Along the Mohawk

[sboerner]

Another canal image, a work in progress. The location is central New York, an area called The Noses where the Mohawk River cuts through the Appalachian ridge. The Erie Canal was built alongside. The date is June 1825. Terrain is done except for a few tweaks. Still need to add models. There will be boats! (And a few passengers.)

[Dune]

That looks like a cool new project! Great setting so far. I always find it fascinating to see a higher-than-ground water level in a canal (we have such a situation 200m from our house, with a little harbor). It shows well here.

[mhaze]

Beautiful - very painterly.

[Hannes]

Fantastic!!! This could be a final image for sure!

[sboerner]

Thanks, all. I knew the foliage was going to be front and center in this image, so I spent quite a bit of time on that. Otherwise it's coming together pretty quickly. (For me, anyway.)

I wanted to share these two images to show how the terrain came together. I started with a 2-meter DEM downloaded from the New York State Geographic Information Systems website ("before" image). It's pretty nice quality but of course it includes many modern details such as an expressway and other roadbeds. The exported .ter file was imported into a new TG scene and "terraformed" to remove those and then, using old survey maps as references, restore the location of the Mohawk River channel, insert the canal, and add procedural detail ("after").

It was all pretty simple because all the changes were on the flat valley floor. I have another project in mind that would involve editing some DEM slopes to restore surfaces that have been excavated away. Maybe there's a way to use a painted shader to paint the elevations back in? Doesn't sound easy.

[masonspappy]

Like this image. Nicely done!

[sboerner]

Model of a Durham boat, which was used on the Mohawk River in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Needs a crew, but that will have to wait till the canal packet boat is done so I can do all the human figures at once.

The boat was square rigged but was usually pushed upstream with set poles, so the scene will probably show both.

I'm noticing a seam on the water surface along the x-axis. I know this has been discussed here before but am not sure how to fix it.

[masonspappy]

Nice model

[Jo Kariboo]

Nice image, it's a promising new project!

[Dune]

Great boat! And a very good scene already. The only thing that struck me is the coarseness of the sail fabric. I think it should be decreased in size a bit.

If you use a lake, you could try shifting the object to get rid of the line. Or use a sphere. I think that's causes the line, though I always seem to forget what it was exactly.

[sboerner]

Thanks Jo, masonspappy. This has been a good project so far, just a typical Terragen scene, a nice change of pace from the previous.

You're right about the sail fabric, Ulco. I'll reduce that a bit.

As far as the seam in the water, I'm using a sphere. Hannes mentioned detail jittering or microvertex jittering in one of Kadri's threads recently, but I'm not sure how it was eventually solved. I'm not too concerned about it because it probably won't be visible from the final camera angle. And if it is, well, there's always Photoshop.

[sboerner]

New Durham boat model in place on the Mohawk River. This is the same one that was used in the "Crossing" rendering but with mast and rigging shipped and propulsion provided by four polemen. This model is probably more accurate than the preceding one as it is based on one discovered at the bottom a nearby lake.

Researching and building this model (and the other scene) resulted in a two-month detour . . . looking forward to moving ahead on this scene now.

[WAS]

The texturing work is top notch. Really! Like look at the helmsman guiding the boat, he's worn the deck smooth,  and scuffed off most the oil staining or dried the deck of splashed water! 

That's realism.

[Kadri]

Looks great. The texturing and lighting is very nice.

[Dune]

Great work, fantastic scene!