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General => Terragen Animation => Topic started by: Hannes on July 25, 2018, 01:28:42 AM

Title: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on July 25, 2018, 01:28:42 AM
Here's a new ocean test. I used two water shaders, but only for the main displacement, one for big displacement, and another one for small scale displacement. I then added a dark blue shader and another one with a brighter blueish color. Additionally there's a subtle twist and shear shader and some vertical displacement. The whitewater is created by using the Intersect underlying feature (favour rises). I have a reflective shader as well, but it's deactivated here for testing purposes.
In the original clip the white stuff is quite noisy, but after reducing the file size it became smoother. So, a loss of quality isn't always bad... ;)

The good thing is, I can increase the size of the (internal TG-) plane, and the displacement doesn't change.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Dune on July 25, 2018, 01:33:49 AM
Mesmerizing effect and cool start. The tilt and shear may sometimes fold the water into itself if you do to much of it, and that will cost render time, I'm afraid.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on July 25, 2018, 01:39:50 AM
Yes, maybe. And perhaps the vertical displacement is a bit too strong, but I'm still testing things.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Dune on July 25, 2018, 01:41:44 AM
Well, if you're testing anyway, why not add some nice local vortex on X or Z? That'll be cool.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on July 25, 2018, 01:52:52 AM
That might look nice indeed. The good thing is, the whitewater is created automatically, so that could be a nice effect. At the moment I'm testing a second vertical displacement in a 90° angle. Let's see what happens.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: archonforest on July 25, 2018, 02:39:46 AM
This is very cool!
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: luvsmuzik on July 25, 2018, 07:38:43 AM
Amazing!  :)
The valleys get a little deep, but I am so envious of how you can do this without a preset that can be adjusted with scaling.
*Applause*
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Kadri on July 25, 2018, 04:12:27 PM
Looks good.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on July 26, 2018, 03:33:35 AM
Next step. Vertical displacement both X and Y direction.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on July 26, 2018, 05:58:08 AM
Improved shading. Doubles rendertimes, but I think, it's worth it.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: luvsmuzik on July 26, 2018, 10:18:26 AM
Swell!  ;D

Great colors, looks very natural. :)
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on July 27, 2018, 12:31:05 AM
Thanks, guys!!
Here is the animation with adjusted colours. I left out the camera move this time to focus on the shading and the water movement.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Dune on July 27, 2018, 01:37:35 AM
Stunning. Very natural waves, I'd say. Is this using a transparent water shader? For less rendertime you could try using a default shader with some patchy translucency and perhaps a tiny bit of luminosity for the higher areas, see if that kind of yields the same shading and enough saving on render time.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on July 27, 2018, 02:02:13 AM
Quote from: Dune on July 27, 2018, 01:37:35 AM
Stunning. Very natural waves, I'd say. Is this using a transparent water shader? For less rendertime you could try using a default shader with some patchy translucency and perhaps a tiny bit of luminosity for the higher areas, see if that kind of yields the same shading and enough saving on render time.

Thanks Ulco. Actually only the brighter greenish shader is transparent. The impact on rendertimes is negligible. Already did some tests with default shaders, but this looks best I'd say.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: KlausK on July 27, 2018, 05:55:00 AM
That is looking very good!
Can you tell me what dimensions the "plane" has?
I`d really like to see a close-up of those structures sometime.
Wondering what it looks like then.
CHeers, Klaus
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on July 27, 2018, 05:57:44 AM
The plane has a length and width of 150m each. Not sure yet, how it looks in close up. Maybe there have to be some changes.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: KlausK on July 27, 2018, 06:38:45 AM
Thank you, Hannes.
And WOW! I thought it had to be much larger for what it looks like.
Very good sense of scale here.
CHeers, Klaus
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: DocCharly65 on July 28, 2018, 10:24:48 AM
Amazing! And very natural look! Congrats to that development!

The change of size is something I have always very much trouble with if I use procedural surfaces. It's much work to find the right values for alle the settings like displacement feature scale, displacement amplitude... and it even gets worse if I have different powerfractals connected e.g. in a line...
My respect to you for your endurance :)
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: WAS on August 01, 2018, 11:36:58 PM
Don't often visit this section cause I don't do animation, but saw the topic title and had to check it out. Glad I did, this is not to be missed! This is gorgeousness. Would love a node tree shot, wondering how complex is actually is.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on August 02, 2018, 03:17:18 AM
Thanks Jordan!
Actually it's not complicated at all. Basically it's two animated water shaders merged for the large displacement and for the finer displacement (better control with two shaders!). Reflectivity and transparency are deactivated. Just displacement.
Then there are two animated PFs, which additionally displace the plane vertically by the X- and Z-axis.
The color distribution of the whole thing is created by different settings of the Intersect underlying (Favor rises) feature of each shader. There's one extra water shader for the greenish wave tops that has transparency activated, which looked better than a simple green shader with some luminance. Finally right before the foam there's a reflective shader. That's basically it.
I'm quite happy with the movement, and even more happy, that there's no intimidating blue node jungle. ;)
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: luvsmuzik on August 02, 2018, 07:43:06 AM
Thank you for a peek at that! :)

So.....does the transform input shader move this on the Translate...or I suppose you do all sorts of things...????
(Modify the plane vertically on the x and z) :) I see the redirect now, some setup to explore!
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: archonforest on August 02, 2018, 07:59:48 AM
Stunning work!!!
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: WAS on August 02, 2018, 05:02:18 PM
Quote from: Hannes on August 02, 2018, 03:17:18 AM
Thanks Jordan!
Actually it's not complicated at all. Basically it's two animated water shaders merged for the large displacement and for the finer displacement (better control with two shaders!). Reflectivity and transparency are deactivated. Just displacement.
Then there are two animated PFs, which additionally displace the plane vertically by the X- and Z-axis.
The color distribution of the whole thing is created by different settings of the Intersect underlying (Favor rises) feature of each shader. There's one extra water shader for the greenish wave tops that has transparency activated, which looked better than a simple green shader with some luminance. Finally right before the foam there's a reflective shader. That's basically it.
I'm quite happy with the movement, and even more happy, that there's no intimidating blue node jungle. ;)

That's somewhat what I had in my head, little more going on though. Really surprised not to see any blue in there. ;)
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Dune on August 03, 2018, 02:30:39 AM
Why do you use 2 redirect shaders? One will do just the same, IMO. Not important, but maybe you've found differences? I could imagine differences if you add a XYZ shader between them.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on August 03, 2018, 08:23:09 AM
Quote from: luvsmuzik on August 02, 2018, 07:43:06 AM
So.....does the transform input shader move this on the Translate...or I suppose you do all sorts of things...????

Yes, just translate.

Quote from: Dune on August 03, 2018, 02:30:39 AM
Why do you use 2 redirect shaders? One will do just the same, IMO. Not important, but maybe you've found differences? I could imagine differences if you add a XYZ shader between them.

You're right. One would do the same.. Didn't think of that.
What do you mean by XYZ shader?
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Dune on August 03, 2018, 11:14:10 AM
Tex coords from XYZ. It might be that if you add that the coordinates are updated after the first redirect and second is then using those coordinates instead of the ones previous to the first, but I'm  not sure. With small displacements on rocks (after bigger) it helps.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on August 03, 2018, 11:31:36 AM
Ah, I see. Never tried that. Thanks for the tip!
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on August 12, 2018, 11:40:16 AM
Another go. Again the color shading is done only with different settings of intersect underlying. It's not too reflective, because I wanted to see how the colors work.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: luvsmuzik on August 12, 2018, 02:03:54 PM
Very nice! :)
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Dune on August 13, 2018, 12:50:53 AM
Echo!
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: DocCharly65 on August 13, 2018, 02:03:55 AM
Double-Echo :)
Great!
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on August 16, 2018, 09:19:27 AM
A more directional ocean. I could eliminate some noise causing PFs, which I thought weren't active. Some more tweaking, a little more twist and shear, and some hits on the random seed button.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: luvsmuzik on August 16, 2018, 10:59:42 AM
 :) :) :)

Powerful deep churning effect. Really good! I don't know how surfing waves work ( although I am sure there are mathematical slope illustrations in profound abundance)  Have you made one curl over yet? I know you parted the sea..... ;D
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: DocCharly65 on August 16, 2018, 11:14:32 AM
I see a great Pirates of the Caribbean parody coming ;)
Great work!


Did you already tests how the foam will look like in higher resolution?
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on August 16, 2018, 11:39:00 AM
Quote from: luvsmuzik on August 16, 2018, 10:59:42 AM
Have you made one curl over yet? I know you parted the sea..... ;D

;D ;D ;D No, not yet. Maybe there's a way to use the vortex shader for some upper parts?

Quote from: DocCharly65 on August 16, 2018, 11:14:32 AM
Did you already tests how the foam will look like in higher resolution?

Yes, I did some tests. From this distance it looks quite good, but I rather wouldn't get closer... ;)
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Dune on August 16, 2018, 01:19:28 PM
That's quite awesome, Hannes.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: bobbystahr on August 17, 2018, 04:47:53 PM
Wow. I keep forgetting this section exists...most impressive Hannes
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Dune on August 18, 2018, 03:09:12 AM
If you're smart, click on the second line near your avatar topleft 'Show unread posts since last visit', and you don't miss a thing.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on August 18, 2018, 08:10:39 AM
Actually not too many people here seem to be interested in the animation feature. I guess a lot of those are a bit scared of spending time rendering hundreds of images. But I can tell you, it's worth it. It's an incredible moment to finally see your imagery in the fourth dimension. You can render out low res lean versions of your animation for let's say thirty images, which doesn't take too long, and you'll see, if everything is OK, before you start rendering the final images. There are free apps to make a movie out of it, so if you have a TG version with animation, use it. It's fun!!
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: luvsmuzik on August 18, 2018, 08:42:32 AM
frend frend frend....... :)
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on August 18, 2018, 09:11:13 AM
Quote from: luvsmuzik on August 18, 2018, 08:42:32 AM
frend frend frend....... :)

What does "frend" mean???
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: luvsmuzik on August 18, 2018, 09:37:26 AM
Quote from: Hannes on August 18, 2018, 09:11:13 AM
Quote from: luvsmuzik on August 18, 2018, 08:42:32 AM
frend frend frend....... :)

What does "frend" mean???

old script term from Classic days for animation...from the horse and buggy era  :)
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: KlausK on August 20, 2018, 05:13:07 AM
Wwowzerz! Those waters look really really good.
CHeers, Klaus
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: WAS on August 20, 2018, 01:17:28 PM
Quote from: Hannes on August 18, 2018, 08:10:39 AM
Actually not too many people here seem to be interested in the animation feature. I guess a lot of those are a bit scared of spending time rendering hundreds of images. But I can tell you, it's worth it. It's an incredible moment to finally see your imagery in the fourth dimension. You can render out low res lean versions of your animation for let's say thirty images, which doesn't take too long, and you'll see, if everything is OK, before you start rendering the final images. There are free apps to make a movie out of it, so if you have a TG version with animation, use it. It's fun!!

If I remember correctly from school, TG renders still frames, which is always nonsense to compile. Large TIFF images and compositing is slow. TG should be doing this on a per-frame basis and outputting a lossless raw video format.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: luvsmuzik on August 20, 2018, 02:46:09 PM
Quote from: WASasquatch on August 20, 2018, 01:17:28 PM
Quote from: Hannes on August 18, 2018, 08:10:39 AM
Actually not too many people here seem to be interested in the animation feature. I guess a lot of those are a bit scared of spending time rendering hundreds of images. But I can tell you, it's worth it. It's an incredible moment to finally see your imagery in the fourth dimension. You can render out low res lean versions of your animation for let's say thirty images, which doesn't take too long, and you'll see, if everything is OK, before you start rendering the final images. There are free apps to make a movie out of it, so if you have a TG version with animation, use it. It's fun!!

If I remember correctly from school, TG renders still frames, which is always nonsense to compile. Large TIFF images and compositing is slow. TG should be doing this on a per-frame basis and outputting a lossless raw video format.

I output bmps and it takes about 30 seconds to composite in Blender 2.79. I think anim8tor used to output AVI or other formats, but never got to the mp4 stage.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on September 07, 2018, 08:56:01 AM
Late reply: the first thing I learned in CG was: NEVER render out as a video! Always render single frames. Imagine you render a long animation for days, and during the last frame your computer crashes. Everything will be gone. If you render out in single frames, you'll only have to render the last frame.

However, here is another try. I changed some of the displacement settings and reduced the color falloffs to make it look a bit more natural.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: DocCharly65 on September 07, 2018, 02:34:17 PM
Has almost a hypnic effect on me watching that! Great!
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Dune on September 08, 2018, 02:51:21 AM
Great update! Very realistic, I believe those movements.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: DannyG on September 15, 2018, 09:32:25 AM
Impressive update Hannes
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: WAS on September 15, 2018, 01:58:42 PM
This is really well done. Great work! I wonder if there is anyway to combat the ribboning effect and make it stretch out instead of pinch in.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: bobbystahr on October 12, 2018, 09:11:05 AM
last one is excellent and loops nicely in VLC player
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: WAS on October 12, 2018, 06:55:31 PM
Quote from: Hannes on September 07, 2018, 08:56:01 AM
Late reply: the first thing I learned in CG was: NEVER render out as a video! Always render single frames. Imagine you render a long animation for days, and during the last frame your computer crashes. Everything will be gone. If you render out in single frames, you'll only have to render the last frame.

However, here is another try. I changed some of the displacement settings and reduced the color falloffs to make it look a bit more natural.

To be clear, a per-frame basis is each frame to disk, but than it takes those frames and compiles them for you. From what I understand Terragen outputs TIFF (or archaic BMP), meaning if you don't have a enterprise/commercial software you first need to go in and re-encode every frame before compiling in most available/open-source sequencers. TG handling it itself with it's native TIFF format would be handy. Most software offers this, with the temp frames available.

P.S. Would love to see a ship on these waves, would be a cool test. :D
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Oshyan on October 13, 2018, 04:53:14 PM
TIFF is actually super widely supported, it's not "enterprise" at all. I find PNG to actually be less widely supported *in video editing software* than TIFF, probably because PNG is more of a web-oriented format.

We're very unlikely to add any video compression and container output functionality in the future, it's extraneous to what Terragen needs to be good at. I admit it's convenient, but dev time is better focused on core functionality given the many free options for video compression.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: WAS on August 23, 2019, 03:38:40 AM
Did you ever go anywhere with this project? As someone noted it would be nice to see that roam setup animated on this. :)

Quote from: Oshyan on October 13, 2018, 04:53:14 PMTIFF is actually super widely supported, it's not "enterprise" at all. I find PNG to actually be less widely supported *in video editing software* than TIFF, probably because PNG is more of a web-oriented format.

We're very unlikely to add any video compression and container output functionality in the future, it's extraneous to what Terragen needs to be good at. I admit it's convenient, but dev time is better focused on core functionality given the many free options for video compression.

- Oshyan

I really meant PNG for still outputs in general. Just to share an example image from TG on the web, etc, you need to go into a third party software just to export the still.

As for video, you still misunderstood. Lossless raw video is not compressed in any way. It's a sequence of stills to be easily imported into editing software. As noted you usually still have all the temp frames too.

That really just means TG has one little extra option, a few hundred lines, to export a sequence from a completed set without needing another software, and as noted, when not on commercial softwares such as using free editing tools just for a animation with little post, you often need to go through a sequencer tool comprising a few hundred KB or MB tool to than edit in said free software.

This isn't a compression algorithm or serious time spent in exporting, as I'm sure or hope you are awarez sequencing a raw video is pretty fast. Often can be done in real-time and how desktop capturing software works. Compiling usually a magnitude faster.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: dorianvan on September 07, 2019, 09:18:09 PM
Great job. 
Question. Can water like this (horizontal) be rotated 90 degrees so it looks like this but standing up? I'm wondering about walls of water biblical like and at the top, kind of rounded over to meet the regular horizontal water. Possible?
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Oshyan on September 07, 2019, 11:22:56 PM
You can apply a water or glass shader to any object or surface, so yes almost any shape is possible. Whether it would look realistic and render with correct lighting is another question, but it's worth a try. :D

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: Hannes on September 08, 2019, 03:24:34 AM
Quote from: dorianvan on September 07, 2019, 09:18:09 PMGreat job.
Question. Can water like this (horizontal) be rotated 90 degrees so it looks like this but standing up? I'm wondering about walls of water biblical like and at the top, kind of rounded over to meet the regular horizontal water. Possible?
Maybe a bit like this?
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,25360.0.html
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: digitalguru on September 09, 2019, 09:52:15 AM
Sorry to go off-topic on the oceanic nature of this thread, but I  thought I'd add my two cents to the sequence export comments

Quote from: WAS on August 23, 2019, 03:38:40 AMThat really just means TG has one little extra option, a few hundred lines, to export a sequence from a completed set without needing another software, and as noted, when not on commercial softwares such as using free editing tools just for a animation with little post, you often need to go through a sequencer tool comprising a few hundred KB or MB tool to than edit in said free software.
I doubt if it would be as simple as a few hundred lines of code, and Planetside's focus should obviously be developing landscape tools not video editing.

As Hannes mentions, you would never want to export an animation from a program such as Terragen (or any other content creation program for that matter) as a video file, especially when the render times for a frame can run into hours. Even at the major VFX houses a frame can fail, then it's no problem to go back and fix problem frames and quick composite the result.

Quote from: Oshyan on October 13, 2018, 04:53:14 PMTIFF is actually super widely supported, it's not "enterprise" at all. I find PNG to actually be less widely supported *in video editing software* than TIFF, probably because PNG is more of a web-oriented format.
Tiff support (and even PNG) is in pretty much 99 percent of any programs out there, though for professional work OpenExr has become the standard, though this is overkill for rendering test sequences at home however. I'd go with 8 bit tiff for preview/test renders.

There are great free/open source programs with a plethora of features that can handle previews for you:

DJV View:
http://djv.sourceforge.net/index.html
Will play back any image sequence you can throw at it, easy and simple to use.

Natron:
https://natrongithub.github.io/
An open source compositor, which on a very basic usage can render the sequence as a mp4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2ytj1S7_vw

Davinci Resolve
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0Kvn1uzD5AIVyLHtCh2AkAk6EAAYASAAEgLeTvD_BwE
In this context, a bit like using a shotgun to kill a fly :), but the free version can easliy take a sequence and render to mp4 - it even has a preset to automatically upload to YouTube and Vimeo. It has an awesome amount of features you can grow into.

The Gimp:
https://www.gimp.org/
A free image editing program for simple file conversions. I'd aways convert a TG still frame render to JPEG for submission to the web, just to keep the file sizes down.

XNview
https://www.xnview.com/en/
A great image browser and can batch convert files. It will also read OpenExr and HDR files which a lot of browsers currently don't.

Affinity Photo:
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/
Not free, but at about $40 a definte Photoshop contender - it will even edit 32bit files with a full range of tools (for heightfields) which even Photoshop currently can't do.

I will agree with WAS on a modified point that it would be very useful to have JPEG as an output format, which would negate a conversion for the web. Though in all the cases mentioned above -jpeg conversion and sequence to mp4  are very quck and easy processes to do.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: jDglgmut on September 09, 2019, 02:13:29 PM
Sorry I gotta make an account to defend such nonsense.

Course it can few hundred lines of code. Actually less. All you are doing is sequencing the still images TG has already rendered and exported. It's just a process after that completion. I do program, if you didn't know.

Ironically, most software has sequencing and exporting of video, and used all the time. Blender, Cinema4D, Houdini, etc. There is no excuse but lazyness and fighting the community. You doing things with extra steps in an outdated fashion is fine, but there are better ways. TG needing a third party option is not cool of a commercial software. Even just to export a image for conferencing.

It seems people are either not aware of what others use in other software they use, or they don't use much other software.

Again lossless raw videos, are not mp4, not compressed, and just a sequence of raw stills. All it is taking a step out. It's the same thing programs do when you import a sequence to be able to even play it back without swapping images from disk and creating unnecesssary lag.

And if we don't understand lossless uncompressed video sequences, why are we arguing it?
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: digitalguru on September 09, 2019, 02:28:06 PM
Quote from: jDglgmut on September 09, 2019, 02:13:29 PMSorry I gotta make an account to defend such nonsense.

Course it can few hundred lines of code. Actually less. All you are doing is sequencing the still images TG has already rendered and exported. It's just a process after that completion. I do program, if you didn't know.

Fair enough - if you program, the SDK is available for Terragen, maybe you could write a plugin?

In the meantime, in the absence of such a feature, the above were suggestions that users might find useful.
Title: Re: Another ocean
Post by: dorianvan on September 10, 2019, 11:54:34 AM
Quote from: Hannes on September 08, 2019, 03:24:34 AMMaybe a bit like this?
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,25360.0.html

Quote from: Oshyan on September 07, 2019, 11:22:56 PMYou can apply a water or glass shader to any object or surface, so yes almost any shape is possible. Whether it would look realistic and render with correct lighting is another question, but it's worth a try. :D

- Oshyan
Cool, thanks.