Help-image questions

NGartplay

This is my inspiration image.  It was taken by my mother on one of her vacations.  She passed on March 22nd of this year.  I have been going through all of her photographs (thousands of them...ugh).'

So I'm trying to recreate this image.  I have some issues that I'd like help with.

NGartplay

Here is what I've got so far.  I need to know why the row of debris at the shoreline is darker than the sand.  It is the same material but it looks darker.

Also, I followed David Brinnen's tutorial on a shoreline.  I saved the HDRI sky and brought it into this scene but the HDRI is not present.  ???

NGartplay

I want a better tree material.  This one is too bumpy and rough.

Also, haze and fog don't work well with the distant terrains I have.  Should I use a cloud object?

Hansmar

NGartplay: one thing I can say. The shadows are very dark. The shadow on the trees is also fully black (to my eyes) and therefore the debris-lne is probably pure shadow (and therefore very dark)?  So you could try to put more light in the scene to light the shadows and to see whether that helps. Various options exist, but an HDRI is of course an option.

Maybe if you save a sky in which you added an HDRI, you only save the sky setting and not the HDRI? I never tried. I know that Horo has skies with HDRIs added, so it must be possible. 

The tree material you can change by changing the frequency in the noise, or the frequency in the end-material and you can lower the bump settings as well. But you have to use the 'material' button in the tree editor to get into the deep texture editor. See some pictures.

I apologise for explaining things you already know and possibly not answering your real questions.

NGartplay

Hansmar, I appreciate the help.  I must apologize that I posted 3 posts.  Brian and I had a couple of new year's cocktails and I don't think I was my usual self.  Sorry about that.

When I make a scene and use a HDRI (usually the sky) I then save the sky by using the ADD option.  It shows saved with an 'H' on the sky grab thumb but when I load it in a new document there is no HDRI in the sky lab.  Must be a way to save it with the HDRI, you are right.  I'll probably have to either add lights or create another sky HDRI.

I never was well versed in using the deep texture editor but I've been playing with it a bit.  I change colors there but the noise and frequency are still foreign to me.  I already lowered the bump.  Should have seen the material before, lol.

Thanks for your suggestions

Hansmar

NGartplay: Horo is the real expert on the Deep Terrain Editor, he has some PDFs on his site on it. But I cannot remember everything I read, so I tend to just test all buttons and sliders until I find something I like. Should learn the ropes better, but am too lazy to make that investment, I guess.

NGartplay

I always mean to take the time to read those tutorials but never seem to get a round tu-it.  I will eventually.  It's going to be a long winter :)

Slepalex

NGartplay said:

Hansmar, I appreciate the help.  I must apologize that I posted 3 posts.  Brian and I had a couple of new year's cocktails and I don't think I was my usual self.  Sorry about that.

When I make a scene and use a HDRI (usually the sky) I then save the sky by using the ADD option.  It shows saved with an 'H' on the sky grab thumb but when I load it in a new document there is no HDRI in the sky lab.  Must be a way to save it with the HDRI, you are right.  I'll probably have to either add lights or create another sky HDRI.

I never was well versed in using the deep texture editor but I've been playing with it a bit.  I change colors there but the noise and frequency are still foreign to me.  I already lowered the bump.  Should have seen the material before, lol.

Thanks for your suggestions

NGartplay, needs to be created the HDRI before you save the HDRI skies to the library. But you didn't. I don't know why the letter "H" is added to the saved skies, although there is no HDRI there. In such cases, I write it in the description. 

NGartplay

Slepalex, I do remember now in a tutorial somewhere that I need to save the HDRI first. Export I think.  Ok, I will try that.

Horo

Hanmar - thank you but no, David Brinnen is the real DTE guru. Though I've written a 84 page PDF (available on my website), I just made the block diagram, the examples and the writing. The clever parts are from David.

 

Slepalex

NGartplay said:

Slepalex, I do remember now in a tutorial somewhere that I need to save the HDRI first. Export I think.  Ok, I will try that.

NGartplay, you are thinking wrong again!
I wrote in English: first you need to CREATE HDRI map in IBL from Bryce Sky, then save it in Bryce's library!
I can write in Russian, but you won't understand anything at all.
How can you save something if you haven't created it? 

NGartplay

Slepalex, I have created in the IBL each time.  I choose 'use HDRI image', then I choose 'sky dome only', then I click on 'use sky'.  Attaching a screen shot.  Sometimes I choose use as backdrop, or blend with sky and sometimes I don't.  I then save the sky by adding it in my library.

Edit:  I just checked every HDRI sky that I saved and only two of them don't have the HDRI in them.  The other four do have the HDRI image.  The one that I wanted to use in this image does not have the HDRI and neither did the second one I tried so I assumed that all of them did not.  I do not know what caused these two to not save the HDRI.