Blowing - Trees - 1280x720px page 6...

Started by dandelO, April 24, 2011, 11:04:37 PM

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dandelO

I've been trying to make grass appear like it's blowing in a breeze, here's a quick 24 frames.

Built-in TG grass clump; 250 blades, 1m diameter, 1m blade length.

Did a lot of tests yesterday, which are now scrapped and won't be posted, mostly involving warping. When you reach a certain point with warp the textures begin to wind into themselves and there's no continuous method to keep it moving. I gave up on that.

Instead, I'm now using a smooth fractal(@0.25m) for the displacement function of the grass clump shader and just transforming it ever upwards on the Y axis, which gives a smooth and non-repeating movement.
Displacement amplitude here is '0.1'. Maybe a bit much, it looks kind of under-watery.

I'll carry on with this and post any updates if and when, I think I can limit the amount of displacement so there's more at the tips of the grassblades and less at the base...

[attachimg=#]

Notice the static shadows. The ray tracer doesn't seem to see displacement on objects. Oh well.

*And, of course, you can't use 'Ray trace objects' to render this either.

dandelO

I can imagine a better tuned and not so extreme version of this used in a population. Don't know if I have the time to test render it, though!

dandelO

#2
Tried to limit it a bit by the length of the grass, not great yet. :-\

* Image removed. Updated in next post.

dandelO

#3
A little bit less snakes-in-a-hair-dryer-like now. And limited by height for more movement at the tips.


Jack

very cool!!!
again dandelo you continue to push the boundaries with terragen 2
My terragen gallery:
http://wetbanana.deviantart.com/

pfrancke

very cool -- it looks exactly as I would expect if the grass was on top of a vent or some such, like the wind is coming from under it.  Rigging an object and doing this might be better than displacement though, if you have a way to step through an object, or if it were an object array.  Someday TG2 will do all that.  It looks amazing!!!

Dune

You amaze me again, Martin. I haven't even thought about this possibility. And regarding
QuoteWhen you reach a certain point with warp the textures begin to wind into themselves
; what if you add a sinus node in the warper?

Oshyan

Wow, very cool! Pretty impressive result even at this stage. I can only see the first image though, 2nd one seems broken. The reason the shadows aren't moving is probably the same reason displacement doesn't render on objects when raytrace objects is used - the raytracer doesn't handle displacement on object geometry yet.

- Oshyan

dandelO

#8
Hi. The second one is hosted on my Google page and for some reason, you need to be logged into Google to be able to see it, when I log out of my Google Page I can't see it either. Need to find a better host for larger images, I tried a few but they were mostly either full of ad's or didn't let me link directly to it.

Anyway, I've put the second one at the start of this little video file so you'll see it here. It's the same grass clump and movement that is in the population that follows. Sorry about the Youtube stretching(it's only 240px square) and compression but I don't have half an hour to wait on Vimeo right now.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBgJxPI0oNU

It translates quite well over the population don't you think?
I can imagine the small wind effect blended by a larger moving fractal over the population extents(like the colour adjustment variation we were playing with a while back), it'd look like patches of wind, If I can squeeze out the computer time to render something, I will. I've a lot of ideas.

max_thehitman



I have been roaming this forum and a few other places on the web looking for information
about Terragen-2 , so I too can join up on the great fun and start making some good artsy scenes like
you guys, and I have to tell you, your one of the best at this game. Your mini-tutorials have been a real great
help for a newcomer such as me and your art is very inspiring to us all. I have just begun making scenes
and your tutorials have been a real good help.
I thank you! I wish you all the best with your great art and amazing discoveries you have been doing with TG2...
your the Master-Artist DandelO!
Thanks!

dandelO

Thanks for the kind words, Max. I just enjoy playing with TG when I get some free time(Holiday season here so this's been my window of relaxation for a couple of weeks). If it helps anyone out, all the better.

Cheers! :)


dandelO

Small update. I don't like the movement as much in this one, I'll revert to nearer what I had before, I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD46KpWgKAw

ndeewolfwood

very good idea.
Can be great to use this to  simulate a "physical" camera or helicopter travelling near meadow (just multiply animated displace with distant shader.)
well done

Oshyan

That's pretty nice looking dandelO, very impressive. I agree the motion in the 2nd isn't as good. Are you using GI? I'm guessing not, so it will render faster. But it would be interesting to see how much better it would look with more balanced lighting (GI). I'd be happy to help you with some rendering if you want. :)

- Oshyan