River Valley Sunrise Final

[Gannaingh]

That's interesting that it's darker on your monitors. I lowered the color saturation value for the atmosphere, but besides that I don't think I messed with anything that would change the brightness of the scene. There are more 'dark' trees in the second version so I guess the GI could somehow be picking that up and making it appear darker.

I'll play with some settings and create a comparison for you guys so I can see what looks best for people with different monitors than my own.

[RArcher]

The amount of shadow looks fine on my monitor, just light enough to see that there are details there but not so bright that it changes the atmosphere of the piece.  Might be interesting to add a very small bit of reflectivity to the path or have the house windows have a little light shining through or out.

It is also now quite easy to adjust the shadows and GI in post without changing the atmosphere if you render out all the different Render Elements.

Love the scene.

[Gannaingh]

Thanks Ryan! I want to add some lighting coming from the house like you suggested, unfortunately the model is kinda bad so I can't actually edit the windows to make them transparent (and I'm to lazy to edit the house in blender) so that will probably end up being done in post work instead of Terragen itself.

At the bottom of the post is the lighting comparison I've quickly cooked up. The 1st image has the same settings that I've been using in the scene while the other two have increasing indirect lighting through the Enviro lighting. I think I like the third one the best since it give more contrast of the trees against the grass, but, to me, they all look good on my monitor. I don't want to push the lighting up much more in Terragen so any additional lightening of the shadows would probably be done by playing with the render elements in postwork.

[Kadri]

I have a 2 monitor setup.
On the bad one there is absolutely no difference
between those 3 images and all three images does look absolutely pitch black.
On the better monitor i like the 3'rd too.

[choronr]

Looking very good though you might consider a second sun or fill light opposite the main sun set at a low altitude and low strength to bring out minimal details in the darkly shadowed areas.

[yossam]

3rd.....................

[Oshyan]

The 2nd version is definitely darker on a flip back and forth between the two, so regardless of processing, for whatever reason it's true. Are you sure you didn't change anything that would change that area?

I'd suggest trying an increase in Enviro Light Strength on Surfaces before fill lights and the rest.

- Oshyan

[ADE]

wheres the path?.......love sunsets myself, this is great one, but with the sky so light there should be more light on the foreground perhaps

[Gannaingh]

Oshyan, I don't remember changing anything before, but I won't rule it out since it is noticeably darker. Now I most certainly have changed some settings, just about all of them in fact. Hopefully I've managed to find a better balance between having detail in the shadows without altering the mood of the scene.

Terrade, the path is poking out from the top of the house going upward and to the left.

I also did a minor bit of sharpening in postwork, just to see if it helps objects be differentiated within the scene.

[Oshyan]

Personally I think it's a wonderful balance now. The only tiny thing is there are some little "hot pixels" on some of the trees, right in the sun's path. I'm guessing maybe some specular on the trees? Not worth re-rendering for, maybe just do a despeckle or something (or not, they're really minor, hehe).

- Oshyan

[Kadri]

Looks great!

[Gannaingh]

Thank you guys! I want to make it bigger anyways, so having some hot pixels in there is as good of an excuse as any 

[Gannaingh]

I figured out how to get some light shining out of the windows in the house so I went ahead and did a crop render showing what that will look like when integrated into the scene. I like the way it looks since it makes the house seem more...lived in. Thanks for the idea Ryan.

[Kadri]

This image looks great too 

[choronr]

This is coming along very nicely!