's always about trade-offs, tricky huh ;D
Martin
yes I agree - I have reverted back to the concept of the first version.
I'll send you the file, Martin.
Cheers,
Frank
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