Rune -

No one seems to have mentioned this, but it seems important to me.

It looks like you are using crand in the texture.  The only reason I
bring it up is that crand does not fade with distance like it should,
and I was wondering if that's why the buttes in the distance seem really
noisy.

But maybe it's just a compression artifact, or maybe a sampling error if
you're using media for the atmosphere...

As for composition, I like the 1st post the best.  The foreground butte
seems to be obscuring too much of your wonderful background.

- Ben

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On Sun, 17 Mar 2002 00:59:02 +0100, "Rune"
<run### [at] mobilixnetdk> wrote:

>Any suggestions for improvements (texture-wise or otherwise)?

The clouds don't look like what you'd see in a desert, more like
typical continental rain clouds. Try the famous "web of fate" (I think
this is how they call in Swahili) which can be seen before a sand
storm. Long streaks of thin dark clouds, scarlet above, fading to dark
gray and black at the horizon. The whole cloud layer is shaped like a
giant horseshoe rotated slightly about its axis of symmetry, with the
whirlwind forming at the lower end.

You can try putting some cacti... maybe if you shift the setting it a
little more towards night time, you can have the cacti glow as well --
the most certain sign of an oncoming storm. That, and a night version
of the clouds.

A single vulture perching on a rock in the mid-distance could bring a
lot more to the picture than what I described above. Easier to do,
too.  <g>

And by all means, render a version with either the spherical or
cylindrical camera... you know, for us cheaters :)


Peter Popov ICQ : 15002700
Personal e-mail : pet### [at] vipbg
TAG      e-mail : pet### [at] tagpovrayorg

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"Rick [Kitty5]" wrote:
> I liked take2's textures better, especially close up

Hmm, I like the new one better. I don't think rock would have cracks like
those in take 2, as Kevin Ellis pointed out. That's more the case in a
desert of dried mud or something, which this isn't.

Rune
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"Ben Birdsey" wrote:
> It looks like you are using crand in the texture.

I didn't use crand - never have done, never will do. Crand is evil.

> But maybe it's just a compression artifact, or maybe a
> sampling error if you're using media for the atmosphere...

Not using media. I don't think it looks very noisy, but the little noise
there is must be caused by the normal, which of course gets very small with
distance.

> As for composition, I like the 1st post the best.  The
> foreground butte seems to be obscuring too much of your
> wonderful background.

That can be fixed in the still image, but in the animation that I'll be
using this scene in, the camera has to be near the ground where the action
takes place. :)

Rune
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"Peter Popov" wrote:
> The clouds don't look like what you'd see in a desert,
> more like typical continental rain clouds.

Hmm, I'm not sure that desert is the right term in the first place. I was a
little inspired by Grand Canyon - is Grand Canyon a desert? Anyway, I
haven't been there, I'm just looking at photos from the web.

I'll see if I can find some good inspiration for some different clouds.

> You can try putting some cacti...

Maybe...

> maybe if you shift the setting it a little more
> towards night time

No, I want bright sunshine. :)

> A single vulture perching on a rock in the mid-distance
> could bring a lot more to the picture than what I described
> above. Easier to do, too.  <g>

Easy? I don't think so! Besides, you do realize it would have to be a
slightly cartoony vulture to fit together with AL the Alien? ;)

> And by all means, render a version with either the spherical
> or cylindrical camera... you know, for us cheaters :)

Actually it is indeed rendered with the spherical camera already. Oh, you
mean a full 360x180 degree image so you can map it onto the sky_sphere in
your own scenes? Cheater! ;)

Rune
--
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Rune's World:    http://rsj.mobilixnet.dk (updated Feb 16)
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"Slime" wrote:
> These textures are really impressive... so are the shapes.

Thanks! :)

> Could you explain or at least give a hint as to what
> functions and objects you're using for these?

It's a single height_field made from a function.

I start with a highly exponentally raised noise3d function:

#include "functions.inc"
#declare f_hills = function (x,y,z) {f_noise3d(x,y,z)^10*15}

I clip that function in the 0-1 range and add some smaller noise to it that
increases with altitude:

#declare f_nhills =
function (x,y,z) {
   min(
      1,
      (
         f_hills(x,y,z)
         * (1+f_noise3d(x*10,y*10,z*10)*1.0)
         * (1+f_noise3d(x*30,y*30,z*30)*0.5)
      )
   )
}

I then add together three of these f_nhills functions with different
strengths and also add a f_ridged_mf function to it all. The rest is
tweaking.

Hope that helps!

Rune
--
3D images and anims, include files, tutorials and more:
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Rune

Coming along very nicely, the textures seem fine now, although a bit green,
If they are to stay green then I suggest you add some green bushes or
something to set the colour off.

There doesn't seem to be any cloud shadows though which I would expect from
that sky and lighting. Also that ridge on the right could really do woth
some radiosity or even just a fill light.

Great work though, I'm sure Al will be quite happy there........ as long as
he has some food and water I suppose.

Any progress on the icy landscape?

Kev

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I suggest you use focal blur in your final scenes and animations; even just
a small blur in the horisont because it improves realism and beauty. And I
hope you will share your sky code before you write it over! They might not
be realistic for a desert when one thinks about it, but they are the best
procedural ones I've seen in POV that doesn't use media.

The ground ... is not sandy but rocky.. Obviously you're after a rocky
look.. I don't know how that looks in real life.. But sandy deserts are
pretty clean. No textures on the ground (except a tiny granite with specular
highlights). Just brown hills. No clouds.

Regards,
Hugo

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"Kevin Ellis" wrote:
> Coming along very nicely, the textures seem fine now,
> although a bit green, If they are to stay green then
> I suggest you add some green bushes or something to
> set the colour off.

Actually the whole image is a little washed out, so I've added some more
contrast, as seen in the small attached image. Maybe it looks less green
now?

> There doesn't seem to be any cloud shadows though
> which I would expect from that sky and lighting.

I'm not sure of this myself. The clouds do cast shadows, as I have to double
up the light source intensity when I activate the clouds, but yet I can't
see any shadows from the clouds, or if it's actually one big shadow, then I
can't see any hole in that shadow. Maybe the clouds are too big and too far
away, so that the shadows are huge.

> Also that ridge on the right could really do
> woth some radiosity or even just a fill light.

Radiosity is slow - probably too slow for an animation I think - but I'll
investigate the possibilities.

> Great work though, I'm sure Al will be quite happy
> there........ as long as he has some food and water
> I suppose.

Or a portal to get away... :)

> Any progress on the icy landscape?

Haven't started yet.

Rune
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3D images and anims, include files, tutorials and more:
Rune's World:  http://rsj.mobilixnet.dk (updated Feb 16)
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Attachments:
Download 'desert3b.jpg' (25 KB)

Preview of image 'desert3b.jpg'

"Hugo" wrote:
> I suggest you use focal blur in your final
> scenes and animations; even just a small blur
> in the horisont because it improves realism
> and beauty.

Focal blur is too slow. :(

> And I hope you will share your sky code before
> you write it over! They might not be realistic
> for a desert when one thinks about it, but they
> are the best procedural ones I've seen in POV
> that doesn't use media.

Really? I've seen very impressive clouds made of many stacked planes, but
the ones in this image were made of just 4 planes... Anyway, I'll put them
on my website sometime soon.

> The ground ... is not sandy but rocky.. Obviously
> you're after a rocky look..

Yes. Landscapes with "hills" like these ones usually are rocky, aren't they?
I've been looking at images from the web of Grand Canyon for inspiration.
Still not sure if it's actually a desert.

Rune
--
3D images and anims, include files, tutorials and more:
Rune's World:  http://rsj.mobilixnet.dk (updated Feb 16)
POV-Ray Users: http://rsj.mobilixnet.dk/povrayusers/
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