My worlds and ideas

Started by N-drju, May 07, 2019, 04:24:07 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

N-drju

In the spirit of creating user-specific megathreads related to user-specific projects and pictures, I decided to establish my own "chronicle" in which all of my work and graphical "musings" will be documented from now on. Whenever I have something fun or (at least in my view ;)) beautiful to share with you, I will put it here in this topic. So, with that being said...

Old Pals - get your bearings and stay tuned.

Newcomers - welcome to my workshop!

And to put something in to get the wheel spinning... Here are my first few shots on the new "Wetlands" project. The ones here, are literally third and fourth test renders made for this project and will require a lot of time to reach the intended result (whatever that is...). What I like about it, however, is an irregular, diverse shoreline akin to spacious bayous seen around the world.

Now, as yet one more colorblind person, I can't shake the feeling that the green, grass colors are waaaay off... So if you see some strange colors at, what was essentially supposed to be a healthy, lush foliage, please point it out and let me know the direction in which that should be changed. :P Another challenge that I see, would be a realistic placement of reeds along the shoreline and in the water.

[attach=1]   [attach=2]
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

Dune

Good idea of yours, and hopefully it'll be a long, long thread. Good luck with the bayous. Green is very bright indeed but as it happens, Hannes made the swatches you probably already found: https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,26527.0.html

N-drju

Quote from: Dune on May 08, 2019, 01:12:52 AM
Hannes made the swatches you probably already found

Oh... I didn't know it. :) I thank you and I'll thank him.

To be honest, I usually make grass a bit lighter than I plan for to compensate for the darkness cast by eventual clouds. But this coloration still is too bright even with 7/8 coverage. Also, this is just two PF for the moment mixed together.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

N-drju

By the way...

While working on the project, I found an arrangement for a nice leafy (cabbage-like?) fractal arrangement:

[attach=1]

Feature scale is at 0.5 with 1100 lead-in and 0.005 smallest scale.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

N-drju

Another take on my swamp / bayou scene. Getting there... I guess?

Ground cover has been considerably darkened and some clouds have been added for a reflection.

I consider increasing the number of trees on the mounds and am also in the process of creating some cane (reeds?) in XFrog, because no other plant that I have seems to be reasonable enough for in-water use... I am pretty satisfied with surface colors - a diverse mix of 4 - 6 PFs with small scales, underwater, mud and grasses.


[attach=1]
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

Dune

Yes, you're getting there  ;) Very nice update.

Agura Nata

"Live and Learn!"

bobbystahr

Looking good but the water looks too blue for any swamp I've been in although in truth I've never done a fly over so it may well look like that from the air....
something borrowed,
something Blue.
Ring out the Old.
Bring in the New
Bobby Stahr, Paracosmologist

N-drju

Time to bump it up. ;)

I just love making stones. In my humble opinion, the Fake Stone Shader is one of the most versatile shaders in TG and an efficient way to fill an empty landscape.

In fact, I work on stone layers for my new project. I really like the fact that you can produce decent stone coloration with just two mixed power fractals. Of course, the more color and noise types you have, the better. I've got five so far. The only thing I find weird is the strange artifact (circled in yellow), which looks as if it was a part of a pre-render. ::)

I also attach the actual "scaffold" of the project in question. The idea for this render would be to create an image of a wide river, running through a mountainous terrain. Reminiscent of one of many great rivers of North America and high mountain ranges that can be found on this continent.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

Dune

That 'low poly' area sometimes occurs if you blow up stones. Paint it out (painted shader or simple shape on top, as inverted mask) is the simplest solution, or you'd have to reseed.

DocCharly65

Great thread!

Besides I personally prefer Ulcos first idea: painting weird stones out. Reseeding causes just the same problem somewhere else (when I do it) :)

N-drju

Quote from: DocCharly65 on August 29, 2019, 05:54:40 PMGreat thread!

Besides I personally prefer Ulcos first idea: painting weird stones out. Reseeding causes just the same problem somewhere else (when I do it) :)

Thank you for nice words DocCharly. As you can see in the updated image, the problem is never reproduced in the actual render. Due to "statistical" nature of the artifact let's say.

So yes, an update - here is my "El Rio" with previously presented stone layers applied. If you take a good look, there is a darker hue on stone colors where they meet water - a prelude to the wetness and reflection zone. Setting the mask for this dark hue while keeping it exactly on the right altitude was really tricky though!

Mask slightly different from that of the riverbed and I also had to complement it a bit on the right side.

And to put some perspective to the size of all features - the yellow pylon is 1.8 m / 5.9 ft.

elrio1.png

I really like the stone layers and the fact that they also show underwater. I'd like to make these even more visible but, for a moment, have no idea how I should approach this. I am hesitant to increase the water transparency value (it is already at 0.97 I think...) but I see no other option to make water even more transparent. Reducing reflection helps, but is not quite as effective.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

bobbystahr

Very nice work on the 'wetness on stones'...adds realism.
something borrowed,
something Blue.
Ring out the Old.
Bring in the New
Bobby Stahr, Paracosmologist

Tangled-Universe

The transparency and refraction of light is physically accurate and what you see is the optical effects typically associated when viewing any surface at grazing angles where reflections are dominant.
You can play with the water roughness wave size to see if you can achieve more pleasing results, but the camera height and angle are the main factors driving this effect.

N-drju

Quote from: Tangled-Universe on September 05, 2019, 03:43:12 AMThe transparency and refraction of light is physically accurate and what you see is the optical effects typically associated when viewing any surface at grazing angles where reflections are dominant.

Oh, I think I get it. Like when you try to take a picture of a sky and point a camera upwards, only to see the surrounding terrain / trees go black due to lens being adjusted to deal with large amounts of light?

So it works the same way in TG? Heh...
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"