St Helens-View from Spirit Lake

[sonshine777]

Here is a work in progress that I have been whittling away at for awhile. When St Helens erupted in 1980 it blew a couple million trees into the north end of Spirit Lake, creating a huge log mat much larger and uglier than what is portrayed here. I still have a few logs to add and some more shrub like plants.

[DaveC]

A really interesting view of Mt. St Helens.  Well done on the object placement I can't seem to figure out how to get objects placed where you want them.  Any tips you have on that would be great.

[rcallicotte]

Very good.  Is that a cloud or smoke coming from the volcano's mouth?

[old_blaggard]

I like the idea and composition, and the detail on the logs is beautiful (Ashundar...? ).  I would recommend tweaking your cloud fractal settings to get rid of some of that noise on the bottom of the plume coming from the mountain (that doesn't look like a cloud sample thing to me).  The textures and colors in the background could also use some tweaking.

[sonshine777]

@DaveC: I will try to put together a few screen shots an explanations on object placement and how I did it on this image. (It may be this weekend as my daughter is in labor with my  FIRST Granddaughter! and things are hectic right now. )

@calico: Yes it is a steam plume rising out of the crater.

@old_blaggard: I would be happy to upload the log model and the sled models. (After the above reason has slowed some )
Also the cloud seems odd because it is stretched too much, I tried to do it in one cloud layer instead of two or three which is what I will try in the next set of renders. The single log in the foreground is one from Gary Pooles tutorial on a simple scene.

There will be more updates this weekend depending on how busy things are.

[dhavalmistry]

I like the smoke coming out idea....looks great!

[sonshine777]

Here is the latest version. @ 37+hours per render getting to the final is a long process.

[Oshyan]

The foreground is *awesome*. Those logs have a surprising air of realism. But I think the mountain needs more texturing and sense of scale. Some additional atmospheric haze might help establish scale - that's a huuuge mountain. Some careful texturing work at appropriate scale might also help. There is tremendous promise in this scene so keep it up!

- Oshyan

[sonshine777]

Thanks Oshyan, I am building this one from the shore to the mountain. Now that I am fairly happy with the foreground the distance work is next. I still am working on the plume also. I will have more updates soon. I also will get the logs uploaded to Ashunder this weekend.

[bigben]

Yes those logs do look fantastic.  The ends on the left look a little blurred but that seems to give the impression that they're moving which is OK for a floating log.

[sonshine777]

Yes those logs do look fantastic.  The ends on the left look a little blurred but that seems to give the impression that they're moving which is OK for a floating log.

They are actually post edited. and I also liked how it added a sense motion. I am still working on the model to make the log ends look broken instead of being a straight cut. When I play with the model ends it causes mapping problems with the texture. The logs are extruded along a spline and there is a cap at each end. The caps are treated as a separate object and are perpendicular to the spline and extrusion, making it hard to modify them. I hope to fix it this weekend.

[rcallicotte]

Wow.  This is much, much improved.  It's a rocket heading for the moon.  Keep going.  I agree with Oshyan about the foreground - very good!

[dhavalmistry]

that log is simple amazing!

[sonshine777]

that log is simple amazing!

The foreground log is one that was the stump object in the project files from Gary Pooles tutorial at this link:

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=63

I have stretched it and rotated it to look like a log.
The floating logs are the ones I created.

[Oshyan]

I'm wondering about using a population of those logs for my own St. Helens scene. Once you get them uploaded to Ash I may give it a shot.

- Oshyan