Observatory - WIP - *Update 1*

[firesuite]

Been working on this for around a week, Models created in Maya, Trees from the original XFrog freebie tgo files, added some snow to the leaves although its hard to see in this image. Any comments and crit on how i could improve this image i would be extremely grateful for thanks

[gregsandor]

Really a sweet picture.  Put something interesting in the lower right in that big green forest.

[Phylloxera]

Good idea - Beautiful realistic render !

[rcallicotte]

@firesuite - Very believable.  Reminds me of pictures I've seen of Palomar (sp?) Observatory.  Very good.

[firesuite]

Thanks for the kind words everyone, Im wondering how i could improve on this image further, As Gregsandor said i could work on the buildings some more i think although they dont have much more details to add and the ones ive seen here in CA (im basing this on my visit to Mount Wilson) is that they dont reflect anything the white coating on them is very matte.

Im not overly happy with the clouds i think and i tweaked the sunset so much that it lost all natural colour in my opinion, also as the sun is so low the bottom right corner of the image is very dark so i kind of wimped out on this and added some snow to break it up a little.

Any thoughts how i could make this more realistic ?

Thanks again people 

[joshbakr]

Very Nice work! I think all is fine, however if you want to add a little more drama via sunlight. I would suggest moving the sun more to the left allowing it to light part of the trees and increase the atmospheric decay a little. Think about it? And if you can render a little larger would be sweet.

[Oshyan]

I think this is a really cool concept and initial execution is good. The soft ambient lighting on the back side of the domes looks really nice. The forest looks a bit overly dark, and I think that would be helped by Joshbakr's suggestion of getting a bit of light onto the trees. That would probably just involve a change in sun angle. I also agree that the clouds aren't ideal. The upper "trails" ones are ok, but the ones below the mountain seem far too ragged. I'd try increasing Feature Scale and/or decrease edge sharpness to get some nice, wispy-looking fog or soft, low clouds. With those improvements I think it would be a real winner.

- Oshyan

[inkydigit]

great start!....maybe a path leading to the telescope?...and what about adding a moon, or shooting star, or both?....as is this is still a nice render!

[choronr]

I would try using Oshyan's 'Fill Lights' to cast some light on the trees in the lower right.

[sonshine777]

I think Bob's idea of using Oshyans fill lights is a great idea. Then you could use low setting sun to create a twilight scene, a few stars just peeking out waiting to be observed.

Tom

[Will]

Well done, the observery seems a bit bland though.

[joshbakr]

firesuite is probably reading all these suggestions and saying: Go to H _ LL!  I'm not changing a thing. LOL  However if you change anything like I said the sun position would be my choice.  Adding the fill lights isn't a bad idea, but I think it would just wash everything out. If you could restrict the fill lights as to what they effect in the scene would be fine but that's not the case in TG as they light up everything. And I think all that it needs a little light on the trees. Yeah I know, shut up right?   

[firesuite]

firesuite is probably reading all these suggestions and saying: Go to H _ LL!  I'm not changing a thing. LOL 

Ha! no ive taken everything you and Oshyan have said into account and changed it mostly, havent used any more lights for fill though at this point, lighting on the trees looks better and clouds are a little smoother now, i'll post and update once its rendered, either tonight or tomorow morning. thanks again guys  Wouldnt it be good if a future version of TG had light linking though, its very fundamental in Maya and very very useful 

[joshbakr]

firesuite is probably reading all these suggestions and saying: Go to H _ LL!  I'm not changing a thing. LOL 

Ha! no ive taken everything you and Oshyan have said into account and changed it mostly, havent used any more lights for fill though at this point, lighting on the trees looks better and clouds are a little smoother now, i'll post and update once its rendered, either tonight or tomorow morning. thanks again guys  Wouldnt it be good if a future version of TG had light linking though, its very fundamental in Maya and very very useful 

Yeah, I discovered that option in Vue and it's a great thing to have. Perhaps someday TG will also have this option?  Hint! Hint!    Looking forward to seeing you image with the changes you've made!

[firesuite]

Ok so the Image finally finished rendering, Approx 45 hours.

I moved the sun around and it looks nicer on the trees now creating a little more light in the darker areas, The clouds are now more in control and look better but could still be tweaked some more in my opinion, the Cirrus clouds i played with and dont like this result so i will go back to the previous ones.

The main problem now is that our beloved TG2 appears to be having problems with the soft shadowing on the domes of the observatories. not sure why as the geometry for those domes is mathematically perfect, no imperfections. If you look at the Solar towar (top right ) you can make out a nice soft shadow around the object. Any thoughts on how i can fix this ? at the moment the polygons are quads, would triangles help ??

Graham.