This Sky rendered in Vue...

...And THIS Sky rendered in Vue...

Came From THIS Sky rendered in Terragen!

It's rendered at 2048 x 2048 for best DETAILS and
Masking Effects. Lower REZ renders will look more
NOISY- even in a 1024 x 768 Vue Render. This is
because the Sky Plane on the Camera Facing Billboard
must be set BACK from the Camera. So you WILL NEED
this resolution in your Sky Planes...

(And YES, this WILL require a REGISTERED copy of
Terragen-- as the Free Version does not allow high
resolution renders.)

Rendered using THESE settings.

Just ZERO OUT all the Terragen Atmosphere Sliders.

(Advanced Terragen Users can tweak according to taste,
Zeroing Sliders can increase CONTRAST in the Clouds,
so adding back in some MORE Gray Shading can look nice
using the Cloud Color Controls...)

MOST IMPORTANTLY- we are making the Terragen Sky Color a "0-0-0 RGB BLACK"- Ideal for Transparency Maps.

(Vue can also handle regular sky photos o.k. if you
DEEPEN the Blues in PhotoShop for better Masking in
Vue. But getting RID of Sky Photo Artifacts is more
time consuming. Using Terragen is a FAST WAY to nice
TRansparency Mask Clouds-- Other than having to wait
for the RENDERS...)

In Photoshop I use the LEVELS Control to "Tweak" the sky a bit on the Dark Side to make SURE that the Sky is TOTALLY "0-0-0" Black. I use the Color Sampler Tool to check. Sometimes a bit of SUN GLARE will make a corner slightly GRAYER (less than 0-0-0) so I select that area and fill it with 0-0-0 Black so that its all even.

BTW- If you copy these its o.k.- but you will NOT get
the same results as using a much HIGHER REZ Cloud Mask.
As stated above- I render these at a minimum of 2048 x
2048 for best results...

Once you set up a Camera Facing Billboard Vertical Sky Plane you can easily LOAD and swop-out different Cloud Planes...

...Here's another...

The really GREAT THING about using Terragen Clouds
in Vue is that you still have ALL of the advantages
of using Vue's different Atmospheres AND Moving the
Sun around. Just using a PHOTO as a backdrop has NONE
of those advantages...

Another nice TRICK with rendering Terragen Clouds at a 30-35 degree angle is that you can FLIP THEM OVER and use them as Layers (still as Vertical Planes) and they make nice CLOUD TOP scenes for us Flight Sim and Air Combat Game Fans!

...Ready to be signed "Veritas Arcana, Fighter Ace 777th Squadron" and produced as Limited Edition Art Prints (heh!)...

And Note that as 2-D Clouds- these Render EXTREMELY FAST
and are EXCELLENT for using in your Aviation Animations!

I'm quite amazed at your TG clouds, I'm TG user too, but never got such a 3dimentional feel to any of my clouds. It's very hard to get realistic looking 3D clouds in TG. Bravo! Will have to try your settings.

I use the "ULTRA" settings in Terragen. Like Vue, the higher the settings, the better your renders will look. Also note, I'm using the 3D setting (2D works for a lot of regular Terragen renders- but 3D is BEST if you are a real CLOUD FANATIC). One other thing is make your sky HUGE! Like 10000 or 20000. Of course all these things increase render time- but you can use your beautifully rendered high-rez Terragen Clouds in Vue OVER and OVER, many times, so its a good investment of render time...

Really neat stuff - I'm off to play with Terragen!

Attached Link: http://www.digitalwood.us/vuefreebies.html

Heh! Yes Vue and Terragen are great for one another! I will certainly be buying Terragen 2 (TG2) but Vue will likely remain my primary 3D program as it is so Easy to use and I can get the effects I want really fast.

Above is another interesting MIXTURE of Terragen and Vue.
The SKY is from Robert Wood (I still don't understand yet how he has made these Vue 5 Skies) and the CLOUDS are from Terragen. ...It gives the sky a SURREALISTIC look!

Wow - bookmark!

Whoa! Way cool info! Thanks!!

Bookmarking this thread ;)

Message edited on: 10/03/2005 05:06