Nature's Wonders Sneak Peek Thread

[Jan]

Like what you have done - don't know what it is called, but the little plant with white flowers growing on the trunk of the tree is nice. How big will this environment be?

Ah looking above at a image post, that flower is that the Ghost Orchid.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

I completed the modeling yesterday, adding in my Buttonbush shrub, plus rocks and fallen branches. I'll started texturing those today through the rest of the week. I have a busy non-3D schedule ahead with teaching a bird class tomorrow, some meetings and a long list of chores.

I included the non-textured new m0dels and the Black Panther and my egret to show scale in the examples below.I only filled in the center of the base models. I will include a fully populated environment as well as standalone plant models like my other sets.

I'll have to convince Laurie to create the Florida Panther texture since "Big Cypress" is the main place it's found.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Fabulous!

 

[Lyne]

er, Ken she is, we are, going to have a cougar... FL panther is the same, isn't it?

 

[carmen indorato]

Very nice.
I can see needing as well, some modulation on the water and more swamp organic scum to make it look alive ....swamp water can be ugly. Ripples around the tree in the water would also be nice. I got a bunch of ripple props and thought they were the next best thing to Poser Ocean but are a pain in the....well...a pain to set up every time and though come in a variety of types and can be reduced in size come in only one thickness.
But as I said this is very nice Ken. Can't get enough habitat sets.

 

[Alisa]

Looking great, Ken!

 

[Miss B]

Oh, this is progressing very nicely Ken.

 

[Szark]

still here watching and drooling

 

[Miss B]

~Hands Szark a napkin for the drool~

 

[Szark]

thanks but I was a boy scout and I am prepared, I have a bib on.

 

[Miss B]

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Very nice.
I can see needing as well, some modulation on the water and more swamp organic scum to make it look alive ....swamp water can be ugly. Ripples around the tree in the water would also be nice. I got a bunch of ripple props and thought they were the next best thing to Poser Ocean but are a pain in the....well...a pain to set up every time and though come in a variety of types and can be reduced in size come in only one thickness.
But as I said this is very nice Ken. Can't get enough habitat sets.

I have several different materials for the water-- the one I've been showing is the "calm" version-- I have two others with more pronounced ripples and darker coloration (although the ripples won't take into account tree trunks). I currently have a duckweed layer for the water, I will be adding a periphyton layer too (and maybe grasses-- although the amount of extras on this set is far over what I originally planned for).

What's included so far...

• Base set ( tree screen, ground and water with morphs)
• Skydome
• Ground litter (fallen branches and rocks)
• Plants:
  • Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) with Trunk Shaping morphs
    
    • Optional Pines Needles
    • Optional Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides)
  • Swamp Fern (Blechnum serrulatum) 2 versions
  • Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) Deciduous and non-Deciduous materials
    
  • Ghost Orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii) 2 versions
  • Spikerush (Eleocharis obtusa) with shaping morphs
  • Duck Weed (Lemna minor)
  • Cardinal Airplant (Tillandsia fasciculata)
  • Maybe periphyton and Sawgrass (Cladium mariscoides)

I originally was going to do a complete load-all scene but it's looking like the memory usage is going to be sky-high for that so I might do a sectional load-all instead

 

[Miss B]

I think a sectional load-all will work nicely, as not everyone's going to want to do a render of the whole scene for just that reason. Even if it loads fine, rendering the whole scene at once might slow everything down to a crawl.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

getting closer

 

[Miss B]

I'll say. Look at all that moss hanging from the tree branches.

 

[carmen indorato]

getting closer

View attachment 18599

Hey Ken
I like this set. How detailed is the ground texture in closeup say as close as a character's feet or paws treading on it?
What is removable from this scene again? Seems a good idea that loading the whole scene and adjusting the view to cover only the space needed for a render and deleting items not needed to do so is a good option.
I can see where the whole scene would be tough on computers. I wonder how much more power is needed to set up and render a complete scene of this say compared to say the DAZ Forest. I use that all the time and it surprises me it doesn't tax my system more. This set doesn't seem as densely populated with mesh objects so just curious.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Hey Ken
I like this set. How detailed is the ground texture in closeup say as close as a character's feet or paws treading on it?
What is removable from this scene again? Seems a good idea that loading the whole scene and adjusting the view to cover only the space needed for a render and deleting items not needed to do so is a good option.
I can see where the whole scene would be tough on computers. I wonder how much more power is needed to set up and render a complete scene of this say compared to say the DAZ Forest. I use that all the time and it surprises me it doesn't tax my system more. This set doesn't seem as densely populated with mesh objects so just curious.

The example I rendered above (which has trees with needles and moss covering the entire base --about 60% not shown) was over 1,000,000 polys. You add 4K maps to that and it's easy to see how even a high-end system like mine slows down a bit

The image above also included my first attempt at a painted ground texture (the previous renders had a temporary displacement grass shader). Unfortunately, the painted texture up close really didn't look that good as I wanted it to look, so this morning I was playing with a tiled ground texture (similar to what I've used in my Saguaro and sagebrush sets). I used a combination of grasses, pine needles and periphyton in a seamless tile. I think this is probably the right direction for the ground.

 

[carmen indorato]

Hmmm???
You can see the tiling repetitions in the last image. In some places on the ground it looks ok but in others not so.
I guess there will have to be a write off using large sets like this. I tried using one of the sets at DAZ, i think one of the tropical forest/beach set and my computer crashed. i then went to Poser 2014 running 64 bit on an i7 but have not tried it yet....almost afraid to know it too is not strong enough. It will just piss me off knowing this long after the purchase date and can't return it, that it will not work. I hate this stuff. It is supposed t be fun and when it doesn't work it stops being fun real fast.
Thanks for the info Ken!

 

[Ken Gilliland]

The above is simply an test-- I haven't finished the 'final' seamless tile and it will blend much better.... but yes, with tiles there is always going to be some repetition. The best solution is to use some scenic art-- placing objects (trees, plants, rocks) to break up the patterning.

I've had the same issues with large sets (crashing and barely being able to move an item). The other big issue is that for a background they look great, but fall apart with close-ups. My current project is trying the bridge the gap between the last sets I'm done (Sagebrush and Saguaro) which lean toward up-close usage and a much larger scene. The best solution I think is going to be individual placement with some "grouped" plant options.

 

[RAMWolff]

DAYUM DUDE, that looks AWESOME! Seriously!