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Rainbow Dimensions 12a
Comments: 3
spektyr

19.04.2024, 21:09

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Riverbank

Riverbank
Description:	Inspired by Alex's image, I've had a go at riverbank scene. The scene comprises of a handful of "special" bryce trees on the single terrain (Lincolnshire wolds mat) that is the bank and 50 (random repilcated) ordinary trees. The trees are surrounded on three sides by mirrors to add to the illusion of there being a wood. Frozen Cry's excellet streaming light material (slightly modified) was utilised here to create the light rays. I turned off the bryce sun and put in a very strong sunlight in the same place in the sky. I also added a single secondary light source - I would have added more Rashad if the render time had not been growing so alarmingly. Also I employed semi transparent leaves (thanks again to Rashad for that idea). Render time was about 18 hours at normal AA. The water plane is just a bumpy mirror, nothing fancy, since the mirrors and the streaming light had added up alarmingly, I didn't fancy throwing in any more transparency. The dead tree, is a dead tree model from the bryce libuary, it's a bit angular and the river bank turned out a bit straight also I think. Otherwise, I'm quite pleased with the effect of the fairly simple lighting.
Added by:	davidbrinnen
Keywords:	davidbrinnen, bryce6, riverbank, trees
Date:	02.18.2007 20:40
Hits:	4716
Downloads:	129
Rating:	5.00 (3 Vote(s))
File size:	205.9 KB

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gat
Member

Join Date: 12.21.2006
Comments: 667

nice

Just makes me wanna take a walk there.

Besides the things that you mentioned yourself about the bank and the dead tree, one thing I would do differently is, well, nothing this looks so damn good!!!!!!!!!

(by the way thanks for the mirrored idea, I can't believe I never thought of that, always trying to place enough trees to cover up those empty spots)

02.19.2007 02:47

Horo
Admin

Join Date: 05.26.2004
Comments: 4721

Beautiful interaction of light and shadow. Looks very natural. A mirror waterplane is the right thing here, we look at it in a shallow angle. I doubt transparency would be noticed here. Mostly because I'm running out of words of praise, I mention the roots of two trees that look as if they could do with a biit a deeper earth contact. Though it is hard to say at this size. Nevertheless, I can't let that go without a 5/5.

02.19.2007 08:05

jrdesigns
Member

Join Date: 02.02.2007
Comments: 6

very nice

Just beautiful. The quality of light is outstanding.
Can you explain how to do the mirrors? I can not find any mirrors in Bryce. Maybe I am just overlooking it.

Thanks in advance.

02.19.2007 16:16

davidbrinnen
Admin

Join Date: 01.03.2004
Comments: 2224

See Fade_Mirror in the material ex-change. Simplest thing is to just apply this material to a cube and place your scene inside the cube, the reflectiveness channel is controlled by altitude and being object mapped means that the mirror will fade towards the upper edge. This is helpful in hiding the presence of the mirror.

02.19.2007 17:29

rashadcarter1
Admin

Join Date: 06.04.2006
Comments: 2610

Isn't it funny how magic works? Optical illusion. Smoke and mirrors. We digital artists are magicians as much as anyone. You understand that and I really love to see it.

I generally love your mirror work. It is very inspiring.

Thanks for the mention with the leaf material/ transparency trick. As you know the point behind this foliage technique was to take advantage of the render engine's capacity for calculating transparency, something the engine is really good at, and a very big part of GI. Since the leaves are truly physically transparent like real leaves in nature, the light you provide penetrates the scene and illuminates everything much better than we are used to with opaque leaves. Not as many secondaries were needed because quite frankly there were fewer deep shadows to contend with. I have a few more leaf mats I've been playing with and will upload for some variety.

Now a quibble. Why is there are hard line about the bank of the pond on the right of the screen? You will notice an odd color change along a perfectly straight line. Is it an artefact of the pyramid used for frozencry's streaming rays, or is it the top of your mirror showing through in this reflection? I am the only person who would notice such a thing so don't fret, I'm just curious. Very nice work once again. I love it when you use the leaf materials as you apply them in ways I normally wouldn't and I'm glad to see how flexible the trick is in your hands.

02.21.2007 23:12

davidbrinnen
Admin

Join Date: 01.03.2004
Comments: 2224

Ah...

The haze angle mystery... Yeah, it's an issue with fog and haze when a reflective horizontal surface is encountered, you can try this for yourself, I've never fully got to the bottom of it so don't know if my understanding is faulty or it's bryce. Here goes, take a horizontal water plane that is reflective and stick in a terrain - to provide some contrast and then add and subtract haze and fog, make it white and make it thin, but in the water reflection it always appears thicker somehow and more uniform than it should. This I believe is the source of the hard line you've noticed, the white haze (which is thicker and more unifrom than it should be - in the reflection) only responds to being lit. Thus the bank, which is rather straight anyway, is casting a shadow - killing the haze in the shadow - but is far stronger when it enters the light - that our brains tell us it should be. This problem has irritated me before on other scene where I've wanted to use haze and in the end have resorted to volumetric cloud to do the job so that the water surface is not turned "milky". Anyhow, have an experiment and see if you agree. So the short answer to your question is that the line is the edge of a shadow - but a shadow that should not be showing up like it does. Well spotted!

02.21.2007 23:25

rashadcarter1
Admin

Join Date: 06.04.2006
Comments: 2610

oh-

One more thing. The issue with mirrors in this scene is the backlit nature of the scene. The leaf transparency trick makes these backlit forest scenes convincing and lucrative. The mirror seems to give itself away slightly, as I can see a patch of trees throgh a clearing on the left that seem to be lit from the opposite direction, a mirror issue. A minor issue.

02.22.2007 00:11

davidbrinnen
Admin

Join Date: 01.03.2004
Comments: 2224

Aye, there is no pulling the wool over your eyes today! You are correct. I guess I should have put a naked women in the foreground to keep everyone destracted!

02.22.2007 09:06

richter
Member

Join Date: 04.15.2004
Comments: 1092

Despite the dead tree, everything else looks astounding. I didn't even notice the issues Rashad spoke about. Looking at this picture reminded me how I missed some of your nature-oriented works and seeing now one like them fills me with peace. I don't think this pic needs a super-fine antialias to look "better". The slightly raw render causes the Lincolnshire mat to look even more real, there's also a pleasant effect on the water surface - especially the left side of the image. Oh, and impressive work with mirrors once again! Like a postcard. 5/5

02.24.2007 03:02

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