The idea is that this area just received a temporary flood, and this tree now finds its lower branches dangling in the water. So there’s no shoreline, and there are plants under the water. The twigs ripple the water as they move in the breeze.
I want a misty-morning feel to it, thus the volumetrics. At the same time, I still want to have some blue from the sky reflecting in the water. I had hoped to be able to get a little highlight glistening from the sun on the surface of the water as well, but haven’t been able to make that happen without moving the sun and creating a back-lit scene. I’m contemplating adding mist rising from the water’s surface, but I’m concerned it will obscure the reflections too much (and cycles often gets bogged down with overlapping volumetrics, in my experience).
Here’s the render out of Blender’s compositor (before post processing in Gimp):
The post work was just to add brush strokes and a canvas texture. I tried bringing the blacks down, but felt that the increased contrast interfered with the misty vibe.
In the compositor, I attempted to push the hills into the background (which I overdid; I think the hill to the left is now too light), bring up the blue from the sky in the reflection, liven up the flowers, and warm up the image a bit.
So that’s the history thus far.
I’d like to hear your thoughts on the current image, and suggestions to improve it (and my future renders). Composition, colors, textures, etc. What was successful, and what is holding it back?
Thanks!
Yes – usually the branches of the tree rise above the water.
Also – the “green fog” around and behind the tree might not be working to your favor. Often, “this is a high-contrast area.” When there’s a green-fog between your foreground and a “distant” mountain, the effect is to rob it of “distance.” Consider the dramatic possibilities.
All of these have elements I think I was aiming for when dreaming up this image. Perhaps the lowest image in the left column is closest in that it actually contains a blue sky. Most of them have the warm element that (at this point) I think I’m after.
I’m experimenting with adding additional mist on the water to emphasize sun rays coming in from the right.
@sundialsvc4, it was actually difficult to find images of trees with branches or twigs in the water. Since most trees in populated areas are pruned to remove low-hanging branches, and that is where most flood photos are taken. But here are some images I found which I think will help me moving forward:
I had aimed for a low-contrast render, perhaps most exemplified in the topmost image in the right column in the first set of reference images (with the swan). But as you say, most of these are all more ‘dramatic’ with much higher contrast.
If the fog between the foreground and background hills is destroying the sense of depth, then it is counter to the goal, and I’ll rethink it. At the very least, I’ll work on the color; it shouldn’t come across as green :).
And more of a painting look in the second. Probably went overboard on the flowers, but I was having fun playing with colors. I really like the right side with the poison-green water and grey mist, and I wanted the bright pink flowers to contrast with that.
The first one looks very nice! You’re forgeting to denoise images. Disable Denoising in Render Properties, and enable Denoising Data in Render passes, use Denoise node in compositing tab, it will generate 03 inputs. It’s faster and more accurate.
Now the canvas texture doesn’t look nice. Would be better if you finish this art then render a scene with a painting frame and use a canvas texture with some bump.
Thanks!
They are both denoised, using the compositor (I agree, it is far more flexible and useful than denoising in the Render Properties). I suspect you’re seeing, and don’t like, the film grain I added. Here’s the image from Blender’s compositor, before going to Gimp:
As for the second, and its canvas texture… I have been meaning to try doing as you suggest: add the render to a new scene on a 3D canvas, with lighting. But I haven’t gotten around to actually doing it :). Do you have examples of images double-rendered like this? I’m even more interested in giving it a try now that you’ve suggested it.
I tried quite a few different approaches before settling on this one. First, I enlarged the left background hill, and brought it in forward. I liked that the shadow of the right hill fell over the slopes to the left, but in the end, I didn’t feel like I had the composition I was looking for.
By increasing the focal length and bringing the camera down, I increased the relative size of the hill to provide contrast for the mist. I removed the simple gradient mist that was over the whole scene, and increased the size of the procedural mist so that it extended up farther. I liked the variation it provides over the simple gradient.
I also included more of the right side of the hill, showing the lighting better. I also think that having that illuminated hillside brings the hill into the scene better, rather than having it look like a backdrop entirely in the shadows. As it is now more illuminated and part of the scene, I had to texture it, and added more vegetation.
For the lighting, I opted to bring up the contrast to make it more ‘dramatic’. As was done in some of the reference images I chose, the highlights are a bit blown out, and the darks are actually dark. I had to work in the compositor to keep the pink flowers pink, as they wanted to go red with the higher contrast.
The new camera perspective necessitated de-emphasizing the water and reflection, as well as the light rays over it.
I also changed the clouds to create more of a dreamy atmosphere.
I brought in a new canvas texture (thanks for the links!), and reworked the shader. I didn’t re-render the original image, so the glare from the flowers is still present.
I really wish we could bring in a multilayer exr into the shader editor. I think there is a lot of potential, and experimenting would be much easier if we had access to each render layer when ‘compositing’ one render into another. I’ll experiment with exporting select layers out, and using them in the shader editor on future projects.
The carpet gave me headaches. I’m calling it done even though it needs work :).
