Show Us Your Bryce Renders! Part 7
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@Dana - Sean has re-posted the link.
IBL lighting is simple (even I can use it): Intensity controls the brightness of the backdrop (if rendered as backdrop, and then there is Transparency to mix that with the existing sky if you wish) and HDRI Effect is the light generated and cast into the scene. If you don't have enough light, you can enable Apply to light source for Intensity and you get a light multiplier. If you think the colour of the light cast into the scene is too saturated, you can reduce it with Saturation. If you think the backdrop has too much contrast, you can enable Tone map.
@Sean - thank you!
Here are two experiments. The first is an earlier iteration of the one I posted for the challenge. No lens tricks. A sphere is in the world centre surrounding the HDRI from inside. On the sphere are six default trees (like on the six cube faces). The wood and foliage are partly transparent, the sphere doesn't cast shadows so the IB light can pass through. This scene is within a large sphere with very low diffusion and transparency (5%). The camera is outside this large sphere. The IB light projects the light through the trees onto the inner side of the outer sphere and this light projection can be seen on the outside of this sphere. Very simple.
The second is a try using the instance lab. I instanced trees - I think about 70 - onto the sphere orienting them to the sphere's centre and buried the roots in it. Because there were no trees on the underside, I copied the instanced trees, rotated them and put them on the underside. The sphere doesn't cast shadows but receives them. The only light comes from the HDRI from inside and the visible roots are the shadows cast on the inner side of the sphere. The sky is a Bryce sky, the sun is visible but doesn't cast light. I think the 6+ hours I waited for this render wasn't worth the effort. But it was an interesting experiment.
Sean and Horo:
thanks for the quick response, loads of tips and tricks in that pdf on tress.
Horo:
thanks again for more IBL advice, I know you must feel like a broken record at times but we would be lost with out you!
@dana: I've noticed how much IBL changes material with the stacked terrains I've been playing with. And then it's a matter of getting the right balance so the scene looks as I envision it. It may also mean tweaking the material in the Material Lab, and/or DTE, to help in balancing everything. And sometimes something unexpected pops up that's really pretty or unique. To me, it really boils down to making changes and observing how those changes affect the overall scene. I'll even get more ideas when I see the effects of the changes.
@Horo: Those two images are really neat. My first impression of the first image was what a weird looking starfish that is.
I wasn't satisfied with any of the daytime skies available, so I started playing in the Sky Lab to try and may one that I'd like. What I came up with was the sky in the following images. The second image has something in it I used before, with a different material for the walls in that image. The material for all three terrains was also tweaked a bit. You have a choice with these two images. It can be sunrise or sunset. Like always, comments and suggestions are welcomed.
@Jamie - both scenes look very nice and I'm not sure which one I like better. One observation: the shadows near the camera are black, those in the distance are brightened up a bit by the haze. This happens very often if a scene is back-lit. The easiest remedy is to put a radial at (or near) the camera position without shadow casting. You can adjust this radials diffuse to get the right amount of light on the shadows. Another method is to create an HDRI from the sky (disable sun visible and switch it back on when the HDRI is created) and use it with a low HDRI Effect setting to just break the black. Of course, you would not have it as backdrop. If you go for a fast render, disable IBL shadows, if you want to show more of the bump and geometry on the terrain, keep HDRI shadows and wait a bit longer.
Dana- thanks, I really don’t think I will get the lighting, material, geometry right for landscapes, but on the other hand I’m getting nice results for stills and abstracts, so whose complaining……. More power to the artist, as Horo said in one video. ;)
Horo- both your renders are awesome. We need more videos from you, tutorial ones, more like the type David does, especially for people like me who learn from seeing. I’m copying your two experiments to a word doc to try later.
Guss – both your renders are nice. I like your results with the stacked terrains.
@Horo: Thank you. And thank you for the additional information. I created the sky dome color and used it to create an HDRI. What I discovered when I tried increasing the HDRI effect was that the sun glow was coming from the upper right side, which didn't match with where I'd placed the sun; in the future I will place the sun first, turn it off, then create an HDRI using the sky dome. (Right now, doing something once is magic and possibly not reproducible.) So I reduced the effect and opted for the results you see. Your mentioning bump and texture did cross my mind with this scene, as it does in most of my scenes, but I didn't know how to accentuate it without making it look unnatural. Your information will definitely help in the future.
@mermaid: Thank you.
Edit: Below is an image, the second image from my previous post, where I moved the sun before creating the HDRI using the sky dome. I increased the HDRI effect to add more light to the foreground, and this time the sun glow came from the same direction as where I'd placed the sun. Because I had to redo the sky I wasn't able to reproduce the same cloud pattern, but I'm rather satisfied with the clouds in this scene. Your comments and/or suggestions are welcomed.
@Jamie - great improvement. Yes, I forget to mention it. Set the sky first, then disable the sun, create the HDRI from sky and re-enable the sun. Then you get what you need. If you don't use the HDRI as background, you should be able to rotate it without noticeable change in the light.
@mermaid010: Thanks. I need some more experimenting, but it has potential.
I really like your IBL works, specifically the firs one with all the reflections.
@Fishtales: Great atmosphere in both renders. What's missing a bit is the shadow that the fire dancers make on the terrain. Horo mentioned so too. However, I understand thats part of the WIP not yet being there. I prefer the second because of the colours.
@Horo: Thanks. Nice to see your other attempts with the trees here. The one in the contest is the best in my point of view. And the one with the trees on the outside is strange, but I can understand why you think it is not worth waiting for.
@dana365: Thanks. Indeed the attempt was to mix them colours in a nice way. I used the same terrain twice in different resolutions.
@GussNemo: Great scene. Last version is the best so far. I did spot that the church is not supported at its front. Take care, it might fall over!
My computer is slowly crunching away on a rather simple scene, but with a number of water textures (transparency, reflection) it takes forever. Maybe I'll show it here later.
@Horo: Thank you. Now I'll just need to glue the opposite ear shut so the information stays.
@hansmar: Thanks. What? You've never heard of erosion? When I zoomed to that area with the director's view, I saw the terrain was anything but flat. So I had to decide if I wanted to bury the back end of the church to get the church level or get it as close the "down" as possible. I chose "down." My thought was it's an old church, ground shifts, so if it wasn't completely level it can be blamed on "time."
@GussNemo, a great way to fix things like the church is to just slap in a primitive or a stone to patch the hole and give it a believable material. For example you could create a flattened sphere or stone, a little larger than the church, and sink it into the ground and give it the same material as the ground and it would blend right in. In the case of a more complex ground material, such as yours where the ground isn't an even material, it might make more sense to use a green material that matches just the piece of the ground nearby. It won't blend perfectly, but it doesn't have to in this case, it'll just look like another hill.
Another option might be a cube and find a stone wall material that matches the church walls in color, and it will look like an old stone foundation. (do churches have basements?)
This is also a way to avoid excessive posing. Instead of trying to match a figure's feet exactly to the ground, I just make the ground however I want (provided it's rough) and bury a stone in the ground with the same material under each foot. It can be raised/lowered/angled to exactly match the foot without having to repose and reimport or fiddle around for hours in the terrain editor, plus the figure can be easily moved to a different part of the terrain if needed.
@GussNemo: You're right, erosion. That's why I warned you that the church might topple over! ;-)
But, of course, you could prevent it if you wanted too!
Yes well, yes, sometimes, depending... It is a challenge I've attempted a few times with different approaches. This one has taken some time to refine. But I think I've got it more or less organised now - I won't say perfected... it's not perfect. Here's some example renders.
Oh and speaking of renders, I can't not comment on C-ram's outstanding high-resolution image. That is going above and beyond. The light effect on those fluffy cacti in the bottom left is worthy of a render in their own right. That would have been subject enough to impress. This entire scene, it's very impressive to achieve this, doubly so to do it in Bryce, which a we know, can be a little bit temperamental with such complex scenes. Brilliant!
Anyway, back OT, what I do is start with the terrain, copy it, invert it, squash it, apply my water material to it (which is set up to respond to terrain geometry) lower it and line it up with an ambient channel altitude band in the "parent" terrain. Copy the matrix of my water terrain, make cube, paste the matrix into that cube, set the cube to be a "cutter" for an infinite water plane into which I copy the water material from my water terrain. Then I spend some time matching the plane as best I can with the terrain - height wise and also maybe tweaking the material since the plane has no height geometry for the material to interact with. So if you look carefully you might just detect in a few places where the water goes from terrain to infinite plane. That's the best match I could get for the lighting conditions.
@David Brinnen, I love that top image. Really nice badlands, as well as the waves.
@Sean: Thanks for the suggestions, they're something I'd not considered. I'll have to give one a try to see the effect.
@hansmar: I think I did hear, somewhere, there's a restoration project in the works for that church. Just a few decisions to make first.
@David: Beautiful work on your latest images.
My latest three images started out as daytime scenes, but I sort of got side tracked. So I took the time to create a sky, added a few clouds made with spheres, changed the material for the 4096 sized terrain and below it the result. And yes, that church just might topple over in this scene, but as a first draft it may need a few revisions. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed.
OK stupid question of the day.
I decided to use open GL display mode to work with a troublesome freebie I had imported.
However now I can't get out of Open GL mode. The drop down menu has disappeared
Clicking on the icon changes through all the open GL variants, but I seem to have no way of getting back to standard wireframe mode, which is my normal way of working
Any Ideas.
Click and hold on the box. Image 1
Edit - NB note the "and hold" not just click keep that mouse button pressed down till the menu shows up.
Select Default wireframe from the top. Image 2
Thanks David, as simple as that. Cheers.
I was really cursing, I so rarely use open GL. But this was a really nice prop that had been badly made inasmuch as it had only one group for the main model, so all the meshes (70 of them) are just that meshes, although some use the same textures. So I needed a clearer display view to set it up.
Hansmar- Thanks
David – other set of excellent renders.
Guss – this latest one is very nice. Love the clouds, how did you do them?
Thank you so much to all of you for your great comments on my last render Cacti way! Well, like David write, it has been very hard to compose all of this last picture, I work harder and harder to have both material and lightning working on.
I can see many of you having great improvement using our favorite software and I'm happy with this!
David, your trick with material/terrain and water is really amazing.. It make me want to render a coastal picture in a next futur!
Cheers everyone! Keep it on all those good works!
@David Brinnen: Wonderful renders. # 1 is very, very good, #2 works for me as well. #3 appears to have a ridge in the water, elevating the water in the middle? Your method sounds difficult, but sure is worthwhile.
@GussNemo: Great new render! Specifically if seen in large view. And I'm glad the monumental church might be saved, because I happen to be in the Board of a Foundation whose main aim is to keep a monumental church (foundation around 1540, major part a lot later due to a fire in 17somewhere) in good shape.
Here is my simple attempt to show the water around an island. Not as well made and professional as the examples of David, but still using terrains for water. Still struggling with the materials of the water. So, this is a WIP. Though, I do like the island, for which I made the heightmap in Art Rage.
OK as promised a detailed account of creating this shoreline effect.
Bryce 7.1 Pro advanced - create a shoreline effect for a terrain - by David Brinnen
Hi David
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I am eager to watch it. I hope I will find the time this evening.
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I am eager to watch it. I hope I will find the time this evening.
You are welcome.
Here's something else...
Bryce 7.1 Pro - setting up a sky with ambient HDRI - by David Brinnen
And another...
Bryce 7.1 Pro - setting up a scene with hard edged specular effect - by David Brinnen
Once again what you bring to the Bryce community is astounding David... Thank you and I can't wait to play with this technique sometime soon :)
Once again what you bring to the Bryce community is astounding David... Thank you and I can't wait to play with this technique sometime soon :)
Thanks Dave, yeah, I like making up new stuff. It's fun.
Here's another specular lighting example.
I've settled on this as the final render of this scene. I have done umpteen others and this is the only one with decent shadows and light intensity that isn't making me think I should do it again :-)
Hansmar – the island is looking good, maybe this tutorial will help. http://www.bryce-tutorials.info/bryce-tutorials/foam-around-an-island.html
David- wow these renders look great. Thanks for the videos.
Fishtales- the final render is stunning.
My "World in the tunnel" attempt. I made the scene in Bryce.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0aj3Rnzq3Q
Btw David, there is something wrong towards the end of the video. After you changed to the Gwl, the images don’t change although the audio is ok.
@Jamie - the daytime scene with the clouds looks good.
@hansmar - good looking experiment. You're not yet there, but you're on your way. Water is easy in Bryce if you go for natural water. Unfortunately, this doesn't give you always the desired result.
@Sandy - now this final scene looks really good. Reminds me of Caamora, the Giantish ordeal of grief by fire.
@mermaid010 - you are seriously using the lenses.
Well after a day down in Cornwall taking some photos and swimming in the ocean... I came home and started on a coastal scene to try out David's Shoreline method... The scene is now set, hopefully I'll get some time soon to add the shoreline foamy bits.
@mermaid: Thank you. The clouds are just reshaped spheres with cloud material, or cloud like material. I stretch one through several axis, rotate it, copy it several times, group a few in differing positions, and cross my fingers they'll look nice after the scene renders. I've thought of going back and watching David's volumetric clouds videos but haven't, yet.
@hansmar: Sooooo, I shouldn't look for a formal letter in the post any time soon? The island image is mighty nice. If the submerged portion were more irregular it would pass for the shallow area just off the island. Still, nice work.
@David: When time permits I will hit those videos, and use the information. And those new images are terrific, even the one before the water is added.
@Fishtales: I like your latest scene much better. Reducing the haze and adding the shadows really makes it nice.
@Horo: Thank you very much. I wasn't sure, and am still not, whether or not those clouds in a triangle frame would look right. But I've a church to shore up so maybe the clouds will get an position adjustment.