http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40225044/ <-------- short ‘volumetric’ cloud movie
Done using the zTransp, traShadow, method. This a very early test, so don’t be expecting TG2 or Vue quality :p. If anyone has any inside tips or tricks, I’d be glad to swap secrets with you :D. Just kidding, there’s not really any secret to it.
I’ll write a tut later on, if there’s any interest
Wow… This is nice :). How long did single frame render (on this small movie resolution) ?
I’m waiting for tutorial… and blend file :).
P.S. You posted this on wrong place in forum. It should be move to “Blender Tests”…
@Jedrzej_s Thanks! Averaged out, it took about 15 minutes per frame, but the compuer that I rendered on is very slow. On my brother’s machine it takes right around 5 minutes per frame. And like I said, this is still pretty early in the race. I haven’t done any optimizing yet, except turn off the AA. The next step is to speed up the rendering without compromising the volumetric look. 
Edit: @Mods could this be moved to the Blender Tests section? Jedrzej_s has a good point, it should have gone there in the first place. :o
5 min for 1 frame… hmmmm… Didn’t it sound terrible ;). I will stay tuned with your clouds :). You should write rendering time in every test, please :).
Regards
These are great clouds , really .
I’m waiting for the tut .
Peace :).
It’s an old technique. The problem is that the internal blender render can pass 10 layers of shadow.
I just wish there was some news on the (SOC)skygen.
Very interesting. Waiting to see the tut…
good looking clouds im wating for the tut too.
@Jedrzej_s Hehe, I’ll get it right eventually! The point of the post was for show, not tell, though. Render times are slow, and the emphasis is on what it can look like, as opposed to how it can look like it… Thanks for the tip! :D.
@bigbad Yep, it's an old techinique, but it works. Your cool cloud renders in the skygen thread are what prompted me to search out the method for myself. You said the internal renderer can't pass 10 layers of shadow? Does that mean that after the tenth transparent plane it stops calculating shadows below that? Could you clarify that?@everyone Thanks! I didn’t think there would be a lot of interest in this! I’ll write up the tutorial as soon as I get the chance, but school dominates my time.
@bigbad Yep, it’s an old techinique, but it works. Your cool cloud renders in the skygen thread are what prompted me to search out the method for myself. You said the internal renderer can’t pass 10 layers of shadow? Does that mean that after the tenth transparent plane it stops calculating shadows below that? Could you clarify that?
Heres the words from Ton himself:
Date: 2005-09-15 21:49
Sender: ton
Logged In: YES
user_id=103
The current maximum amount of faces transparent shadow accepts is hardcoded limited to 10.
I should make it a button yes, but I also am trying to get the devs code a real good volumetric render for us. Would make it also much and much faster.
Will put on my todo to check where to add button for this setting.
Here the link to the bugtracker. The example file is in there also.
The only ten faces for shadow is for raytracing. I don’t think raytracing was used for this image.
You can get the same look by turning off the Raytracing and Shadow buttons. It will go faster, too.
That quote is about a year old or something. Sure limit’s still 10?
Great clouds really! Tut would be nice (or just some hints - we can figure out
the tedious details ourselves I guess, we just wanna hear the spectacular stuff)
//Mathias
Yes, it’s still 10.
Here’s the example file that I had on my examples>>> Clouds
I hope that link works. It’s from the bugtracker. It’s 80 kb big. I hope that they don’t mind.
I used raytracing. The only time you can get away without it is when your background is black, because it fools the eye into believing the clouds are shaded. I’ll upload an example as soon as it gets done rendering… at 33 seconds per frame, that won’t be long! You are right though, it is much faster.
@The M.h.p.e. Thanks man! The tutorial’s coming, so hang on. Tomorrow is out, 'cause I’m going to a fair and I’m cramming for Monday+Tuesday, exams. It might be as late as middle of the week. In reference to the transparent shadow limit, as far as I can tell, it’s not a problem. If someone could point out the difference between what it looks like now and what it should look like, that would be very helpful.
@bigbad Nice cloud setup, btw! It’s a bit different than mine, my horizons are broadened!
w0o0o0o0t
/me wants the tutorial on that =)
How would a render on black then composited over the rest of the scene be for render times, effectively making a luma key from the cloud pass. Only problem would be with object interaction.
I’m still waiting for tutorial… and blend file…
