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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: RArcher on March 24, 2008, 10:01:04 AM

Title: Forest Glen *Final Version April 2nd*
Post by: RArcher on March 24, 2008, 10:01:04 AM
I've been trying to do a decent forest render for awhile with little success.  But finally after reading Matt's suggestion to up the exposure in a post a little while ago I gave it another shot with much better results.

Took around 75 hours at 0.8 detail 16 AA 2/2 GI.

All objects downloaded from Ashunder:

Trees and Bushes were from Lightning
Flowers were from Bobbystahr
Grasses were from Sonshine777

Thanks for taking a look.
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: rcallicotte on March 24, 2008, 10:04:38 AM
I like the lighting.  It's very nice.  What I wish to see, but will probably need to wait for the next release, would be a translucency to the leaves.  That would be very cool.
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: Phylloxera on March 24, 2008, 10:44:42 AM
Good work on the lighting, but the trees are not realistic, it's damage !
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: Seth on March 24, 2008, 12:19:35 PM
agree with Phylloxera, very nice light but it's too bad for the trunk of the tree...
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: Phylloxera on March 24, 2008, 03:06:50 PM
Quote from: seth93 on March 24, 2008, 12:19:35 PM
agree with Phylloxera, very nice light but it's too bad for the trunk of the tree...
... and the geometrical leaves !
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: Mr_Lamppost on March 24, 2008, 09:27:13 PM
Quote from: calico on March 24, 2008, 10:04:38 AM
I like the lighting.  It's very nice.  What I wish to see, but will probably need to wait for the next release, would be a translucency to the leaves.  That would be very cool.

The version we are using can do translucency, it's one of the settings in the Default Shader. 
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: lightning on March 24, 2008, 10:35:16 PM
they look like my acer sac trees its when i had troublr converting my models for terragen i will reup a better bump which should do the trick i think

anyway amazing lighting looks awesum ae
well done indeed!
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: RArcher on March 24, 2008, 11:39:12 PM
Thanks for the comments.  I whole-heartedly agree about the geometric leaves, but not being a tree modeller myself, I use whatever the kind people of the community donate  :)

Lightning:  If you would be able to upload a new version of the Acer Platanoides with a real leaf shape and texture I would definitely love to re-render this with some luminosity.
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: Oshyan on March 25, 2008, 02:06:28 AM
I think it's a remarkably nice image even with the problems others mentioned. The lighting and atmosphere alone really "sell" it. If you fix the minor plant model and translucency problems it would be stunning. Despite the long render time, I really hope you'll re-render with those improvements. I'd love to see it!

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: RArcher on March 25, 2008, 11:47:44 AM
I believe I have the leaf issues sorted out.  I did not know that I could just take a real leaf, photograph it in my lightbox, and create my own leaf textures for any posted tree.  :-[ For some reason I assumed that it was all handled in the program the tree was modeled in. Running a few test renders now to try and get the right amount of translucence, and then I will do a full re-render.  Anyone have a guide range of translucence values that turns out fairly realistic?
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: Tangled-Universe on March 25, 2008, 12:13:39 PM
Quote from: RArcher on March 25, 2008, 11:47:44 AM
I believe I have the leaf issues sorted out.  I did not know that I could just take a real leaf, photograph it in my lightbox, and create my own leaf textures for any posted tree.  :-[ For some reason I assumed that it was all handled in the program the tree was modeled in. Running a few test renders now to try and get the right amount of translucence, and then I will do a full re-render.  Anyone have a guide range of translucence values that turns out fairly realistic?

Unfortunately I don't really have it, because it's quite different between scenes.
I'd try for small crop renders at high detail and middle-resolution to experiment with it. I'd go for translucency values from 0.75 - 2. But there are quite some leaves so maybe even higher values are required. Hard to tell.

You can also replace the bark-texture by one of your own.
You can go to http://www.cgtextures.com (http://www.cgtextures.com) and you'll find some very nice high-res barktextures. In photoshop you can create nice bumpimages.
Be sure to save the alternative texture in the same aspect ratio as the original one so it will match the model.

If you want I can help you with making the texturesize and resolution right and also with the bumpmap.
I have some test-renders using these bumps and I can show them here if you're interested.

Martin
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: lightning on March 25, 2008, 05:37:29 PM
i have re textured my tree it looks much better this tree was one of my first trees i converted to terragen 2 so it pretty crap have
take a look at this thread where i am doing bark texture tests
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=3693.0 (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=3693.0)
this is the acer tree you are using just with a lot beter textures i will re-up this and u can use it in your re render!
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: RArcher on March 27, 2008, 09:48:33 AM
little update after 40 hours here is the top portion (captured with a print screen).

It is looking far far better than the previous render, hopefully the rest looks as good when finished in another 60 hours or so (baring any crashes). I created a new texture/leaf/opacity image and bumped the translucency up to 2 for all the leaves.

Martin:  Thanks for posting those images in the other thread, they look very good.  I will have to do some more experiments with the bark for a future project.

Further updates to come when finished.
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: joshbakr on March 27, 2008, 10:46:53 AM
Quote from: RArcher on March 27, 2008, 09:48:33 AM
little update after 40 hours here is the top portion (captured with a print screen).

It is looking far far better than the previous render, hopefully the rest looks as good when finished in another 60 hours or so (baring any crashes). I created a new texture/leaf/opacity image and bumped the translucency up to 2 for all the leaves.

Martin:  Thanks for posting those images in the other thread, they look very good.  I will have to do some more experiments with the bark for a future project.

Further updates to come when finished.

This is looking pretty good so far but I'm thinking if this area took 40 hours and I'm assuming this is the full size?  It looks like maybe a 1/3 of the image, right? That means the remaining 2/3's will take approximately 80 more hours (5 days for the entire image, IF it doesn't crash?)

Don't get me wrong, if you enjoy what you are doing then by all means, enjoy. However when and if it finishes rendering and you want to print it for preservation sake what size print could you get from it? I think a 5x7 is about it? 5 days for a 5x7 print to me just isn't practical.

I'm not trying to Burst your Bubble I'm just trying to look at in a realistic and practical way.

Nothing against you or your work, like I said it's looking good. My point is about TG for my personal use. Even if I see a 10% increase in render speed when the final comes out TG is still pretty much useless to me. It's sad because I do enjoy and have been working with TG, the Old and the New for quite some time (roughly 8 years).

Have fun and good luck
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: rcallicotte on March 27, 2008, 12:30:12 PM
I like the translucency you're getting.  I'm encouraged that it will be even better in the next version.
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: old_blaggard on March 27, 2008, 12:45:19 PM
Wow, this image is looking fantastic!  I love what you've done here, and I really look forward to the final version.

josh - keep in mind that the final release will be multithreaded, so that and other optimizations will provide quite a speed boost.
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: Mr_Lamppost on March 29, 2008, 05:44:29 PM
Looking good so far. I hope its worth the wait.
Title: Re: Forest Glen
Post by: RArcher on March 31, 2008, 01:30:14 PM
It took far longer than I had anticipated, clocking in at 136 hours and 51 minutes, but it did finish without crashing at any point.

Objects used were Lightning's Bushes and Tree - with a custom leaf texture, Sonshine's grass7, and a few flowers from Bobbystahr.

Rendered at 1230 x 925 - with settings of:

Detail: 0.85
AA: 18
GI: 2/2
Atmosphere samples: 128 (only way I could figure out to remove the grain from the shadows)
I added a very thin mist/cloud that is causing the light to be diffused.
All objects were set to "very high"
Exposure was set to 12!

Attached is a scaled down version at 1024 x 780

Full version can be found here (1280 x 975):

http://www.archer-designs.com/temp/forestglen/forest-glen-v2-1280.jpg (http://www.archer-designs.com/temp/forestglen/forest-glen-v2-1280.jpg)

and for fun a black and white conversion

http://www.archer-designs.com/temp/forestglen/forest-glen-black-and-white.jpg (http://www.archer-designs.com/temp/forestglen/forest-glen-black-and-white.jpg)

Thanks very much for taking a look!

-Ryan Archer
Title: Re: Forest Glen *updated march 31st*
Post by: rcallicotte on March 31, 2008, 02:10:48 PM
I like the look and the lighting is much better.  What are the white dots all over the place?  Surely that must be a bug.
Title: Re: Forest Glen *updated march 31st*
Post by: Phylloxera on March 31, 2008, 02:39:12 PM
Great job, it's really better !
Title: Re: Forest Glen *updated march 31st*
Post by: Seth on March 31, 2008, 02:50:49 PM
agree with Phyllo, it's a really good one you did here !
Title: Re: Forest Glen *updated march 31st*
Post by: Oshyan on March 31, 2008, 02:53:36 PM
Gorgeous! Only the bark in the foreground detracts from a near-perfect image IMO. The communication of mood and emotion is superb. Really one of the most beautiful and evocative TG2 images I've seen.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Forest Glen *updated march 31st*
Post by: Seth on March 31, 2008, 04:44:03 PM
Quote from: Oshyan on March 31, 2008, 02:53:36 PM
Gorgeous! Really one of the most beautiful and evocative TG2 images I've seen.

- Oshyan

agree with you Oshyan !
Title: Re: Forest Glen *updated march 31st*
Post by: nvseal on March 31, 2008, 05:17:08 PM
Agree with Oshyan. Really fantastic work here with the plant life and lighting.
Title: Re: Forest Glen *updated march 31st*
Post by: monks on March 31, 2008, 05:40:59 PM
Gorgeous!- just a wee shame about the close up models- angular branches.

monks
Title: Re: Forest Glen *updated march 31st*
Post by: joshbakr on March 31, 2008, 05:54:36 PM
Beautiful Light and Mood here! It's ashame about the flat texture on the foremost tree, especially with all this render time. Do you think it's the quality of the model or the way TG renders objects, Or Both?
Title: Re: Forest Glen *updated march 31st*
Post by: RArcher on March 31, 2008, 07:36:18 PM
Thanks for all the comments.  I am trying to do a bit of a crop render of the right hand side to try some of the bump map ideas presented by Tangled_Universe.  If it works out, I may be able to fix the tree without doing a full re-render.

Josh:  The problem is neither the model or TG2's rendering, it's me!  I am still working on figuring out bark bump maps and texturing.

Calico:  I am not exactly sure what white dots you are seeing everywhere?  It could just be the blown out reflectivity on the leaves that are in direct sunlight.  If you do a Google image search for filtered sunlight, you will see the same thing in most photographs.
Title: Re: Forest Glen *updated march 31st*
Post by: lightning on March 31, 2008, 09:13:03 PM
OMG this is amazing :o
read this thread for better bark texturing sorry have not had much time lately to re-up the acer tree with better bark and leaves sorry :-[
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=3693.0 (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=3693.0)
Title: Re: Forest Glen *updated march 31st*
Post by: rcallicotte on March 31, 2008, 09:46:45 PM
RArcher - I think it was my other monitor.  I saw the light spots coming through the trees, but instead they looked like glitter.
Title: Re: Forest Glen *Final Version April 2nd*
Post by: RArcher on April 02, 2008, 10:02:37 AM
Thank you everyone for all your comments and suggestions, I've really learned far more than expected with this one.  Here is the final version with I think much improved bark texture (Thanks to the techniques of Tangled_Universe, lightning, mr-miley and others in the other thread).

Small version is attached and the full size 1280 x 925 version is here:

http://www.archer-designs.com/temp/forestglen/forest-glen-v3-1280-final.jpg (http://www.archer-designs.com/temp/forestglen/forest-glen-v3-1280-final.jpg)

Ryan Archer
Title: Re: Forest Glen *Final Version April 2nd*
Post by: Seth on April 02, 2008, 10:09:31 AM
FABULOUS and GORGEOUS !
Title: Re: Forest Glen *Final Version April 2nd*
Post by: Phylloxera on April 02, 2008, 11:30:29 AM
(http://smileys.sur-la-toile.com/repository/Respect/0038.gif)
Title: Re: Forest Glen *Final Version April 2nd*
Post by: rcallicotte on April 02, 2008, 02:39:06 PM
Truly fairytale.  Ni-i-i-ice.    8)
Title: Re: Forest Glen *Final Version April 2nd*
Post by: lightning on April 03, 2008, 01:15:18 AM
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is amazing the bark looks sooooooooooo much better!
this should so be the image of the week ;D

what a difference from your first render!
i almost cried seeing my trees look so crappy :-[
Title: Re: Forest Glen *Final Version April 2nd*
Post by: inkydigit on April 03, 2008, 03:31:30 AM
excellent finale!
Title: Re: Forest Glen *Final Version April 2nd*
Post by: Oshyan on April 03, 2008, 03:59:03 PM
Superb. :)

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Forest Glen *Final Version April 2nd*
Post by: Arandil on April 04, 2008, 02:50:11 PM
Wwwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooowwwwww
Title: Re: Forest Glen *Final Version April 2nd*
Post by: FrankB on April 06, 2008, 04:09:19 AM
I can just chime in with the others: chapeau!

Title: Re: Forest Glen *Final Version April 2nd*
Post by: RedSquare on May 08, 2008, 08:19:40 PM
Late in the day, but none the less.  Stunning.