This is still not complete, but I am going to take a break on it for now. This is a 100% terragen render with very minor postwork in photoshop.
This image features a new breaking waves technique I've wanted to try, and it seems to have worked well. Additionally, the render time only took 3.5 hours at quality 1.0 and at 800x600. I should probably render it larger.
The terrain is a simple image map I painted in Photoshop. This allows direct control over all aspects of the terrain, as well as allowing me to quickly and easily create precise masks for placing other elements in the scene, like textures, foliage, rocks, etc. I finally figured out how to give those smooth beaches, which will really come in handy on future images. Tip: Just make sure your first terrain is really smooth with low noise, then stack the exact terrain on top of it, but with more noise, and with an altitude constraint. The smaller land displacements were done after the compute normal, so this allowed some "bulging" to simulate eroded rock.
The textures are all procedural fractal stacks filtered through a surface layer (I really love this technique).
The trees and foliage are a heavily modified tree model I found in the forums a long while back, but its so modified in the shaders, I can no longer tell who's it is (but a big thank you to whoever created it). I definitely need to work on foliage as I haven't spent much time in that department yet. Where's the procedural foliage when you need it? ;D
The water is a standard TG2 water plane with a few color and transparency tweaks.
The waves are actual painted image maps, created in Photoshop. I'll try to explain the general idea, as there are 2 things going on here. A-the water is displaced where the waves will be. B-The water is colored where the waves will be (for the foamy white). Of course, knowing where the waves will be requires knowing where the terrain is. Since I had already painted the terrain in Photoshop, this was alot easier, as I could paint how the waves wrapped and warped around rocks and onto the beach. This would be have very difficult with procedural terrain, as it would require estimation, trial, and error, and would be very time consuming. So for the displacement (A), I added a surface layer between the water shader and lake shader, and fed the wave displacement image into the displacement input of the surface layer. For the foamy white colors (B), I created another image map based off of the wave displacement image, and merged that with the water shader via "screen", so that only the white would show through. The merge shader has a mix control, and I used that to dial in the color. So with that, everything was mixed perfectly into the water surface. Though this takes some external paint work, I am very excited about this technique, as its really not all that complicated.
The clouds are a clip file I've been working on for a while.
The background and lighting are using the GI technique I've been working on. I've found it really spices up the scene, though since this is a mid day scene, it could easily have been done with standard TG2 lighting. The background itself is an image map I was using as a temp cloud background. I am considering removing this for the final scene as I think TG2's clouds are much better.
The pirate ship is a low res model I found a long while back and converted to a TGO for distant shots.
Image Stats
Res: 800x600 (I am going to try for even larger)
Detail: 1.0
AA: 10
GI: 2/2
Render time: 3.5 hours
Things I could improve:
I forgot to turn on soft shadows! I could kick myself for this.
Definitely higher resolution needed.
The waves could use even more detail, as well as showing some swells off the coast.
The foliage could use even more variation in color and type.
The clouds could be better.
The ground could use more variation.
The pirate ship could use more detail (sails anyone?)
The background image map clouds show in the top right, and though it doesn't look bad, it bugs me.
As always, many thanks for looking and any comments you may have to offer.
-Jeff
Thanks for the detailed explanation! The waves are certainly the star of the show here. This is a very interesting technique in terms of scene building even though you are obviously limited in final camera positions, but clearly you know what you wanted before you even started so that is not an issue.
The only things I would suggest working on are the darker stones and textures to give them as much detail as the rest of the scene has. Also (this could just be my eyes) but a couple of your bushes in the lower left may be floating off the sand just a little bit.
I definitely look forward to seeing this much much bigger!
Very nice work! Your technique with the waves has worked very well, but I agree with you that more detail would really pump up the realism. Some of the edges look a little too soft. I also feel that the rock formation across the bay is a little too round - most of the steep rocks that I have seen bordering water have sharper edges. That might just be a matter of taste and demonstrative of the limits of my experience (Lake Superior, North Atlantic, Mediterranean). Finally, the lower left hand corner has some bizarre textures - I feel like the uniform grey with those strange bumps is out of place. However, I really like the lighting you've managed to achieve - the plants on the right really look like they're benefitting from it, as you can see the details even in the very shadowed regions - nice work there. All in all, it's looking good, and I can't wait for the next version!
Brilliant work, its has story, atmosphere and detailed execution. With such a "short" (yeah really ;) ) render time I think a high res version would be well worth the wait.
On a side note you can easily get an image map to match a procedural terrain. Just place your camera above the area in question and make an orthographic render of the required area. Make a note of the cameras position. You can now use your orho' render to accurately position your waves, even to the extent of accounting for fairly small stones and using the ortho cameras position data position the image map accurately.
Send us a link to your ship or just pm it to me if its small enough and I'll make you some sails :)
Richard
Many thanks for the inputs guys! 8)
RArcher: There shouldn't be any limits on camera positions with this technique since its not an image projection (TG2 treats it just like any top down 2D terrain map).
Cyphyr: I agree - I've used the orthographic technique you described in the past with decent results on an image I posted here about a year ago. It definitely worked, but was not as precise since I had to paint over an actual image file (but as stated, it worked). I'm trying to get away from using image maps, but as masks, the flexibility is very useful.
Old_dude: I see what you mean. I think higher resolution will bring out more of the detail to resolve how all the terrain is set.
I'll likely render the higher res version tonight since I don't want to tie up my PC all day (else I'd be bored out of my mind!).
Wow Jeff, amazing work! Definitely image of the week material...can't think of any big flaws, only very minor ones. You could indeed try to add some extra interesting displacements to the rockformation accross the bay, though I like those round shapes as well.
The lighting is phenomenal. I'm still playing with your technique and still find it hard to implement in existing scenes, let alone implementing it from the beginning.
I agree with O_b that the vegetation really benefits from this. It is almost photographic indeed. I think this will especially be more justified in higher resolution and perhaps also slightly higher AA settings than 10.
The waves are awesome and thanks for sharing us an insight on your approach.
In overall oustanding creativity and execution, really love this work!
Now render it bigger, go! ;D (my desktop = 1680 x 1050 ;) lol)
Martin
Outstanding. Reminds me of Robinson Crusoe.
Soft shadows should be helpful, but the sparkles on the water distract me for some reason and I'm not sure if Soft Shadows will address the glimmers.
Excellent foliage. Great water front. Nice setting with the ship - this helps the overall sense of a real scene.
Clouds - I like these clouds. They look natural.
I like everything about this! Of course the waves must be mentioned explicitly, but I love how you placed the ship in the distance not making it the focus of the scene. I actually think it works great without the sail as it's just anchoring to give the pirates a chance to offload their loot :)
If anything I'd add another layer of vegetation on top of the gray rocks so it looks less like a dormant volcano. But I am dying to see it a bit larger (and with the soft shadows)!
Brilliant!
Thats the best waves I´ve seen in TG I think, including my own, of which I am proudest of all my images.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1389/1430008889_5ca695eaa0_o.jpg
There is only one little thing, you already mentioned it yourself:
There could be some hint of waves breaking further out, because inside your bay they are breaking quite heavily and your terrain looks as if it could afford some rocks under the waterline too.
Best regards,
Jan
Great Image, I think you could add more details to the middle ground, while the rock shapes on the ground are fine, they need more detail. The rest, excellent for me. Looking forward to future versions.
Wow, fantastic! I agree with the comments regarding the foreground- it's not quite as developed as the rest of the image- maybe needs some more attention.
monks
Crashed!
I attempted to render a 1024x768 version, but my blasted PC crashed! Now I have to wait until tonight to render it again... :-\
Beautiful work ! I like the rocks, their textures and the distribution of trees.
The waves seem to me missed, indeed they are higher than the beach, there is a visual effect unpleasant it is really damage for the whole of the image which I find perfect!
Very, very beautiful.
As you said... the ground and the water could use some more details, but I think the rest is just gorgeous.
- Terje
super image Jeff!... definitely looking for Man Friday here!... bummer about the crash... await the next bigger version with tongue hanging out!
:)
This image is awesome and i can't wait to see the higher resolution version. It has really good lighting which is something I am working on right now. One suggetsion I would make is to darken the sand at least a little bit where it would be wet from the water.
Lots of good suggestions here, but all-in-all it's already a really excellent and impressive image. If you continue to have trouble rendering it and don't mind packaging up all your files, I'd be glad to help on that score, unless you've got a better machine than me, which is more and more common. ;D 2.4Ghz quad core, 8GB of RAM and (perhaps most importantly) Vista x64.
Anyway when you're done with this I'll comment further. ;)
- Oshyan
Splendid image the waves that are hitting the beach are just about perfect the outer ones could in my opinion use a little more of the inner waves foam spread.
Hi All,
Many thanks for the compliments and suggestions. I was finally able to render it at 1024x768 last night (see below), which brought out even more detail. I agree with most of your suggestions and I am going to look into rendering it with these improvements, and possibly even higher resolution, like 1600x1200 (though one step at a time ;D).
I did notice there is some strange artifact on the side of the bluff to the left, so I'll have to figure out what that is and correct it.
Keep those suggestions coming!
-Jeff
That's looking really nice. I'm beggining to appreciate how much work goes into these scenes.
Just a thought, have you looked into adding some noise breakup on your white horses mask, to make it look more "bubbly" for want of a better description?
Really, really nice, Moodflow.
The waves are superbly executed, with a little more roughness in the white foam breakers it's be topped. Still, it looks beautiful as it is.
Wow, I just saw your fantastic image. I love this shore. I think this is really one of the tricky things in TG2. Btw creating ocean water is one of the tricky things in each 3d-app.
top job!...love that modified tree you have used(any chance of sharing?}....and the rocks/waves...etc, etc!!....bigger is better...beautiful!
The bigger version definitely reveals more details. :)
your renders alway blow my mind moodflow i love your trademark dreamy effect that you use in your images ;D
the trees look friggen amazing in the forground and you must really have greaty knowledge of coastal rock formations and erosion because this is exactly what it looks like! and to top it all of i have never seen waves in terragen 2 look so damn realistic!!! the foam the bending shapes the transparency at the tips all just looks so real
love the clouds as well ;)