Off to Pasture

[choronr]

The flock leaves their winter quarters after being sheared and cleaned; and, head north to their summer pasture.

Thanks to:

•   Thelby for the Sheep model.
•   Bobby Stahr for some thoughts and ideas on the populator.
•   Dune for his help regarding the grass clumps and the sheep population.

Nary a new project goes by without some confounding issues. Thankfully there are some very helpful folks here at the forum.

Bob

[Antoine]

Very good one !

[choronr]

Thank you.

[zaxxon]

There are so many aspects of this image that appeal to me, but I think it is the flowing composition and quality of the light that really set this apart as one of your best pieces in recent memory. Excellent rock work and  population placement; the sky with it's 'vertical' elements reminds me of the 'virga' phenomena, where you can see the rain leave the cloud with no apparent place where it meets land, and the filtered sun areas really nail the composition! The only part that catches my eye as a little off is the texture of the sheep, could be that they've just been shorn? But that's minor as your arrangement of the sheep and the way they've 'caught' the light is a strong component of this truly fine layout. Excellent work Bob!

[Cocateho]

There are so many aspects of this image that appeal to me, but I think it is the flowing composition and quality of the light that really set this apart as one of your best pieces in recent memory. Excellent rock work and  population placement; the sky with it's 'vertical' elements reminds me of the 'virga' phenomena, where you can see the rain leave the cloud with no apparent place where it meets land, and the filtered sun areas really nail the composition! The only part that catches my eye as a little off is the texture of the sheep, could be that they've just been shorn? But that's minor as your arrangement of the sheep and the way they've 'caught' the light is a strong component of this truly fine layout. Excellent work Bob!

hmmm, maybe its time to test how well fractal displacement can mimic sheep's wool 

I really like the composition of this image. Not sure what your quality settings were , but it feels very rough, Definitely feels like it at least needs more atmosphere samples, and probably AA because its the background hills that look the roughest to me. That said, I really like how this scene is set up, good job!

[choronr]

There are so many aspects of this image that appeal to me, but I think it is the flowing composition and quality of the light that really set this apart as one of your best pieces in recent memory. Excellent rock work and  population placement; the sky with it's 'vertical' elements reminds me of the 'virga' phenomena, where you can see the rain leave the cloud with no apparent place where it meets land, and the filtered sun areas really nail the composition! The only part that catches my eye as a little off is the texture of the sheep, could be that they've just been shorn? But that's minor as your arrangement of the sheep and the way they've 'caught' the light is a strong component of this truly fine layout. Excellent work Bob!

Thank you Doug, I appreciate your visit and comments here. Regarding the atmo, I used Andy Welder's 'Average Dutch' atmo clip file. You can download it here in the 'Cloud Library'; page 7. Also, the intent was to have sheep that were recently sheared. I have a sheep model that I did not use here that would also work; and, could email it to you if you are interested - let me know. It's an .obj file at 1.86MB. A Power fractal and Transform shader gives some nice color and texture.

[choronr]

There are so many aspects of this image that appeal to me, but I think it is the flowing composition and quality of the light that really set this apart as one of your best pieces in recent memory. Excellent rock work and  population placement; the sky with it's 'vertical' elements reminds me of the 'virga' phenomena, where you can see the rain leave the cloud with no apparent place where it meets land, and the filtered sun areas really nail the composition! The only part that catches my eye as a little off is the texture of the sheep, could be that they've just been shorn? But that's minor as your arrangement of the sheep and the way they've 'caught' the light is a strong component of this truly fine layout. Excellent work Bob!

hmmm, maybe its time to test how well fractal displacement can mimic sheep's wool 

I really like the composition of this image. Not sure what your quality settings were , but it feels very rough, Definitely feels like it at least needs more atmosphere samples, and probably AA because its the background hills that look the roughest to me. That said, I really like how this scene is set up, good job!

Thank you. The .obj sheep model I mentioned above works well with the addition of a PF and transform shader. I used a different model which I thought was better structured.

The atmo clip file has adequate sampling; anything higher would have increased render time so I left it the way it was.

Regarding the background hills, the terrain displacement has high displacement - add to this roughness procedural grass make it appear quite rough.

[zaxxon]

I like the 'roughness'. Too often we over anti-alias some scenes and lose that natural texture that Nature provides, even at a distance. I agree with your decision there. It's always a pleasure to see your Southwest inspired landscapes. Could you provide a link to the sheep models?

[choronr]

Hi Doug,

Here is the link of the free sheep model I did not use; but, can be modified via a PF and Transform shader: http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/sheep-90154.html . I'll get back to you with the other link a little later.

[mhaze]

This an excellent piece.  I like the clouds, lighting and flow of the composition.  I do agree with those who feel you need more atmospheric samples -worth a try I think.  Something about the grass bothers me,  I think it might be too big and lacking in variety.

[choronr]

This an excellent piece.  I like the clouds, lighting and flow of the composition.  I do agree with those who feel you need more atmospheric samples -worth a try I think.  Something about the grass bothers me,  I think it might be too big and lacking in variety.

Thanks Mick,

I might try more samples for atmo/clouds. And, I agree that maybe the grass might be too large; yet, when compared with the Landmark (1 meter) it looks OK. Smaller grass = smaller spacing = greater rendering time. I used populator v3 instead of v4 which took the populator into a very long session. When I tried the same settings in the v4, the results were disappointing so I scrapped the idea.

[choronr]

Hi Doug,

Here is the link of the free sheep model I did not use; but, can be modified via a PF and Transform shader: http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/sheep-90154.html . I'll get back to you with the other link a little later.

Hi Doug,

Here is the other link: http://www.contentparadise.com/productDetails.aspx?id=555 . Also, Thelby tells me: "...you will need DAZ Studio or Poser to open and save the Sheep. And when using 3D Models in TG2 or TG3 you need to smooth the model. Thelby uses PoseRay".

Bob

[zaxxon]

Thank you sir!

[choronr]

You're welcome Doug. Hope you get some use with the models.

[bobbystahr]

Well that worked out very nice man...KUDOs on your patience....