Working on an entry for tc-rtc, I am not entirely pleased at the moment
(although not sure how to improve the image).

I think I am just not totally happy with most things..

The breaking wave (media) is not really how I would like it but am not sure how
to improve it.

The columns would ideally be more random in shape (not a problem) but if I make
them more random in shape I then cannot get them to stack together close enough
to make them realistic. The compromise is these rather too uniform columns.

For some reason my texture applied to the sea to provide the breaking/foam near
the rocks does not blend/fade very well in the z direction, it seems to just
stop (maybe at the intersections of each height field). I expect I am doing
something wrong here but have not tracked down the issue yet.

The sky is not how I want it yet but again am struggling, may have to switch to
media clouds I guess instead of stacked planes..

Sean

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Attachments:
Download 'giants_causeway.jpg' (555 KB)

Preview of image 'giants_causeway.jpg'

On 5-6-2013 12:50, s.day wrote:
> Working on an entry for tc-rtc, I am not entirely pleased at the moment
> (although not sure how to improve the image).
>
> I think I am just not totally happy with most things..

It is a good start, though.

>
> The breaking wave (media) is not really how I would like it but am not sure how
> to improve it.

The most obvious problem I guess, is that it looks like a freak event. 
Not that the sea seems calm (good waves by the way) but that the wave 
height seems not high/strong enough for that kind of braking. The media 
looks good, maybe not too realistic for this kind of thing but close. 
You may need to experiment with different density patterns perhaps. How 
about marble or agate?

>
> The columns would ideally be more random in shape (not a problem) but if I make
> them more random in shape I then cannot get them to stack together close enough
> to make them realistic. The compromise is these rather too uniform columns.

In terms of size, the Giant's Causeway in Ireland shows rather uniform 
columns. It is indeed the shape that varies more although not too 
randomly. If you could squeeze in a few irregular hexagons or even 
parallelepipeds, that would probably be enough.

Also, randomize more the /sides/ of the /causeway/  :-)

>
> For some reason my texture applied to the sea to provide the breaking/foam near
> the rocks does not blend/fade very well in the z direction, it seems to just
> stop (maybe at the intersections of each height field). I expect I am doing
> something wrong here but have not tracked down the issue yet.

Not too obvious, but now you mentioned it...

>
> The sky is not how I want it yet but again am struggling, may have to switch to
> media clouds I guess instead of stacked planes..

I like this though.

Thomas

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Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
>
> The most obvious problem I guess, is that it looks like a freak event.
> Not that the sea seems calm (good waves by the way) but that the wave
> height seems not high/strong enough for that kind of braking. The media
> looks good, maybe not too realistic for this kind of thing but close.
> You may need to experiment with different density patterns perhaps. How
> about marble or agate?
>

Thanks Thomas, I did not realise you could layer density maps in this way, this
is helping with the breaking wave, just need to sort out all the other issues
now.

Sean

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"s.day" <s.d### [at] uelacuk> wrote:
> Working on an entry for tc-rtc, I am not entirely pleased at the moment
> (although not sure how to improve the image).
>
> I think I am just not totally happy with most things..
>
> The breaking wave (media) is not really how I would like it but am not sure how
> to improve it.
>
> The columns would ideally be more random in shape (not a problem) but if I make
> them more random in shape I then cannot get them to stack together close enough
> to make them realistic. The compromise is these rather too uniform columns.
>
> For some reason my texture applied to the sea to provide the breaking/foam near
> the rocks does not blend/fade very well in the z direction, it seems to just
> stop (maybe at the intersections of each height field). I expect I am doing
> something wrong here but have not tracked down the issue yet.
>
> The sky is not how I want it yet but again am struggling, may have to switch to
> media clouds I guess instead of stacked planes..
>
> Sean

Since you want to basaltic columns, if you want to randomize them a bit more,
you probably still want a general six-sidded shape.

One way you can do this is:
1. Generate a hexagonal array of points at the average offset/size you want
2. Apply a random small x and y offset to each
3. creat prisms based on a voronoi tesselation of the points
- for each point, find the distance and direction to each of its 6 neighbours
- for each of these pairs, create a plane at the exact midpoint, and
perpendicular to the direction vector
- you will have 6 vertical planes for each point, create a CSG intersection of
the 6 planes (plus a top height plane).
- this should result in having a six sided array with no gaps, bu the hexagons
won't be perfect hexagons

The next difficult step is determining hor to make rounded or chamfered edges to
these shapes if you want.

The attached image shows the general result, though I didn't do the full steps
above, I just creeated an array of spheres based on steps 1 and 2 above with no
CSG, which gives the same visual effect viewed from above.

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Attachments:
Download 'blocks.png' (50 KB)

Preview of image 'blocks.png'

On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:50:09 +0200, s.day <s.d### [at] uelacuk> wrote:


Your textures and puddles look so good, one doesn't notice them - which  
means it looks very realsitic imho :)

-- 
-Nekar Xenos-

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"Trevor G Quayle" <Tin### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>
> Since you want to basaltic columns, if you want to randomize them a bit more,
> you probably still want a general six-sidded shape.

Well from looking at images some are less but I think that would just over
complicate things so six sides are fine ;-)

>
> One way you can do this is:
> 1. Generate a hexagonal array of points at the average offset/size you want
> 2. Apply a random small x and y offset to each
> 3. creat prisms based on a voronoi tesselation of the points
> - for each point, find the distance and direction to each of its 6 neighbours
> - for each of these pairs, create a plane at the exact midpoint, and
> perpendicular to the direction vector
> - you will have 6 vertical planes for each point, create a CSG intersection of
> the 6 planes (plus a top height plane).
> - this should result in having a six sided array with no gaps, bu the hexagons
> won't be perfect hexagons

Hmm, not sure if my math skills are up to this, I am sure it is not that
complicated but I never paid enough attention in this subject, if only they had
used POV back then to make it more interesting..

>
> The next difficult step is determining hor to make rounded or chamfered edges to
> these shapes if you want.

The current columns are made from intersecting 7 height fields (one for the top)
so similar to what you are referring to above with planes but with the obvious
advantages. I am rounding/beveling the edges by combining the granite/wrinkles
pigments with a gradient pattern to raise the edges of the hieght fields then
sizing them appropriately so the raised edges meet up. The top one has a granite
and sperical pattern to get the raised or sunk look for the puddles.

I will have to have a go at this but fear it may take me the 70 odd days to the
deadline to work it out ;-)

Thanks

Sean

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On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 21:59:23 +0200, s.day <s.d### [at] uelacuk> wrote:

> "Trevor G Quayle" <Tin### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>>
>> Since you want to basaltic columns, if you want to randomize them a bit  
>> more,
>> you probably still want a general six-sidded shape.
>
> Well from looking at images some are less but I think that would just  
> over
> complicate things so six sides are fine ;-)
>
>>
>> One way you can do this is:
>> 1. Generate a hexagonal array of points at the average offset/size you  
>> want
>> 2. Apply a random small x and y offset to each
>> 3. creat prisms based on a voronoi tesselation of the points
>> - for each point, find the distance and direction to each of its 6  
>> neighbours
>> - for each of these pairs, create a plane at the exact midpoint, and
>> perpendicular to the direction vector
>> - you will have 6 vertical planes for each point, create a CSG  
>> intersection of
>> the 6 planes (plus a top height plane).
>> - this should result in having a six sided array with no gaps, bu the  
>> hexagons
>> won't be perfect hexagons
>
> Hmm, not sure if my math skills are up to this, I am sure it is not that
> complicated but I never paid enough attention in this subject, if only  
> they had
> used POV back then to make it more interesting..
>
>>
>> The next difficult step is determining hor to make rounded or chamfered  
>> edges to
>> these shapes if you want.
>
> The current columns are made from intersecting 7 height fields (one for  
> the top)
> so similar to what you are referring to above with planes but with the  
> obvious
> advantages. I am rounding/beveling the edges by combining the  
> granite/wrinkles
> pigments with a gradient pattern to raise the edges of the hieght fields  
> then
> sizing them appropriately so the raised edges meet up. The top one has a  
> granite
> and sperical pattern to get the raised or sunk look for the puddles.
>
> I will have to have a go at this but fear it may take me the 70 odd days  
> to the
> deadline to work it out ;-)
>

Try adding a small random component to the rotation of each plane.
For instance if you have the following:

plane{z, 0 rotate y*60}

first declare a seed
#declare RandSeed=97531;

change your plane as follows
plane{z, 0 rotate y*(60+5*rand(RandSeed))



-- 
-Nekar Xenos-

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"Trevor G Quayle" <Tin### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> One way you can do this is:
> 1. Generate a hexagonal array of points at the average offset/size you want
> 2. Apply a random small x and y offset to each
> 3. creat prisms based on a voronoi tesselation of the points
> - for each point, find the distance and direction to each of its 6 neighbours
> - for each of these pairs, create a plane at the exact midpoint, and
> perpendicular to the direction vector
> - you will have 6 vertical planes for each point, create a CSG intersection of
> the 6 planes (plus a top height plane).
> - this should result in having a six sided array with no gaps, bu the hexagons
> won't be perfect hexagons
>

Don't think I am fully using the technique mentioned above but it got me far
enough to randomise the shapes as in the attached. Also took the hint from
Thomas to change the edges of causeway to make it less even.

I did not add the clouds/sun/fog etc in this image it was just to check the
shape of the causeway and columns. Still more work to do but I am much happier
with this part of the scene.

Thanks

Sean

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Attachments:
Download 'giants_new_shape.jpg' (640 KB)

Preview of image 'giants_new_shape.jpg'

On 9-6-2013 15:58, s.day wrote:
> Don't think I am fully using the technique mentioned above but it got me far
> enough to randomise the shapes as in the attached. Also took the hint from
> Thomas to change the edges of causeway to make it less even.
>

Oooh! Looking awfully good!

Thomas

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>s.day  on date 09/06/2013 15.58 wrote:

> I did not add the clouds/sun/fog etc in this image it was just to check the
> shape of the causeway and columns. Still more work to do but I am much happier
> with this part of the scene.

I really like it,
   Paolo

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