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Bricky Room
Bricky Room
Comments: 0
Horo

29.03.2024, 07:24








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Clouds Casting Shadows
Clouds Casting Shadows

            

Clouds Casting Shadows
Description: It's all about the clouds. Thanks so much icecreamman for the link you posted in the ideas section of the forum. This tutorial is excellent and the clouds are awesome. I would not ever have been able to render these clouds on my old machine fit with a single celeron processor. The new system handles these clouds easily. Otherwise they would take a while to render.

The clouds do not quite look like photo real to me, but I could have done alot more with quality settings and the like so I'm sure they could become even more convincing. The grass is made with terrain spikes. I generally find spikes to be a sub standard replacement for 3d grass because real grass blades bend and spikes do not. In this case I put so many spikes in there that I am hoping the viewers eyes will play a slight trick on them and give the impression of a slight bit of curvature.

Scene is lit via hdri and bryce sun, the exact same light set-up for the final cement jungles and Perfectville scenarios. Volumetrics and ibl do not always get along but in this case I think that the inclusion of the bryce sun corrected the volumetric shading issue for me. Thanks all for observing.

Feedback welcome.
Added by: rashadcarter1
Keywords: rashadcarter1, bryce6.1, psp7
Date: 02.22.2008 20:04
Hits: 3936
Downloads: 84
Rating: 0.00 (0 Vote(s))
File size: 698.1 KB
Previous image: Mobing 3
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Author: Comment:
adrian
Member

Join Date: 07.28.2004
Comments: 106
-

Are you sure these are Bryce clouds?
If they are, you did a great job.
They look very real to me.

Perhaps you could change the spikes-texture,
and make the grass turn into a giant forrest?

Well done!
02.22.2008 21:46 Offline adrian adsl466849 at tiscali.nl
richter
Member

Join Date: 04.15.2004
Comments: 1092
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Oh yes, these are definately Bryce clouds, created in some unorthodoxic but efficient way if I recall the tutorial well. Now all we need is a way of creating grass in Bryce without the "sacrifice" of 2gigs or more memory. I guess we'll keep on experimenting in that aspect. As for the clouds - good job, Rashad! Those are 120% better then any normal bryce clouds that were being around since the first versions of Bryce. Just one thing - the bottom side is too evenly "cut" everywhere and this is becoming something of a flaw if one keeps looking at the clouds closely. I think the horizon shouldn't be so much brighter concerning how the sunlight shines upon the clouds. The distant hills feel natural enough. Perhaps you'll continue your quest tweaking volumetrix and I'm quite sure you'll come up with something precious in the future.
P.S.: Congratulations for getting that 8-brained beast. Now with all this cpu power there's no stopping you!
02.23.2008 00:26 Offline richter richter at cold-may.com
rashadcarter1
Admin

Join Date: 06.04.2006
Comments: 2610
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Thanks gentlemen. They are bryce clouds and I did not myself really do anything except upload the material over two cloud layers and rendered some grass beneath it. Yes Richter, the bottoms of the clouds are far too perfectly almost surgically cut and this is the main reason that it does not yet convince me it is a photo. Also I am missing some color information, this pure white thing does not seem quite right to me.

I often submit millions of revisions on scenes but this one I probably will not update. The clouds were the only reason for this render.

Thanks for the kudos on the new system. I have gone back to many of the scenes I developed before that I did not have the power to render up to the level I originally intended. Some of them are worth being re-worked in light of new skills and rendering power. I can no longer blame the speed of my system for under rendered scenes. Even with 8 heads I have still been able to turn settings high enough to make the computer scream "Now you know better than to ask me to do that!" One machine is not nearly as good as a network but since so few exist for bryce I have had to drop the cash for this beast. I look forward to the future.
02.23.2008 01:17 Offline rashadcarter1 rashadcarter1 at aol.com
gat
Member

Join Date: 12.21.2006
Comments: 667
.

The clouds above the horizon look photoreal to me, but the once in the front don't have shadows and haze like in reality, but steel this is very impressive.
I wonder, if you turn of self shadowing for the terrain will it look more realistic?
02.23.2008 22:21 Offline gat brshkv at yahoo.com
rashadcarter1
Admin

Join Date: 06.04.2006
Comments: 2610
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Thanks Gat! Determining what items render in shadows is simply a matter of sunlight position in relation to the cloud positions. If I move the sun say 10 degrees in either direction the terrain becomes directly lit with sunlight. In this case I chose to keep the sun placed where clouds would cast a shadow on the terrain because I did not want the landscape to compete with the clouds for the viewer's attention. Usually the viewer's eye will follow the light. Also, the terrian was just an afterthought to justify the sky. If I had been more happy with the way terrain spikes look as grass I might have felt more confident putting more light on the terrain.

I think what the grass needs is the foliage transparency technique. It would give the impression of water filling withihn the blades and would make the grass look much softer and less hard. It would have tripled the render time sadly.
02.23.2008 23:18 Offline rashadcarter1 rashadcarter1 at aol.com
Horo
Admin

Join Date: 05.26.2004
Comments: 4721
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The clouds are very good and certainly better than what can be done in the sky lab. I've thought that already when I've seen the tut - but also the flaw about the flat bottom. There are sometimes such cumuli with a flat bottom, but then they are huge and high, there ain't as much around. These flat bottoms are really the show killer because they are too obvious, which is a pitty, because the rest of the clouds are outstanding. I'm not that enthusiastic about how the sky colour develops from near zenith towards the horizon. The mountain range, which looks quite real, does not extend that far to account for that much humidity in the air. It might have worked out better over water. The shadows cast by the clouds on the landscape looks very real. The spikes-grass isn't all that bad, perhaps a bit of yellowish-green would help. But it is a bit problematic near te camera. In the distance - also due to the haze - I perceive it as trees on the hills.
02.24.2008 07:29 Offline Horo h.-r.h.wernli at bluewin.ch https://www.horo.ch/
Render Man
Member

Join Date: 11.10.2007
Comments: 358
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I understand that the main reason for the scene was the clouds but I wonder if grass can have a better effect using the noise in the terrain editor with a good grass texture. I am still a beginner but I really like the looks of grass done by some others using this method. Really like the clouds makes we want to lay on the grass and watch them go by.
02.24.2008 15:22 Offline Render Man alreich_4 at msn.com
adrian
Member

Join Date: 07.28.2004
Comments: 106
-

Can anyone post a direct link to that tutorial please?
I think i am getting old
Just can't find it!
Thanks in advance
02.24.2008 19:25 Offline adrian adsl466849 at tiscali.nl
rashadcarter1
Admin

Join Date: 06.04.2006
Comments: 2610
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Thanks Renderman! Basic noise and spikes are more or less the same thing. Basic noise does very well for grass and spikes do well as pine trees. Basic noice allows very dense grass growth another plus. Spikes overall just gives you more control than noise. Spikes also gives much more variation in blade height. Basic noise tends to offer alot of blades but they have a specific limit in height making it look like mowed grass, not ideal for a "natural" landscape. Basic noise is useful to cover a large terrain with short grass. But in the end the effect is the same as carefully drawn spikes.

I have seen some of the examples you mention and I can only say that the more grass the scene has the more problematic the grass becomes. No one can sell terrain generated grass either noise generated or spikes when the camera is near as in the case above. Best case scenario for me would have been to use terrain generated grass in the distance and real blades of grass for the foreground. The one scene I remember you referencing with the sort of dreamy effect, my guess is that the blurring of the focus is helping to sell the grass, along with the distance from the camera. I used no such effects above so the shortcomings of the grass are more evident.

The sad truth from my experience is that Bryce does not have the best grass production tools. Unless the blades have curvature they will look fake when viewed up close. I believe this is why no other program on the market attempts to solve grass with terrains the way that Bryce does. Sad that something as simple as grass can cause a Brycer to pull his last remaining strand of hair out.

Test it yourself and sumbit it. Solutions for grass are always necessary so if you find something that works please share. Beginner or not Bryce offers it's gifts to those it chooses when it chooses. Share share share.
02.24.2008 19:42 Offline rashadcarter1 rashadcarter1 at aol.com
rashadcarter1
Admin

Join Date: 06.04.2006
Comments: 2610
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Adrian, I have had no luck finding the link either. It has been a long time and a few things were lost due to hacking and this might be one of those items. Perhaps you might e-mail icecreamman and he can set up a new link for us here. I am not sure if it is ethical to upload an example to the material exchange here. I guess if I tweak it and make it my own then I can share it with others. If icecreamman does not come through with the link then I will try to post a variation.
02.24.2008 22:18 Offline rashadcarter1 rashadcarter1 at aol.com
Render Man
Member

Join Date: 11.10.2007
Comments: 358
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You have made some very good points about the different methods for making grass. I have experimented some with grass using the elevation tool on the spikes using the minimum paint tool. But there is much to learn.

I have been trying to make a grass that I like but like the flat bottom clouds there seem to be some limits. I noticed after reading Horo's comments I noticed that the clouds do have flat bottoms. It there away to correct this if you were to do it again? Or is this like the spikes and is limited?

I am still trying to wrap my mind around the materials lab and am making some headway. I have found some real nice hi res grass textures on the web and have been experimenting. If I have anything great happen I will notify everyone. Ha
02.24.2008 22:51 Offline Render Man alreich_4 at msn.com
rashadcarter1
Admin

Join Date: 06.04.2006
Comments: 2610
-

The clouds are far and away better than anything I ever tried previously. The flat bottoms are a consequence of the technique I suspect. My guess is that it is a limitation, but in truth the technique is still new to me so perhaps there is room for adjustment. In the past I manipulated my own cloud layers with distinct primitives like in "Tropical Island Sky" image link here: http://www.bryce5.com/details.php?image_id=2169&mode=search

The clouds in the linked image have dynamic undersides. But I could never cover the sky as well using primitives, so this new technique has alot of benefits.
02.24.2008 23:40 Offline rashadcarter1 rashadcarter1 at aol.com
FoxBoy
Member

Join Date: 04.08.2005
Comments: 197
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I want your clouds tested for performance enhancing drugs, cause they are kicking butt and taking names. Nice Work!

I gotta say, Tropical Island Sky piece have better veg when it comes to a middle-long distance but I like the grass and sky better in this piece better.

Only clue I can guess is hide the truth... Hide the first bit of grass with something else like a clearing and have a well detailed object group to connect everything to the grass.
02.25.2008 05:13 Offline FoxBoy Schlechter_Fuchs at yahoo.com
Render Man
Member

Join Date: 11.10.2007
Comments: 358
-

I remember looking at the scene you referred to and was inspired by how great the images look including the clouds. I would like to be able to do these types of pictures someday. The work on this site and others pushes me on to keep trying.

Last night used Photoshop and filled a the layer with black and then applied the grain filter and pushed the grain almost to the limits and then loaded into the terrain editor. It made a nice grass texture but still needs some work. The problem with spikes they seem to start out with a large bottom and then get smaller towards the top and grass in not this way as you mentioned. But if the image was the same size from top to bottom it would have a more realistic affect. I am thinking small dots that are a hard color would possibly do this.

And is there anyway to edit these posts? After I looked at my last post yesterday I decided it was time to get away from my computer and go for a walk.
02.25.2008 13:02 Offline Render Man alreich_4 at msn.com
FoxBoy
Member

Join Date: 04.08.2005
Comments: 197
-

Sadly I don't think there is... I would like the change on correcting the horrible spelling and grammar mistakes I make in my post.
02.25.2008 13:26 Offline FoxBoy Schlechter_Fuchs at yahoo.com


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