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General => Terragen Animation => Topic started by: DocCharly65 on February 13, 2020, 05:29:41 AM

Title: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: DocCharly65 on February 13, 2020, 05:29:41 AM
At the moment one or two PCs are always rendering missing scenes or scenes, I could improve with new skills or new Terragen features.

with very very much luck I perhaps will be able to finish the first part of the whole film this year - perhaps next year.
I owe this, of course, to the tireless work of Matt, who has repeatedly tweaked the rendering speed of the software. Thanks to many of you in the forum, a little bit of Terragen experience was added, which enabled me to shorten some render times. Last but not least, the PCs have been up to 4x faster in some cases since the start of the project.


Here is an evolutionary summary of a scene I started in 2016:
The Klingons and their conflict with the "space duck bubble"

At the very beginning there wasn't even any duck. The yellow bathroom ducks appeared more and more often by the time and then I chose them to be a result of the enemies attacks...

I just put together all the single frames with MS moviemaker and added my old Klingon march as background music.
Have fun:


Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: Dune on February 13, 2020, 05:33:48 AM
Great! Thanks again Nils, for showing your excellent work.
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: DocCharly65 on February 13, 2020, 05:36:14 AM
Thanks Ulco :)

and from my side many thanks to you and many others for your excellent support and tips and tricks :)
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: luvsmuzik on February 13, 2020, 10:52:21 AM
:) Such a blast!
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: sboerner on February 13, 2020, 11:46:01 AM
Thanks, Doc, for sharing. The clips really show your growing mastery of TG animation. But the more your skills increase, the higher the bar, correct?
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: j meyer on February 13, 2020, 12:07:16 PM
Cool comparison, nice. :)
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: Hannes on February 13, 2020, 01:55:20 PM
That's quite an evolution!!
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: DocCharly65 on February 13, 2020, 02:42:14 PM
Thanks :)


Quote from: sboerner on February 13, 2020, 11:46:01 AMThanks, Doc, for sharing. The clips really show your growing mastery of TG animation. But the more your skills increase, the higher the bar, correct?

You are sooooo right with that thing about the higher bar! Did I really write something like "final version"? --- there's already a new version rendering... these things are so unpredictable...

After watching the scene again and again I thought that the dimensions of the "Klingon blasts" are much too big and too long and too slow in comparison to the exploding Deathstar. A new one will come... again...  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: DocCharly65 on February 14, 2020, 03:58:48 AM
The limitation of the radius looks better

Animation Black Hole Klingons Von BLACKHOLE GETROFFEN - RAW Test Rendered - kleiner Radius V1a.mp4


I'll need a higher 4D noise speed level to avoid that impression of a freezing explosion at the end.
I'll do some tests, to find the ideal noise speed - so far I don't know if an adaptation of the noise speed depending on the radius is necessary...

Here the principle for one of the cloud layers
(each plasma ball is a moving planet, with only atmosphere and clouds rendered and a synchronous moving light source in the center)

Zwischenablage-1.jpg
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: Dune on February 14, 2020, 06:57:55 AM
I absolutely like this! The explosion looks like being imploded in itself like a sudden black hole, very cool effect.
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: DocCharly65 on February 14, 2020, 07:19:27 AM
Ulco, I really like your point of view :)

I watched the animation again and again and with your black hole interpretation, I like it more and more! ;D

For the comparison I'll let the next test finish rendering. But meanwhile the next "Space Duck Bubble Victim" is ready and with that black hole knowledge in background I'm satisfied with that at the moment, too:

Animation Black Hole BORG Von BLACKHOLE GETROFFEN - RAW Test Rendered NEW LQ.mp4

As Mr. Spock would say: "We are dealing with a form of energy, such as I never saw before!"
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: Dune on February 14, 2020, 12:02:06 PM
:)  Yeah, and then the stuff appearing comes from dimension 238-b ;)
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: sboerner on February 14, 2020, 12:16:16 PM
Wow! Cool!  :)
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: j meyer on February 14, 2020, 12:20:23 PM
;D Love the remnants of the Borg-cube explosion. ;D
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: Kadri on February 14, 2020, 10:05:53 PM

Nice explosions Nils.
The depth of the cloud is animated and maybe the shrinking feeling is related to that?
The depth is relative to the altitude so far i know. When the cloud depth changes it changes over and under that altitude.
Your depth is lowering at the end even as the altitude is still getting higher. The outer edge of the clouds will be shrinking (inner edges too of course).
Not sure if that makes sense.

Although it is all up to the look you want and it doesn't bother me here. But if you get the freezing effect this might be maybe one reason.

Using less animated parts is sometimes better i think. At least easier :)
For example just animate the depth of the cloud to the depth you want at first and don't change it and-or change the depth until the end of the scene with the same speed and use the density accordingly . But these might look different and maybe even not better at all. just thinking loud :)
Title: Re: Evolution of a scene since 2016
Post by: DocCharly65 on February 15, 2020, 02:33:36 AM
Thanks my friends :)

Kadri, you got it almost completely :)
Though I do many things in TG just waiting for random results, I had a little kind of plan here and sometimes it works as I can see in the latest version, which is the best, I think:

Animation Black Hole Klingons Von BLACKHOLE GETROFFEN - RAW Test Rendered - kleiner Radius V2 LQ.mp4

The freeze effect is reduced a bit and as a random effect I got a last rearing up or glowing of the particelcloud. I like it so far.

The animated cloud depth causes the spheres shells getting thinner by the time
The animated cloud altitude causes the expansion of the explosion and gets much slower outside my chosen distance of the explosion radius.
The animated cloud density causes (together with the depth) a dissolving effect of the "plasma/cloud/particles"
All these are working on the cumulus layers.
The cirrus layer is the visualisation of the plasma balls before the explosion.

(Just a little tribute to the first Star Trek TMP, when the V'GER probe digitizes everything that comes its way)