2 tests

[Matt]

That one slipped my mind, thanks Matt. I was only thinking in the lighting tab settings. I have made the color very dark now (0.04) and the light propagation at 0, and same with enviro light and enviro light tint.

I hope you'll try it anyway, and reset the enviro light/tint settings. As it is now, your cloud appears slightly too magenta for the shadows, and it doesn't have the appearance of catching sunlight at the top and falling into shadow.

Matt

[Dune]

I will have another go at it. Regarding the magenta; I changed the color of the cloud to slightly bluish.

Guys, read carefully, and you'll find out. Basically a planet for normal terrain, with a gully (SSS mask displaced down), and a plane with the same displacement as the terrain, but without the gully displaced. Well, here's a very quick base as a starter...

[choronr]

Thanks very much Ulco, this should open my feeble brain a bit wider; and hopefully, I'll get the waterfall show on the road.

[Dune]

One more, with shadows in atmo enabled.

[choronr]

Nice definition in the water at the top and the transition towards the lower part. Maybe a bit more mist at the base.

[Matt]

The new lighting is more believable, but I think I prefer the old shape. I'd probably make the "falling" cloud layers less dense. I liked the wispiness apparent in the first couple of images.

Matt

[TheBadger]

I agree.

The part I like best here is the part of the falls coming into play after the curve of the fall. I like all the difference there. THe variation in levels and color and shapes of the motion lines. Just that alone is highly interesting to me.

[kaedorg]

I agree with the previous comments. top of the fall is really realistic with a lot of details. Down seems too misty

[Dune]

The top is the easy part, as that is just a bent plane in a gully with some PF's (not even a water shader, and I believe I even forgot RT reflection in the latter, it looks a bit dull). It is quite hard to get the vertical cloud to extactly weld to the falling water and make a believable transition where the water gets loose and foamy. If it's too thin at the bottom, you'll see the 'bent plane' behind it, which compromises believability. Not from right in front maybe, but from the side it will. I might have another go at this setup. Maybe loose part of the bent plane behind the foam...

[Dune]

I made a different setup. Now without an additional plane or lake object for the water. It's just all terrain, masked by SSS's (for river and valley edges) and then colored/displaced. Not pleased with the sandy low part though...

[kaedorg]

First one looks better for me.
Not sure if waterfall can have so much reflectivity.
In the second, river is too white and regular, losing water aspect.

David

[TheBadger]

http://www.sharewonders.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/frozen-falls.jpg

[mhaze]

Looking good - combine with the clouds and you've cracked it!

[Dune]

Reflectivity can be adjusted, so can white in river (luckily). But the nice thing about this is that there's no water shader involved, nor a lake. Just an RT reflective shader.
I added a SSS for a lake (same RT reflective shader used), but with colors taken from first surface shader and decreased saturation. Not perfect yet. Cloud is also a bit grainy.

I thought of the frozen falls as well.

[choronr]

These four images certainly fire up my enthusiasm. Regarding the sandy low area, maybe consider the sand ripples (remember those) where the base (sand) is relatively smooth. This would make a nice contrast to the rough vertical terrain.