eonite opened this issue on Apr 18, 2009 · 89 posts
eonite posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 12:48 PM
Hello!
My name is Dick Scherzinger (artists name: eonite) from Switzerland. Got into CG in 2002.
I don`t expect anyone to know me in the Vue community. Have been active in the Artmatic/Voyager scene in the last couple of years. Lots of pictures/tutorials/presetcollections.
Also running an Artmatic related website (http://www.artmatica.ch)
A couple of months ago I decided to get into Vue. What interested me most was to explore Vue`s function editor. Artmatic works with a function graph as well, so it was relatively easy to get into it.
What thrills me about Vue is its incredible potential. Its much slower than Artmatic Voyager but it has some features that I have always been missing.
When exploring Vue`s cloud presets and options I noticed something. While the Cumulus clouds looked really impressive and convincing I found that the high altitude clouds (cirrus&friends) were not equally taken care of. They looked to me more like random patches or streaks.
In Artmatic/Voyager I spent a lot of time trying to capture the beauty of cirrus clouds...and I found out that the techniques acquired over the years could be equally applied in Vue`s function editor.
Currentyl I`m building function trees and create MetaNodes with the relevant parameters extracted, which should generate some natural looking high altitude clouds.
Below are a couple of work renders, so you get an impression of what I`m working on.
Btw. this forum and all the Vue online tutorials really helped me to learn the basics of Vue Infinite. Thank you very much, namely the folks at GeekatPlay, Chipp Walters and Silverblade (recently bought a PC following your specs).
Actually I wanted to share a couple of files but was not sure wether zipped files could be unzipped by everyone and if the Vue 7 Infinite files were compatible with other versions of Vue.
Cheers,
Dick
eonite posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 12:49 PM
eonite posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 12:50 PM
eonite posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 12:51 PM
eonite posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 12:51 PM
melikia posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 12:54 PM
EXCELLENT work!
You can share files easily, by uploading them to your favorite sharing (i.e. shareCG or shareAC or whatever) spot and submitting them to renderosity's free stuff section. takes about a day or so, but they end up there usually =D
And most everyone has access to some kind of unzipping program - windows has one by default (its crappy, but works)
As for compatibility - i'll let someone else explain that one =D
PS: i wouldnt mind getting my hands on your clouds!
Rarer than a hairy egg and madder than a box of frogs....
< o > < o > You've been
VUED! < o > < o >
>
>
O
O
eonite posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 1:10 PM
Thanks Melikia!
I will post a link to some files later...
Rich_Potter posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 1:24 PM
silverblade33 posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 1:32 PM
Heyas! :) and glad we could help :)
hot damn, woot finally decent cirrus clouds!
this has been a real pain in the arse for me: to get spectral cirrus to look right, as they are so important for many scenes. I couldn't get anything decent neough for my "Dark Sun - Glory" pic and had ot make do with just stretching a cloud type in one axis.
Well done! :)
"I'd rather be a
Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in
Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models,
D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports
to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!
melikia posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 1:34 PM
i'm hoping for a tutorial??????
hint hint
wink wink
nudge nudge
BEGGING??????????
Rarer than a hairy egg and madder than a box of frogs....
< o > < o > You've been
VUED! < o > < o >
>
>
O
O
gillbrooks posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 2:12 PM
Those clouds look very realistic - excellent work and thanks for the sharing offer!
Gill
FrankT posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 2:28 PM Online Now!
Wow, that's some damn fine looking clouds !
Rutra posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 3:40 PM
Wow, really good looking clouds. Congrats!
Welcome to Vue! :-)
dburdick posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 4:25 PM
Great looking clouds. Why don't you bundle these up and sell it as a cloud pack on C3D or Rendo.
eonite posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 5:46 PM
Attached Link: Cloud Files
Just uploaded a couple of files. You can download them by clicking the attached link.
When you have downloaded the zip file, unzip and open the atmo file in Vue. You will see 3 cloud layers (flat). Check them one by one. Flat layers do not mask other flat layers very well (you will always see parts of another flat layer bleed through. It works in some cases but usually not), Of course you can use them along with any number of volumetric layers.
The atmosphere is more or less left at default, except that I chose a darker blue for the sky, because this gives a nice contrast to the white clouds.
The 3 cloud layers are also included as separate files so you can load them directly into your preferred atmospheres, just make certain you have selected Spectral Atmosphere.
If you want to change the loacation of the clouds or if you want to rotate the layer, check out the screenshot.
What`s great about this type of layer, it renders very fast. For evening scenes I recommend to increase the quality setting to avoid grainyness. Also, depending on your atmo setting it might be nice to subtly color the cirrus layer (pinkish or yellowish).
Enjoy! (Hey, this is a kind of "premiere"!)
eonite posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 6:06 PM
Have checked your picture, Silverblade. Know, what you mean. This type of cirrus clouds could certainly be a nice addition.
Melikia, I will try to get a tutorial with some techniques used. But it might take some time.
(Check out the screenshot below and you will understand that there are tons of nodes involved. So it would certainly require more than one tutorial...)
Dburdick, thanks for the hint on C3D! I am already in contact with Christie and she likes the clouds too!
Again, thanks for the feedback and for your warm welcome!
If you have questions, just go ahead :-)
eonite posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 6:07 PM
aquiavic posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 6:25 PM
Quote - Have checked your picture, Silverblade. Know, what you mean. This type of cirrus clouds could certainly be a nice addition.
Melikia, I will try to get a tutorial with some techniques used. But it might take some time.
(Check out the screenshot below and you will understand that there are tons of nodes involved. So it would certainly require more than one tutorial...)Dburdick, thanks for the hint on C3D! I am already in contact with Christie and she likes the clouds too!
Again, thanks for the feedback and for your warm welcome!
If you have questions, just go ahead :-)
Is it possible to convert your sci-fi pack to Vue
Bijan_Studio posted Sat, 18 April 2009 at 6:34 PM
Excellent work!!!!!
eonite posted Sun, 19 April 2009 at 12:14 PM
Thanks Bijan, much appreciated!
Aquiavic, this is an interesting question. Have been thinking about it for a while.
One option would be to have HiRes renders of the skies created in Artmatic. This would provide the same background.
Another option would be to map those elements onto alpha planes so they can be shifted around to fit the scene.
The third option, which I find the most satisfying in the long run, would be to create entirely new skies from scratch in Vue.
The starfields, nebulae etc. would be generated by (procedural) materials mapped onto one or several planes.
The moon/planet textures would be mapped onto spheres and the foreground stars would be generated by using point lights.
Below you can see a picture I rendered with the camera placed 40meters or so above a horizontal plane that uses 3 layered materials. To create the stars and nebulae I used the same techniques used in Artmatic (procedural, not bitmap).
As you might guess, the stars in the foreground are point lights placed in between the camera and the plane.
It rendered extremly fast. It not perfect, too bright. Just a render of an experiment.
Have also tried to place the plane vertically far away 100km so an infinite terrain can be used without being cut off by the plane and it seems to work.
Will need to make more tests. When this method works, then similar results like the one in the Artmatic Voyager SciFi/Alien Sky set can be achieved in Vue (which would be fantastic!).
Any suggestions?
eonite posted Sun, 19 April 2009 at 12:15 PM
Rutra posted Sun, 19 April 2009 at 12:18 PM
This looks great. Beautiful and very convincing. Well done!
dlk30341 posted Sun, 19 April 2009 at 12:30 PM
Outstanding work here! The clouds are fabulous & thank you for sharing :)
Osper posted Sun, 19 April 2009 at 6:16 PM
I seem to remember one of us that enabled a sky download simply from a picture. But I don't remember how he did it. Maybe someone else does.
Excellent work Eonite!
ArtPearl posted Sun, 19 April 2009 at 7:26 PM
If the zipped file isnt larger than the allowed 200k you can attach it with your post, the same as images. However you need to change the file name extension to 'txt'. People who download it will need to change the extension back from txt to zip, unzip and continue from there as usual.
Eonite - welcome, it seems you already have a lot to contribute! Your picture of the nodes in the function editor is very impressive, but too small for my eyes to even begin to unveil some of the secrets :(
"I paint that which comes from the imagination or from dreams,
or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not
wish to paint, the things which already have an
existence."
Man Ray, modernist painter
http://artpearl.redbubble.com/
chippwalters posted Sun, 19 April 2009 at 9:26 PM
Hi Dick. Wow, wonderful stuff! Looks like you already have a great command of the function editor.
I remember Eric Wenger from the early Bryce days. Not being a Mac user anymore, I didn't know about ArtMatic Voyager. Fun browsing your site and seeing what you've done with it.
Welcome to our community! :-)
craftycurate posted Mon, 20 April 2009 at 3:47 AM
Hi Dick ...
Thanks for your contribution - any cirrus clouds are most welcome, but always good to have a new face around the place, especially someone who comes to contribute as well as to learn.
Cheers
Richard
eonite posted Mon, 20 April 2009 at 10:39 AM
Thank you, folks, for the compliments, encouragements and welcoming words :-)
I`m glad you like the clouds. Would be interested to know how well they integrate into your atmospheres, along with volumetric clouds.
Thanks, ArtPearl, for the advice re: uploading. I probably prefer to upload the stuff to my site and attach a link to avoid any potential confusion.
Yes, the picture with one of the functions used to generate cirrus clouds is a bit too small to unveil the secrets. This is intended ;-)
Here are 2 key techniques. They are basically very simple.
Take 2 identical fractal noise nodes. Mix them with a combiner node in "add" mode . Now set the amplitude of the second input to -1 while leaving the first input at 1.
The result will be 0. Complete phase cancelling. You should see uniform grey.
Offset one of the 2 noise nodes by slightly shifting the origin in x or y direction. The result is a new pattern that has desity peaks at the edge instead of being in the center.
Again, take 2 identical (fractal) noise nodes. Connect the second node to a "Composer 3" (math node). This node has 3 inputs (x,y,z). Connect it for example to x.
Now connect the output of the composer to the origin connector of the first noise node.
This should push the peaks of the noise in one direction.
Of course you can combine both techniques.
The reason why I use those techniques for cirrus clouds is because it approximates the effect the wind has on them. By pushing the clouds in a certain direction, the maximum density of the clouds is no more in the center but is shifted in the direction where the wind goes.
I hope this was not too confusing :-)
Similar techniques can be used to create desert dunes and ripples.
eonite posted Mon, 20 April 2009 at 11:05 AM
Hi Chipp,
when googling for Vue tutorials I met your Terra Pak. Hey, This is amazing stuff!
I especially appreciated your E-book. Very clear and easy to understand. And the way you organized your materials is an excellent and really a clever example of how to deal with materials.
Hey, I downloaded it for free !???
I`m glad you know Eric Wenger. Have lots of respect for what he has done. His apps are outstanding. The fact that he is an artist he designs his software from an artistic point of view.
Voyager, for example, is reduced to the max. A few meta-parameters let you control your entire scene. And it renders much faster than any other software I know. Voyager will certainly be the first app that lets you render movies in realtime (in a few years from now).
eonite posted Mon, 20 April 2009 at 11:10 AM
Richard,
I have seen "Unto Us, A Son". That`s beautiful! How the heck did you create those warping clouds???
craftycurate posted Mon, 20 April 2009 at 11:43 AM
Thanks ... glad you like "Unto Us, A Son".
The clouds are created using an open source Fractal generating program called Apophysis (link). They were then exported as a PNG with Alpha channel, and then imported to a large Alpha plane. That's it!
It's a technique I've used in a few images.
Thanks
Richard
eonite posted Tue, 21 April 2009 at 5:18 AM
Oh, I see. I have heard about Apophysis and it came into my mind when I saw your clouds.
It looks indeed impressive.
Actually I hoped that this ort of confined fractals could be produced in the function editor.
eonite posted Tue, 21 April 2009 at 5:52 AM
Quote - Is it possible to convert your sci-fi pack to Vue
Yesterday I had a look at my Artmatic skies. Did a 360 panoramic render of one of those skies.
In Vue I chose "Environment Mapping" as atmosphere option, and loaded the render. It worked perfectly. When I deleted the ground plane I had a full 360 panoramic sky. I then rendered one of the Artmatic moons separately and applied it on an Alpha Plane and this looked really great.
What it requires are hires renders of those skies and additional elements. I think when rendered at 8192x4096 resolution, the skies will look identical to the original skies.
What`s great is that in Vue any additional 3D elements can be added.
Also experimented with skies that used just Vue elements but finally I found the above mentioned method more convincing and a lot easier to use.
I will definitely work on a SciFi/Alien sky pack for Vue :-)
chippwalters posted Tue, 21 April 2009 at 12:16 PM
Quote - Hi Chipp,
Hey, I downloaded it for free !???
Dick,
I'm not sure I understand. I suppose you know it's for sale at my website (www.vuetoolbar.com) and Cornucopia3D as well. If you didn't get it from there, where did you get it from?
eonite posted Tue, 21 April 2009 at 12:48 PM
I thought so...
Was googling for tutorials and on a site, and landed on a site where I could download it. The password to activate was mentioned somewhere.
I was a bit suspicious first, but then I thought that it was you who offered it for free. I did not think any further and went on.
I will try to find the website again by scanning my browser history and will send you the link.
Well, in this case I will pay for it of course :-)
chippwalters posted Tue, 21 April 2009 at 4:36 PM
Mazak posted Sun, 26 April 2009 at 7:15 AM
Attached Link: http://www.news-eintrag.de/news/7614.html
Thank you very much for the cloud files. :thumbupboth: Very realistic and excellent use of material layer! Thank you for the setup screen shots too. Welcome aboard at Vue. Good luck with discovering new frontiers.
I found a very interesting (German) news article about you and Artmatic Voyager / Alien Skies.
Mazak
Mazak posted Sun, 26 April 2009 at 7:25 AM
@Chipp Sadly to hear you been robbed :( I own your excellent Terra Pack and it is a shame that it is somewhere for free in the net! :sad:
Mazak
craftycurate posted Sun, 26 April 2009 at 11:25 AM
Quote - Spectral atmosphere. Transparency clouds (actually 2 layers at slightly different altitudes and shifted origin to get the shading).
Hi Dick
These are excellent presets ... preset sharing seems to work quite well around here - people share presets and others take them and play around with them, suggesting other ideas or improvements.
You can attach files to forum messages but you have to change the extension to .bmp or something and there is a 200K limit I think.
I don't think Vue 7 .atm files are backwards compatible - I've already tried.
Thanks
Richard
timspfd posted Sun, 26 April 2009 at 6:25 PM
Welcome to the forum and thanks for the cloud samples, I will play with them soon. I look forward to your Sci-Fi pack, so far I've just relied on Hubble but it doesn't have the appearance of depth I would like to see.
eonite posted Mon, 27 April 2009 at 3:26 PM
Thanks Mazak, Richard and Timspfd for the warm welcome and nice feedback on the cirrus clouds. You`re welcome.
I`m confident that this kind of cirrus layers will make a nice contrast to the amazing Vue cumulus layers.
Mazak, thanks for putting up the link :-)
Richard, thanks for the hint on attaching files. The next file (in a couple of days) I will be way too big, so I better provide a link...
Timspfd, I really hope that the SciFi sky pack will provide more depth.
Currently I`m figuring out the best way to get the scifi/alien sky collection into Vue.
Did tons of tests.
When things have progressed a bit further I will post a link to an example Vue scene.
Things seem to work really fine with with environment mapping. They need to be huge (8000x4000) so the sky is crisp without the need to zoom out.
Currently I think that in order to get the best results and to be flexible it`s good when the environments maps provide the overall star scape with for example one mean nebula.
All the other elements, like moons, planets, clusters and additional nebulae, are separate renders that can be put onto alpha planes.
What`s really cool is that if you delete the ground plane you have a space environment all around.
Quite impressive.
Below is one of the test renders with an enviroment map (2048x1024) and some additional elements that were put onto alpha planes (the moon uses an alpha mask, the other elements I turned additive.)
There were point lights added.
Rendertime 10 seconds :-)
eonite posted Mon, 27 April 2009 at 3:27 PM
timspfd posted Mon, 27 April 2009 at 4:17 PM
That's just gorgeous
eonite posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 11:41 AM
Thanks Timspfd,
Will post a scene example a bit later...
eonite posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 12:25 PM
Here is an update on the Vue space pack project:
After some more tests and comparisons I decided against using environment maps. The reasons are as follows
2.Just using completely premade skies are not really fun. I find that artists should have more freedom in setting up a scene.
So I came up with a much better solution.
The overall starscape (and some of the nebulae) will be generated by Vue and mapped onto a sphere.
All other elements will be added either as alpha planes or will be Vue objects.
Handling, as far as I can tell, is easy and fun and the resulting skies quite impressive.
The great thing about this system is that you can place/rotate each element and if you have also some freedom over the coloring of those elements (Including the starfield).
Another cool and very powerful feature will be that for the texturing of the sky sphere Metanodes are used with extracted parameters. It can somewhat be compared to Vue`s water editor.
On the next post you can see a rendered demo space scene which contains some of the elements mentioned above as well as some details. The scene file can be downloaded by clicking here
Id be happy to get some feedback on it . Also, Im curious to know if the scene file works for other versions than Vue 7 Infinite for PC/Vista
Enjoy!
eonite posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 12:29 PM
The scene contains a starfield projected onto a sphere.
Diameter 190km.
The starfield is generated by Vue.
The reason this sphere is so big is because this will prevent cutting haze and fog off or bleeding into fog and haze (at least when Spectral Atmosphere is used)
The camera is placed somewhere near the center of the stars sphere.
Focal 66mm. This minimizes distortion near the edges.
There are 3 additional sky elements which are in fact pictures mapped onto Alpha Planes. The planes have "Billboard" checked so they will always face the camera.
As a reference I also have added a ground plane as well as a terrain which is placed
80km away from the center (hidden when you load the scene)
Rutra posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 1:27 PM
Very clever, very beautiful, very simple and extremely effective. Excellent work altogether.
FrankT posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 1:31 PM Online Now!
Just downloaded it and rendered it and it looks fab. Very fast to render too
eonite posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 2:16 PM
Artur and Frank, that`s what I like to hear :-)
I`m relieved the scene file loaded correctly and that you like the effect this approach can have.
You are both using Vue 7 Infinite I suppose.
If anyone finds any kind of faults regarding this setup I`d be interested to know too.
Mazak posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 2:21 PM
Mazak
eonite posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 2:37 PM
Thanks for feedback and advice, Mazak. Will check this out.
eonite posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 2:42 PM
Nice picture, btw. :-)
Seems you have no trouble manipulating the scene...
Mazak posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 2:50 PM
Here without the background stars. Maybe my new desktop wallpaper :laugh:
Mazak
eonite posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 3:04 PM
Very cool! Looks nice without the starfield.
The render size of the moon picture is 1024x10024px. You went quite to the limit with it.
Nevertheless I`m impressed by how faithfully the original render is reproduced in Vue.
Mazak posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 3:10 PM
Yes I use texture anti-aliasing and texture filtering to reduce jagging around the planet.
Mazak
eonite posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 3:17 PM
Another helpful advice, thanks :-)
choover3 posted Sat, 02 May 2009 at 3:34 PM
Loads and renders beautifully in Vue 7 Pro Studio.
Hope to become even slightly as accomplished as you are. Thanks!
The clouds are amazing, but for me its the space scenes, hands down.
Charles
eonite posted Sun, 03 May 2009 at 6:47 AM
Glad you like it, Charles.
So the scene works in Vue 7 Pro Studio also. That`s good news.
timspfd posted Sun, 03 May 2009 at 12:56 PM
Opens and renders fine in Vue 7 Complete 64 bit Vista
Doesn't open in Vue 6 Prostudio, but that's because it's been saved from 7 and .vue files aren't backward compatible.
I unchecked the billboarding on the nebula as it gave me more rotational range, then duplicated it twice and recolored. My final on this is very large so I had to do a tiny bit of postwork on the planet edge to get rid of minor jaggies.
Click for the full size version
eonite posted Sun, 03 May 2009 at 2:56 PM
Nice, Timspfd!
You gave the scene a completely different look. Thanks for the details.
Great to know it worked with Vue 7 Complete. Well, I expected the file to be incompatible with Vue 6...
It satisfying to see those results und to feel that this concept is useful.
Can`t wait to see what you guys come up with once the space pack is out :-)
silverblade33 posted Sun, 03 May 2009 at 6:00 PM
applaud wooo hoooo!!! :)
"I'd rather be a
Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in
Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models,
D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports
to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!
eonite posted Mon, 04 May 2009 at 8:32 AM
Heya, Steve.
I hoped you would like it :-)
You may have noticed the metanodes generating the starfield. One is for the overall field, the other one provides the foreground stars.
The naming of the parameters will be a bit different in the final versions. Also I will probably remap some values so the sliders are less tricky to use.
Metanodes are amongst the things I really love most about Vue. Extracting just the relevant parameters saves you from having to deal with the complexity of the original function tree (which is sometimes hard to see through, if it has been created by someone else).
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 4:34 PM
Hello again!
I wanted to give you some news on the Vue Space Project as well as some cool discoveries.
First, I am REALLY happy with the render speed improvement of procedural terrains in V7I 7.4.
Now for the project itself, there have been some changes.
The more I`m working with Vue the more I tend to create the elements needed directly in Vue.
No need to mention that this way they (I am speaking of stars, nebulae, moons, planets etc) can be edited and there is no limitation when it comes to render size.
The basic concept is still the same: The starfield (and some nebulae) is projected onto a sphere. Elements like nebulae, suns, galaxies are projected onto planes, which are facing the camera.
The planets moons are now 3D object and are lit by a directional light source.
Apart from skies and sky elements I also spent quite some time experimenting with terrains, especially infinite terrains.
Now I would like to show you some renders along with some comments.
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 4:42 PM
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 4:44 PM
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 4:48 PM
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 4:49 PM
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 4:50 PM
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 4:51 PM
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 4:53 PM
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 4:56 PM
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 5:01 PM
Mazak posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 5:05 PM
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 5:08 PM
Currently I`m trying to create some decent infinite terrains ( mainly alien worlds) for use with the sky pack.
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 5:21 PM
Quote - :woot: My jaw drop to floor. :thumbupboth:
Mazak
I love to hear that :-)
Rutra posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 5:43 PM
Fantastic work. Congratulations!
eonite posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 6:01 PM
FrankT posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 6:07 PM Online Now!
I really like that last nebula.
Those terrains look fab
choover3 posted Fri, 22 May 2009 at 6:32 PM
Great work!
Can't wait to buy this.
eonite posted Sat, 23 May 2009 at 5:47 AM
Quote - I really like that last nebula.
Those terrains look fab
Glad you like those.
With procedural fractal terrains it`s impossible to exactly control how the terrain will look like because you deal with randomness. But I do not see this as a negative aspect.
What`s important is to spend time with the function so the terrain gets its desired characteristics, and when those are defined you can explore the terrain, simply by offsetting the whole function or by exploring it with the camera.
The same applies to nebulae (funny that the same fractal nodes which work for terrains also work for nebulae or for clouds.
eonite posted Sat, 23 May 2009 at 6:10 AM
Quote - Great work!
Can't wait to buy this.
Thanks!
I cannot really say when it will be available. Would love to offer it right away but more testing/development needs to be done.
Also I want to make certain that it`s easy to handle (within certain rules), while offering a great amount of flexibility, so that when an artist is using the pack he gets the chance to give the skies,/scenes his own personality/expression.
silverblade33 posted Sat, 23 May 2009 at 6:58 AM
O M G....!!! another jaw hits the floor :p
Well done mate!!! :)
ringed planet, and "testing terrain and sky" look bloody awesome! wow :)
"I'd rather be a
Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in
Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models,
D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports
to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!
eonite posted Sat, 23 May 2009 at 7:58 AM
Quote - O M G....!!! another jaw hits the floor :p
Well done mate!!! :)ringed planet, and "testing terrain and sky" look bloody awesome! wow :)
Oh...another dropping jaw...that`s quite an acknowledgement :-)
I think I have found a viable way to solve this planet/moon contrast problem (artifact where the light reaches it`s maximum). I had almost given up on moons and planets because of this.
...then I gave it a last try. Tried to use Angle of Incident to drive the contrast...and it worked.
See comparison below.
eonite posted Sat, 23 May 2009 at 8:05 AM
Contrast set to 56%.
Beyond the angle where the light reaches it`s maximum you get
an unnaturally overexposed texture.
This is best visible when using a simple color with no bumps.
Sphere B:
Here the contrast is driven by "Angle of Incidence". What it does is provide you with a relatively sharp contrast around the terminator while getting smoother near the
edge of the sphere.
Of course additional nodes can be added to the function for finetuning.
This function is not needed in any case but it`s useful for moons/planets with a sharp terminator.
chippwalters posted Sat, 23 May 2009 at 10:59 AM
eonite posted Sat, 23 May 2009 at 6:23 PM
Hey thanks, Chipp!
Things I learned from you and some other experts here made my Vue life a lot easier :-)
Vue, despite some bugs, is a phenomenal app.
silverblade33 posted Sat, 23 May 2009 at 8:35 PM
Quote -
Vue, despite some bugs, is a phenomenal app.
nods vigorously!! :)
"I'd rather be a
Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in
Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models,
D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports
to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!
alexcoppo posted Sun, 24 May 2009 at 12:02 AM
If you strive for realism, don't go overboard with contrast in gas giant atmospheres.
The pictures people see are the result of image processing which enhances sharply the contrast.
If you have a look through a amateur telescope at Jupiter, you might have troubles even detecting the Red Spot (for a real example, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExHaVZIeiwo). The images you uploaded look right as they are now.
Bye!!!
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eonite posted Sun, 24 May 2009 at 6:29 AM
Quote - If you strive for realism, don't go overboard with contrast in gas giant atmospheres.
The pictures people see are the result of image processing which enhances sharply the contrast.
If you have a look through a amateur telescope at Jupiter, you might have troubles even detecting the Red Spot (for a real example, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExHaVZIeiwo). The images you uploaded look right as they are now.
Thanks for the hint.
Well, its certainly true that Jupiter, seen through an amateur telescope (and the earths atmosphere) will always appear blurry and wont reveal a lot of detail. Hubble shots show a lot more detail because the telecope is more powerful and it is located outside of the earths athmosphere.
To pick up the example of the gas giant. What you see on the picture I posted is generated by a Metanode with some parameters extracted.
If anyone finds there are too many details he simply decreases the contrast parameter slider.
If he wants to change the hue, the tweaks the hue offset slider.
As simple as that.
I am heading for realism to a certain degree. Maybe credibility is a better word. I want some elements to be credible enough to create an illusion.
However realism for the sake of realism is not my thing.
In the context of art, realism is just an asset. Something which artists can use to give their art the appearance of being real.
