Volcanic wip

[chris_x422]

Hi chaps,

Lots of lovely work around on the forum at the moment.
Back in full production at work, very little time for play, but here's one I'm toying with at the moment.
Still not happy with the lighting, and I want to add some foreground elements.
All suggestions are welcomed.

Cheers

Chris

[attachimg=#]

[jbest]

Wow! Is the smoke a cloud?

[inkydigit]

a great start Chris....keep going!

[Kadri]

Nice image as always, Chris
I don't know quite what you want to do Chris but the Volcan looks not so big. More like a mini Volcan to me !
And dependent for your chosen scale you can put fake stones , bushes etc. on the foreground as you know too

This brings your last project on my mind with the Earth without oceans . If i remember right it was yours?
It was nice and i loved it ,but i felt there should be more plant like details .

[chris_x422]

Thanks for the quick replies.

You are right Kadri, the surrounding environment does dwarf the volcano, had it looking looking bigger in earlier tests, and might revert to that yet.
Draining the Oceans, was one of ours, at the time the lack of plants and other life was very deliberate.
Funnily enough we are about start work on the sequel which may well contain a bit more variation.

@jbest, the smoke is a cloud system, masked and placed over the model.

Cheers Inky, hope I'm going to finish this one.

Chris

[Kadri]

...
Funnily enough we are about start work on the sequel...
...

Good news   Can you say anything about the time frame  Chris ?

[chris_x422]

Sorry, I don't know when it will air.

What I do know so far is that it is far more ambitious than the first programme.
We are only just clearing the boards in preparation, so even I don't know the full job spec as yet.

Chris

[Kadri]

Sorry, I don't know when it will air.
What I do know so far is that it is far more ambitious than the first programme.
We are only just clearing the boards in preparation, so even I don't know the full job spec as yet.
Chris

I see ! Thanks , Chris 

[dandelO]

Funnily enough we are about start work on the sequel which may well contain a bit more variation.

You just made my day! Although, my favourite reel from 422 South is 'Explosive Archaeology'. Simply mind blowing stuff!

Great smoke from the volcano, I agree with the scaling, though.
A pleasure to view your posts!

[Dune]

Great start, Chris. Looking forward to its progression.
Some ideas: you have to hide the light source, which is visible through the volcano. Hang a small plane in front of it inside the volcano might help. I would get some vague patchy sunlight onto the ground here and there, to offset the one lighted area. Perhaps a forest of dead trees (if that's your 'thing'), or an abandoned skyscraper of village would set the scale.
Furthermore, I find the ground very grainy.

The smoke is great. I did a volcano like this a while ago, where the smoke was masked by 2 perpendicular image shaders. Hard to get it right.

[jbest]

I have to agree with Dune about the ground, it does look grainy. When I first saw the picture I was secretly hoping there was some lava in it 

The mountain looks kind of small compared to the rest of the terrain, but that's not really something you can control, and there are small volcanoes, I guess.

[chris_x422]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Cheers Dandello. (forgot to say, I'm using your crack system here too! many thanks!)

Cool suggestions Dune.
You are right, I forgot to turn on ray trace shadows in the atmosphere!
The grainy ground is due to low sampling, and quick texturing, needs a bit more love and care.
Thanks for the lighting and layout ideas too, I always wanted to avoid having lava in the scene (sorry jbest), so am looking for something a little different and a bit of destruction might be fun!
Yup, same here, camera projected masks for the smoke, a bit fiddly but does the job.

Here's a grab of the volcano model in zbrush.

[attachimg=#]

[jbest]

Maybe some sort of hazy smoke in the scene?

[Volker Harun]

I really like the mood in this scene ....
For the scale, move the camera very close to the volcano and increase the camera's FoV. Maybe lowering the camera's position and looking upwards would add, too

Go for it ,-)

[chris_x422]

Cheers Volker,

Thanks for the tips, I hope to do an update this weekend.

Chris