I wasn't going to post here tonight, had too much to drink, but then I changed my mind (had too much to drink...) I have a problem regarding reflections etc. If (in real life) you look at the reflection in rippled water of a light directly ahead of you, the light reflects as a dappled (depending on the water surface) streak towards you. It doesn't vary in size (left-right). It does get a little more scattered as it nears you. I can't get this effect in Vue. Set up a sun (or a moon) straight ahead, add a water plane, render. I don't get that "column of light" effect. (Actually, I can't get that effect in Bryce or Poser, either..) Anyone have any idea how to achieve it? Just hoping.. Cheers, Diolma

Hmm... Maybe I didn't try hard enough in Bryce. Yup, that was the effect I was looking for (although with the sun closer to the horizon - just before the sun finally goes down.) Can't seem to get that effect in Vue tho. Must admit I haven't tried too hard, the image I'm working on has the effect blocked out by a figure, so it doesn't really matter, but whilst trying to set up the scene (of a silhouette), I realised that the effect wasn't there. Maybe I'll just have to play around some more (in both Bryce and Vue..) Thanks, anyway. Cheers, Diolma (Knew I shouldn't have posted while drunk..)

You can do it in Vue as well with either a planet or by using a lens flare on an infinite light. Must have been some good wine you had.

hhm... I too can't seem to actually be able to get it with Vue 5 Inf. Regardless of lens flare. (besides, I can not understand why lens flare should cause reflections. Lens flare is to simulate an optical-mechanical effect. The reflections of the sunlight on the waters should not have anything to do with it) Strange... I never thought about it, but now that I am trying to get it specifically, agreed, I can't seem to get it...

For faster calculation, disabled transparency and blurred reflexions - no oversampling (so the clouds make "rugged" reflexions on the water) - sorry, slow computer...

Turned out I'd got "sun size" dialled to 0 in atmo lab; tweaking that seemed to solve that problem!

Next question:-))

How do I go about getting the sky to look more convincing?
I want it to get darker much more quickly as it gets higher (and somewhat more blue). I've faffed around lots in the atmo lab, but still haven't achieved what I want. Using volumetric atmosphere (I was surprised that it didn't take that much longer than using standard mode - about 10 secs longer..).

PS: pic tentatively titled "Late evening stroll". It's intended to invoke the idea of a Caribbean lagoon. Lots of work to do on the composition, but unless I can get the lighting to work to my satisfaction, then there's little point in working on the comp...

Cheers,
Diolma

Message edited on: 02/18/2006 15:23

Message edited on: 02/18/2006 15:28

'cos 'rosity threw out my original post (some sort of server error) and I had to re-do it. Remembered the 1st time, forgot the 2nd. (not that there's that much in the way of nudity, but you can never tell...) BTW, the clothing is by Carib98 from freestuff. Cheers, Diolma

Go into your Atmosphere Editor and Select Sky - right click on it and choose Edit Colour Map. Click on the large colour map, you will get a new colour map, where you can choose among many, click one, and it will be added - adjust different colours this way. :)

Lens focal length of Vue camera can make a difference in water reflection because at different combos of focal length Vs camera subject distance, the camera usually moves up or down also.

Focal length can also emphasize or de-emphasize the amount/importance of clouds and other sky effects.

So you might want to experiment with a long and a short lens. I have a tutorial on focal length effects in Vue 5i:
Vue Focal Length

Many thanks both of you, but errm... @Irish: I want to learn how to do it manually, not by adjusting presets. I'm quite happy adjusting presets once I know how they work, but they usually introduce too many new variables for me to cope with. I'd prefer to learn what the various settings do, even if that takes longer. Later, I'll get into fiddling with presets (although I certainly admit they give a good starting point). @jc: I want to only affect the sky. I certainly will be playing with focal length etc (in fact I already have - that scene is not at default FL, IIRC), but I like the scale/truncation as it is. (I am familiar with focal length from many years doing photography.) But, as I said, I only want to affect the sky. I'll deal with the other details later:-)) I've spent several hours in the atmosphere lab trying to get the sky to look more realistic. It needs to be darker at the top (and possibly more blue), but I haven't yet found the specific bit(s) that I need to fiddle with. But thanks anyway:-) Cheers, Diolma

Hihi, fast volumetric...
Sure, volumetric atmosphere in itself doesn't take much more rendering time.
Things change, when you want to take full advantage of that volumetric environnement,
using global lightings (ambience, illumination or radiance) with fogs and other volumetric materials...
...dreaming of a lil' renderfarm with some G5 double bipros ;-)

I told an error, above : in volumetric atmosphere, "lens flare" seems to be necessary,
but not the other options of that window.

I have not yet found "my" way to do atmospheres : I load one of the presets, and play with those.

In standard atmosphere, there are those colour map settings.
In volumetric, it depends on which type of illumination one choses :
"Standard" doesn't seem to give much possibilities - or, I didn't yet find'em.
There is the "clouds" tab, where one can group clouds overhead, so clear the horizon, and lower general exposure of the clouds. An the "fog&haze", to vary near horizon.
"Ambient" gives much more playground, to define sky behavior.

Something I don't yet understand, is how and why the "fog and haze" in ambience lighting imports so much on low sun,
even when "fog attenuation" is set to zero :
pull the "fog density" slider to zero, - and the sun's gone, too.
100 to 200 seems to be a "transparent" setting.
Also, the "luminosity" of the fog regulates directly the intensity of a sun near horizon.
Beautiful effects. Don't "repair" that, please, e-on !
Just funny, to find that in "fog" settings...

I thought Irish answered your sky question, more or less.
In a sunset i did recently, it was a matter of hand adjusting the "zenith-to-horizon" color blend in the "Sky" tab color blend map called "Sky Color Map" in the Atmosphere editor.

This was an atmosphere where i had set the lighting to Global Illumination.

Right-click on the blend map. Double-click on the little "Keycolor" circle controls to change colors, drag them to blend, click inside colors to make a new Keycolor.

The 2 "Color map position on sky dome" sliders need to be set to minimums for the colors to begin at the horizon and change rapidly. Hope that's what you're looking for.

_ jc...'Art Head Start' e-book
.......'Art Head Start.com site Digital Art skills. Free lighting chapter, tutes, Vue models, tex pix.

Sorry, didn't see that you were using a volumetric atmosphere.

LOL and thanks, both of you. GPFrance: Yup that's sort of what I'm trying to achieve, a cross between the two. Your LH pic (the volumetric one) shows the basic effect of the way I want the pic's sky to appear, except for the much quicker darkening of the sky as shown in the RH (standard) pic. (W/O the blue haze, and the silly disk-type sun tho'.) I've played around with fog'n'haze to get that "rapidly darkening" effect til I've gone blue. Also played with the cloud-tab variables. So far nothing has worked for me. There must, surely, be way to get a sunset, using Volumetric, that can set the sky's zenith to be nearly black? It's something I see (in real life) whenever the sun is near that position (although that's not often, given I live in the UK and the sky is usually covered in dank grey clouds). But when it isn't it gets darker towards the top much more quickly than I've been able to achive in Vue. I've also been to the Caribbean and the Mediterrainian and seen the same effect, tho warmer:-) And that's the effect I'm trying to achieve. Ah well, I'll keep plugging at it, on and off. If I ever get anywhere, I'll most certainly post the settings here.. Cheers, and thanks again, Diolma

Merci, GPFrance:-) (Which has more-or-less exhausted my French vocabulary.) Yup, I've been looking at that area, and a couple of others. I'm beginning to get a glimmering of what I have to do. The trouble is, every time I get an improvement in one area, I get a new problem somewhere else (isn't it always the way?) But I'm working on it:-)) Cheers, Diolma

Same for me : sometimes, changing zero colon nearly nothing will spoil the whole image, and no way to step back. So I keep trying to understand. Somehow, in "volumetric", I feel that we don't see the light reflected from the object itself, but see, what the atmosphere between the objects makes out of that light. The fun in Vue is, when it works, inspite of all struggle and effort. I'll get some sleep befor real sun rises, it's half past four. Good luck !

Try playing with the highlight settings on the water material. Did you know the highlight can go beyond 100%? Set it to 250% or higher for a sunset and you will see what I mean.