> It's impressive, looks so... natural!

   Thanks, but these greens still need much work to look really natural!

-- 
Jaime Vives Piqueres

http://www.ignorancia.org

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On Sat, 15 May 2010 09:48:41 +0200, Jaime Vives Piqueres  
<jai### [at] ignoranciaorg> wrote:

> Hi All:
>
>     Google image search is becoming my first source for unexpected
> inspiration... as usual, I was searching for something else, when found a
> nice aerial pic of the Amazon river.
>
>     Here are some details about this "quick hack":
>
>     + The base terrain is a heighfield, hand-painted over a googlemaps
> screen-shot.
>
>     + The river is just a plane, with a bump map also hand-painted in The
> Gimp, and a simple orange scattering media for the "muddy water" effect.
>
>     + There are 50,000 POVTrees, using only 4 different meshes. The tree
> sizes and distribution are half-guided by a pigment function.
>
>     + The huts were made with Wings3D in about a minute (well, maybe  
> two...)
> and the smoke column was borrowed from my office scene (the cigarette  
> smoke).
>
>     + Of course, skylight.inc was used for the lighting.
>
>     + render time was 40 min for the first pass, and just 20 for the  
> final one.
>
>     Regards,
>
>
Awesome!

How do you place trees with a pigment function? I would like to do the  
same with the grass in my alley scene, so the grass won't grow on the  
asphalt...

-Nekar Xenos-

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> Awesome!

   Thanks!

> How do you place trees with a pigment function? I would like to do the
> same with the grass in my alley scene, so the grass won't grow on the
> asphalt...

   Indeed you could use this technique for that... it's very easy, specially
if you are already using a heighfield for the ground. Make a copy of the
grayscale map, and paint black the zones where you don't want grass, and
white for the rest. Then declare a pigment function of it:

#declare f_grass_distribution=
   function{
    pigment{
     image_map{png "your_image.png"}
     rotate 90*x
     translate <-.5,0,-.5>
     scale as_your_heightfield
    }
   }

   Now, build the classic while loop where you shot the heighfield with
trace(), but for each placement found, test first if the grass distribution
allows a grass patch there:

   ...
   #if (f_grass_distribution(Inter.x,0,Inter.z).gray>0)
    object{grass_patch
      ...
      translate Inter
    }
   #end
   ...

   Hope this helps...


-- 
Jaime Vives Piqueres

http://www.ignorancia.org

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On Tue, 18 May 2010 14:59:20 +0200, Jaime Vives Piqueres  

<jai### [at] ignoranciaorg> wrote:


>> Awesome!
>
>    Thanks!
>
>> How do you place trees with a pigment function? I would like to do th
e
>> same with the grass in my alley scene, so the grass won't grow on the

>> asphalt...
>
>    Indeed you could use this technique for that... it's very easy,  

> specially
> if you are already using a heighfield for the ground. Make a copy of t
he
> grayscale map, and paint black the zones where you don't want grass, a
nd
> white for the rest. Then declare a pigment function of it:
>
> #declare f_grass_distribution=
>    function{
>     pigment{
>      image_map{png "your_image.png"}
>      rotate 90*x
>      translate <-.5,0,-.5>
>      scale as_your_heightfield
>     }
>    }
>
>    Now, build the classic while loop where you shot the heighfield wit
h
> trace(), but for each placement found, test first if the grass  

> distribution
> allows a grass patch there:
>
>    ...
>    #if (f_grass_distribution(Inter.x,0,Inter.z).gray>0)
>     object{grass_patch
>       ...
>       translate Inter
>     }
>    #end
>    ...
>
>    Hope this helps...
>
>
Thanks! I'll give it a try.

-Nekar Xenos-

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Jaime Vives Piqueres wrote:
>   Thanks, also for the reference pic, as it served to polish some details,
> including some of the ones you mention later.

Nice. I liked the other trees better. These look like those tufts of foam or 
moss you get for making model railroad tracks. The previous version had 
fronds and branches visible, and even some trunks.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    Ada - the programming language trying to avoid
    you literally shooting yourself in the foot.

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Darren New escreveu:
> Jaime Vives Piqueres wrote:
>>   Thanks, also for the reference pic, as it served to polish some 
>> details,
>> including some of the ones you mention later.
> 
> Nice. I liked the other trees better. These look like those tufts of 
> foam or moss you get for making model railroad tracks. The previous 
> version had fronds and branches visible, and even some trunks.

I agree, but perhaps it's because they were a bit further away?  Also, 
in the original there seems there were a few palm trees scattered.

I did enjoy the variation in color and size, though.  And in the light 
reflection in the river. :)

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9

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nemesis wrote:
> I agree, but perhaps it's because they were a bit further away?  Also, 
> in the original there seems there were a few palm trees scattered.

Indeed. The bits of details give the reality. :-)

> I did enjoy the variation in color and size, though.  And in the light 
> reflection in the river. :)

Oh, yes. The only complaint was the consistency of folliage.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    Ada - the programming language trying to avoid
    you literally shooting yourself in the foot.

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
 > nemesis wrote:
 > > I agree, but perhaps it's because they were a bit further away?  Also,
 > > in the original there seems there were a few palm trees scattered.
 >
 > Indeed. The bits of details give the reality. :-)

Sometimes it doesn't even need so much detail.  Here's something I 
hacked away today in Blender inspired by Jaime.

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?p=1628561#post1628561

no leafs, just some blob-like object with some "cloud bump mapping" on...

hope Sam gets inspired too... :)

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9

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Jaime Vives Piqueres <jai### [at] ignoranciaorg> wrote:
> Hi All:
>
>     Google image search is becoming my first source for unexpected
> inspiration... as usual, I was searching for something else, when found a
> nice aerial pic of the Amazon river.
>
>     Here are some details about this "quick hack":

Sorry to be so late in replying to your wonderful images; when I was looking
through the 'image digest' days ago, I thought someone had simply posted a
reference photograph of the Amazon! I didn't think of looking more closely 'til
now... :-(  How embarrassing...

Beautiful!  And thanks for posting all the nice how-to details.

Ken

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Sorry, no. I think the first image was much better. The color variation of 
the canopy looks artificial here (only two colors? or so it appears) and the 
mist/cloud is a bit too stiff/heavy.

Thomas

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