Rolling Clouds

[jbest]

Hi guys,

This was an attempt to create some clouds that looked like they were dark, heavy clouds rushing towards some mountains. I did not do too much work on the terrain, and the clouds did not turn out the way I expected ... I expect myself to be doing a little more work on this. Comments would be most welcome, as I am trying to see what I can do to give the clouds a more "heavy" look. (Try not to critique the terrain. I didn't do much work on it - yet.)

[Tangled-Universe]

No problem with the terrain, pretty clear what you're after.

I'm not sure what you mean with "heavy look", though I have ideas of course.
Perhaps you could post a reference image or 2 of what you're after?

A few things which help in general for nice cumulus is a ratio of =<4 between lead in scale and feature scale.
Around 12 octaves of noise should provide enough detail. Do not deviate too much from the default contrast and roughness settings.
Logically, use a billow type noise or the perlin mix 1.

Post your iterations and let's proceed further from there

Cheers,
Martin

[jbest]

Hey Martin,

Thanks for your suggestions. The clouds I'm going for are similar to these ones:

[jbest]

Hey,

Not a fan of this version ... I've lost my "rolling clouds." They're puffy alright, but not exactly the way I want it ... anyway here it is.

Also, attached is the .tgd of both versions if anyone is interested.

[Tangled-Universe]

They look puffy because they are pretty close up on the right.
Also, you can loose puffy-ness by increasing density a bit and especially increasing edge sharpness.
A ratio edge sharpness/density of 50-100 usually works ok.

Check this cloud file of mine which incorporates most of the stuff I've mentioned so far:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=12311.0

Be aware that the distance from camera is pretty deterministic on the actual result of how your clouds will look.

[Tangled-Universe]

If you want to save time and have a little bit of savings then you might consider Frank's cumulus pack:
http://www.nwdanet.com/buy-packs/7-preset-packs/61-cumulus-pack-v3.html

I made these clouds with that pack which is, except for the lighting, is pretty close to what you're looking for:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=9115.0

[Henry Blewer]

I learned quite a bit from Frank's Cumulus pack. Unfortunately, my old slow computer will not do the calculations for clouds very quickly (or moderately fast). I keep my atmospheres rather simple because of this.

I like your latest clouds. They may not be what you had in mind, but they are good.

[jbest]

If you want to save time and have a little bit of savings then you might consider Frank's cumulus pack:
http://www.nwdanet.com/buy-packs/7-preset-packs/61-cumulus-pack-v3.html

I made these clouds with that pack which is, except for the lighting, is pretty close to what you're looking for:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=9115.0

Thanks Martin. Still fiddling with my scene ... I'm trying to get rid of the "lumps" of clouds and make it one more solid cloud

[Tangled-Universe]

You can filter out small bits by putting a colour adjust shader in between your cloud fractal and cloud node.
Increasing the black point a little will remove faint grey from the fractal.
What this shader does is actually quite similar to Photoshop's "Levels" filter.
With a black point @ 0.2 you basically normalize the colours from 0.2 - 1 back to 0 - 1 and thus removing the lower colours (faint grey).

[mhle]

Hi jbest I love the "rockyness" of the terrain even unshaded!

[mhle]

I forgot to ask, did you use a specialized terrain modeling app to create those mountains?

[jbest]

I forgot to ask, did you use a specialized terrain modeling app to create those mountains?

Nope, I didn't.

[mhle]

Wow - I need to investigate TG2's modeling tools further I see! All I have been able to do so far with mountains was to use the randomly generated tarrain, but this does not look random at all.

[jbest]

Wow - I need to investigate TG2's modeling tools further I see! All I have been able to do so far with mountains was to use the randomly generated tarrain, but this does not look random at all.

It's very easy. If you go to the terrain tab in TG2there are two types of fractal mountains you can create. I used the alpine fractal. Very good for mountains