Of The Morn' After The Spring Before *GI Fixed*

[dandelO]

It might look like I've just opened up the old .tgd for this one, not so.
This was made from scratch, using my original Of A Spring Morn' image as a reference. http://dandel0.deviantart.com/art/Of-A-Spring-Morn-53221411

Credits:
Sonshine's Grass 7,
Lightning's Trees,
Ogre's Tulip.

Thankyou guys!

Stats:
Detail = 1
AA = 3
GI = 2/4
Atmo = 64s, with 0.25 sample jitter
Cloud detail = 1
3 populations = Highest quality.

I've recently had some hard-disk problems, that is, my files/data library D:\ disk is causing problems with my new computer and cannot be installed until I transfer all my files to CD/DVD's and then re-format it to be compatible with this new PC. For the moment, the old hard drive is crashing my new computer when it's plugged in so I have basicaly NO ACCESS to the myriad tools I usually have at hand.

I've used Jack's European Olive tree as blossoming cherry trees here and also his large ash in the centre(there are two of them here with 1 rotated 45 degrees clockwise because the branches are a bit sparse with just one tree, for this render).

The b/ground terrain is also different(thankfully), as is the vase. All other models are the same as before. I downloaded my own pack of .tgo's from Terranuts to make this image.

I've taken into account some of the short comings in the first version such as, smaller flowers and butterfly, and less 'primary' coloured grass.

The first time I rendered this scene(almost exactly a year ago with the first release TG2TP) it was done in 4 crops, each taking between 2 to 2 1/2 hours to render, so 8-10 hrs roughly...

This time the whole thing was rendered in one go and it only took 1hr 29 minutes!

You learn lots in a year, and of course there has been a couple of TG2 updates since then(although, render times aren't THAT much improved) Finding the right balance to all the aspects is key to cutting render times, and a pc twice the speed as my last one.

I really do drivel on, don't I!

Thanks for looking!
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[rcallicotte]

Hey cool.  Good job. 

[Seth]

yeah i loved the first version... very different use of TG2 !

[Oshyan]

Nice improvements overall, but I find the lighting in this one looks much more "flat", particularly on the interior of the window casing and the interior objects, as well as the trees outside. A more dramatic angle for lighting and/or darker shadows (not too much) would be good IMO.

- Oshyan

[dandelO]

Cheers folks!

Oshyan: The lighting on the window is what I couldn't figure out, until afterwards. I had added a very low strength, 2 sun setup behind the window(I was going to try it without GI to save time but decided against it and forgot to disable those 2 suns afterwards.) which I think has reduced the actual GI effect on the surfaces somewhat because it is lightening the scene from behind, also, first time round the specularity on the window frame was only set to 0.1, this time I raised it to 0.85 as I thought that that would improve the way the light reacted to the surface. It clearly didn't work as planned though. I can see exactly what you mean, it is flat looking.

I might fix it...

[Oshyan]

That makes sense. Oh and btw it's seldom a good idea to reduce atmosphere sample jitter. It is likely to cause banding in the atmosphere. It *can* reduce the need for high samples in some rare cases, but generally it does not improve things overall.

- Oshyan

[dandelO]

OK, I've disabled those backlighting suns now(Doh!) and here's the result on the window frame with Enviro Light levels at defaults and final GI levels of 3/3.
Much nicer, I think, there is a real presence to the lighting now, especially on the lower sill where the soft shadows are most prominent.
I didn't render the whole scene again, I disabled all the terrain/flower populations/trees and primary atmo/cloud checkboxes.
All the foreground objects were rendered along with the window. I added an alpha channel to the render in postwork and removed all the black in the background, then I just laid it over the first scene's window so, the outside world still has the effect of those 2 extra suns, sorry.  

Thanks for looking!

Oshyan: I reduce the sample jittering to lessen the noise in the atmosphere, you seem to see more grain when the full level 1 is set, a lower level seems to help this and make it seem a more natural gradient in the 'clumping' of atmosphere haze etc. I've never experienced sky banding with TG2 by doing this but cheers for the pointer man, one to look out for!

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[Oshyan]

Much better! Good work not redoing the whole scene, too.

As for sample jitter, well if lower #'s work well for you, then it's all good. It just increases the chances of banding, so something to keep in mind if you ever do see banding.

- Oshyan

[dandelO]

Cheers, man.
Forgot to say, I checked GI surface details too for the final frame render.