First Image

[FXFletch]

Hi all,

This my first project with Terregen so be gentle

[attach=#]

All comments gratefully received.

Ian

[freelancah]

Very nice. I think the water has a bit too uniform noise? Perhaps add something to break it or atleast smoothen a bit

[FXFletch]

Thanks for the feedback

yes I was not very happy with the water I was just using the standard lake settings, I need to experiment with the properties of the water shader.

Generally I am still very green on messing with the shaders, I suspect if I understood how the materials worked better I could change the default XPlant shaders to provide some translucency and shine on the palm tree leaves.

I will look for some tutorials.

Ian

[ares2101]

That's your first?  Damn good for a first go, I'd say.

I agree with freelancah though, the water needs tweaking, somehow it doesn't look right.

[Henry Blewer]

Try the wind patch effect. It does a good job breaking up waves.

This is very good overall. I like the lighting.

[Tangled-Universe]

That looks damn good for a first render and besides that it looks pretty good already anyway.

I agree about the water...I think reducing roughness and add some wind patches as Henry suggested will do the trick.
I think the scales are right.

I'm curious to see how it looks with some translucency on the palm trees

If you need any help just give a shout here, plenty of people willing to help here!

Cheers,
Martin

[Dune]

For translucency in the leaves you only have to get inside the object (right click... internal), and find the default shader for the leaves. Then set translucency to whatever you like, and on the next tab, add some reflection (0.5 or so for a start). That's basically it. Of course you can also call the image map for the leaves and use that for translucency (darker areas of the leaf structure will be less translucent).

[FXFletch]

Thanks all for making me feel at home and the positive comments. I will try these suggestions and re post.

I am trying not to lose heart having just seen Richard Fraser's island fly by 

[otakar]

Don't know about the black rocks (equally distributed at that) on the white sand. But impressive first render for sure.

[FXFletch]

Thanks all for the feedback.

I have tried to incorporate your feedback in my final version, I think the beach rocks and water work better now and I have boosted the sun power which has helped the plants in the foreground.

[attachthumb=#]

I tried to play with the materials to make the palm leaves look more back lit but didn't have much luck.

Am going to work through a couple of the tutorials I have found on the site to try and get my head around some of the basics that I am still having trouble with.

Thanks again for the help.

Ian     

[Henry Blewer]

Much better. You can increase the ambient light in the atmosphere to bring out the foreground color. The contrast setting and gamma correction in the effects tab of the render controls can also be used. The last little trick I use is the camera exposure. By using a mix of all three methods, very dramatic lighting can be achieved. (I can not say I am very good at this. Many comment that my renders are too dark.)

[cyphyr]

Another trick is to bring up the translucency of the leaves, you can go over "1" although this is technically not a "natural" solution.
cheers
Richard

[Dune]

If you just want to get some light on the undersides of the leaves, you can also add a slightly bluish light source at around camera position (like a flashlight). Play with strength and distance, as it's probably way too high/low at default.