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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: Mohawk20 on February 13, 2009, 11:38:28 AM

Title: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on February 13, 2009, 11:38:28 AM
I was browsing through my gallery, just to see what is still in there.
I came across this image: http://www.terragen.org/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4435
You might remember it, you might not. It's about 1,5 years old, and made with a very early version of TG2...
At the time, it was the best we could do to imitate transparent water... (yes, you may laugh!)
I used a very basic canyon trick, that obviously doesn't look like water parting.

After seeing this, and playing with my waterfall project, I decided to revisit this image using the latest techniques.

Displacing a water plane along a painted shader, and increasing the Decay Distance value, while adding a single surface layer that has a reflective shader a child, and the Base Colour shader as colour input, it took only 20 minutes to set up, but almost 2 hours to render at 0.75 detail.
This is just a proof of concept. I have to adjust the index of refraction, download some fish objects, increase scale, and add terrain.

Still Comments and Crits are always appreciated!
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on February 13, 2009, 05:52:13 PM
This looks like fun.  Keep us up on what you're finding out, if you will.  I'm not sure I would have thought of this.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: dandelO on February 13, 2009, 06:28:04 PM
The strange lines in the surfaces are from your brushstrokes, you could make a really cool looking crystal/structure that way by painting onto a sphere, shifting the camera 90° clockwise around the sphere in the 3d preview window until the whole surface was painted... I'm going to try this, cheers, man. ;)

I had a project like this about 2 years ago, too. I was inept at best with the program so this test image(the only trace that exists of the pathetic setup at all) is ghastly... :-[

[attachimg=#]

This file was called lookbusyherecomesMoses.tgd :D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on February 14, 2009, 03:33:43 AM
Heheh, I like the name  ;D
For crystal you can also use a rock object...

I did a test overnight, not too happy with it, I set the overall transparency to low (from 0.75 to 0.5), and the seabed reflectiveness too high.
But I rendered at 1 detail, just to see what happens, and I tweaked the waves a bit.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on February 18, 2009, 03:06:32 PM
I could use some ideas on how to improve this further...
Below is the latest render with some tweaks to water and ground.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mahnmut on February 18, 2009, 05:00:08 PM
Biblical.
ideas on improvement, mhm.

To me the ground seems a bit dry in this version, for me the truth lies betwenn the two last versions.

Maybe some reluctant puddles of muddy water on the ground, or waves creeping outwards...

some waterplants, lying flat on the ground or stretched outward by the same power that holds the water...

To me the yellowish light gives a dusty impression.
When the light comes through that much water, it could be more blue-greenish.
Maybe Stormclouds?
Maybe higher walls?

I am looking forward to your next versions!

Best regards,
Jan
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on February 18, 2009, 05:31:15 PM
Clouds is a good idea...

Scale should be way bigger indeed, so the ground surface scale goes smaller (easier  ;))
I was also no so happy with the reflectiveness of the latest version...

There actually is a second surface layer of green strands to replicate seaweed, but it obviously needs tweaking.

Stay tuned!
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on February 20, 2009, 11:49:01 AM
New renders below:

First one was a test with different sky.
Second one has the same sky (only different sun position) and different POV, but still no ship... (A shipwreck half in the water would be nice, but I can't find a good model.) Still have to tweak the seaweed more...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on February 20, 2009, 12:08:43 PM
I like the second one better.

At the end, where it comes to what looks like a glacier reminds me a little of fjord I sailed through up in the NW Territories. 
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: PG on February 20, 2009, 02:25:14 PM
I prefer the first on tbh. the water flows much better and the light refraction effect is cool.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on February 20, 2009, 04:47:12 PM
Hmmm, a score of 1-1, I need a tie breaker...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on February 20, 2009, 11:29:31 PM
My wife voted for the first one.  You now have a tie-breaker.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on February 21, 2009, 03:06:50 AM
Quote from: calico on February 20, 2009, 11:29:31 PM
My wife voted for the first one.  You now have a tie-breaker.
Heheh, thanks...
Did your wife say why she liked the first one better?
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on February 21, 2009, 10:28:50 AM
The lighting was better, she thought, and the green lines she thought was cool.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on February 21, 2009, 10:45:05 AM
Ah..
Well, the green lines are actually the edge of the water plane. So that would be where we look along the underside of the water, which isn't realistic. I can play with the volumetrics of the water though.

Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: PG on February 21, 2009, 02:10:57 PM
The second one looks like it is a heightfield and the water basin is intersecting it rather than rising into it as the first image does.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on February 22, 2009, 08:18:19 AM
Another POV change and sun change... Better PG?

Still looking for that shipwreck. I found a non-wrecked ship, but it had no textures in the download, and I would have to wreck it myself. Could take some time...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: PG on February 22, 2009, 12:30:54 PM
Yeah now that the sun's not shining on the join it's better.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mahnmut on February 22, 2009, 12:56:10 PM
many interesting versions, I also liked the green line, realistic or not.
That last one is to colorless again in my opinion, even as little as ten meters below the surface everything turns blue. And the surface would have to be quite even to show a sun as clear and white as this.
Show us that we are on the bottom of a sea parted by the power of God!
Huge amounts of Water moved by incredible forces!
Best regards,
Jan
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on February 22, 2009, 02:42:48 PM
Quote from: Mahnmut on February 22, 2009, 12:56:10 PM
many interesting versions, I also liked the green line, realistic or not.
That last one is to colorless again in my opinion, even as little as ten meters below the surface everything turns blue. And the surface would have to be quite even to show a sun as clear and white as this.
Show us that we are on the bottom of a sea parted by the power of God!
Huge amounts of Water moved by incredible forces!
Best regards,
Jan

You are right of course.
Problem is that the depth discolouration is handled by the decay distance settings, and those have to be high for the sky to show in any other colour than black.
I have to see if I can fix that by decreasing the size of the background object. That could actually work...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mahnmut on February 23, 2009, 06:54:06 PM
"I have to see if I can fix that by decreasing the size of the background object. That could actually work..."

brilliant idea, I could try that for my icecliff too.
Thanks.
I don´t know how much you can twist with the volume density?

keep going,

best regards,

Jan

Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on February 27, 2009, 05:14:18 PM
Trying some decay distance settings and Volumetrics. As you can see, the green line is back, which is due to the still visible edge of the water plane.

It did lead me to an interesting conclusion about depth transparency in water shaded planes:
As long as you have an outside edge and an inside edge (also called double-sided on some objects), the sky is rendered through water no mater what settings. If you have only the outside edge (and thus a virtual endless body of water) the sky is rendered black unless the the decay distance is roughly the same size as the background object (default size: 2e+008). Any value above that will suffice.

So in this case I would have to increase the size of the water plane, or add the sides to the painted mask to displace them down as much as the 'canyon'.

I have to tweak the algae surface layer a lot more, and that ship is still out there somewhere....
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mahnmut on March 01, 2009, 07:22:36 PM
Maybe it is still not as realistic as you want it, but is getting more interesting anyway.
I can´t say a lot about transparent water, the rendertimes kill me.
I tried to make some transparent ice-kliffs, but it simply took to long on the pc that I got.
Keep going,
Best Regards,
Jan
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 01, 2009, 07:50:10 PM
I have made some final tweaks and I will post the result as soon as the render finishes...
You will definitely like it, because it has both colour ánd realism. I love those volumetrics!
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 02, 2009, 06:34:10 AM
And here it is, after a bit more than 30 hours rendering at 1 detail. But I see atmo samples have to go up in later renders.

A bigger lake object so the edge is no longer visible, which gets rid of the unnatural line. But less decay distance, and dense volumetrics means more green in the water, resulting in more realism (and emerald like edges in the distance).

I also decreased powerfractal roughness, so the seabed looks more blubbery.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how this last scene turned out.
Now for a ship and Moses  ;D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 03, 2009, 11:16:16 AM
Check out this test render below. I thought I'd try another POV, from a ship or boat on the water. That's just scary...

(I had to use Surface Blur to get rid of a lot of noise in the atmo, it was just a test render after all).
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Seth on March 03, 2009, 12:00:14 PM
far better pov
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on March 03, 2009, 12:10:59 PM
I agree with Seth.  Better POV.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 03, 2009, 04:17:40 PM
Thanks guys, this is a fun experiment to do, and I'm happy you guys like it as well. I can always upload some files if you guys are interested, but I have to warn you, it's all very simple...  ;)

I just got the Poser Content Paradise newsletter, and they have this on sale: http://www.contentparadise.com/us/user/shepherd_clothing_set_for_g2_males_product_45421

Add a beard and it looks like Moses, so I think I'll buy the object set... great timing of them.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on March 03, 2009, 04:19:22 PM
Groovy.  Sheep herders.   ;D

Send us everything you got.  I'll eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: MacGyver on March 04, 2009, 03:09:37 AM
Quote from: calico on March 03, 2009, 12:10:59 PM
I agree with Seth.  Better POV.
And I agree with calico ;)
Is it just me or is the water a bit green? Isn't it supposed to be the Red Sea? ;D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 04, 2009, 04:41:49 AM
Quote from: MacGyver on March 04, 2009, 03:09:37 AM
Quote from: calico on March 03, 2009, 12:10:59 PM
I agree with Seth.  Better POV.
And I agree with calico ;)
Is it just me or is the water a bit green? Isn't it supposed to be the Red Sea? ;D

Uhhhhhhh, welllllll, erm, let me think here for a moment... The red sea had green algae just like any other sea right?

But seriously, this is what wikipedia says about the name:
Quote from: Wikipedia
Red Sea is a direct translation of the Greek Erythra Thalassa (Ερυθρά Θάλασσα), Latin Mare Rubrum, Arabic Al-Baḥr Al-Aḥmar (البحر الأحمر), and Tigrinya Qeyyiḥ bāḥrī (ቀይሕ ባሕሪ).

The name of the sea may signify the seasonal blooms of the red-coloured (Archabactera) Trichodesmium erythraeum near the water's surface.[3] Some suggest that it refers to the mineral-rich red mountains nearby which are called Harei Edom (הרי אדום). Edom, meaning "ruddy complexion", is also an alternative Hebrew name for the red-faced biblical character Esau (brother of Jacob), and the nation descended from him, the Edomites, which in turn provides yet another possible origin for Red Sea.[citation needed]

Another hypothesis is that the name comes from the Himyarite, a local group whose own name means red.[citation needed]

Yet another theory favored by some modern scholars is that the name red is referring to the direction South, just as the Black Sea's name may refer to North. The basis of this theory is that some Asiatic languages used color words to refer to the cardinal directions[4]. Herodotus on one occasion uses Red Sea and Southern Sea interchangeably.[5]

A final theory suggests that it was named so because it borders the Egyptian Desert which the ancient Egyptians called the Dashret or "red land"; therefore it would have been the sea of the red land.

So the water stays green! ;D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: PG on March 04, 2009, 09:21:27 AM
I like this new pov, the waterline on the top should be a smooth curve rather than a drop though, to give the water a sense of flowing and to make it look even less like terrain.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 04, 2009, 11:02:31 AM
Quote from: PG on March 04, 2009, 09:21:27 AM
I like this new pov, the waterline on the top should be a smooth curve rather than a drop though, to give the water a sense of flowing and to make it look even less like terrain.

True, I thought about this... I think a small change to the painted shaders edges should suffice to smoothen the edges...

[Edit]Had to add some paintwork, colour adjust didn't work as well as I suspected... But is this better? (See below...)[/Edit]
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on March 05, 2009, 11:23:22 AM
Cool, yeah.  Grainy, but this has promise.  COOL.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: PG on March 05, 2009, 11:39:50 AM
Better, the top is about right, maybe a little more. Now the bottom looks like a pond though, maybe some larger waves would help, after all the water's supposed to be pulling to either side so there'd be some turbulence.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on March 05, 2009, 02:56:30 PM
Actually, there was dry ground.   ;D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: PG on March 05, 2009, 03:04:39 PM
Well ok :D but surely you'd expect to see the effect of two waterfalls when you look at it.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 05, 2009, 04:28:12 PM
Well, I might actually make the ground less reflective, to make it look more like mud, because the water stayed upright for a while after the pulling back, enabling the Israelites to "go into the midst of the sea on the dry ground..."
But since it was some kind of wind-like effect that made the water stand up like walls (at least, according to Moses), I might want to roughen up the water near the edges...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on March 06, 2009, 09:44:12 AM
Mohawk, if you get it like you want it, please post your results.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mahnmut on March 06, 2009, 10:09:03 AM
Did I mention that I like the new POV?
Its strange, but in this case I think the higher POV gives a better impression of scale.
I really like the transparency in the last but one.
I am trying to achieve a similar effect for this image that i made before transparent water was available,

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=2353.0

but I don´t get it. its either to intense in the colours or nearly white.
I really would appreciate some advice.

Best Regards,
Jan
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 06, 2009, 10:38:51 AM
I suggest to place the sun behind the ice mountain, plug a powerfractal in the volume1 input of the water shader, increase the volume density to around 0.5 at least, set decay distance to 500 and transparency to 1 and see what happens. You can then increase settings to your liking. It's still a bit trial and error...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mahnmut on March 07, 2009, 08:42:36 PM
Thanks, thats a start.
Some of the values I wouldn´t have guessed.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 10, 2009, 01:43:19 PM
Below the Moses figure in a Poser render.
When I export the model as obj the beard disappears, and when I export as lwo the textures aren't mapped correctly. Merging the two in PoseRay leads to overlapping issues, so it might be while until I get it figured out...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: MacGyver on March 10, 2009, 04:08:16 PM
Very good idea involving Moses into the scene... I suppose he'll be viewed from behind? Otherwise the face seems a bit too young for a man over 70 ;D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 10, 2009, 06:30:44 PM
Quote from: MacGyver on March 10, 2009, 04:08:16 PM
Very good idea involving Moses into the scene... I suppose he'll be viewed from behind? Otherwise the face seems a bit too young for a man over 70 ;D

True, that was the idea, though some bumpmaps and textures could fix that easily if necessary.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 11, 2009, 05:42:52 AM
First test render in scene...

I still need to fix some overlapping issues, but I have faith  :P
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 12, 2009, 12:17:40 PM
And the final moses:

I had to open the previous model in 3DsMax, delete everything that was not connected to the beard object, and I found that the beard was merged with the eyes and the chest part of the robe. So I deleted the vertexes that were attached to the beard, as far as I could select them without selecting pieces of beard with it.
Then exported the beard itself to obj, and merged it in PoseRay with the original Poser exported obj (which didn't have the beard). It fit perfectly, and below is the result.

Now for a nice spot to place him, overlooking the parted sea, and I think the project will be finished...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on March 12, 2009, 12:22:43 PM
That radical!
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: MacGyver on March 12, 2009, 12:33:39 PM
Quote from: calico on March 12, 2009, 12:22:43 PM
That radical!

What is radical? ;D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 26, 2009, 04:11:56 PM
If you are wondering what happened to this project, I'm still working on it...

Actually I'm rendering the final image now, and it's just over halfway done (after 200 hours non-stop rendering).
Maybe high atmo quality and lots and lots of transparent water and reflective surfaces have something to do with that...  ;)

I'll post the result as soon as possible...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: MacGyver on March 27, 2009, 07:16:39 AM
I'm curious! At least you had biblical render times ;D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 27, 2009, 12:17:39 PM
Hahahahaha  :D
Good one... :P
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 31, 2009, 11:49:39 AM
I guess a preview is in order, as the rendertimes really are biblical by now...

You can also see how the surface is build up. And that I forgot to fix the altitude restraint of the algae layer  :-[


What do you think, is this Image of the Week worthy when it's finished?
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: cyphyr on March 31, 2009, 11:57:58 AM
Looking good, but I thought you were going to put a wreck in there and a stack of detritus on the ground?
richard
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on March 31, 2009, 12:21:51 PM
Couldn't find a decent wreck...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: MacGyver on March 31, 2009, 01:11:33 PM
Fantastic scene, love it! :o :D Haaa, I can smell the breeze :-*
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Luminos on March 31, 2009, 01:15:58 PM
Long render, I imagine if this goes any longer you may just have to replace Moses with a water parting dinosaur
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Oshyan on April 01, 2009, 12:01:47 AM
That looks really cool! Nice work.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on April 01, 2009, 08:40:44 AM
Cool, Mohawk.  You know you can always render in objects later in crops and then bring them in later by adjusting light values through Paint.Net or Photoshop, etc.  Right?
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on April 01, 2009, 10:27:48 AM
Yeah, that was my plan for the boat. Place it when it's done and do a crop render. If I place it far away enough it will be a really small crop  :D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Luminos on April 02, 2009, 04:19:31 AM
you could just re-render the whole thing just to be sure :P
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on April 02, 2009, 05:56:09 AM
 ;D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: MacGyver on April 03, 2009, 04:40:01 PM
Isn't it finished by now? :o ;D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on April 03, 2009, 05:38:41 PM
Nope...
I found out that I hadn't masked a reflective surface, so it extends way into the distance under water. It really helps with lighting the water, so I'll leave it, but it does cause about 3 more raytrace calculations than normal, with an underwater reflection of the sun that has to be scattered by waves.

I guess it'll be done in a week, but perhaps less, as it's now rendering the final two render buckets with water or reflections in them, and one bucket will finish tonight.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: MacGyver on April 04, 2009, 10:54:04 AM
So this is way over 200 hours now?! Or did you start rendering it again? ??? :o
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on April 04, 2009, 02:10:56 PM
It's now almost at 400... I guess at another 50 before finishing, but we'll know in 2 days.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: MacGyver on April 04, 2009, 04:48:43 PM
Couldn't you part the render time instead of the sea? ;D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on April 04, 2009, 05:19:11 PM
Yep, by going quadcore  ;)
But it's just one last bucket to render, so only one core is being used.
It would be nice if that last bucket would be finished by both cores.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: PG on April 04, 2009, 05:48:01 PM
Oh damn, I thought planetside were fixing it so if a core finished all it's buckets it would give it's resources to the last one.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Oshyan on April 04, 2009, 05:49:17 PM
That would require dynamic splitting of the remaining tiles, which is a bit more challenging than it sounds. Hopefully something for the future.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Jack on April 04, 2009, 06:07:59 PM
so its been going for like 16 and a half days?
that is ridiculous :-\
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on April 05, 2009, 02:51:15 PM
Hmmm, it seems my guess of 50 hours was wrong  :-[

It was only 20 hours  ;D


So see below, the final beta. I have to crop render that line in the middle away, and add a ship of which I have to cut down the masts first. But hopefully those extra crops will go a bit faster. I'm installing the gold version before rendering, so that should shave off a few percent rendertime.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: domdib on April 05, 2009, 04:02:14 PM
LOVE the sky. And the water isn't too shady either  ;)
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Hetzen on April 05, 2009, 04:07:27 PM
That's quite an eerie scene you've created, to the point of me questioning my atheism. :)
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Oshyan on April 06, 2009, 10:49:19 PM
Pretty cool! I love the look of the water on the left. Quite some render time though. There are elements of the scene you left in that might not have been necessary though, yes? Seems like this kind of image ought to be do-able in a shorter time. Admire your persistence though. ;D

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: reck on April 07, 2009, 03:56:22 AM
Mohawk I love this render and the water turned out really quite nice in the end.

Do you plan to do a tutorial for the wiki on how you created this image?
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on April 07, 2009, 05:48:43 AM
A tutorial... hmmm, no promises  ;)

And thanks Oshyan. The water on the left looks so nice because the planet surface below/behind it has a reflective shader. So what you see between the water extends through the water. I guess that's what caused the long render time, but it's needed for the nice water.

And thank you all for the nice comments of course  ;D
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Luminos on April 07, 2009, 08:04:02 AM
Well done mohawk, i take my hat off to you. What did the final render time come to out of curiosity?

Quote from: reck on April 07, 2009, 03:56:22 AM
Do you plan to do a tutorial for the wiki on how you created this image?
I second that Turtoral motion.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on April 07, 2009, 10:41:53 AM
Quote from: Luminos on April 07, 2009, 08:04:02 AM
What did the final render time come to out of curiosity?

About 420 hours.

Well, perhaps a tutorial then. But what I did was very simple, so it won't be a big one...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on May 21, 2009, 06:24:25 AM
 >:( >:( >:( Aaaaargh  >:( >:( >:(

The new crop was almost done, after 500 hours. But just before finishing, my brother plugs a buggy device into the wall socket and the fusebox shuts down.
That means: 500 hours GONE  :-[

I don't know if I'm going to render it again soon...

But I cán make that tutorial.
Where would you like to see it?
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: MacGyver on May 21, 2009, 06:59:25 AM
Maybe you can find someone with a spiffy quadcore who can render it for you? :-\ Aaaah, it's such a pity :'(
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on May 21, 2009, 08:37:27 AM
Sorry to hear about this, Mohawk.  Maybe someday we will find some ways to build an inexpensive render farm and have it connected to a UPS.   ;D

Moses must be heartbroken...sorry, I couldn't resist.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on May 21, 2009, 08:40:22 AM
Quote from: calico on May 21, 2009, 08:37:27 AM
Sorry to hear about this, Mohawk.  Maybe someday we will find some ways to build an inexpensive render farm and have it connected to a UPS.   ;D

Moses must be heartbroken...sorry, I couldn't resist.

Hahahaha  ;D  He will be crying himself to sleep tonight  :'( :P
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Cyber-Angel on May 21, 2009, 10:10:38 AM
Mohawk, just a suggestion, could you not send the file to one of the render farms that do TG2 and let them do the rendering donkey work for you? Sorry to here about the wasted time.

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel     
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: rcallicotte on May 21, 2009, 12:03:56 PM
As long as those tablets don't broken again...



Quote from: Mohawk20 on May 21, 2009, 08:40:22 AM

Hahahaha  ;D  He will be crying himself to sleep tonight  :'( :P
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on May 21, 2009, 01:26:20 PM
Quote from: Cyber-Angel on May 21, 2009, 10:10:38 AM
Mohawk, just a suggestion, could you not send the file to one of the render farms that do TG2 and let them do the rendering donkey work for you? Sorry to here about the wasted time.

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel     

Well, that would be a good idea, apart from the fact they ask money and I just bought the Xfrog plant bundle... But thanks for thinking along!
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on May 21, 2009, 05:45:41 PM
http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Terragen_2_Tutorials#Parting_Sea_Tutorial

I just made a first set-up for my tutorial in the Planetside Wiki.
It's very basic, no pictures or anything. I'm still learning the wiki system, so it might take a while before it looks good.

But if you want to try your hand at it already, use the above link.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on May 21, 2009, 06:54:21 PM
Quote from: MacGyver on April 04, 2009, 04:48:43 PM
Couldn't you part the render time instead of the sea? ;D
lol.
Matt could probably do it for him :D :D :D :D :D :D

Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: PG on May 22, 2009, 05:14:54 AM
Yeah I reckon for a render farm to do just one frame you're looking at £100 ($160)
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on June 04, 2009, 02:55:16 PM
Well, this is looking to be a never ending story.
The power was cut off in the whole street for a few hours..!!!

So I finally decided to re-do the surfaces and thus increase render efficiency.
So one of the reflective layers is gone, but the other covers the first, so it was overkill anyway. I also masked the reflective layer with the same painted shader I used on the water, so the reflectiveness is only applied to the 'dry' seabed.
That means there is no reflection of the sun from the seabed, so no fancy water colours.

Instead, I found out that in those days there were seals in the Red Sea. So I bought a sea lion model for poser (for only a few bucks), and exported a few poses. Those will increase depth perception and realism.

I have started rendering the new setup 45 hours ago, and the crop that covers the entire affected area (about a third of the image, in the middle) is already 50% finished. So finally things are looking up!
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: MacGyver on June 04, 2009, 03:45:51 PM
Phew! Seems good ol' Moses doesn't need to look for a new job ;)
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: DaveC on June 04, 2009, 07:00:17 PM
Wow that is a lot of rendering.  The water is looking great I can't wait to see the sea lions.
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Marcos Silveira on June 08, 2009, 07:54:18 AM
Quote from: Mohawk20 on May 21, 2009, 06:24:25 AM
>:( >:( >:( Aaaaargh  >:( >:( >:(

The new crop was almost done, after 500 hours. But just before finishing, my brother plugs a buggy device into the wall socket and the fusebox shuts down.
That means: 500 hours GONE  :-[

I don't know if I'm going to render it again soon...

But I cán make that tutorial.
Where would you like to see it?

Can't you just shoot him in the forehead?!?!?


;D Just kidding...


Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on June 16, 2009, 05:38:12 PM
And here it is!!
After thousands of hours (hmmm, that sounds ridiculous), here is finally the next version. Featuring the sea lions, better surface layer edge smoothing, improved render efficiency, and less reflectiveness.

I think the scale of the sea lions could be smaller, and there could be more. Their shadows were a bit unexpected, but interesting...
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Hetzen on June 16, 2009, 08:08:18 PM
Sealions?

You're a picnic short of a box of frogs!
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Oshyan on June 16, 2009, 10:08:56 PM
Hmm, looks like you did lose something in the lighting without the reflective shader. This looks more "realistic" though. All in all a nice image, just a shame it took so long to render. ;D I think if you had known from the start how to go about it, and what elements might be problematic for render time, it might not have been so bad. Hopefully a good learning experience though!

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on June 17, 2009, 04:58:21 AM
Quote from: Oshyan on June 16, 2009, 10:08:56 PM
Hmm, looks like you did lose something in the lighting without the reflective shader. This looks more "realistic" though.

Hopefully a good learning experience though!

I agree on the lighting. I might still be able to fake some of it by using non ray-traced reflection, but as this is more realistic, I might leave it like this.


Definitely a good lesson!
A good thing to know is that this last image consists of 4 cropped renders. The very first final render for the sky, and two crop renders of the water area. Everything fitted together nicely without any GI edges, except for moses' back. Those shadows had 3 different shades along the crop edges. So I rendered Moses as a whole single crop, and that crop fitted without any edges as well. So a big "thank you" for the 'detail in camera' option!

Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: maxrazor on November 23, 2012, 01:25:17 PM
Sorry for drudging up an old post, I thought it would be better to add to this one rather than make a new thread.

I am also making a red sea parting for a client, but for some reason I cant get the displacement shader to do anything for me.

Attaching screenie of the nodes and such. Probably did it wrong, or I missed something in the tut.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT.:. Just saw that this was in image sharing. Guess it was in the wrong place after all... Sorry about that :P
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Tangled-Universe on November 23, 2012, 02:06:31 PM
Maybe one of the moderators can move it to the discussion board, but your question isn't that unrelevant to this topic. I'd let them decide if necessary.

Anyway, you need to connect your painted shader to the input port on the right of the displacement shader.
The left input port is just meant to have the data pass along in the network (basically all nodes work like this).
The right input port is for input specific to the displacement shader. It accepts color and scalar data, in this case provided by the painted shader.

Cheers,
Martin
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Mohawk20 on November 23, 2012, 02:40:08 PM
Well, Martin just told you the solution. I was wondering, are you using a real heightfield of the region in Egypt?
Please keep us posted on your project!
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: maxrazor on November 23, 2012, 03:39:06 PM
Thank you so much! quick and simple mistake, thanks for helping!

Cheers

EDIT.:. Yes! I am indeed using the strip in egypt that the red sea crossing took place!
Title: Re: Parting the Sea
Post by: Andrew March on November 26, 2012, 05:28:13 PM
You mean supposedly took place ;)