Gila River

[choronr]

My NWDA contest submission:

The image is titled 'Gila River', a place near my home. This procedural terrain includes FrankB's rocks/stones pack and a Hero rock. Vegetation includes bushes and a grass mat by Lightning; cloud (cumulus) clip file by Luc; grass by Klas; and, a Palo Verde tree shared by buzzzzz1. The build includes two image maps and five painter shaders.

Bob

[deepdish]

NICE clouds

[GioMez]

Nice clouds and cool terrain!
I like the stone in the foreground, in the left corner.

[tumasch]

Love it. I'm not too sure about the hills in the background - are they that blank? do they have that colour? Just asking, it's well possible that it really looks like that where you live.

[rcallicotte]

Real nice clouds.  Good lighting.  Good point of view.  Maybe you could distribute the bushes in a more random way, maybe using the Paint Shader.

[choronr]

Nice clouds and cool terrain!
I like the stone in the foreground, in the left corner.

thanks for your visit. The rock in the left corner is from FrankB's fake stones/rocks pack - 'Hero Rock'.

[choronr]

Real nice clouds.  Good lighting.  Good point of view.  Maybe you could distribute the bushes in a more random way, maybe using the Paint Shader.

Hi, the bushed were restricted using the painter shader. As I look at it now, I wish I would have included another variety of bush (different color) in the mix. Thank you for your kind comments.

[choronr]

Love it. I'm not too sure about the hills in the background - are they that blank? do they have that colour? Just asking, it's well possible that it really looks like that where you live.

Thanks for visiting. the higher elevations away from the water are usually void of vegetation in this area; and, are a dark red in color.

[tumasch]

Well, in that case it's great

[FrankB]

Hi Bob,

This has the potential of becoming a really cool and realistic render. However, i think you should consider the doing following things for getting there:
- the cumulonimbus are interesting, but the "unrealistic" aspect of these is that they are "just" those sharp edged formations. The sky would potentially benefit greatly from mixing in another, less defined cloud layer.
- use a higher quality grass. The one you are using looks very CG. Walli's grass pack 3 would be ideal I guess.
- I agree about the distribution of those bushes, but also they need more variety.
- On the bottom right, the soil is completely smooth, that does not look good. Rather add more fake stones there, or even better, use Ryan's dirt pack. If I recall correctly you already have that pack. Look at Ryan's demo render with the motorcycle. He used the dirt pack in the midground behind the tarmac, and I think that looks extremely realistic.

Cheers,
Frank

[choronr]

Hi Bob,

This has the potential of becoming a really cool and realistic render. However, i think you should consider the doing following things for getting there:
- the cumulonimbus are interesting, but the "unrealistic" aspect of these is that they are "just" those sharp edged formations. The sky would potentially benefit greatly from mixing in another, less defined cloud layer.
- use a higher quality grass. The one you are using looks very CG. Walli's grass pack 3 would be ideal I guess.
- I agree about the distribution of those bushes, but also they need more variety.
- On the bottom right, the soil is completely smooth, that does not look good. Rather add more fake stones there, or even better, use Ryan's dirt pack. If I recall correctly you already have that pack. Look at Ryan's demo render with the motorcycle. He used the dirt pack in the midground behind the tarmac, and I think that looks extremely realistic.

Cheers,
Frank

Hello Frank,

Thanks for the visit and the excellent suggestions. First, if you would, please delete my entry into the contest. I like the idea of mixing in another cloud layer (probably a long, thin, lower cirrus just below the top of the cumulus); and, reduce the sharpening of the cumulus. Agree about the quality if the grass I used; I'll try Walli's grass pack after I get them from your site.

Also, I like the idea about adding more fake stones and possibly adding Ryan's dirt to the right corner. I still want to mix in more variety with different colored bushes; and, add some to the lower parts of the distant, elevated terrain. Finally, I hope my memory holds up through all of these changes.

Thank again; and, greetings from the Southwest,

Bob

[Hetzen]

Choronr, I think you have an interesting subject to work on there. The composition fits right, it's now a matter of getting the details in.

I think the grass which Frank is referring to, is actually free in the file sharing section, which Walli has generously posted, and may I add is doing a good PR favour for Xfrog. There's some good stuff in there, which is easy to over look.

[FrankB]

@ Hetzen: no I really mean this pack here: http://nwda.webnode.com/products/wild-grass-fresh-pack-3/

@Bob: thanks for the greetings :-)
And sure, just keep on working on the image until July 15th. You have a lot of time left.

Best regards,
Frank

[buzzzzz1]

Hi Bob,

One thing I noticed is the displacement of the branches on the tree seem to be set too high at 0.02.  You could go into the multishader and set the displacements to 0.01 and see what you think. Up to you though.

[Hetzen]

@ Hetzen: no I really mean this pack here: http://nwda.webnode.com/products/wild-grass-fresh-pack-3/

Ahh Ok, appologies.