Planetside Software Forums

General => Terragen Animation => Topic started by: Hannes on May 02, 2018, 07:22:07 AM

Title: Snowy animated
Post by: Hannes on May 02, 2018, 07:22:07 AM
Here is the animated version of this thread:
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,24417.0.html
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: archonforest on May 02, 2018, 07:30:04 AM
Cool, I like it!
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: DocCharly65 on May 02, 2018, 07:47:28 AM
Thumbs up! very nice!
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Kadri on May 02, 2018, 08:16:50 AM

Nice.
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Dune on May 02, 2018, 08:33:38 AM
Yeah, works very well!
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: luvsmuzik on May 02, 2018, 09:44:43 AM
Great! :) :) :)

You know I love all your stuff. But I wonder if you know your mp4 stuff won't load on my Mac stuff. Does fine on Windows desktops, but 7Gig mini and phone they just relay "loading message"  I have waited up to 1/2 hour with no video. These devices have no problem with other videos, like hour long Youtube, Netflix, podcasts...etc...   I wonder if it is a variable codec for mp4. I have choices when I load the sequence frames to produce, do you?
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Hannes on May 02, 2018, 10:21:43 AM
Strange. It's the H.264 codec. Good quality with not too large files.
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: luvsmuzik on May 02, 2018, 10:38:31 AM
hmmm...that is what I use too. Even tried copy/paste link in Safari and no good.  May try pasting to Google browser.
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: bobbystahr on May 02, 2018, 06:04:09 PM
***** for that for sure
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Oshyan on May 02, 2018, 09:32:05 PM
Interesting, there seem to be a bunch of tiny frames that change either every frame or at least very frequently, but then there are a few larger ones that change only a bit through the whole animation. Perhaps too big a variation in stone sizes or something?

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Hannes on May 03, 2018, 05:02:43 AM
Quote from: Oshyan on May 02, 2018, 09:32:05 PM
Interesting, there seem to be a bunch of tiny frames that change either every frame or at least very frequently, but then there are a few larger ones that change only a bit through the whole animation. Perhaps too big a variation in stone sizes or something?

- Oshyan

I think I know what you mean. Actually I have no idea why this happens, since there is only one layer of these fake stones, so no size variation. The fake stones layer is broken up by some power fractal.
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Oshyan on May 03, 2018, 03:50:14 PM
Maybe it's something to do with the breakup? Is it 100% breakup, i.e. there are areas of "no stones" and areas of "full stones", or is it softer, like areas of "less stones" and "more stones"? If the latter, then the issue might make some sense, the more sparkly bits are ares of "less stones", I would guess.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Hannes on May 03, 2018, 04:15:31 PM
This is how it looks. I'd say, it's a quite strong breakup (see image below). Maybe I'm wrong?
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Oshyan on May 03, 2018, 04:19:13 PM
Relatively strong, yes. But it's only breaking up color... Also, what is the range on that Distance Shader, perhaps that has an effect? I guess what I would test next is to disable all masking/breakup and render 10-30 frames, just to see if the effect continues. Of course if you don't think it looks strange, then don't bother, it just stood out to my eye. :)

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: luvsmuzik on May 03, 2018, 04:27:49 PM
Doesn't this have more to do with the speed of movement by camera relative to sunlight exposure. The beginning of animation moves from close ranges, and as the camera moves the sparkle effect continues as it should, doesn't it. Brightness seems to fade appropriately to me with camera motion.
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Hannes on May 03, 2018, 04:53:30 PM
I think Oshyan means that some of the sparkles appear and disappear more rapidly than others. I didn't notice that, but it's true. No idea why. I used fake stones to get some (fake-) geometry that reflects differently depending on the location of the lightsource, not just like a "2D masking". But I used the PF to mask the distribution of the fake stones.
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Kadri on May 03, 2018, 06:17:06 PM

Maybe it is the the wide FOV. Like Terragen handles things near-behind the camera etc.
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Dune on May 04, 2018, 01:40:01 AM
Quotesome of the sparkles appear and disappear more rapidly than others
That would not be unlike reality, I assume. Some ice crystals having more facets and giving more' continuous' sparkle, while others reflect on less faces/facets, thus are off earlier.
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Hannes on May 04, 2018, 04:37:09 AM
This explanation is good enough for me. Sounds logical. And I have no idea to change the different sparkling... ;)
I don't think it's the wide FOV.
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Oshyan on May 04, 2018, 05:14:14 PM
It looked unrealistic to my eye and my experience of actual snow. That's why I mentioned it. ;)

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Snowy animated
Post by: Hannes on May 05, 2018, 03:31:03 AM
You're absolutely right, Oshyan. After you first mentioned it, I saw it too. I wasn't too serious in my last comment... ;)