New Landscape Scene

[mtpeak2]

I've been wanting to enter the landscape and/or hairy image contests, but haven't had the time for the last couple of years. So, I finally decided to work on something for myself for a change, maybe I'll have it done for the next landscape contest, if there is one.

 

So, here's the start of something I've been working on. It not much at the moment, but I figured I would post my progress as I go.

 

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[thefreshestever]

this looks pretty natural... wow! can you tell how you´ve done it?

[Jeetman]

Looks good Mark!!!

 

Why does it appear blurry though?

 

George

[mtpeak2]

Sebastian, it's a hair material with 2 hair emitters using an image.

 

George, I noticed it was blurry too, I'm not sure what the deal is with that. The camera and render settings both have DOF and motion blur turned off.

[agep]

Mark, I admire your skills in making landscapes (and trees and grass)

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Stian.

 

Once I get some trees in there, I'll need a bulldozer to move them out of the way.

[HomeSlice]

Wow Mark. You really are a wizard at foliage. That looks really great so far.

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Holmes.

 

Here's another update.

 

Still can't figure out the blurriness. Maybe there's a smudge on the camera lens.

 

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[GAngus]

Sebastian, it's a hair material with 2 hair emitters using an image.

 

Wow, that looks great.

That process you used has always intrigued me.

Any chance of a .prj file or some tips on how that is achieved ?

Perhaps, the question should be....

How is an image connected or assigned to an emitter/Material ?

thanks

[mtpeak2]

In the hair system you can add multiple hair emitters. In each emitter property, you can add an image to it.

[KenH]

Real nice. Are the trees modeled? How long to render?

[mtpeak2]

Trees are hair. Just under an hour at 5 passes.

[3DArtZ]

Pretty and cool, Pretty Cool!

 

Mike Fitz

www.3dartz.com

[John Bigboote]

In the hair system you can add multiple hair emitters. In each emitter property, you can add an image to it.

 

 

ARE YOU KIDDING? What beautiful imagery...it could benefit from MT's advice... I LOVE IT!

[mtpeak2]

Thanks guys.

 

Added skydome.

 

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[itsjustme]

If you're going to insist on being kick-ass at everything, we're going to have to give you some sort of disadvantage so that the rest of us don't feel bad.

 

That looks extremely cool, Mark!

[mtpeak2]

Well, I don't know about being kick-ass at everything. It's not that difficult to do.

 

Besides, I'm already at a disadvantage, I can't model worth a damn.

[cfree68f]

It almost looks like a depth of field blur or something. The only thing that gives it away is that odd doubling of the flowers as they go back in depth. Maybe you could adjust the angle or rotation or some. Try turning camera facing down just a smidge, not sure what that would do for animation though ;-)

 

Looks awesome! I'm heading to all the parks out west and it reminds me of some of the pics I've seen around yellowstone I'll tell you how real it really seems after I've been

 

Great Job!

 

C

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Colin.

 

The blur only seems to be in one area to me, on the slope to the left. It just may be a matter of some grooming. I'll play with that tomorrow. I'll try the camera facing too.

 

I wish it looked like yellowstone, it doesn't even come close. Not enough detail.

[PaulX]

I don't think more detail would make a better picture, so far looks great by the way, but if I may and as an old mural and trompe l'oeil artist, what I would do if I had the know how in all these electronic things, is to change the composition somewhat and also work the colours a little more if possible? Colours fade as they recede and so your distant trees and grass should be much lighter. I would also drop down the hill to expand the sky across the top and that would also get rid of that strong diagonal between sky from hill which stops the viewer's eye dead in its tracks as it wanders across the picture.

[mtpeak2]

Thanks PaulX for the advise. There are alot of other things I'd like to do as well. I probably could use fog to get the color to fade, I'll do some experimenting. I'll probably not lower the hill, I was planning on moving the camera and adding more elements to the right side. This is far from being done.

 

Playing around this morning. Added one of the great models from Alain that was on the extra cd.

 

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[mtpeak2]

Another update.

 

Not much to it. Moved the hill as suggested a bit and added a rock, more rocks will be added. Adjusted settings on the cougar and repositioned him. This was just a test of the materials.

 

More updates to come.

 

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[jzawacki]

Oh my.. I've never felt sick from looking at a picture before.. And I don't get car/sea sick very easy.. but that blur.. almost immediately made me close the picture. I hope you get that figured out soon.. the progress looks awesome, but I just can't study it.

 

Wow.. I still can't believe I got that feeling in my stomach..

[mtpeak2]

Well, I guess I'll stop posting my progress, I don't want anyone getting sick because of my renders.

 

Since I don't know what's causing it, I guess this thread is done til I figure it out. I probably should remove the images I posted.

 

 

[EDIT] All images have been removed from this thread.

[NancyGormezano]

Since I don't know what's causing it,

 

Wild stab - jitter option turned on in hair?

[mtpeak2]

Nope.

[NancyGormezano]

another wild stab - too high frequency pattern for the rendered image size? (try higher resolution?)

[mtpeak2]

I was going to try that. I was rendering with the TWO settings, which I never had a problem with before, that I know of.

[robcat2075]

They didn't look blurry so much as there was an odd double image thing going on. It didnt' make me sick though.

 

Since these are all hair could one conceivably use a fan force with a bit of turbulence to make the daisies and grass slowy wave inthe wind?

[KenH]

Hey where's the progress?! Just because one queasy person felt sick from something you don't want there? Don't the rest of our opinions count? Tell him to close his eyes when he's visiting this thread!

[jzawacki]

I agree.. And it's only when I click on the images and make them big anyway. So I won't click on them.. not a big deal. I feel bad that I'm the reason people don't get to enjoy the progress of what I'm sure will be an amazing image.

 

PS: That was the weirdest damn thing ever I tell you... I didn't know an image could even do that.. must be getting old.

[mtpeak2]

I made some adjustments, added something new and I'm rendering at a higher resolution. Hopefully that will make the difference. I'll post it when it's finished rendering.

[mtpeak2]

It helped some.

[Kelley]

Nice. I just arrived at this thread...how did you do the field of flowers? Are the flowers an image-with-hair-system?

[mtpeak2]

Yes, it's a hair material with 2 emitters.

[cfree68f]

you know.. if you did have the flowers with one image and half with a similar image but different alignment. It might make that doubling go away. right now.. all being the same flower same orientation is making it very repetitive. If you can't get a different flower angle.. try just flipping the one you have and using it in a different emitter with a different seed value. That'll change the placement.

 

C

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Colin, I was thinking of doing that. I may even just add a different image all together.

[mtpeak2]

Another update.

 

Adjusted the textures on the cougar, the color was driving me nuts. Hopefully that looks better.

Adjusted the textures on the mountain.

Lowered the density of the trees.

added another rock.

Modified the ground plane to blend the flowers/grass into the mountain better.

 

I didn't get a chance to add a flipped image of the flowers yet.

[thefreshestever]

the cougar looks way better now! the mountain too, but i think it´s still too warm-colored, could be more grey than brown, especially at the upper areas...

i´m getting more and more curious how it will look when it´s ready...

[brainmuffin]

Colours fade as they recede and so your distant trees and grass should be much lighter.

 

They also get cooler as they recede into the background. A thin blue fog would add that haze effect. Also, if you add some variance to the flowers, not just a different view or two, but also some slight color and height variation, it'll break up that unnatural, double-vision-blurry feel. Looks good so far. Does the lion have a hair material too?

[mtpeak2]

I tried playing with fog, but it interferred with the hair trees, they looked like crap. I'll experiment more with it. Fog would make the mountain a little more grey.

 

The flowers already have a 30% length variation, I don't think I want to go any higher, it will distort the image too much. I can't add color variation, I would need a map for that and it will change the color of the image too much (maybe a greyscale image). I adjusted the brightness variation instead.

 

No, the cougar doesn't have a hair material.

 

 

Thanks for the help guys.

[KenH]

Definitely getting better.....especially the cougar. The rocks could use some moss.

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Ken. I'll put the moss on my to do list.

 

Rendering an update with updated flowers. I'll post when it's finished rendering. I also made changes to the mountain texture.

[mtpeak2]

Updated flowers.

[mtpeak2]

This image shows I got a lot of work to do.

[mtpeak2]

Here's another update. I have another render going with some camera changes.

[mtpeak2]

Well, with not much interest, this is the last update.

[NancyGormezano]

Well, with not much interest, this is the last update.

 

I'm interested but...

 

This is a very hard image for me to comment on. I'm not sure if you are shooting for "realism" or a stylized image?

 

I will assume photo realistic for now. And if realistic - aiming for film look ? digital photo? art priint film look? Something else?

 

If aiming for straight photo digital real (a genre that is the least interesting to me) - For me I would tweak the following: the foliage of the background trees seems striated (uniform horizontal pattern) & could use some variation in color and growth pattern. The cougar isn't believable for me (but nice posing). The black eyed susans could be much yellower (if that's what they are). They too could use some variation. The flowers appear to track the ridges of the terrain - which looks odd. The sky looks like a typical photo, might choose something more different. Lighting looks like a bright high noon clear day - nice but not dramatic. Could use some atmospheric attenuation.

 

The composition and subject matter are great and has a very appealing feel to it. The mountains have a great shape. Nice rocks. I like going for showing a large expanse of a blooming wildflower carpet. I like the bareness of the mountains contrasted with the detail of the flowers, and trees. I like the meadowish feel.

 

I like the idea of putting the cougar in - but he distracts. My attention is immediately drawn to him and it becomes an image about the cougar. What do you want this image to say?

 

Define for us where you want to go. What do you like and don't you like about it? The basic is there - the details need tweaking for a touch more oomph to make it pop.

 

Tell us your goals and then maybe we can offer suggestions as to what it might need, and how we perceive it (with our own built in biases), if you want to go further with it.

Edited May 4, 2008 by NancyGormezano

[mtpeak2]

I'm wasn't shooting for photo realistic. Semi-realistic? I'm not talented enough for photo realism.

 

There was no plan or goals, unless deciding to do an outdoor/nature scene counts. Something for myself for a change, that wasn't for TWO. I just figured I would post my progress in hopes that I would get some suggestions to help me along. Since they have been few and far between, I really don't need to post my progress anymore until I call it finished, which I just my do.

[Rodney]

Very impressive.

 

I suspect you are already heading there but adding some (dark) color to accentuate the depth here would do wonders. As it stands right now the image seems to have pretty much the same depth even though the distance ranges from extremely close to miles and miles away. In between there is the rock and mountain lion (all outstanding by the way!). There isn't yet anything to guide the viewers eye around through the scene besides the rather isolated objects. That they are seems to be part of the composition but... they don't really appear to have depth. A little more contrast and channeling of color might remedy that.

 

I know you are working the details however... as you always do. Keep it up!

 

Whats that they say about more detail means closer... less detail far away...

Add more blue the farther things are away...

 

I dunno.

Just keep doing what you are doing.

 

P.S. I do like your latter pose for the mountain lion much more than the first.