It's been a long while since I've posted anything here. This image is inspired by a recent thread about matte paintings in the open discussion thread. It still needs some work; the terrain/snow is too rough, I want more variation in the snow's cutoff elevation, and the lighting and clouds need some work to make it a bit more epic.
Render time: 13 hours 40ish minutes
Detail: .9
AA: 4
GI: 1/3
http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Mountain-WIP-138786295
The mountains are looking sweet... carry on.
Try seeding it with some trees first. They tend to cover a lot of areas where you may not like something. It's also simple and easy.
I'm with LC, the mountains look good
i think more variation to the snow's cutoff elevation would be a good improvement, and some populations would look good too.
Here is a bit of an update. I've added some trees and a lake to make the forground a bit more interesting.
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Good improvements - the low cloud is a nice touch, and the epic scale becomes more evident with the trees - look forward to the full version.
Yes, the trees really help with scale. The clouds look right also. Looking forward to the final render!
like I said at DA...very impressive mountainscape!
Another update. I've gotten rid of the low fog layer (I may put it back in later but for now it is not worth the added render time). I've also smoothed out the mountain itself, I think it looks far more natural now. Lastly I've decreased the size of the trees and added a lot more of them to create a more wildernessy (yes, I made that word up) feel to the image.
For further renderings I want to change up the cloud scape. I want to keep it nice and interesting w/o making the scene become overcast.
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I really like this! Great image and impression of depth and scale. Everything in this is great, except maybe the terrain near the shore, where it's apparent that details are missing, but a "wow" for the rest!
Frank
Awesome looking so far!
Frank said it all for me already.
Looking forward to see your next iteration on this one.
Cheers,
Martin
Next one. This is pretty much the same as the last one, just with less clouds, more trees, and a bit of work done on the shore. For the next one I'm probably going to focus on the clouds/atmosphere.
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the clouds on the previous one were better.
They add a deeper mood to the atmosphere... I hope to see it bigger sooner or later !!!
I agree with that the previous clouds were better. The moode they provided was far superior than a nice sunny day. I've been playing with RArcher's wild clouds and I think I've found what I'm looking for. Eventually I hope to make this poster sized but that could take a while on my dinky little laptop ;D
I don't want to sound harsh but I would revert completely to the previous version. It's just so much better.
Better composition, better tree-distribution, better lighting, better clouds etc.
I really would focus on the shore for now. If it's up to me of course :)
Martin
TU I am sorry but I cannot bow to all of your wishes. I agree with you that the previous version is much better in all the areas that you mentioned, but I am not going back to the previous cloud setup because I believe that the setup I am testing now is far more interesting in apperance (it doesn't help that accidentally saved over the last version I posted :P ) which should make it a more complete image. Hopefully you will agree with my assessment, and if not I hope you keep you suggestions coming since the more input I get the better it will turn out IMO.
Ghehe, no problem of course. If you say the new cloudsetup is even more interesting then I'm just curious :)
Quote from: darthvader1 on October 05, 2009, 05:35:25 PM
I am not going back to the previous cloud setup because I believe that the setup I am testing now is far more interesting in apperance (it doesn't help that accidentally saved over the last version I posted :P )
I wait for that impatiently :D
Tremendous mountains - realistic.
Here is a quick render of the clouds so far. The cloud layer with th redirect shader needs more samples to get rid of the grain (I am alsl going to tone down that layer to make it less crazy). Also I may move the sun around a bit to see what type of lighting I can get on the terrain.
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WOW! ... That looks VERY NICE. I love the tattered look to the edges of the clouds and the different types. The sunlight angle and quality is just right.
Look forward to seeing it with the trees and water back in. :)
Cool stuff!
~Micheal
Looking pretty good, although I agree it could do with being a little less extreme.
Here it is! It took longer than I thought it would (part of that was having to rerender because I forgot to reactivate all of the surface shaders) but it is finally here. I also forgot to up the density of the trees so they are more sparse than I want.
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Very good render. I would like to build a cabin there.
Looks very cinematic! Well done! :o
Thank you!
I think it's a fantastic mountain pic. My only suggestion would be to crop out some or all of the dark cloud at the upper right corner, as it draws the eye too much. Otherwise, great job!
Awesome render, intense clouds. :)
Thanks! The next one is from much closer to the ground so there are a bunch of trees in the foreground with the mountain poking up in the distance. It hopefully will turn out nice.
Next one!
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It's beautiful. I hate to say that it still looks a little CG. I don't know how to get around this. It's the nature of having limited models of foliage mostly. Not to mention ram and time/render difficulties. This is really good. Well done.
I wonder - have you tried using TU's Snow pack? I just think the snow layer doesn't look quite right - too thin.
EPIC AWESOME. :) :) :) 8) 8) 8)
the trees in the foreground are a excellent addition.
Thank you all! I have tried TU's snow some but it would probably be worth it to invest more time in that approach.
I got TU's snow to work for me so it no longer looks like the mountain was painted white. Here is a crop render.
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That looks much better. Just at the base of the mountain there is an unpopulated area. I would use a power fractal with a lot of breakup and spacing, so it looks like plants grow there.
The CG look is really starting to look more photo like.
great !
now, some light on the trees so they stop to look flat ;)
Yep, that snow is a definite improvement. Seth's suggestion sounds good.
Nice render Darthvader1.
The trees...i wonder if there is a problem with the textures? The Sun seams to be at the right side and low.We realy should see one side of the tree brighter.
Are they in shadow or something else?
İf you change this , i think it's done , like the others here said.
Kadri.
Kadri you are correct, the trees are in shadow along with pretty much the entire planet except for the mountain. I do like the suggestion of lighting up the trees so I will fiddle with the cloud seeds or put in a lightsource to provide some illumination.
probably make the shader a little bit brighter (the color component) is set to 0.5 or something like that I think.
As the lighting on the background is so nice, it also would make sense to render two passes - one as it is right now. Another one just with the trees and an extra light. nothing else, not atmosphere, no mountains. And then add this extra pass on Photoshop on top of the original render.
Of course later on it would be nice if lights could be restricted to certain objects.
I've been following this thread and am very appreciative. It is really, really cool to watch an OK image grow into an incredible image - which it has. And then Walli drops that nugget of gold. Never in a million years did I ever consider having multiple renders for lighting purposes!!
Thanks for the suggestion Walli! I am going to echo pfrancke in never thinking about the separate render for the lighting on the trees, I will definitely try that. ;D
Just to be extra clear on this Walli - you would simply switch off the atmo and mountains and re-render?
I was thinking at work last night. It would be nice to be able to render in layers. Also have different component passes,ie; shadow pass, alpha pass, specular pass... Then compositing the elements back together would give excellent control.
I was thinking of how to use alpha channels to combine 3D renders from other programs (buildings) into rendered Terragen 2 landscapes.
well, most other applications offer passes for such stuff and also offer the option to limit light to certain objects. Thats not possible in TG at the moment - but there is still the old way of doing this. Actually sometimes I still do it this way in other applications too, as it can give you more creative freedom.
The only thing that needs light in this case are the trees - and so only the trees should be visible. If atmosphere still is in the scene, then the sky and probably complete scene will get brighter.
I would have to check the options, but I think i would:
-remove all objects/populations except the trees here in the foreground
-turn off atmosphere
-give the terrain a black surface
-play with the light settings until you get a nice effect on the trees
-in Photoshop add it on top of the regular render. As everything else is black you simply can add/screen, no need of an alpha or object channel
looks really cool----maybe some mist on the bottom of the mountain to get rid of the snowline
Next one. I've used Walli's suggestion of rendering a separate pass for the vegitation and I must say that I am surprised at the results. Though In addition to that I also did do some work with layer variations and blending masks. As always input is appreciated.
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wow, really shaped that image up!
I think from now on it is more of a subjective approach. I would make the trees a little brighter. But don't listen to me. İt is your world.
Nice journey you had here :)
Kadri.
very nice work!
Superb work. :)
Thank you everybody ;D At this point I can't think of anything to add so I am just going to render it with higher quality and quite a bit bigger, it probably will take a couple days but hopefully you will enjoy the result!
WAIT!
Probably too late but, stick some trees back at the base of the mountain, man! ;)
I think I'm in love with that mountain... :o Personally I think the image rocks right now... but bigger, sweet.
Simon.
Looking forward to the big one!
Here is is nice and large! The clouds could use some more samples as the larger image size shows some grain that was hidden in the smaller versions. Enjoy :)
http://gannaingh32.deviantart.com/art/Mountain-WIP-138786295
very nice and and it made fun to see this epic picture evolving!
SWEET.
Nice cloud rendering. I'm new at Terragen and I still haven't mastered the Big detailed clouds yet.
Keep sharing.
Marc
This is a stunning image, DV! I especially like the very subtle glistening of the snow. But I did notice what perhaps is a render fault; right in the middle there's a colour difference between right and left, a straight vertical line. Is this the alpha version?
---Dune
WOW, I said WOW :o :o!!!!
Love this sense of going up the hill, exploring the area and discovering this magnificent scene!!!
S T U N N I N G.... And I'm still in love with that mountain.
Simon.
Thank you everybody ;D
@ Dune: I don't see any line, but it could be that I've looked at the picture for too long so I don't notice it. If it is there it's probably the edge of a crop render that I forgot to blend in to the other half of the image.
Great stuff. Must admit, I can't see the line Dune refers to.
Here's the line. Indeed, looks like a forgotten blend in a crop.
Glad to be of assistence ;)
---Dune