In the Clouds

[Markal]

TG2, postworked my LunarCell moons over the TG2 rendered ones. I'm still struggling with this wonderful terrain program. I find it easier to postwork than to attempt in the main TG2 node network. I think postwork is O.K. and I know there are those "purists" that think its TABOO...well...to each their own. I chose to postwork my images and clean up my poor use of TG.
What do you think about postworking images?
Thanks!

[TheBadger]

This one works for me. Very stylized!

I would play with the clouds a little more, but its pretty close to awesome! This would be the perfect look for a crazy remake of Flash Gordon. No Insult, that would be cool as hell.

[FrankB]

I find postwork totally ok. You postworked this one in a good way.
If I may give you an advice:
You should try to learn though how to properly shade and deform terrains, though. Yours seem to be mostly plain heightfields either with just one color or image mapped, and the shapes are usually jagged and edgy.
If you would use less contrasty heightfields, and add some power fractal with the the appropriate displacement and scale, the terrain would look magnitudes more interesting and complex. Try it ;-)

Frank

[Markal]

Thanks Frank,
I respect your opinion and you are spot on. I still don't understand the numerous aspects of TG2. Power Fractals, Shaders, displacement and nearly every setting....well, I'm still guessing at and hoping to get lucky. On this image I borrowed some nodes from WeeLaddie with strata and outcrops shaders and redirect shaders and such...though I'm not sure what those nodes did to the image. He sent me a TGD file of a reworked render of mine. It helped me a bit but, I still just tweak and tweak....hoping to get lucky on something that looks good. Thanks for your honesty and response. I need all the help I can get!
Mark

[FrankB]

You are welcome! Stata and outcrops shaders give you only right-angled displacements, very sharp, if used out of the box.
Your "duty" as a user of that strata node is to break it up and add additional, more random displacements to it. For one, check out the file sharing, and look for my clip to create more "wavy" strata. Use this in your network, and also add a redirect shader with displacements on X and Z to bulge the strata inward and outwards somewhat randomly.
That's pretty much all you need for stratas. Again:
1 - the normal strata shader, maybe tweaked a bit.
2 - the wavy strata clip
3 - a setup with a redirect shader displaced on X and Z

regards,
Frank