This is a project I'm working on at the moment. In general I'm happy with it so far but I keep thinking its missing something. Its kind of, well, predictable. The camera angle is boring but I cant figure out where else to place it to capture the moon, refection and fire. Part of the problem is that if the Moon is any further into the corner it starts to distort terribly :( I think one solution would be to render large, at a very wide angle (so the Moon can be closer to the middle), 100° or so and crop out the center. Or I may just render the Moon separately. :-\ That aside its still missing something, some subtility of camera POV. Oh yes and the clouds could do with some serious work and I know the fire is in the wrong place :)lol
So suggestions on a postcard or C&C as usual :)
Thanks for looking
Richard
ps, Trees are Xfrog, grass is mine, fire is comped in ;)
Try changing the camera's lens angle. I think it's 60 degrees. Try 40 or 30 degrees. It will mean moving the camera to maintain the same point of view. (If you want to keep this one)
I agree to some point with njeneb. I guess that you have you a 60° horizontal FoV, while it would be better to use those 60° on a vertical FoV. You will have to change the PoV of course.
Anyhow, this is only suitable to some degree, as the narrower the field of view, the less perspective depth you have. Best example for this effect is a photography of a lonesome tree in front of a moon.
The gras looks fantastic, while the lighting on the trees is to strong for a campfire in my opinion. For my personal taste you could widen the fog and make it a bit less dense ...
You have chosen a tough scene and it is looking very good so far. Only one minor thing comes into my mind. At a full moon night, the clouds usually have more definition and the overall lighting is a tat stronger.
;) You asked ;)
Volker
Looking really nice, only thing I can think off is some scorched grass around the fire maybe. Is it me or is the moon in the sky slightly stretched .
That's awesome, I can hear the crickets. ;)
If this were a poser image there would be naked dancers!! hehe
Hehe, fortunately its not Poser lol, but thats kind of the problem, I'm trying not to be "taccy", predictable etc.
Anyway here's an update, moved the fire, changed the clouds, added some sticks and better stones. Still not happy, maybe a propper highrez render will make me feel better :)
C&C asked for :()
Richard
Quote from: cyphyr on September 18, 2009, 10:03:31 PM
.... In general I'm happy with it so far but I keep thinking its missing something. ...
İf you want photorealism maybe your brain sees the suble unnatural things.
İ am not a photographer but if you would take a shot here i think everything except the moon and near the fire would be dark or in silhouette and maybe more red in/near fire...
But from the artistic side i think maybe 1 or 2 man near the fire would be enough and maybe longer shadows?
And by the way this is realy nice as it is :)
Kadri.
Thank you Richard. For a million ideas ! ;)
Quoteİ am not a photographer but if you would take a shot here i think everything except the moon and near the fire would be dark or in silhouette and maybe more red in/near fire.
I agree, but..., its a balancing act, I don't want the image to become too dark and the image has to have areas of detail, of interest in it.
QuoteBut from the artistic side i think maybe 1 or 2 man near the fire would be enough and maybe longer shadows?
I don't have the skill to do anything decent with poser, my only way of doing people and I really don't like the basic poser output, ok if your character is a hard edged shock trooper but not so good for a softly lit cloth and skin texture, well not in my clumsy hands lol. I intend to add a few more objects about the fire, stacks of wood, sticks and detritus, maybe a small boat! lol
Longer shadows, yes, the light source is too high, at the top of the flames, thanks, I'll drop it down a meter or so.
Thanks for your comments
Richard
Quote from: cyphyr on September 20, 2009, 06:32:05 PM
...I don't have the skill to do anything decent with poser, my only way of doing people and I really don't like the basic poser output, ok if your character is a hard edged shock trooper but not so good for a softly lit cloth and skin texture, well not in my clumsy hands lol...
Put a big appropriate object there where you want a realistic shadow and comp the man over it . Shot your own photo or from web .Your web site is realy nice i think you can make realy what you want ;)
Kadri.
Here's the tdg
:)
Richard
Love the image richard.
Thought I'd try one without the fire
:)
Richard
Niiiiiice. I like both, but i'm more inclined to the one with the fire. Also I noticed that the clouds in front of the moon changed. And did the moon get bigger?
I really like the one with out the fire. It's a little dark for my monitor to see it well. (Monitor has terrible contrast) I think a low strength light, not a sun, would work by the camera. Or maybe some dark ambient occlusion.
On such an evening you will notice that real world clouds which are in front of the moon as here, you will see that the "sliver lining" of that cloud is a reddish/ brown color as in this Image (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://image28.webshots.com/28/7/98/76/289879876CaaBBd_fs.jpg&imgrefurl=http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1289879876049134994CaaBBd&usg=__b3hDfNkYyaLv08f8F-FGQY6QHSQ=&h=1360&w=2048&sz=115&hl=en&start=27&tbnid=QTZ87DidXDtYbM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmoon%2Bwith%2Bclouds%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D21)
Regards to you.
Cyber-Angel
Here at work, using an older TFT with a less bright display, the images enhanced very much. I do like both images and could not make a decision, the overall effect is too different.
Volker
Volker is correct. Each image has a different mood. It is really up to you which is best for the subject.
Well I think I'm going for the fire-less one for the moment. I may return to the fire later...
Here's an update anyway. I've dropped the moon, I'll just comp that in later, changed the fog and cloud layers. Generally rendering again and again, seems never ending lol
C&C welcome
:)
Richard
WOW! I would call this ready for the Poster print. If you have time, render it big. This would be cool hanging on your wall.
Thankyou :)
Actually this is a commission for a DVD cover so it will have to be rendered bigger, don't know if it could get to poster size until we get 64bit TG (bring it on). I'm doing another render atm, some extra objects, bushes (with high spec leaves), some spec on the stones by the shore, and another cloud bank!
The trouble is I don't get to see what effects all this has on the image unless I render it high res ~ takes a while :) The fog has a detail level of 4! Fortunately that's only 48 samples but any lower and it got grainy. I may have to do the same for the atmos, its at 64 samples for now and there is grain still visible, not sure if I mind or not...
Thanks for looking
Richard
I'm learning that much of what worked well on the free version, needs to have much more detail when rendered larger with the Deep Edition. I used to figure 6 to 10 hours for an image. Now it's 14 to 22 hours.
So, I am being much more particular of what I render. For now, I'm playing with settings and task priority. I will not be setting the task to 'Real Time' again.
If I had another computer, I'd only run Terragen 2 on both logical processors (P4 HT) with a minimum OS. But, that's someday...
Cool work Richard!
The fog is really nice, a bit smok(e?)y :)
Did you use a horizontal FOV in your camera?
I might be mistaken but I thought that if you're rendering portrait images you can better use a vertical FOV to avoid distortions like you can see with your moon.
Cheers,
Martin
very nice last image...the whispy fog is like ghosts....I like that!, the fire was a nice touch, thi=ough the lighting (source) did seem a bit off colour wise and falloff??
Nice. Realy spooky if you put 2 glowing eyes somewhere (cliche i know ;D)
İ like this more.
Kadri.
I love the grain (read LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!) It really adds to the mood and gives the for some movement (i.e. in the tree).
Overall I am astonished. I would have not believed that the silent scenery at the beginning of this thread could change to this.
How much luck did you have on the fog???!? :) :D ;) ;D
Volker
Another update.
Thanks for the feedback guys, sometimes I cant see the wood for the trees ::)
The fog started as trial and error but as I had made this scene with the camera at 0,0,0 it was easy to position the fog in the preview window.
As regards the fire, yes the fall off is wrong but untill someone works out a function driven distance shader (that was a hint, hence the bold red :)) we have no control over that (I think)
I like the mist, its a bit much in places but I also like the "rays" coming from the Moon ...
Enjoy
C&C
Richard
Quote from: cyphyr on September 22, 2009, 01:34:12 PM
a function driven distance shader
Already on the way ... an image should follow tonight ;)
The image is near the break of overdone ... but only near. Now it is again a big enhancement. Like the new Veggie-work (placement and shaders) and lighting.
Edit: The function I am after will not be suitable for the falloff of light. A normal distance shader but is much nicer when plugging a square scalar after the Distance shader.
Really like the last few Richard. For me, what I would like to see is a reduction to the atmosphere and cloud quality to create more grain and go with a completely black and white high contrast image.
very unearthly scene, Richard, very interesting. Have to agree with Volker in that the image went through quite an evolution from the first version to this.
Cheers
Frank
A very intriguing image now - I'd be curious to see it with the moon strength toned down just a little.
Moons is comped in in Post (note to self, learn about alpha masking)
Thinned the mist, a bit.., dont think I did much else. As in all the images posted here I have saved out the exr, run that through Photomatrix (hdr program) and then layered the result over the default bmp render (at about 18% this time).
I'm wondering whether to up the translucency and spec in the trees and grass to that of the bushes (or similar levels), what do you think?
I may also work on the cloud layers in a separate file and clip them later
Enjoy
Richard
A little light spilling through the leaves (translucency) may look good. I think there is enough white in the image. I don't think I would boost up the specular component of the leaves.
The second in the series is my favorite. These are really sharp! Great idea with the stretched voronoi (or however you did it) mist.
The last one looks very atmospheric, though I personally miss the light from the fire a bit... but generally spoken, there are good reasons both for and against it. Very nice job with the fog! :)
love it, creepy and spooky. 8)
the wisps of fog look as like they are alive themselves.