Carex lake

[Dune]

For lack of a better title. I made some carex species yesterday (in ST, so I can't share, but the low grass in the render will be shared), put together a small warped simple shape lake, and added some mud and earth. Lower mud is RT reflected for better transition to the lake object, upper range non-RT.

[Tangled-Universe]

Oh I really like the reflection settings of the mud, works really well!
Technically the reflections are somewhat undersampled, wouldn't you agree? They are very noisy @ 100% image size.

I like the lighting and shadows in this render.
Not only does it add depth, but it's also quite realistic.

Compared to your other work, is this something that just happens or is it an artistic choice in style?

[DocCharly65]

Great, Ulco.
Yes! looking out of the shadow into the scene gives an intersting depth to it!

[AP]

Depth, indeed.

[Dune]

Thanks. @Martin; the mud is displaced on a very small scale, and you see that more defined in the RT-reflected mud. I should have softened that as well, or smoothed the mud more... forgot. I did soften the water reflection though. And I think the transition between RT-and nonRT reflections might be a bit softer.
If you mean the light/dark that 'just happens', yes, it was pure luck that the trees were where they were, so I kept it that way. I basically wanted to test the new Carex species and made a small pond... added some stuff, you know how it works. At first I had different shrub, but they were awful, so in the meantime, I made some new ones.

[Tangled-Universe]

I see/understand in regards to the displacement of the mud vs reflections.
If it's indeed noisy in the displacements than upping softness of the reflections will only help to a certain extent, but it would require many many samples and thus mean impractical render times. So I guess you found a nice trade-off here.
I didn't really notice the transition, actually.
Usually I only give feedback on the things I notice instantly, so I suppose I must look a bit more careful to notice the transition.

Interesting to hear that the soft soft lighting and depth "just happen" and that this was not an (artistic) choice of design.
I kind of asked this because this render differs so much with your usual "aerial" landscape work, which looks most of the times flat and 'chalky' if you don't mind me saying, while here there's so much more depth, contrast and richness in shading.
(with richness I mean that due to the lighting conditions a single colour is able to get different hues/tints instead of one flat colour).

Generally, I wish your aerial work could somehow also achieve these same realistic qualities as seen in this render. I really love it.

[Kadri]

Looks very nice.

[Oshyan]

Very nice indeed!

Martin, I am thinking that higher AA and/or enabling AA Bloom (if not already enabled) may help with the noisy areas. Ulco, what were your settings in this regard?

- Oshyan

[Dune]

Thanks Martin. The aerial views are usually commissions that need to give a  plain overview. Sometimes adding cloud shadows isn't even appreciated. And it's easier to add depth to views from 'man height'. This one would even be nicer, I think, with a little DOF. I might redo it, in time.
Settings were detail 0.8, AA 8, soft shadows 0.5 with only 4 samples. AO was increased to 1.2, I believe. Default cubic filter. Soft water reflections at 0.002. AA bloom is on by default, isn't it?

[mhaze]

Very nice image - has a strong narrative and is beautifully put together.

[Jo Kariboo]

I absolutely like the light and the rendering quality in this image, vegetation is suberbe. Personally I'd rather without humans.

[bobbystahr]

re: A Carex model that is potentially shareable. Years ago when TG first came back I had been playing with an early version of Vue and when the need for weeds happened and with .obj import in TG I decided to export a Carex as an .obj. It has no flowers like Ulco's but if it's deemed allowable I'll post it to file sharing...The render shows it next to a default loaded 60'/30 m. approx. White Spruce that XFROG gave away for size reference on load. I apologize for not scaling it but I am city bound/country impaired and have never seen one in real time.

[Dune]

Yes, I don't like all these people everywhere either, but in this case he's needed 

New iteration (exr turned hdr) with more soft shadow samples, focal blur, less defined mud displacement and soft reflections of the mud transition zone of 0.001. Took 2.5 hours though.
I think the blur has extended a bit too much. A feature whereby the, say 90%, sharpness area can be viewed in preview would be extremely handy. I always find it difficult to determine where the edge of the red haze field should be with a certain lens opening for foreground blur. I now have it at 25m with aparture of 5 or 6 I believe.

[bobbystahr]

Well I think he's a gonna have swan for supper, heh heh heh...what say you  on my Carex posted just before your most recent?

[Dune]

Yeah, you posted while I was typing  Why not put it up. Some people may find it useful indeed.

And I can tell you're a city-slicker; these birds are egrets, not swans