Dyson Sphere, V2.0

[Mahnmut]

hi there, I won´t say what I tried to make here because I hope you will see it.
I am not to confident though, because I always find it hard to achieve the impression of really big size and depth that some of you so masterly create.
I used the beautiful ivy trees, whose creator I couldn´t remember and Mr Lampposts long grass.
Correction:the ivy tree is by dandelO!

Old version, scroll down for newer one!
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4092/5008472891_8c59836a4e_b.jpg

If some of you can guess what I tried, I would like to hear your comments and love to see better approaches on the idea!
Best regards,
Jan

[Henry Blewer]

I would say that you pointed the camera down at a water shader/pond to get the reflection. I tried this once. I found that to get a good reflection the settings have to be set too high. On my old P4 the render took much too much time. I went on to something completely different...

[dandelO]

Is it underwater looking up? I can't decide what I'm looking at.

I think the ivy trees may be mine. http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qynzhzitzza (3mb)

[Mahnmut]

Yes dandelO, thats your Ivy tree, thanks, I really like it.

Well, normally three guesses are allowed, but I fear that I just didn´t achieve the effect I was aiming for.

It is no reflection you are looking at, I wouldn´t have made such a fuss for a picture looking at a pond

You are looking "up" through the trees at the actual lightsource and atmosphere positioned at the center of a hollow sphere.

The idea was "Dyson Sphere", but will have to work on that some more.

Best Regards,
Jan

[Volker Harun]

If you read some tipps and tricks about photography, you'll notice, that the more zoom, the less depth (think of those sunset shots with a lonesome tree in front of the sun ... lots of zoom, but no depth).
Go to your camera and use at least a FOV of 75° ... or just go right for 90° .... do not forget to use the atmosphere for adding scale to the render!

Nonetheless, I feel tiny in your image ... it may not be flawless, but I like watching it

[Mahnmut]

Thanks Volker, that was a great help.
Concerning fotography that wasn´t so new to me, but I never thought about changing the camera-settings in TG before!
Well, here is the next result.
I photoshopped the bushes in to save rendertime, lensflare and colour adjustments.
The "Sun-container" is made quickly in Blender, just three tori and six cubes.
Its still far from perfect, but I think there are enough hints now to get the geometry (and the sci-fi-ness) of the idea.



What do you say, people?

[dandelO]

That's much more perceptible as your goal image now. Very cool!
You could maybe try some non-adaptive AA sampling, you can only use AA=3 I think, eh? That should take away some of the sharpness of the glints on the rings. I like Mitchell/Netrevali AA, it's a good balance of sharp/soft. I'd also check the AA bloom box.

Looking good, though!

[Kadri]

I think it is interesting , Mahnmut  
For me the problem is that i can not sense where and at what we quite look. Sometimes with such ideas it is hard to get the right picture.
Maybe you can try a much wider or higher aspect ratio and try to put the ground or some high structure (skyscraper etc .)  in the picture too.
I searched for Dyson Sphere images but there wasn't many ,but you can find many Ringworld images.
It seams that Dyson Sphere  images are a little hard to make !

[Mahnmut]

Glad you like it,
I also think I made some progress.
Thanks for the AA-hint, Maybe I will try that some day, for now it will be photoshop.
I am not only constricted by the limits of the free version, but by my old, slow and loud PC.
I can´t sleep while it runs, so there is a limit to the rendertimes.
Same problem with exotic aspect ratios, 800 is the longest image I get for free.
I tried to integrate Volker Haruns procedural cityscapes, and they work great, but without shadows they are just grey spots in the green.
That may be the main problem with dyson-sphere images (even for a small one) : the light comes directly from above at every point in the sphere.
I already thought about a "polar" lightsource instead of a central one.
but first I should concentrate on my exams (in ten days)
Best Regards,
Jan

[inkydigit]

great update!

[Volker Harun]

... but without shadows they are just grey spots in the green ...

My first thought was, that every vertical face inside a sphere should be in shadow ... but you are right this is really a problem.
I really like your idea of the Dyson sphere ... but first best of luck for the exams.

[Mahnmut]

Thanks for all your encouraging comments!

Volker Harun, I think in theory you are right about the vertical faces, even more so in a small sphere like mine.(r=36km, which is not very dysonlike at all, should be 1AE [AU? I think I saw AE in English]) The Sunlight isn´t as parallel as on a tiny ball far away like the earth.
You say I was right, but I had to think about why that is so.
On one hand, the lightsource is not punctual. (I actually used 3 lightsources in one cloudlayer)
On the other hand, when I look up at my dyson-sky, I see only the sunlit rooftops of my antipodes (Anticephaloi?)
Thanks for the good wishes, i shouldn´t be here now but learning learning learning!
I will try to concentrate, see you in two weeks then.
Best Regards,
Jan

[TheBlackHole]

It's AU. It stands for Astronomical Unit, the distance between Earth and the Sun.

[Mahnmut]

Ok, well.
In German its AE (Astronomische Einheit) and I thouhgt I had read AE in English texts to.
But AU makes sense.
Back to learning!