Maria EST Atoll

[pixelpusher636]

I wasn't able to find any DEM data for this French Polynesian atoll and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to re-create a real world place from nothing.
It's geography is simple enough for a novice like myself and might be a fun learning experience. Turns out it was!

My recreation is not perfect and with plenty of room for improvement, but it does have an uncanny resemblance to the real place.

So I present a real photo of the island followed by a few renders.

[WAS]

What a great scene, you did a fantastic job in my opinion. This piece really shows how quickly you are advancing with Terragen. I can see all the subtle details you have added that shows you're really examining your reference and realizing it within Terragen. Top notch!

This is really cool to see from a relatively new user, and I hope to see it more often.

[pixelpusher636]

What a great scene, you did a fantastic job in my opinion. This piece really shows how quickly you are advancing with Terragen. I can see all the subtle details you have added that shows you're really examining your reference and realizing it within Terragen. Top notch!

This is really cool to see from a relatively new user, and I hope to see it more often.

Thank you Jordan, this is extremely encouraging (and rewarding) coming from a TG master.
Your comment was perhaps more rewarding than the project. I'm really pleased to have received your feedback, thanks man!

Forgot to say! The sea bottom is your coral shader WAS. The lagoon bottom is image map I made.
I've been looking for something to try your shader out with and it worked perfectly.

[WAS]

I wouldn't say master. I am still learning new tricks all the time. I think with Terragen it's like one of those traditional fine arts in some cultures where you are always learning something and they say no one has enough time on Earth to fully realize (making it a pursuit). Though there are some users that spit out some just plain masterpieces that knock me right out my boots sometimes. 

And nice use of the coral shader. I kinda like doing underwater details viewed from above as the water shader really helps bring new dimensions to the detail.

[Hannes]

Wow, this looks great!!! You really managed to recreate the island very well. Beautiful!!

[pixelpusher636]

Wow, this looks great!!! You really managed to recreate the island very well. Beautiful!!

Well Hannes, I gave it the old college try. 😀 thanks for taking a look Sir!

[Hannes]

You're welcome!

[Dune]

And another praise from me. Really well done render! Wonderfully close resemblenace to the photo, and a great way of learning. And you indeed learn fast!

If you were to really perfect this, it wouldn't be too hard to add the little islands in the center, and some subtle voronoi structure to the basin bottom. And I assume you painted the 3 streams in TG. You could take your render into Photoshop and paint a higher definition precise map. The outflow regions are more dificult to get done, but maybe there's a way with Daniil's erosion plugin in a sideline, just using the masks.....

Keep'm comin'!

[Stormlord]

This is really an outstanding picture.
You really created a nice and very beautiful scenery. The water colours are exciting and really beautifull.

The idea to render such an island is great, so I say... Well done!
Would like to see more other perspectives of the scene.

STORMLORD
Link to my Artwork

[sboerner]

Well done! Wonderful challenge and nice way to expand your (Terragen) horizons. Keep 'em coming.

[pixelpusher636]

I wouldn't say master. I am still learning new tricks all the time. I think with Terragen it's like one of those traditional fine arts in some cultures where you are always learning something and they say no one has enough time on Earth to fully realize (making it a pursuit). Though there are some users that spit out some just plain masterpieces that knock me right out my boots sometimes.

And nice use of the coral shader. I kinda like doing underwater details viewed from above as the water shader really helps bring new dimensions to the detail.

Yeah IMO it's the only way a tropical scene looks right. Awfully boring without those details too.  And yes Master....Anyone who can answer all my questions and produce impeccable TG work gets this title like it or not. 😀

And another praise from me. Really well done render! Wonderfully close resemblenace to the photo, and a great way of learning. And you indeed learn fast!

If you were to really perfect this, it wouldn't be too hard to add the little islands in the center, and some subtle voronoi structure to the basin bottom. And I assume you painted the 3 streams in TG. You could take your render into Photoshop and paint a higher definition precise map. The outflow regions are more dificult to get done, but maybe there's a way with Daniil's erosion plugin in a sideline, just using the masks.....

Keep'm comin'!

Thanks Dune!
Your correct, the masks were done in Photoshop. Actually most of this was photoshop including the actual island. I think the size is 4698 the streams only look okay from above. Finding the right shade of gray was difficult for me. Either too gray or too dark. The little island spots in the lagoon were there at one point. Not sure what I did. I will check on that.
Daniil's erosion plugin would be a perfect finish. I have issues sometimes masking  and getting one particular area only eroded.

This is really an outstanding picture.
You really created a nice and very beautiful scenery. The water colours are exciting and really beautifull.

The idea to render such an island is great, so I say... Well done!
Would like to see more other perspectives of the scene.

STORMLORD
Link to my Artwork

Thanks Stormlord!

I might indeed render some other perspectives of this. I was just mainly trying to create a real world place from nothing but since I kind of like how it's turning out I might work on this a bit more.

[Dune]

You can use a color adjust, bias and gain shaders to influence the greyscale masks you import, warp them, etc. For each use you could use another 'influencer'. Like now I'm doing a scene where I need small paths between grass, so I make a softish greyscale map, use one version for the texturing/displacement, and an adjusted version for pops of grass, and a third adjusted version for world opacity (to get the last grasses off the path).

[pixelpusher636]

You can use a color adjust, bias and gain shaders to influence the greyscale masks you import, warp them, etc. For each use you could use another 'influencer'. Like now I'm doing a scene where I need small paths between grass, so I make a softish greyscale map, use one version for the texturing/displacement, and an adjusted version for pops of grass, and a third adjusted version for world opacity (to get the last grasses off the path).

Thanks Dune! Bias and gain those are blue nodes right? Can you show a screen shot how that's setup or is the setup too easy to screw up? This sounds like another interesting set of nodes for solving problems. Though I'd imagine they have more common uses. 😀

[Dune]

Instead of (or in combination with) a color adjust after any white-black gradient mask, you can add these blue node bias or gain shaders. In the righthand input it's best to add a blue node constant scalar, with values ranging between 0.1 and 0.9. But for variable adjustment you can also use a PF with said values as colors (if you were to use 0.2 as input for a bias scaler, you could say do 0.1-0.4 or so in the PF) and a certain size variation.
Just experiment a bit and you'll see what that does. Easiest to use a soft simple shape as mask of a surface shader or so, and put the gain/bias between simple shape and mask input of the surface shader, and play with values. The values shift the grey towards white or black in a certain way.

[pixelpusher636]

Thanks Dune. I will do some experimenting and see what all I can do with these new (new to me) nodes. It sounds very promising.