Cloudscape Scene Test

[Alitorious]

I managed to sorta get clouds working in blender using shaded particles.

The above is a simple composition, and only takes 2.7 minutes to render.

There are three main components:

A background cloud image from http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=24038

Particle Clouds, created from simple planes then subdivided fractal. I use proportional edit grab to adjust the shape a little bit.

A few planes with a cloud texture to alpha, to hopefully create a transition from the smooth fluffy clouds to the wispy backgrounds.

Here’s a link to the .blend, with the packed bakground image: https://webdisk.ucalgary.ca/~djetowns/public_html/misc_files/cloudscape.blend

Does anyone have suggestions for improvements? Questions?

[juanjavier]

Nice render yours.

This render is a gray_dull cloudy sky with procedural texture.

There is a .mov animation which I can show you, if you are interested.

I can send you the .blend file, if you want.

Cheers,

Juanjavier.

Attachments

[BlackBoe]

Juanjavier. don’t frickin’ hijack threads.

[Meta-Androcto]

Wow, that would have to be one of the best cloud renders i’ve seen for a while, the only crit is the foreground clouds lack a little definition. Well done!
M.A.

[BlackBoe]

Yeah, the foreground clouds are almost too purple. There shoudn’t be that much shadow in them.

[0ptikz]

Nice attempt, but I’d give up if I were you…you simply can’t create good particle clouds in blender. Take it from someone who’s been trying since 1.8.

However, you can create decent clouds in blender by using stacked spheres, transparent shadows and a bucketload of tweaking.

[AniCator]

I still don’t really know how to handle those sphere’s M@dcow. Can you PM me about them?

[Alitorious]

@juanjavier

This render is a gray_dull cloudy sky with procedural texture.

Yours isn’t quite the effect I wanted, though. I wanted an immersive feel.

@Meta-Androcto

Wow, that would have to be one of the best cloud renders i’ve seen for a while, the only crit is the foreground clouds lack a little definition. Well done!

Thanks. The definition part seems to be one of the limitations of using particle clouds. I tried to stick a couple planes with a cloud texture to make them a bit wispy, but it doesn’t look like it worked.

@BlackBoe

Yeah, the foreground clouds are almost too purple. There shoudn’t be that much shadow in them.

I see what you mean. I can try to adjust the lighting so that they match up a bit better with the background clouds.

@M@dcow

Nice attempt, but I’d give up if I were you…you simply can’t create good particle clouds in blender. Take it from someone who’s been trying since 1.8.

Yep. That’s why this was more of a test to see how far I could take it. Ultimately it’s part of a background, so the clouds aren’t the prime focus.

[0ptikz]

@AniCator

I still don’t really know how to handle those sphere’s M@dcow. Can you PM me about them?

I’ll do you one better, I made a quick .blend file for you to have a look at. Don’t expect anything amazing, I only had time to spend 15 minutes on it.

http://www.bzfusion.net/skymaps/volumetric_clouds.zip

[juanjavier]

@BlackBoe

Juanjavier. don’t frickin’ hijack threads.

BlackBoe, don’t frickin’ mis-interpret the behaviour of others

To show what can be done with procedural textures instead of an image texture is not hijacking a thread :eyebrowlift:

Is not a forum a place to exchange ideas? What is wrong if anyone express his opinions about rendering skies one way or another?

It may be the case that my idea is not exactly what the artist is looking for, as he says,

@Alitorius

Yours isn’t quite the effect I wanted, though. I wanted an immersive feel.

but I do not consider that as hijack the thread in any case. Anyway I am sorry if my idea disturbed someone. It was not my intention.

As for the subject: there are wonderful cloud and sky renders up there made with Blender.

Check this, for instance: http://download.blender.org/demo/movies/gallery/mindfields_low_osx.avi

Happy blending.

[AniCator]

smiles
That one is made by @ndy. He’s very popular. You know @ndy right?

[juanjavier]

@AniCator

smiles
That one is made by @ndy. He’s very popular. You know @ndy right?

Yes, I really know him. He was part of the core team who created Elephant’s Dream, the first film made with free 3D modelling, compositing and editing software.

I really think he is a really talented guy.

Though many months ago I e-mailed him asking for a high resolution version of “Mindfields”. He never answered:confused:

As for what Alitorius wants to do, I think that M@dcow can really get an interesting point to it. Let’s see what happens…

[free_ality]

Ha, @ndy probably gets a lot of junk email

The hoest truth is, he probably rendered it at wutever the size youve got is, and he deosnt want to render it all over again.

[goosey]

Whatever happened to last years GSOC aimed at making clouds better etc? Never got finished? Anyway, it sounds like one of the entries for this years GSOC may help with cloud creation.

Sorry to go off track, nice clouds Alitorius, but yeah - too purple. Presumably thats easy fixed though, and I think the background image is not a good match.

[Alitorious]

How’s this? There’s less purple.

I finally got around to opening your file, M@dcow. It’s a really good and simple way of making procedural cloudy skyboxes. I suppose if you animate the cloud texture then you get nice changing clouds, too.
Do you know any methods for applying that to a more amidst-the-clouds scene? I think I briefly looked into using stacked planes, but that didn’t work too well.

[AniCator]

The only problem with those layered clouds is that they look unrealistic with more layers that are very close to each other. When there is no environment light the cloud layers become more visible.