Hey everyone,
I’ve been working on an underground lava cave, it’s still at early development, but let me know what you think!
http://uploader.polorix.net//files/77/Renderings/Mine3.jpg
The purple thing is an energy beam transmitting thermoelectric power to the surface.
I need some help with getting a glow effect on the lava.
The platform is still pretty crude.
Thanks
Nice. Though if if it’s gonna be a render, I’d use the cloud texture as a displacement map, and if not that, then at LEAST a bump map. Also, re: the glowing, it’s done with nodes.
Material hint for the platform, it should be glowy and lumpy down by the lava.
This whole thing shows promise though. Neat. :]
…more things I’d take care of:
The stone could use more randomization and overall more detail.
It would also help the scene if the rails were connected to the stone in some way, e.g. with chains.
…taking a closer look…
You might want to reconsider the whole setup of the image with regards to light, color and contrast. Currently I can’t really see where the picture is supposed to lead my eyes. Roughly tiling it with a golden cut might be a good Idea, with the bright lava on the smaller side and just some subtle lighting on the other.
All in all this is an interesting pic and I’m looking forward to see it progressing.
Lava crust! Take a look at some of these images:
http://images.google.com/images?q=lava%20lake&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N&tab=wi
Update: (1.37 MB PNG)
http://uploader.polorix.net//files/77/Renderings/Mine6.png
Changed:
Camera view.
Lava, added crust texture.
Made nor mapping on rocks stand out.
Altered lighting of beam and lava.
Started “sewing” platform into lava.
Well, thanks for the great responses! I definitely have tons to work on.
One of my major roadblocks right now is nodes.
I’m running a P4 3.2 GHz HT with ATI Mobility Radeon 9600/9700, which apparently has either no OpenGL or a horrible outdated version. It seems to have trouble rendering anything 2D. I think I am running the latest drivers, but it is completely sluggish or nonfunctional. Is there a way to get better performance short of getting a new computer?
Beyond the hardware problems though, I’m very naive to material nodes. Can anyone point me to a beginner-intermediate tutorial for nodes?
The next thing I will work on is how the tracks are held in the air. Perhaps a combination of chains/hangings and platforms.
Thanks a lot everyone! 
Hey hey, here’s something. You have your crust, right? Make you could mask the crust with a cloud texture so it’d be part crust and part glowing magma.
Also, using a displacement map WILL help on the rock. It’ll make it more natural, cause cave rock isn’t that smooth unless it’s been glassed by lava, and then it’s more black like basalt. By the way, never have the ‘normal’ slider up on a channel with displacement on. Seperate channels is fine, but on the same one… tragic.
BlackBoe: I’m hoping to put a charred texture where the crust is and try to randomize the seams where the lava is. (with nodes I guess)
Maybe you’re right about displacement…
I didn’t use is here because I was trying to keep the # of vertices below a million. I’m not aware of a way to use displacement without increasing the vertex count exponentially…
Maybe I can try using it just for close up rock.
By channels I assume you mean individual textures? E.g. don’t use nor and displacement with the same texture?
Naw, you don’t have to do super high-poly uber-res displacement. Just a bit, to make it more random and ragged. And yeah, texture channels.
Looks like you have a lot of potential there.
deffinetly agree that there should be chains or something holding the rails. At the moment it just doent look right.
apart from that its pretty awesome.
Another update :). Took a while because it was busy around here the last month. Hope you all had a great Christmas!
Jpeg (299K):
http://uploader.polorix.net//files/77/Renderings/Mine14.jpg
PNG (1.34M):
http://uploader.polorix.net//files/77/Renderings/Mine14.png
Render time: 7 minutes
Change list:
Rerouted track to make it look better.
Added chains and supports to hold the track up.
Changed the lava texture back and tweaked it a bit.
Modeled support platform above and below.
Changed energy beam a bit.
Added reference for the “lab” on the right.
Tweaked lighting and placement of halos to get the glow effect.
Long time no see…
Well at this point, the render does not use nodes at all… If anyone knows how to get a better glowing effect than using halos, or improve something else with them, please let me know.
The interesting swirl effect on the lava appeared when I applied a boolean operation inside the bottom platform. Now the lava has a better pattern and I think I’ll play with it some more to see how far it goes.
I brightened the lava up because the darker I went, the farther I got from where I want the scene to go. It is supposed to be predominantly red with other lighting in specific confined areas.
The lab is my next project.
Thank you for your feedback,
Craigy