Okay, for anyone who cares how I did this, I turned off the sun and put in 5 colored lights with radius 2 and strength 20000 for each. They were placed along a "river" carved from a heightfield generated by tg2. There is a lake underneath the small cloud layer, this I hoped would help scatter the color. I am having an issue with the bottom of the image where it looks like i carved part of the cloud layer into a rectangle. If anyone knows how to fix this, please tell me what I need to do.
I attached two copies. The first has raytracing disabled. The second has ray tracing enabled. Render time was 30 minutes for the first and 6 and half hours for the second. I would like your opinions as to which is better. For color reference, the lights in order from bottom of image to top are pure blue, pure lime green, pure red, pure purple, pure orange. The "snow" has a luminosity of 0.25 The land is generic tg2 color.
I attached the tgd. It is for the raytraced version but to get the first picture just disable ray tracing in the render tab.
The rectangular forms are reflections of the mountains, IMO. Perhaps decrease reflectivity.... Nice effect, by the way. Very ... eh... Milkyway-like.
---Dune
Impossible to say which is best since I've no idea what it should look like!
Quote from: Kevin F on December 15, 2009, 03:05:06 AM
Impossible to say which is best since I've no idea what it should look like!
I should have explained a little more. The image is supposed to look like there is a strand of Christmas lights underneath the water and fog.
Quote from: Dune on December 15, 2009, 02:28:55 AM
The rectangular forms are reflections of the mountains, IMO. Perhaps decrease reflectivity.... Nice effect, by the way. Very ... eh... Milkyway-like.
---Dune
Decrease reflectivity on what? The snow or the cloud layer, or the water? or something else entirely?
This is a tough set up to critique. I have not tried this with lights, and I can't think of any other images like this I have seen.
It's an interesting process, and with some work the image could be really awesome. I would try the lights above the water surface. Maybe add a surface layer for a reflective shader. The surface layer controls can adjust the amount of reflectivity on the slopes.
Quote from: njeneb on December 15, 2009, 05:48:08 PM
This is a tough set up to critique. I have not tried this with lights, and I can't think of any other images like this I have seen.
It's an interesting process, and with some work the image could be really awesome. I would try the lights above the water surface. Maybe add a surface layer for a reflective shader. The surface layer controls can adjust the amount of reflectivity on the slopes.
my idea is that i may have the lights shine rays through the clouds onto the mountains at some point.
I'm going to try just turning off the "snow" layer and render what i have then. see if that fixes the rectangle cut out in the clouds.
If you have a lake in the valley, there's a reflectivity of 1 in the water shader (I suppose). Turn that one down (even to 0). Or perhaps replace the watershader+lake by a thin but quite dense and even cloud layer, enough for the light to shine through, but without the reflectivity.
Quote from: Dune on December 16, 2009, 02:02:25 AM
If you have a lake in the valley, there's a reflectivity of 1 in the water shader (I suppose). Turn that one down (even to 0). Or perhaps replace the watershader+lake by a thin but quite dense and even cloud layer, enough for the light to shine through, but without the reflectivity.
I'll try turning down the reflectivity first. Then if that doesn't work i'll remove the lake.
Turning the master reflectivity in the water shader to 0 fixed the rectangle cutout in the clouds :D yay! this is what it turned out like.
I'm trying to figure out what the random jagged line is in the bottom center of the image though. It showed up in varying degrees in the other renders I did. I figure it must be some glitch in the clouds, because no matter how high the depth was or how low it was, the line never disappeared.
Now that the clouds have been mostly fixed, i'm going to try messing with the snow on the mountains to find what i like the best, and then add more lights further down the river.
That "random jagged line" is caused by the clouds starting to hide your terrain. Might want to decrease cloud hardness.
Unless what you're talking about is those black streaks... Get rid of those in Photoshop.
these are what i'm talking about, but i believe i may have inadvertently cleared them up in my current render (in progress as i post) when i had to increase coverage adjust to fit my needs. It should be done rendering in about 30 minutes, give or take 10 minutes lol.
Well, if they're still there, one word...
Photoshop!
Quote from: TheBlackHole on December 17, 2009, 11:06:17 PM
Well, if they're still there, one word...
Photoshop!
lol true. although i use paint.net or gimp. i can't afford photoshop :P
the latest render will be uploaded in about 20 minutes.
newest render. comments and critiques welcomed. suggestions as well lol.
Pretty good! I noticed you forgot to Photoshop out those lines. All you have to do is use the Clone Stamp or the Healing Brush.
EDIT: I actually read your previous post. Use the clone tool or the smudge or smear tools.
yeah, i might when i get closer to finishing it lol
i have this done. it took 1 hour and 20 minutes to render.
This last render looks cool. I think you figured out what you had in mind. At least it looks like what I thought you had in mind.
Nice artistic look. Now I look forward to see what else you have in mind. 8)
Quote from: njeneb on December 19, 2009, 08:19:30 AM
This last render looks cool. I think you figured out what you had in mind. At least it looks like what I thought you had in mind.
Nice artistic look. Now I look forward to see what else you have in mind. 8)
Was it something like this?
I think there is something wrong with the center tree with the lighting.
I plan to fix that and maybe put lights on the tree somehow. Might put some kind snow flurrying if I can fake it with clouds. I know render time will skyrocket with any of this stuff though.
I think the tree is growing out of the water. Move it back a bit, and this will be fine.
Quote from: njeneb on December 19, 2009, 09:21:13 PM
I think the tree is growing out of the water. Move it back a bit, and this will be fine.
yeah i'm 45 minutes into a render with pseudo-flurries and saw it in the last render too. now i get to stop it, move the tree, and start it again. yay! :P
how far back should i put it, or do i just raise it up some? which you think would be better?
I would make it to the left of the higher tree. This image does have symmetry. But do what you want. This is your art after all. I listen to the advise I get here, but I usually use it on the next project. I don't like redoing work I think is finished.
Quote from: njeneb on December 19, 2009, 11:15:11 PM
I would make it to the left of the higher tree. This image does have symmetry. But do what you want. This is your art after all. I listen to the advise I get here, but I usually use it on the next project. I don't like redoing work I think is finished.
i dont think this is finished just yet
i'm rendering at the moment with it just raised and the "snow flurries"
i'll try a version just to the left afterwards
Doesn't exactly look like snow flurries to me and i'm not quite sure why the whole thing got brighter.
If you need to see what i've done i have attached the tgd for this render.
It's a volumetric lighting effect, I think. I have noticed this in my new renders with the new version. Personally I think it's a great feature. But I am not sure how to control it, yet...
Quote from: njeneb on December 20, 2009, 08:19:58 AM
It's a volumetric lighting effect, I think. I have noticed this in my new renders with the new version. Personally I think it's a great feature. But I am not sure how to control it, yet...
I have only got free version which is still 2.0.3.1 so i don't think I have that yet.
I wouldn't think it would be this hard to MAKE the cloud look like crap, but apparently it is lol.
I could be that the cloud is much larger than the area you wish to have covered. Try the measure tool (it looks like a vertical ruler) it's at the top of the preview window. Measure across the preview window and see how large that is. Then check the scales of the cloud. The cloud scales may need to be adjusted.
Quote from: njeneb on December 20, 2009, 08:29:55 AM
I could be that the cloud is much larger than the area you wish to have covered. Try the measure tool (it looks like a vertical ruler) it's at the top of the preview window. Measure across the preview window and see how large that is. Then check the scales of the cloud. The cloud scales may need to be adjusted.
I'll try it right quick, but the only thing i can remember available to control scale wise is the height and altitude.
197.23 meters wide
889.035 meters deep
I found that i had inserted the cumulus layer as 3d (volumetric) and i have now switched it to 2d and trying that. Plus I used a distance shader to crop the cloud to what I can see.
You'll want to change the density fractal part of the cloud. There is the feature scale, the lead in scale, and the smallest scale. The feature scale is the size. The lead in controls the coverage size, and the smallest scale is for detail.
just letting everyone know that i have not dropped this project. it's just being put off till i get more time. as in sometime after christmas lol
i'm trying to work some more on this project. i've just run into a problem getting falling snow into the picture. I figured dense clouds but I can't seem to get it right.
This is what I got. I suppose it could be snow....if there was a really high wind blowing in the direction the camera is facing.
Let me know if anyone has any ideas as to how to get snowfall in TG2.
I attached the TGD for this image.
I like the last render the best. The snow looks ok, it can't be easy to do it. The lighting and the rest is very Christmas looking.
Yeah I think I'm going to say this one is finished.