Shoreline, perhaps for contest

[Dune]

I think this will be my entry for the contest. Perhaps not extremely realistic (I realized that's what the contest is about), but still quite a good example of what TG can do. This is just nodework, except for the washed up trunk (made it in XFrog). And no imagemaps. I did struggle with the rocks for a day or so, trying to get nice rounded boulders, but I cannot seem to get rid of hard angles. This will do I guess.
At first I had a Celtic standing stone on the shore, some sea urchins (black ball with spiky displacement) on the rocks and a Roman boat at sea, but I sank them; too interfering with this tranquil place.

Any suggestions, guys?

---Dune

[Woodyp]

I like the picture... The branch is a good touch.

The only thing I'd say is, I cant work out if the dots climbing the bank (especially in the lighter geen area) is left over froth from the ebb of the wave or small stones embedded into the bank and rocks.?... maybe they a bit too..white.. or go too high..?

Other than that I like it.

[Hetzen]

I think you're on the right tracks here, looking really good. It reminds me very much of a bank on an estuary.

It would be good if you managed to get some displacement on the front edge of your nearer wave. Don't think it needs to be white, I'd let the water shader give you a bubble effect.

I'd also be tempted to do something more with the top of your shore line, like blend in a population of Walli's grass with a distance shader for example. The stones look excellent, with the algae and white barnicle splodges (possibly put in some negative displacement in a dot pattern, and put a little more variation in the size of the patches), and maybe some sand here and there to give you a little more texture.

[Hetzen]

[domdib]

I think it's a good image, but I would work on the barnacles a bit more - they seem too big in the near foreground. Also, the tree trunk could perhaps look a little more bleached?

[Dune]

Thanks guys. The photo helps, as I realize I made the barnacles too big and too white indeed. Estuary is the term I had in mind, a place on perhaps Shetland, where the otters roam in peaty holes at shallow shores (I studied them there, while doing biology). The wave displacement will be tricky, but there must be a trick. Perhaps just a painted shader will do it. I have nearly gone mad 'thinking nodes' about how to make a real breaker. This is a broken up stretched ridge noise with a twist, translated into water.

---Dune

[rcallicotte]

I like everything about it and appreciate the suggestions to make things onshore more realistic.  But, I think the foam looks 2D and maybe (only maybe) too much of it.

[Dune]

Still working on the shore, but here's another wave I made today; more like a tsunami.

---Dune

[arisdemos]

Thanks for your past efforts on the ocean wave thing, and could you perhaps put up your tgd for the wave without the tree included for a little collective experimentation for a better breaking wave peak on tg2 water?

[Dune]

I'm nearly there, so not eager to give it away too easily. I might perhaps want to sell it as a pack  I'll give some clues and you'll figure it out, no doubt. Work on a smooth fractal displacement (perlin) with stretched ridges (40-9-15, or so) and add some twist and shear above a certain height (quite fuzzy, thru a surface layer), then feed this into a water shader and into a lake.

---Dune

[Mohawk20]

That last image looks really great! Not a very realistic wave shape yet, but great with the water transparency and foam none the less!

[Dune]

Here's V2 of the shore. I roughened up the grass a bit, decreased the barnacles and used a completely different approach to the sea. This is basically a handdrawn PS imagemap (tile) with a wavepattern (which I have to perfect), merged with a slightly changed version of itself, played around to a satisfying result with a transform shader and attached to a water shader and lake. Some twist and shear and then foam limited to the higher angles gives the breaker effect. Additional foam to cover the sea.
It's a bit rough, so the next version will (I hope) be smoothed in deeper water, and I have to limit the foam to the coast again. With a subtle change in one node I can make this into a frenzied coast, that's the fun part.

Any more ideas, guys?

---Dune

[domdib]

Fantastic waves and foam. The barnacles are looking good too. I think, if you are going for full-on realism, you might want to think about more variation in the surface shaders onland - it seems a bit implausible that the same colour would stretch right from the sea shore all the way back. But the shoreline itself is great.

[Dune]

Still busy with the waves, here's another test. From the same node structure as the tsunami, but with a PS painted image map as displacement for the waves, some rocks on a sandy bottom. The waves are of course much too high for such a shallow sea, but its a test. I will work on a better image map for the waves, as the ridges are too straight. The foam needs work too, I know. On the left there are some waves with a curl, but it's not very visible. Will be updated...

---Dune

[FrankB]

hmmm, the pattern is not very believable. I appreciate that you have the patience to try to make waves like that in TG2, though
Unfortunately, I have no good suggestions for these waves. I couldn't do them, I believe. The only thing I can do for now is tell that the waves do not look correct.

Regards,
Frank