Jump to content
Hash, Inc. Forums

Planetary Clouds Test


Recommended Posts

So I saw this cool Lightwave tut for making 3D clouds for a planet's atmosphere, you know, those really gorgeous shots of planets that you can tell have 3d clouds and not just some flat texture map. Well anyways, I decided to take a stab at making it AMified. So far it's turning out well, though I've run into a bit of a bump with it. The bump being that I kind of want the texture to 'taper' at the top, to simulate the 3d effect of clouds better. Now in lightwave, they used something called a weight material. Obviously AM doesn't have that, so I thought I could simulate it by doing some form of transparent gradient. Basically make the top more transparent than the bottom. So far that hasn't worked out. Another thing being that it casts a solid shadow on the ground instead of in the shape of the clouds. I was originally doing this with a turbulence material, but my laptop refused to render that, so I had to switch to using an image applied to the patch. The light's a klieg light and is there anyway for it to cast proper shadows? The image is applied as a transparency map BTW.

post-9859-1334711806_thumb.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Hash Fellow

that is a very promising 3D result you have there.

 

 

The light's a klieg light and is there anyway for it to cast proper shadows? The image is applied as a transparency map BTW.

 

Change the Klieg light from Z-buffered to Raytraced

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, after adding 7 minutes to the first pass, this is what the raytraced shadows did:

 

post-9859-1334713136_thumb.png

 

As for adjusting the turbulence, currently it's just an image applied to the object, but I found a way to get the turbulence to render so I may play around some with that. I just had another idea which I'm gonna try right now

 

EDIT: After applying another instance of the image and making it a bump map, I get this!

 

post-9859-1334713607_thumb.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if you haven't played with the sine combiner with 3 octaves it makes great clouds

 

cloud17.mov

 

 

 

cloud17a.zip

 

 

Those are pretty good!

 

EDIT: After applying another instance of the image and making it a bump map, I get this!

 

How about making it a displacement map?

 

I tried that, but it didn't really look any different than the bump map. In both instances I brought them up to 300% and it just made the clouds look more like, I dunno rocks instead of fluffy clouds

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is with a displacement map cranked up to 800% As you can see, it loses some of that fluffiness and looks a bit more like rock.

 

post-9859-1334762065_thumb.png

 

@John. Thanks! I'll probably whip together a tutorial for it when I have found the perfect balance

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Hash Fellow

Here's a the sine turbulence combiner inside a gradient combiner to fade it out at the top, all on a stack of 40 flat plates

 

Amazing Box o' Clouds (by Whammo!)

 

CubeRedBallTwo.mov

 

 

BoxOClouds.JPG

 

 

Cube_o_Clouds_05_With_Ball.prj

 

 

I dimly recall trying something like this back in the 90's but gave it up when it was taking an hour per frame. Now it takes 55 seconds and NetRender can do four at once!

 

Possibly with a different turbulence combiner more daylight between the clouds could be had?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By golly I think you got it! And I've been using an FBM with a Fractal Sum nested inside of it. It's been giving pretty realistic cloud results on a 2D level. I've been using 24 planes for the depth, but obviously the more planes you use and the closer together they are, the more realistic the depth will be! I think it soon be time to apply this to a planet and then to make a tutorial!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Hash Fellow
Robert, couldn't you use just one plane? Animate the plane and maybe material and use motion blur.

 

You could... we've certainly made do with such things over the years, but this method creates actual 3D forms within the cube. When you move a camera around a flat plane it becomes obvious that it's a flat plane but this appears as real shapes from any angle (unless you view the planes on edge).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That;s the cool bit, I don't think he did model the cheese. It's a series of flat planes stacked on each other with a cellturb(?) material applied to the stack I do believe. Correct me if I'm wrong though Robert

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Hash Fellow
I'm confused Rob, you were making puffy clouds of cheese?

 

If you filled in the holes and took away the cheese you'd have the roundish, cloud shapes I was trying to get.

 

 

 

 

That;s the cool bit, I don't think he did model the cheese. It's a series of flat planes stacked on each other with a cellturb(?) material applied to the stack I do believe. Correct me if I'm wrong though Robert

 

The flat planes are triangular shaped at least, but, yes, the holes are the result of the material.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WOW guys! All the tests looks beautiful. I might test this with AO tomorrow, but I do fear it will become a renderkiller due to all the transparency

 

Unsuccessful cloud material:

 

Cheese000.jpg

HAHA! This made my day
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Hash Fellow
WOW guys! All the tests looks beautiful. I might test this with AO tomorrow, but I do fear it will become a renderkiller due to all the transparency

 

I will say that the lighting on these layered things is very finicky. A lot depends on what angle you see the object at.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...