playing with objects

[Goms]

next try, this time with some objects to get a better idea of the scale.
Terrain is TG2 only, the objects are from the NWDA fir bundle and some NWDA grass.

any tips about how to get a little more details into the trees are welcome. I know they are very detailed, but i only get two shades of green
As the trees came out very dark with a normal light setup (Sun+GI), i used a fill light setup and additional ambient occlusion - what makes them lighter, but also without contrast.


best regards,
Sönke

[mesocyclone]

whoa, nice perspective 

[Hannes]

That's really a dramatic view. In my opinion the lighting is really too flat and even. There's not enough depth. You should lighten up the textures of the trees a little bit instead of adding more lights. A fill light setup replacing the GI thing is absolutely OK, but I'd delete the additional lights.
If you'd place the sun a little bit more shining from the side or let's say from 2 o'clock with an elevation of 12 or 16 you'd have more shadows and contrast. You can also play with the redsky decay in the athmosphere tab to add a little warmth to the whole image.
Plus a bit more details in the clouds...

[Goms]

Thx Hannes. I think first i'll try to lighten up the textures and change the shaders settings to more translucency.
If this works without the fill light, i'll try to get some more shadows and dramatic lightning into the scene. In the first image the sun is from about 4 o'clock as i tried to get a little bit of light into the trees.

thx!

[Goms]

ok, what about that?
I'm not sure if the trees are now too light..

(also, i think i might have overdone the clouds post work. a little bit too much detail?)

[Goms]

and without tone mapping pw.

[Gannaingh]

I really like the second version! The needles too look too vibrant for the rest of the image however. Whenever I have this problem I always edit the needle textures in photoshop or GIMP to reduce/improve the saturation or lightness/darkness of the texture. It really helps with realism IMO. If you got the needles to fit with the saturation of the image you'd have a real winner. Keep working, it's looking good

[Hannes]

Wow!!! Much, much better!!

[Goms]

and another one.
I think i'll spend some time tomorrow on the clouds, use a few more trees to get a denser wood and call it a finished image.

[Kadri]

Looks good Goms
I would prefer an image with the settings between the 2. and 3rd image.

[inkydigit]

agree with kadri...these are looking really good!

[FrankB]

I wouldn't target the clouds for optimal exposure. would allow them to blow out a bit. You could save as exr, render relatively dark, such as in your last image... then up the exposure in post, and bring back some of the shadows in the clouds.

[Goms]

Yep, something between the 2nd and the 3rd should be the final result.
I will make the objects just a little bit lighter again, changing the sun angle should be enough.
I'm not yet sure what to do with the clouds. I think i will use a combination of thin and high cirrus-clouds with just a very few clouds between the base of the mountain and the peak.

regarding the exposure, i aim to get as much as possible from TG2 without pw. But if it wont work i'll use the exr and tone mapping

thx for all the tips!

[TheBadger]

looking forward to your final. Its a nice shot

[Goms]

Ok, here is the last one.
There would be more to do, but actually i'm getting tired of this.

Thx and best regards,
Sönke