Boulder Field

inkydigit · August 22, 2011, 07:34:44 AM

I decided to try some work with the fake stone shader; 9 layers of stones, 2 geocontrol terrains in the background and a fractal terrain in the foreground, no image maps - 100% procedural, no post work, just jpegged.... thanks for dropping by to view/comment/critique, as these are always welcome and appreciated!

Henry Blewer · August 22, 2011, 08:24:11 AM

Sweet. Just a little color variation of the sand and on the stones. That would finish this.

Dune · August 22, 2011, 08:53:36 AM

I echo Henry; the stones are very uniformly colored. Unless that's the nature of the soil you're depicting. But I do like the overall settings, sky and the shadows. Maybe a few scattered clumps of dry grass would do wonders as well.

inkydigit · August 22, 2011, 01:13:19 PM

thanks Henry and Ulco, that is the hardest thing to do without the colour variations looking too fake, getting similar coloured and realistic variations in the stones was the hardest thing to do....and I am still trying!!!

Dune · August 22, 2011, 01:58:17 PM

Just try some PF's after the stones, with one color, or some colored surface shaders with coverage lower than 1 and blended by a PF.

TheBadger · August 22, 2011, 03:31:01 PM

I like this alot too. And agree you should add more color variations, but I like that there is no plant life. This place is dead, maybe something managed to survive here once, but not anymore

inkydigit · August 22, 2011, 04:20:03 PM

thanks again Ulco and Badger, there are some colour variations, but obviously a little too subtle, I am experimenting as we speak, and have already yielded some results, done in my usual manner of sledgehammer and walnut tactics...but it seems to work for me somehow, i will post an update soon...

cheers
J

Cyber-Angel · August 23, 2011, 12:17:27 AM

Have you tried feeding the fractal breakup into the color channel of the surface layer or sending the output of one surface layer into the color imput of the surface layer beneath it ?

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel

TheBadger · August 23, 2011, 05:19:41 AM

Quote from: Cyber-Angel on August 23, 2011, 12:17:27 AM
Have you tried feeding the fractal breakup into the color channel of the surface layer or sending the output of one surface layer into the color imput of the surface layer beneath it ?
Regards to you.
Cyber-Angel

Where do you guys learn to do this? It really can't be just trial and error,? Maybe I just don't think like this yet

FrankB · August 23, 2011, 08:08:56 AM

Inky, the smallest AND most dense stone layer dominates the overall color of the ground. So with that in mind, if you want a light brown overall look, just make sure the smallest and most dense layers have that color. The slightly bigger stones, but not the tallest ones, are where you are pretty much free to introduce any other natural stone color, grey, black, white, rose, yellow... without destroying the overall color. try it!

Cheers,
Frank

Henry Blewer · August 23, 2011, 08:16:28 AM

Quote from: TheBadger on August 23, 2011, 05:19:41 AM
Quote from: Cyber-Angel on August 23, 2011, 12:17:27 AM
Have you tried feeding the fractal breakup into the color channel of the surface layer or sending the output of one surface layer into the color imput of the surface layer beneath it ?
Regards to you.
Cyber-Angel

Where do you guys learn to do this? It really can't be just trial and error,? Maybe I just don't think like this yet

Many things that we do have been found by scratching our heads and thinking about the solution. So, we need to limit color by altitude and also limit it's coverage. Surface layer to the rescue. We need more control over adding more color. Surface layer again. Ok, what if I use the second layer to drive the first? New technique is born.

One of the best things about Terragen 2 is the constant learning curve. Better solutions and more creativity comes from this.