UltraScenery - new territory [Commercial]

barbult

BlueFox said:

The swamp ecology looks reall nice. I have never seen this kind of swamp in real life. It looks really interesting and different. I really like the cypress and tupelo trees and the tree knees. They add so much interest and variety. 

@Artini I liked your renders. All versions of them. 

barbult said:

The swamp really brings a lot of new variety to UltraScenery - new trees, hanging moss, cypress knees, duckweed, etc.!

Those cypress knees are an natural swamp element. I attached a photo I took last year. One of the nice things about UltraScenery is that you can turn off any layer you don't want, or use a layer mask to restrict the density or placement of the instances in the layer. So if you don't want cypress knees, you can just turn them off (as I see you have done in later renders). They are all looking nice - with and without knees.

Edit: First the photo didn't show up at all, now it is attached twice. This forum software is frustrating.

@barbult Thank you for posting that photo! It's really nice to be able to see a real life version of the new ecology. I really like the cypress knees. They are such an interesting feature.

I live in Florida, although in a more urban, not swampy area. I'm happy to share the photos. This one was taken in Leu Gardens near Orlando, in the center of the state. I love the Swamp UltraScenery ecology.

Doc Acme

barbult said:

Doc Acme said:

Saw some of the first postings & picked the product up this morning, but had some oddities after install.

First, the entire product ended up in Lost & Found (installed via the DIM). Second, both USC and Ultra Scatter Pro were no longer in the Scripts Tab.  When I added them via the make custom action, it did but said they were already in the list.

All resolved except the question of "Why"?

Only suggestion for the product at first blush is for the Duckweed.  Be nice to have a degrees of coverage option.

Degree of coverage is easily controlled with a layer mask on the duckweed layer in the Build tab. Alternatively, locate the Duckweed layer in the Scene pane after build and turn off the visibilitye to one of more of the Duckweed props in that layer, so the instances for the invisible props will not be rendered. 

Figured a mask would do that certainly, but I'll fiddle with the props for now.

Thanks.

Doc Acme

barbult said:

Here's photo I took last weekend showing that duckweed can easily cover every nook and cranny, including the alligators. 

Guess that's why is called a swamp.

Is it seasonal of sorts?

barbult

Jason Galterio said:

barbult said:

Here's photo I took last weekend showing that duckweed can easily cover every nook and cranny, including the alligators. 

I imagine that makes good sunscreen...  and is a great reference for a picture I am working on.

Alligators plus a swamp may be a bit cliche, but I don't get to use the model that often. :)

I look forward seeing to what you create! Cliche doesn't bother me one bit!

barbult

Doc Acme said:

barbult said:

Here's photo I took last weekend showing that duckweed can easily cover every nook and cranny, including the alligators. 

Guess that's why is called a swamp.

Is it seasonal of sorts?

I suppose that depends on what part of the country it is in. Around here, it seems to be around all the time.

Jason Galterio

The swamp went into my basket immediately. It was also a good reason to uninstall all of US and redownload everything. To sort out the issues from last week...

Daventaki

Everyones images look awesome!! I picked it up this morning but have yet to render it. I did play a bit this morning but I was tired and kept getting tree limbs in my view so I scrapped it.

barbult

Jason Galterio said:

The swamp went into my basket immediately. It was also a good reason to uninstall all of US and redownload everything. To sort out the issues from last week...

Yikes! Fly away! Fly away!  

barbult

Bunyip02 said:

Pelican

Bird's eye view! 

barbult

BlueFox said:

This is my first UltraScenery render. It is just a simple scene, but I really like how it turned out.

Misty Forest

“The forest has fallen silent and still. Shy, tiny creatures hide among the foliage. The slender trunks drown in the blue mist. Flowers, like so many stars scattered among the grass, bask in the spots of sunlight. Only the whispered song of the bubbly creek can be heard. Its serene song full of greens and blues and yellows. Its hushed words telling of the many lands it has seen, of tall mountains and vast forests, of the people and the creatures it has met.”

LINK TO THE GALLERY IMAGE

This is just amazing! I commented in your gallery.

How do you like that fog camera? Is it real slow? 

barbult

memcneil70 said:

@BlueFox that is a lovely render. 

I immediately popped the swamp into my cart this morning and never having been in a swamp tried a render of one with AM Wild Boar and used Lake 3, Swamp 6, Water Swamp.

 

Wild hogs are also prevalent in Florida, so he fits right in. It is hard to see him in the backlit sunset, though. 

barbult

AnEye4Art said:

What is a swamp without bones?

It looks like something BIG was there once. The images are dark, though, and I'm having a hard time seeing all the detail, especially in the first one. 

AnEye4Art

Thank you for the comment, Barbult. You are correct about the pics being dark. Your help is always appreciated.

barbult

AnEye4Art said:

Thank you for the comment, Barbult. You are correct about the pics being dark. Your help is always appreciated.

You could try rotating the HDRI, using a brighter HDRI, or adjusting the tone mapping to brighten the render next time. Experiment. 

Edit: @AnEye4Art, I hope you don't mind - I was intrigued by the image so I brightened it a little with Photoshop, so I could see it better. Please tell more about how you made it. There are lots of interesting elements there that I don't recognize and would love to know more about.

 

daveso

barbult said:

Here's photo I took last weekend showing that duckweed can easily cover every nook and cranny, including the alligators. 

I have a photo of an alligator that is pretty much full ycovered other than its eyes 

Jason Galterio

Lighting is always an issue for me with a lot of the US settings. I think that is due to the tree coverage, the muted colors that are naturally used with US, and that a lot of HDRs are used to open environments.

I've had the best results with the rather plain HDRs; Skies of Economy Redux and Cloudscape Creator in particular.

The fancier HDRs (sunrises, sunsets, nights, etc.) seem to have issues with the angles of the light. A lot of times they are too low on the horizon to penetrate the thick tree cover. You can start working with the exposure levels, but that is hit or miss. I've gotten a lot of unnatural looking hot spots and blow out areas.

barbult

Jason Galterio said:

Lighting is always an issue for me with a lot of the US settings. I think that is due to the tree coverage, the muted colors that are naturally used with US, and that a lot of HDRs are used to open skies.

I've had the best results with the rather plain HDRs; Skies of Economy Redux and Cloudscape Creator in particular.

The fancier HDRs (sunrises, sunsets, nights, etc.) seem to have issues with the angles of the light. A lot of times they are too low on the horizon to penetrate the thick tree cover. You can start working with the exposure levels, but that is hit or miss. I've gotten a lot of unnatural looking hot spots and blow out areas.

I agree. My favorite HDRI to use with UltraScenery is Sunflowers from HDRI Haven. I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating, I think. It has a fairly benign horizin, bright sunny sky, beautiful clouds, and is free. I generally set the tone mapping White Point to a light yellow to neutralize the color a little. Burn Highlights .3 and Crush Blacks .3. I leave EV at the default 13. I have Burn Highlights Per Component Off. YMMV, as they say.  Give it a try if you want a daytime HDRI that works with **everything**.

barbult

daveso said:

barbult said:

Here's photo I took last weekend showing that duckweed can easily cover every nook and cranny, including the alligators. 

I have a photo of an alligator that is pretty much full ycovered other than its eyes 

Oh, I can believe that! 

AnEye4Art

Death to the swamp caiman!!

barbult

AnEye4Art said:

Death to the swamp caiman!!

Now that's much brighter and easier to see! That vehicle is covered with muck. It looks like it has been abandoned in that swamp for a long time. 

barbult

Here is my gator hunting swamp render. There are no alligators in the image. They must be hiding from the hunters.

Doc Acme

Jason Galterio said:

Lighting is always an issue for me with a lot of the US settings. I think that is due to the tree coverage, the muted colors that are naturally used with US, and that a lot of HDRs are used to open environments.

I've had the best results with the rather plain HDRs; Skies of Economy Redux and Cloudscape Creator in particular.

The fancier HDRs (sunrises, sunsets, nights, etc.) seem to have issues with the angles of the light. A lot of times they are too low on the horizon to penetrate the thick tree cover. You can start working with the exposure levels, but that is hit or miss. I've gotten a lot of unnatural looking hot spots and blow out areas.

I'm curious if many users are using Sun-Sky? 

I saved off a Preset from the first USC and it's pretty much my starting point for all exterior scenes now.  I use HDR's a great deal too, but the options for the when & where settings are really nice to fine tuning shadows..  Can't really do that with an HDR. 

 

barbult

Doc Acme said:

Jason Galterio said:

Lighting is always an issue for me with a lot of the US settings. I think that is due to the tree coverage, the muted colors that are naturally used with US, and that a lot of HDRs are used to open environments.

I've had the best results with the rather plain HDRs; Skies of Economy Redux and Cloudscape Creator in particular.

The fancier HDRs (sunrises, sunsets, nights, etc.) seem to have issues with the angles of the light. A lot of times they are too low on the horizon to penetrate the thick tree cover. You can start working with the exposure levels, but that is hit or miss. I've gotten a lot of unnatural looking hot spots and blow out areas.

I'm curious if many users are using Sun-Sky? 

I saved off a Preset from the first USC and it's pretty much my starting point for all exterior scenes now.  I use HDR's a great deal too, but the options for the when & where settings are really nice to fine tuning shadows..  Can't really do that with an HDR. 

 

I use rhe Sun-Sky setting that came with UltraScenery some times, but I like clouds in my sky, so I like HDRIs. I think I used Sun-Sky in my gator hunting image.

Doc Acme

barbult said:

 

I use rhe Sun-Sky setting that came with UltraScenery some times, but I like clouds in my sky, so I like HDRIs. I think I used Sun-Sky in my gator hunting image.

 Have the best of both.  Set up the Sun-Sky as you like then simply turn off Render Dome which will give you bg transparency when saved off as png. 

I use Affinity Photo but most apps should be able to import your favorite HDR's (EXR's, etc.), and have an option to create an equirectangular projection. You can then place that behind the Daz Png and place the sky, clouds, etc, where you want; as in L-R, Up-Dn, but also rotationally.

I bought the Above the Clouds collection some time ago & use them all the time; most of what I've posted here in fact. Haven't had the nerve to take the time to figure and out using Canvases with USC.

 

Jason Galterio

Doc Acme said:

Jason Galterio said:

Lighting is always an issue for me with a lot of the US settings. I think that is due to the tree coverage, the muted colors that are naturally used with US, and that a lot of HDRs are used to open environments.

I've had the best results with the rather plain HDRs; Skies of Economy Redux and Cloudscape Creator in particular.

The fancier HDRs (sunrises, sunsets, nights, etc.) seem to have issues with the angles of the light. A lot of times they are too low on the horizon to penetrate the thick tree cover. You can start working with the exposure levels, but that is hit or miss. I've gotten a lot of unnatural looking hot spots and blow out areas.

I'm curious if many users are using Sun-Sky? 

I saved off a Preset from the first USC and it's pretty much my starting point for all exterior scenes now.  I use HDR's a great deal too, but the options for the when & where settings are really nice to fine tuning shadows..  Can't really do that with an HDR. 

I don't think I have used Sun-Sky in years. I just found it too unpredictable and the lightiing to be flat. There were ways to fix this by using cloud layers and such, but that always ended up being a major render time sink. Once HDRIIs became possible, I never really looked back.

Artini

barbult said:

Here's photo I took last weekend showing that duckweed can easily cover every nook and cranny, including the alligators. 

You live in very exciting environment, Barbult. Thanks for sharing your photos. 

AnEye4Art

barbult said:

Here is my gator hunting swamp render. There are no alligators in the image. They must be hiding from the hunters.

I can feel the humidity in your scene. That's really good work. 

daveso

I bought the swamp yesterday. Looking forward to rendering, but honey do list is long 

barbult

Artini said:

barbult said:

Here's photo I took last weekend showing that duckweed can easily cover every nook and cranny, including the alligators. 

You live in very exciting environment, Barbult. Thanks for sharing your photos. 

Thank goodness that photo was not taken in my backyard!  

barbult

AnEye4Art said:

barbult said:

Here is my gator hunting swamp render. There are no alligators in the image. They must be hiding from the hunters.

I can feel the humidity in your scene. That's really good work. 

Thanks. Florida is beautiful in the winter and early spring. After that, the heat and humidity become miserable for 5-6 months. Air conditioning is a life saver. I just can't imagine how people survived here without it. And of course there are the annual hurricane threats! The county I live in used to be called Mosquito County, for reasons you can imagine, before it was divided up and renamed many years ago.The book "A Land Remembered" by Patrick D. Smith is an interesting historical novel about life in Florida. I'm glad I didn't live here then! I moved here in 1981.