@tommy1441 I can see your point, but there are some aspects you have to consider. The weather, its extreme overcast, no sun. So there should not be any direct shadow, only soft ambient shadow. At weather conditions like that reflection can be more visible than diffuse lighting.
As this is live action scene, i am mimicking the lighting on the shooted footage. As you can see there is no direct shadow. Only very soft ambient. Rock is almost evenly lit.
Fair enough that there is plenty of things to consider for the light setup, trust me I know what you mean. But in the still on #17 there is very little detail on the back of the boot coming through as opposed to the shot in #21 hence why I mentioned it.
Interested in seeing it when finished. Still looking good [thumbs up]
I like this addition of live-action with your CG, the results are already very encouraging! It also gives me a much better sense of scale, as I now realize the mossy rocks are much larger than I originally perceived.
@tommy1441: “there is logic in your words” :eyebrowlift2:. Also, for now, on the rock there is only shadow of small part of the leg. So will have to add some low poly geometry above the leg just to cast a shadow on the rock. But it still will be very ambient shadow.
And guys. I have a small issue with textured hair part-system. It seems that every time I reopen the scene, hairs with textured density are rendered differently, like overall noise seed is changed. While hairs with density controlled by vertex groups don’t change with every reopening of the scene. Am I missing something?
A possible workaround would be converting density textures to vertex weights, but that would need quite high poly count which will add more overheat to renderer.
OMG, that closeup image looks so real and the noise gives it the feeling of being shot with the good old Ektachrome 64 or a higher ISO Fuji reversal film due to it’s green"ish" colour shift
Yes, it’s a logo of tourism camping company the project is being done for. Is it visible enough? I’ve had to add some shine to rock in the gap (maybe a bit unnatural) for shape to be more visible.
It depends on whether the logo is known to the viewer before seeing it in the animation. I spotted it after looking for a while (I was focussed on the moss though - which an average viewer would not be). If the logo is known before hand, or is a recurring theme in the animation, then I think it is visible enough.
yes, its particle hair. well, i gues i cant give you exact answer. It just took realy lot of experiments and tests. One of important things here was, i gues, proper textures and shaders for fur…
Really, really nice work. I wish I could get fur particles to behave as well as you’re doing. On the subject of Star Trek, when you run out of episodes, there are still tons of novels. The Diane Duane ones from the original series were favorites of mine; I always wished TNG had followed her lead on handling the Romulans.
How do you made that moss effect, genius? Let me guess… you used hair particles.
I’ve been working on my scene but I never taught of adding some rocks. So that could be the reason that something is missing I found it. I need to add some rocks.
Well, one sure thing i learned from every fur production i had worked on - is that, if you want photorealism, i have to use more than one fur (hair) system on every object, unless you’re making a simple tennis ball. Like in every other aspect of cg productions, photorealism depends on details, in textures, in particles, in polygons. In fur example, you just can’t add many details to one hair system.
Here, this rock has 4 hair particle systems, with each of them having 3 separate texture maps for density, length and color. Latest had needed most iterations.
On Star Trek. I had ran out of episodes (and shows) long time ago. Had watched some of them 3 times over again. And liked absolutely all of them. i’m just not a criticising kind of guy. Never have read any Star Trek novels, but i knew sometime i had to start with some. But could not decide which one is worth starting with. So thanks for a hint.
It’s looking real nice so far, but you could elevate it to an almost zen like status by having the rock sit in shallow water with the leaves sprinkled around.
I can tell you’re trying to go for perfect photorealism here, and so far the progress has been very good.
@ace dragon. That’s quite a task you’ve set for me Idea is really great. i dont know if its achievable with this environment, cause it’s on a bit lower level than main rock, it just would be under water for most part. And dealing with background which is a shot and is not a still frame (people walking - see picture on top of page 2) will be a bit hard, if possible at all.
Still great idea, definitely worth giving a try with different BG and lighting. But in this particular case i’m thinking of adding some pouring water between rocks (small mountain brook, river).
When making nature CG scenes, it’s natural to move to photoreal, but its important to know that there is no such thing as perfect photorealism. I’ve learned it the hard way. Clients on some projects were almost running circles in the room with ruler and physics book shouting out lighting equations…
So it seem it’s pretty much near the end. Maybe i will do something with front wet rock surface (if you’ll close one eye and turn your head a bit, for a moment it will look like metall :)). Overall, its pretty much all i wanted to do in this particular still. (As for animation, cg with live action, there is still work to be done, tracking and masks mostly, and maybe some water pouring)
Idea is really great. i dont know if its achievable with this environment, cause it’s on a bit lower level than main rock, it just would be under water for most part. And dealing with background which is a shot and is not a still frame (people walking - see picture on top of page 2) will be a bit hard, if possible at all.