Copper Morning

[efflux]

Another shot from my "Copper" planet. I tweaked it slightly:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/media/folder_152/file_1515956.jpg

Once again I used a canyon technique which was discussed in the thread started by ProjectX called Procedural Canyons. I've only scratched the surface of what was discussed and intend to explore this angle further.

I have another quickly tweaked version which I rendered a shot from and I'll post that at renderosity tomorrow and link to it here but I like this render better.

I have a problem with tiffs at the moment. I edit all pictures in this photo app called Lightzone. There is a free Linux version which is cool. I go into Gimp to put the frame on it but Gimp is giving me some trouble with the 8 bit tiffs, very slightly changing the image tones for the worse. I don't know what the problem is. I will try Photoshop Elements which I have somewhere but I really shouldn't need Photoshop just to post in a frame.

[bigben]

Interesting image...  And nice surfaces.  I'd love to see your copper surface on a metallic object.

[efflux]

I tried enabling full reflectivity on say some stones but it would have taken ages to render. Maybe in the future when I can decide on a scene that worked really well and then go for some metallic effect but for the moment I don't want to go beyond specular highlights.

[rcallicotte]

Yes!  Very nice. 

[cyphyr]

Ooh that is very nice, you images always have a very "finished" quality to them, how do you achieve that? Do you use very high AA and GI settings?
Richard

[efflux]

Hi cyphyr,

These are the settings I am finding that I can generally get away with for good results:

Detail: 0.8
Anti-aliasing: 6
GI Relative detail: 1
GI sample quality: 1

Haze usually 16 samples but it can vary.
Clouds minimum at 32 samples but this varies as well depending on how high they are, how deep and how obscured by other atmosphere settings.

I have been rendering at large size so for example the render here was initially 3000 x 1500. Downsizing obviously makes them look good but the large size is still good. I want to get larger and larger to test things for printing.

Another point is post processing. I nearly always do this. Mainly it's only slight adjustments but sometimes more. The image above had some post but not much. Levels etc. I use an app called Lightzone as mentioned. It's a RAW photo editing app but really good for editing anything. It gives you brilliant realtime visual feedback on your editing. I'll probably post an example here of a bad render that I post processed quite heavily. TG2's GI makes post processing great because you don't have many problem dark lifeless shadow areas.

[Mr_Lamppost]

Very nice image,  I like your dense misty atmosphere, I tried that a few times but never got a result that good.

Just a thought:

Would raising GI Relative detail lighten the shadow area on the large boulder to the left?  Yes the render time would go up but I think this large dark area is a little distracting.

[efflux]

I've never tried increasing GI much so I don't know what kind of effect it has.

I often have darker shadow areas in my images. I just like the shapes. In fact this became a bit darker after some post levels adjustment but without GI it would have been very dark with no detail. One of the things that I liked in this image is the way the dark rock obscures the source of the light. You can't see the sunrise. I liked that. You want to look there but are forced to look elsewhere.

This is a crop of the full render to give you some ideas about those quality settings I use. The only thing that does show noticeably at this scale is some grain in the haze but I don't see that as a major deal. I'm increasing my render qualities as I feel the images get better and benefit from it. This crop shows some more detail but also shows more flaws that I want to improve in future planets. You may also notice a different colouration. The tiff format is not good in all apps. Gimp was destroying my tiffs. So now I export as tiff from TG2, edit in Lightzone (which is great with tiff), then convert to bmp (from OSX preview - works fine) to bring into Gimp for the frame before jpg conversion. Tiff is problematic because many apps don't import it well:

[efflux]

This is my other render just posted at Renderosity:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/media/folder_152/file_1516629.jpg

I'm far from satisfied with it but there are some interesting surfaces. I could have got a better POV for a start and it was rushed and messed up but done before the last picture so at least I'm progressing.

Here is a comparison of before and after post work where I tried to reduce the damage. Normally I don't post edit to this degree but it shows you how important it is. If you have an OK image then post can make it much better:

[Mr_Lamppost]

WOW!

Thanks for posting the full scale crop; amazing detail. 

Yes I agree about the strong shape of the dark boulder, I just found that the dark area was pulling my eye away to the left.  I usually leave my GI Relative detail at the default 2.  I do like the way your surfacing/shapes are not overly "fussy" and on the whole like the strong contrast.

I don't think the grain in the haze is a real problem but even if you think it is that is relatively easy to fix.

I have never tried Linux not that I am overly impressed with Windows, only upgraded from 98 to XP so I could use TG2. XP Zarkes me off, all those little wizards and helpers that are always trying to second guess what I am trying to do.  The second word is off!

If we could harness all the energy directed at hating Microsoft we could probably power the planet and do away with fossil fuels, nuclear power and off shore wind farms (There's an idea      ).

I gave up on Tiff years ago, I used to work on a combined Unix, Windows 95/98 and Mac network and found that there were so many compatibility problems with Tiff that I just banned them.  Oh how the Mac users loved me but nobody else wanted to do the data management. 

[efflux]

Every time I switch my Windows system on there is a problem. Tonight I was going to install Photoshop Elements on a PC just to check file conversion issues but no go because for some reason the CD would not work. Windows was opening a folder for the CD drive but with nothing in it? My Linux (Ubuntu) system is like OSX. You install the system and that's it. It goes on forever. Windows actually slows down eventually because of it's dire lack of drive management. You need to use software to save and ghost back the entire system every so often to get it back to performance - absurd and yes all those wizards and helpers treating you like an imbecile. It's all wallpaper - not even doing much. As for security there isn't any. it's not even a proper multi user system. Don't get me started on this route or they'll be a flame war. I hate Windows. There can be some issues setting up Linux but once done it never fails.

Lightzone is a great app. It runs on Windows Linux and OSX. I've only tried the Linux version but it's probably worth paying for the Win or OSX version. Gimp also runs on OSX and Windows.

[rcallicotte]

I love the amazing light and reflections in this one.

I've never tried increasing GI much so I don't know what kind of effect it has.

I often have darker shadow areas in my images. I just like the shapes. In fact this became a bit darker after some post levels adjustment but without GI it would have been very dark with no detail. One of the things that I liked in this image is the way the dark rock obscures the source of the light. You can't see the sunrise. I liked that. You want to look there but are forced to look elsewhere.

This is a crop of the full render to give you some ideas about those quality settings I use. The only thing that does show noticeably at this scale is some grain in the haze but I don't see that as a major deal. I'm increasing my render qualities as I feel the images get better and benefit from it. This crop shows some more detail but also shows more flaws that I want to improve in future planets. You may also notice a different colouration. The tiff format is not good in all apps. Gimp was destroying my tiffs. So now I export as tiff from TG2, edit in Lightzone (which is great with tiff), then convert to bmp (from OSX preview - works fine) to bring into Gimp for the frame before jpg conversion. Tiff is problematic because many apps don't import it well:

[inkydigit]

amzing details!!...I love the crop, overall this is excellent!!

[efflux]

I thought it might be worth showing an overview of the terrain. This is from the first picture here. The second had tweaked terrain and cliff surfaces. This terrain doesn't look so good at this altitude but that's the nature of procedurals. It's complex to give them correct variety at different scales but this is a good terrain for low POVs. I'll work further on this canyonization. Also, you'll notice detail is low because I want overlying displacements to add the detail:

[efflux]

Gimp Linux version has no problems with tiff. My photography is all on the Linux box. Now my all my image editing is being shifted over because Windows and even OSX now are inferior, bearing in mind that both the editing apps and OS are free!