cloudy day

[FrankB]

After that utterly intriguing title, it's a miracle you actually clicked on it 

Now that you're here anyway: behold the "cloudy day".
I know, the scene is nothing special, however I have been working on that sort of "weather" for a bit, trying to make the sky look realistic. I think this one turned out ok, so here it is :-)

As you can see, it has two cloud layers. The focus is on the cumulus, of course. What I have tried to schieve is to mimic a pretty saturated cloud, with their edges gleaming in the sun. I spent a good deal of time on the lighting of the cloud's own shadow areas (so the darker parts of the clouds).

I'm curious to hear what you think.

Cheers,
Frank

[attachimg=#]

[Mahnmut]

I really really like the cumulus layer, it looks substantial in a very cloudlike way.
The rays are also good.
I am not sure about the little flakes of the other layer though.
Maybe you have seen clouds like this, I do often see clouds of which I Think "if you did that in TG, nobody would believe you".
Best regards,
Jan

[old_blaggard]

Very nice job all around, Frank.  The cumulus clouds look convincing, and I personally like the small, dense little clouds up on top.  My only desire would be for you to achieve a little more variation in the height of the cumulus clouds.

[moodflow]

I really like the details on the cumulus clouds.  Nice work Frank!

[Tangled-Universe]

Very nice work Frank! I like the upper half of the image the most. The glowing sun in the top left looks really great!
The smaller cumulus clouds aren't that disturbing to me. The cirrus clouds are good, nothing wrong with them. However, the blendshader for distribution of these clouds is quite well visible. Hence the sharp weavy line the clouds follow.
All in all very good work, you've sorted out the lighting very good. Again, the glow is really great. Did you do many postwork in EXR to get this or is this (almost) straight from TG2?

Martin

[FrankB]

Great questions and remarks, Martin. I too like the upper half most, but mainly because I simply used my "default" procedural terrain as a placeholder :-)

I agree the blendshader for the scattered cirrus is waayyy to visible, but I've improved that for the next revision. I will do the terrain in version 3 or 4, depending on the progress I make with the sky.
The image came out of TG2 pretty good already, but has been postworked nonetheless. Essentially I made 3 adjustments:
1 - the cirrus shone through the cumulus in a few places, so I copy-stamped them away
2 - the overcast part in the front cloud was very strong, so I mixed that part with a less exposed version of the same exr
3 - I carefully ran the image through Picasa's excellent "glow" filter, which works awesome with skies of all sorts. There you go, I gave away my best-kept secret. I regret it already ;-)

Cheers,
Frank

[Tangled-Universe]

Well, your secret is in my mind now so you can delete your post
Thanks for elaborating on this. I've never heared about Picasa's glow filter capabilities, nor did I ever get my hands on that software at all...shame on me
Now that you've mentioned what you've done to get to this result I think you did a pretty good job, because I can't see any artefacts quickly.
What are your ideas for the terrain/models?
Similar to the image of yours shown below?

http://www.basinski-net.de/scapes6/pages/valley.htm
or
http://www.basinski-net.de/scapes6/pages/volcanovalley.htm

Martin

[FrankB]

Picasa really isn't that powerful, but it's good with a few of it's instant filters, which have ben created for the average hobby photographer, and hence optimized I believe for landscape scenery and portraits.

As for my ideas for the terrain - I don't know yet. Maybe like in the images you references, maybe something different.
What would you suggest?
If you're interested, you could do the terrain bit and we make it a co-worked image.

Cheers,
Frank

[Phylloxera]

Good work on the clouds !

[Tangled-Universe]

Picasa really isn't that powerful, but it's good with a few of it's instant filters, which have ben created for the average hobby photographer, and hence optimized I believe for landscape scenery and portraits.

As for my ideas for the terrain - I don't know yet. Maybe like in the images you references, maybe something different.
What would you suggest?
If you're interested, you could do the terrain bit and we make it a co-worked image.

Cheers,
Frank

Yeah, great idea, let's do that!
You can find my e-mail in my profile so we can sort out things like scales etc.
Just let me know

Cheers,
Martin

[rcallicotte]

Very nice cumulus.  Good lighting on them.

[RArcher]

This is really very good Frank.  I particularly like the detail on the underside of the clouds, this is something that I have not spent much time trying to achieve, so I await your next version eagerly.

[FrankB]

Yeah, great idea, let's do that!
You can find my e-mail in my profile so we can sort out things like scales etc.
Just let me know

Cheers,
Martin

Lemme finish my next version, before I send it over. I'm trying something but struggle. If I succeed, we'll have an improved sky, if I fail, I can send you the posted version. It would be too bad if you begin work on the terrain before the lighting is set.

Cheers,
Frank

[FrankB]

another attempt at a lower resolution and quality. Modified the cloud patterns and tweaked a little here and there.
I believe the scattered cirrus is much nicer now.

Cheers,
Frank

[rcallicotte]

Nice clouds, though the cirrus is a little CG-y...or maybe I'm just getting overly critical (nature calls).  Anyway, lo and behold, Frank does an image with the sun facing us.  This has never happened.