Hi all,
This is my latest iteration on a rock surface I'm working on lately. I like this version very much so far.
I used 2 strata shaders in here.
One for the rough big strata features and one for very small stretchy details.
You can see this best in the directly lit part.
Further I spent some time on adding rocks. I didn't plan to do that initially but after encouraging critics by for example Bob (Choronr) I decided to give it a go.
Thanks for this Bob et al. :)
I hope to make more images with this tgd-file. I think the lighting can be optimized a little, but I'm pretty close to what I have in mind.
More to follow soon hopefully!
Cheers,
Martin
great (!) render Martin :)
I *absolutely* love the bottom left quadrant most :)
Cheers,
Frank
This rocks! (OK, that's a bit cheesy.) Seriously realistic.
Thanks guys! :)
Quote from: FrankB on February 01, 2010, 04:02:04 PM
I *absolutely* love the bottom left quadrant most :)
Ghehe, I'm glad you like it, but why? Sometimes you look quite differently to TG-work than me, so I'd like to know why you like this in particular.
I honestly think the bottom left part is the worst. It contains the most flaws.
Cheers,
Martin
Click image for slightly bigger version please :)
(http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/032/e/b/Strata_Rock_Wall_by_Tangled_Universe.jpg) (http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/032/e/b/Strata_Rock_Wall_by_Tangled_Universe.jpg)
Looks even better! The lighting is superb, and the vegetation complements the surfacing.
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on February 01, 2010, 04:20:41 PM
Ghehe, I'm glad you like it, but why? Sometimes you look quite differently to TG-work than me, so I'd like to know why you like this in particular.
I honestly think the bottom left part is the worst. It contains the most flaws.
hehe, I almost knew you would say this :)
Besides that a bush is growing out of one big rock, the stones are just so natural, and ingeniously colored, and perfectly embedded into their environment. Seriously, this looks great!
The central part of the image is probably what you have been working on the most. I see 2 stratas that both tilt against each other to create these rectangular shapes, and I understand what you are trying to achieve with this. I've tried to create these hard rock outcrops as well numerous times, but never got a got solution for it.
Your is a step ahead, but in my view it's still not 100% natural, whereas in the bottom left part, you clearly achieved that!
Cheers,
Frank
...
Great !
Kadri
Reminds me of the pass through Black Rock Canyon in Arizona. I like it!
my favourite part is on the bottom left part : the little rocks on the flatter place ! ^^
very good job, dude !
I too would agree that the bottom left part is my favorite.
The whole left side is very realistic to me. Hell the whole image is great. Your dedication to the procedural solutions really shows Martin.
Very nice indeed. I have been trying to get a similar effect for 2 weeks now :) You say only 2 stratas? No Fractals? Is this before or after the Compute Terrain? Did you need to use Twist at all?
Anyway thanks for the post.
Martin definitely had to use many fractals here. I think he meant that the rectangular little outcrops in the center were made using to strata nodes.
If I recall correctly this setup uses 3 or 4 fractals for the displacements. The main shapes are controlled mainly by one fractal.
There are 2 strata, the first tilts from the top left to the bottom right direction and the second strata tilts from the bottom left to the top right.
They both have quite different settings as you may notice.
I also used twist and shear here, but very very gently. I use them with tilt directions of around 0.1, positive or negative and on both X and Z axes.
Wow - that's awesome *jealous*
Excellent as always. A little contrasty on the right and upper sides of the image, but the left bottom looks like a photo.
Absolutely beautiful procedural magic. More, please! How long is render time? Animation? ;D
- Oshyan
Amazing *speechless*
Thank you all! A new iteration will be posted tonight! (GMT+1).
Quote from: Oshyan on February 04, 2010, 03:13:04 AM
Absolutely beautiful procedural magic. More, please! How long is render time? Animation? ;D
- Oshyan
Thank you oshyan. More is on its way :) The rendertime is pretty dependant on certain nodes.
For example I used intersect underlying in favor depression mode to fill pieces of gaps created by the strata and displacements.
This particular node increases rendertime quite some.
Also I used some reflective shaders among different layers which also adds.
(using subtle non-white specular reflections creates very nice and subtle color-variations)
By the way, this images indeed also has some white spots in the original render. Around 40, while in some images I had a lot more. Shall try and see if incresing displacement tolerance will solve this. With reasonable rendertimes hopefully.
Cheers,
Martin
The render I announced was a failure :) lol
I made another, quite extreme, but I think it is kinda cool.
Am rendering a second version with some more vegetation.
Tonight I'll see if I can add some more breakup and stuff.
Cheers,
Martin
Ooo, liking that. Very realistic!
- Oshyan
This looks very cool. The only problem I have is this cubic fracturing occurs with igneous rocks. The color suggests that this is a sandstone, or possibly a metamorphic rock formation.
When the lava cools quickly on the surface it fractures. Often this happens with a voronoi pattern. But if the lava hits very cold water, it crystallizes into a cubic pattern like you have here. An example would be the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. (I think those are eight sided...)
I like this last one and agree with njeneb, the formations remind me of Alcantara Gorge in Sicily (http://images.google.ie/images?q=alcantara%20gorge%20sicily&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi (http://images.google.ie/images?q=alcantara%20gorge%20sicily&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi))
I visited during my honeymoon, I must dig out some photos of this and also some interesting rocks on Mt Etna.
Fantastic!
@njeneb - with my pedantic hat on - six-sided. Or, to be more precise: "Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven and eight sides." (Wikipedia)
Fabulous!!
Next one...added some more bushes, a little breakup of the strata (but still not enough and needs finetuning)...well, just click on the image please :)
(http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/036/3/3/Neat_Strata_by_Tangled_Universe.jpg) (http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/036/3/3/Neat_Strata_by_Tangled_Universe.jpg)
i really liked the previous one !!!
It looks fantastic but I have two comments:
- probably it looks much better if the strata would shine through in only like 50% of the scene
- there is a little bit too much reflectivity for a sand stone - I think :)
Cheers,
Frank
i really like the displacements on the render above, i find it interesting.. 8) :)
id like to see it with a different surface, like a strata ice wall or something
I agree with Frank, the looks very cool but it seems to overload the image the way it currently is. Nice work!
Well I agree with Frank too of course, since I said it already myself I needed to work on it ;)
Frank, the reflections are 2 reflection shaders with reflectivity, intensity and spread tuned around 0.5, so they aren't bright at all.
What you see is only bright lighting and GI.
I think I won't feel up to trying to get this a whole different look, like ice for example. Too much work :P
I will post an update of this soon! :)
Cheers,
Martin
Now with some more breakup and bushes...please click on the thumb
(http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/038/f/7/Neat_Strata_v2_by_Tangled_Universe.jpg) (http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/038/f/7/Neat_Strata_v2_by_Tangled_Universe.jpg)
I really like the breakup on the smooth area of the outcrop. This looks real 'aged' and weathered. The bushes also fit well. Wild stuff!
Great work!
Martin your work is amazing . I don't say much because i would look like a flatterer (?) ;D
Kadri.
Thank you all guys :)
I have one or two things in mind I could improve, but I'll see whether if I continue with this...
Cheers,
Martin
Setting like you do here should be in TG2 as presets Martin. There are other good works too of course .
If Planetside work with you , pay you i don't know ...
Of course it is good as a 3'th party product too or free (it is too good to be free , i know) ;D
But it would make TG2 stronger if it was directly in TG2 .
Just thinking loud :)
Cheers.
Kadri.
Well thank you Kadri :)
Of course I can make these things presets, but I'm not sure if it will make a really good product.
It would be nice for still shots, but not for animations, since it is only a big ditch with displacements added to it.
Another difficult aspect is the complexity.
I don't mind sharing these kinds of things with Planetside to pack up with an installer and write some instructions for it.
The decision on including these kinds of things is theirs, not mine :)
Cheers,
Martin
I know from Lightwave that they are buying some of the plugins and sometimes the plugin makers too .
Planetside are doing in some way the same i think with Jo and Oshyan :)
But here on the forum are such settings you and the other good Terragenners make , i think it would be good to remind them .
I am sure they read what we are talking here ;)
Kadri.
Amazing details on these latest canyon renders. :)
Martin! This looks great, more breakup is better :)
Actually my concern was mostly on the upper left part, which appears too wild. It would be great to mostly smooth down this patch, so that it appears as if some massive stone is poking out of an otherwise softer sand stone wall. So just in case you feel like worrking on this scene again, it may be worth a try, or just test with a low res render.
Best reards,
Frank
that last one is astonishing!
Incredibly good. The sparse vegetation looks really natural!
Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it! :)
Quote from: FrankB on February 08, 2010, 06:37:02 AM
Martin! This looks great, more breakup is better :)
Actually my concern was mostly on the upper left part, which appears too wild. It would be great to mostly smooth down this patch, so that it appears as if some massive stone is poking out of an otherwise softer sand stone wall. So just in case you feel like worrking on this scene again, it may be worth a try, or just test with a low res render.
Best reards,
Frank
Thanks for encouraging to work in it further :)
A simple distance blendshader could solve this issue, so I will definitely check it out.
Cheers,
Martin
The evolution here shows a progression of better and better; and, best. Outstanding work Martin.
Of course we're reading. ;D We do hope to add presets to make it easier to get started, but I think first we need a "library" type of system to make them accessible, otherwise they won't be found and won't be used. Also we need to make sure any presets added are flexible and widely applicable, which is not always easy to achieve. We certainly consider the work of Martin and other talented artists to be of value and are happy to consider it for future use in this capacity.
- Oshyan
Quote from: Oshyan on February 15, 2010, 03:26:08 AM
Of course we're reading. ;D We do hope to add presets to make it easier to get started, but I think first we need a "library" type of system to make them accessible, otherwise they won't be found and won't be used. Also we need to make sure any presets added are flexible and widely applicable, which is not always easy to achieve. We certainly consider the work of Martin and other talented artists to be of value and are happy to consider it for future use in this capacity.
- Oshyan
Maybe a compromise given the small available resources of Planetside its self, would be to involve the community in the development of such presets to ensure the wide acceptance once widely released; think of the community as a deserve group of testers; whom given the correct test and development guidelines would help ensure there success in the market place.
Think of it a community based brand assurance and Q&A testing supplemental to and working with the Alpha Testing Team to ensure their success. Even if this group is a small,select group for project management and test reporting reasons it is likely to make end product hand-off; have less help and support requests for them on the forums, thus increasing developmental efficiency. There will naturally will be end user help support requests, these maybe some what offset by the documentation (If such is required) been written at the same time as the presets are developed and are made available at the time of release to the end user: naturally this documentation should be developed and written by person(s) with a strong background in technical writing.
Regards to you.
Cyber-Angel ;D
Really interesting and nice displacement!
Quote from: Oshyan on February 15, 2010, 03:26:08 AM
Of course we're reading. ;D We do hope to add presets to make it easier to get started, but I think first we need a "library" type of system to make them accessible, otherwise they won't be found and won't be used. Also we need to make sure any presets added are flexible and widely applicable, which is not always easy to achieve. We certainly consider the work of Martin and other talented artists to be of value and are happy to consider it for future use in this capacity.
- Oshyan
:)
The addition of a system for accessing presets is a much bigger bottleneck than finding good resources, which the community obviously provides in plenty.
- Oshyan