Forest Floor
- August 01, 2012
- 6,191 Downloads
- 53 Likes
- Blender 2.6x
- Render: Blender Internal
- Creator: BMF
- License: CC-0
Description:
Note: The preview image looks out of focus like a blurry painting. However the actual render is sharp, clear, and with good contrast and color.
However, I contacted the BlendSwap admin to see if the problem could be solved and they responded almost immediately. Apparently version 5 of Wordpress will not have this problem, but they were kind enough to post a high resolution version so you can see what the actual render will look like. I can't thank them enough for their response--it's a great crew.
UPDATE:
I've updated the Blend file based on several viewer comments and correcting a couple of texture mistakes on the logs. I think the image looks much better now. I also updated the preview image and the high resolution link.
For those who have already downloaded the version 4 Blend file, here are the few changes I made so that you can update your Blend file if you so desire.
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The red mushrooms in the lower right corner have been doubled in size.
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The brown mushrooms between the logs and the red mushrooms have been increased in size by 1.5 times.
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The flat fungi on the logs have been darkened in the materials panel.
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The texture mapping of the moss on the large and small logs have been changed from X:1 and Y:1 to X:5 and Y:5 for both the texture and the normal. Additionally, the Colors panel has been changed to Brightness=.9, Contrast=.9 and Saturation=.9. The moss now looks more natural. Leaving the mapping to 1 and 1 was a complete oversight on my part.
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Reduce the Brightness (Colors panel) for all of the ground moss clumps from 1 to .9.
A viewer made a valid comment about the brown mushrooms being too bright. He's probably right, but when I darken them, you get lost in the ground clutter. I exercised artistic license to make them a more
Note: This scene has a lot in it and so it takes about one minute and thirty seconds to render on my five year old desktop with a 64 bit multi-core CPU and a lot of RAM. Expect longer rendering times on less capable computers. However, I think it's worth the wait.
Given that I've only been working with Blender a few months, this was an abitious attempt for me.
Shafts of light (using gels like the techniques in Photoshop), lots of different kinds of lamps, dead trees, tree moss, three types of mushrooms, clumps of ground moss, grasses, ferns, specular lighting, and using negative light to blend the lighting from the brighter opening in the foreground to the dark forest in the back ground.
The background in the forest was too bright so I used a large area lamp with negative light just above the ground plane to subtract light from the forest floor in the background. It worked quite well and achieved the look I wanted.
The modeling was fairly easy compared to getting the lighting the way I wanted it. The scene is a bit on the dark side, but it is in deep forest where light is filtered through the trees so that there are no distinct shadows.
Anyway, I thought it turned out well and I felt like it was my best work to date.
As with all my previous models, there are no copyright images, the models are yours to use however you like, and do not feel you have to credit me. It's just a hobby.
Comments:
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BMF
Written August 01, 2012Montedre: The actual render doesn't look like a painting. The preview image is out of focus and blurry for some reason. I've tried to update it with a higher resolution render, but no joy. You'll have to render it for yourself to see an clear, in focus image.
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smelise
Written August 01, 2012It took just under 58 seconds to render but beautiful work very nice detail. Looks nothing like the picture much better and I'm looking forward to messing with it myself. ty.
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BMF
Written August 01, 2012Smelise: Thank you for verifying that the rendered image is much better than the blurry peview image.
I wish there was a way to accurately view the original render.
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mofx
Written August 01, 2012@BMF, Jonathan contacted you about the image. There's a workaround in this version of the site. You could also link to a full preview in the description. This issue will not happen in V5 of the site.
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BMF
Written August 01, 2012Matthew: Jonathan did reply to me, but he said that I need to change my aspect ratio.
I'm assuming that Johathan's repry is what you are referring to. But changng the aspect ratio changes the entre look and feel of the scene, so I'm not willing to do that.
I'm not familiar with versions of Wordpress.
On the other hand, I may not know what you are referring to.
In any event, those who download and render the image will know that the preview image in Wordpress is not accurate.
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BMF
Edited August 02, 2012Matthew: You guys are great. Thanks for taking the time and effort to post a high resolution version of the render.
I can't think of another website that has the kind of super admin response that you folks have.
Thanks for creating and maintaining a great site for Blender users.
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polygonesrus
Edited August 01, 2012holy cow, i love blend swap.if i had five of me and all the cc'ed blends i could use, i'm at a lose for words .blender community is the best .
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mramshaw
Edited August 01, 2012Nice stuff, you are now my favourite BlendSwapper, some comments:
The moss on the fallen tree looks radioactive, the texture mapping is far too big to my eye (I think 5 looks about right). You could uncheck the Nomral box for your base texture as you also have a Normal map. And, the Minnaert shader is probably a good choice here.
The Amanita (red) mushrooms are way too small, they start as little golfball-sized puffballs and then get huge. I doubled them all in size. Also, the cap texture looks way too white, I made it a little more yellow by dialling back the blue to 0.8 (mainly affects the white here).
The ferns are letting things down a bit, nothing in nature should look that perfect. I tried fixing that one in front of the tree by splatting on a new Global texture, but the ideal fix is to sculpt the geometry a fair bit.
Finally, your internal organization has improved a lot, but for the sake of a few empties you could really reduce the clutter in the outliner. For instance, you could create one empty called Ferns and then use it group all of the ferns under that one entry in the outliner.
Anyhow, I hope critique was wanted, PM me with an email address and I will be happy to send you a version with all of my changes in it.
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BMF
Written August 02, 2012Martin: Thanks for the comments. I agree with just about everything.
The moss does look a bit saturated, but I used several references for moss in indirect lighting and depending on the type of moss, it does look highly saturated. However, I'll experiment to see if I can dial if back some and still retain the look I want.
I couldn't find a good mushroom reference that showed scale very well, so was guessing. I will increase the size of the Amanita per your suggestion.
The brown mushrooms are lightened up. I found that making them a more realistic color, they got lost in the ground clutter--I felt a viewer would have to work too hard to realize they were there.
I'm not that familiar with useing empties, but I'll experiment with your suggestion. Anything to reduce clutter in the outliner is a good step forward.
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mramshaw
Written August 02, 2012No problems with the moss colour or saturation, more with the shading and grain.
It should look more like fine-grained velvet (so I thought of Minnaert shader rather than Lambert) and less like something viscous that leaked out of my car. Which is why I upped the Mapping from 1 to 5 (to get more fine detail from your textures), and also gave me an excuse to play with the Minnaert shader and settings.
I was planning on taking some reference pictures of mushrooms today (yours are fine to my eye, don't stand out on first glance but appear second glance), sadly it is a very flat light day today, but thank you for the inspiration.
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BMF
Written August 02, 2012Martin: I took several of your suggestions and updated the blend file and the preview images on BlendSwap.
Thanks for your inputs.
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polygonesrus
Written August 08, 2012Working on putting this great scene in a bigger project. think this would do pefectly with on of my valkkerie characters after the battle resting on on of those fallen trees hope i can get it out there. and again outstanding work.
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elena
Written August 18, 2012wow this is trully amazing, am hoping I can use it for one of my works
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mramshaw
Edited September 05, 2012CC0 is CC0 of course, but check out: http://vimeo.com/48687107
As to Vietnam I did notice and pick up on that when I first read the PDF.
2nd Louie was news, not sure why.
RE: Virginia I think you are allowed quite a lot of licence there. I have been learning that it only pays to add detail (verts) where you need them, anything in the background (including your tree) does not need much detail. You can cover up a whole lot of things with particles, so it pays to save some verts for some good particle systems (I would suggest drifting clouds of cannon smoke in your case, I think.)
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BMF
Written September 06, 2012Martin, Your comments are cryptic..
But I'll try to decrypt them and use them as positive criticism.
Thanks, BMF
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mramshaw
Written September 07, 2012Sorry, I was not meaning to be cryptic - the guy uses your log, I think.
No criticism intended, I also have been doing some landscape-related stuff (for example, http://vimeo.com/48617835 - my latest version) and I am right at the limit of what I can handle as far as vertices go. So your DEM tutorial is of interest, that way I can compare my terrain to some real terrain with the 'look' that I am going for. Or have a look at this Cycles stuff:
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/landscapes/cycles-performing-landscapes/If I had used less verts I would have some left for forests ...
As far as Jamestown goes, all you have to do is not contradict any historical accounts (in fact, they might be the place to start in terms of deciding what your terrain should look like). It's pretty normal for landscapes to change radically over time, given the timeframe that I assume you are looking at I think a very natural look would be OK (assuming you want the 16th century or so). Anyhow, my point was that any verts you save by using a low-poly landscape are left over for 'eye candy' - which you can use to distract from the terrain.
I had some fun yesterday baking Normal Maps for Vietnam using the excellent method posted here by 'Der-On' (which I may upload, it might be of some interest?).
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BMF
Written September 08, 2012Martin, Good comments all.
I do consider how terrain changes over time. The river bank at Jamestown, for example, has eroded and is different today than in the 1600's. The best that can be done is to study the original maps of the area and try to reconstruct the more significant changes.
I agree that the MicroDEM method does require high resolution meshes. I haven't yet experimented with retopo or baking normal maps so I'd be interested in your work in that area.
Thanks
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RU
Written June 13, 2018Blender is crashing when i tried to open it, probably it needs to be updated.
Awesome work. The detail is really good. It has the feeling of a very well done painting to me.