Big Bad Sky

Started by moodflow, March 04, 2008, 03:10:39 AM

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moodflow

Well its wayyy past my bedtime, but I figured I'd post this first...

I had more plans for this image, but figured I'd stop before I killed the magic.  The sky was supposed to be even more "evil", but I settled with this, as I wasn't able to get it to blend correctly.

For the clouds, I used 2 different layers and tweaked them until they were dialed in.  I had originally placed a light sphere projecting red light in the clouds, which gave an eerie evil backlit look, but the final render flattened it out for some reason, so I ditched it.  I thinkthe current sky still works and conveys the mood well.   For the lightning bolt, I used an alpha plane with a lightning image I painted in Photoshop, with the luminosity effect cranked up some to help light up the scene.  It also didn't render properly in the final render (it was too faint), so I had to tweak it somewhat in Photoshop to bring the colors back out.

The foliage is an older grass preset that I downloaded off 3dplants.com, but with some serious aftermarket work.  I think the tree is from JCINBAMA here on the TG2 forums, but I can't be 100% certain, as the tree has been seriously tweaked from its original form and I changed the name.  Either way, many thanks to whoever posted it.

Specs: 
res:  800 x 600
quality:  0.8
rendertime:  39 hours over 2 cores

Other than bringing the bolt back to life, only minor color/contrast/saturation/sharpening work done in Photoshop.

Many thanks for viewing. 
http://www.moodflow.com
mood-inspiring images and music

Seth

most impressive clouds !!!
good grass too :)

monks

Awesome sky! I like the way the clouds seem to curl upwards. Is there any chance of a tgd of this moodflow?- I like the sound of the evil backlight.

monks

Tangled-Universe

Quote from: monks on March 04, 2008, 07:51:16 AM
Awesome sky! I like the way the clouds seem to curl upwards. Is there any chance of a tgd of this moodflow?- I like the sound of the evil backlight.

monks

Well, it's already posted in the File Sharing section ;) lol

@ Moodflow:

Fantastic clouds! Very nice image as well, though the foreground and maybe even the lighting in overall could be a bit darker. The blue sky color is too saturated too my taste. The grasses on the foreground look very good, so does the tree. Great work in overall!

Martin

rcallicotte

Moodflow, is there supposed to be a TGD with this?
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

moodflow

Yes, very sorry about that.  Told you it was way past my bedtime.  ;D

Here it is:  http://www.moodflow.com/bigbadsky.zip

Hopefully this will spark some creativity.
http://www.moodflow.com
mood-inspiring images and music

rcallicotte

Thanks!  Between this and the nvseal cloud challenge (or was it Seth), I'm ready to play with clouds.
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

Alf15000

Impressive storm sky ! very realistic clouds...

Tangled-Universe

Quote from: moodflow on March 04, 2008, 11:54:27 AM
Yes, very sorry about that.  Told you it was way past my bedtime.  ;D

Here it is:  http://www.moodflow.com/bigbadsky.zip

Hopefully this will spark some creativity.

Thanks a lot! I've been playing with clouds too lately (last 2 weeks or so) and perhaps this will push me just in the right direction :)

Martin

moodflow

Be sure to notice that this zip file also includes the foliage used.  If you take a look into the grass nodes, you'll see the "color variance over distance" functions with my own tweaks.  Many thanks to BigBen and Mr. Lamppost who originally pioneered this method. 

So be sure to use these items in your own creations.  I can't wait to see what you all can come up with.

And for the clouds:  you'll notice another group for turning on the "evil" sky.  Be sure to turn on the light sphere and watch the effects.   8)
http://www.moodflow.com
mood-inspiring images and music

lightning


monks

Thanks for the tgd!

monks

overlordchuck

Wow, I'm certainly going to play with this.  Very nice.


jcinbama

very nice thanks for sharing