Morning Mist by theSea
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Description
Hello... welcome to 2011 :) I finished this one about a week ago, but due the Real Life(tm) interfering, I'm just now getting around to posting it.
"Morning Mist" began as an atmosphere study based on my memories of western Ireland. As with many of these landscape images, it didn't really come together until I added the foreground elements.
The background terrain is the "rough" infinite procedural terrain preset. I doctored the materials using some of Quadspinner's grasslands and rock materials. The lake water material was also modified using knowledge gleaned from one of Dax's tutorials.
The foreground castle is (of course) Stonemason's "Castle Ruins" -- the materials on the castle incorporate Stonemason's bump, specular and displacement maps. I also added some layers of streaks and lichens.
The foreground terrain is a procedural terrain with a multi-layered ecosystem using grass and stones. The rocks that make up the 'bones' of the hill are from Quadspinner's "Supernoi HyperTerrains" set.
The lighting is global radiosity with a quality of +1, volumetric sunlight and two cloud layers - one low mist cloud layer which you can see on the lake and one dense cumulus layer with an opening to provide god-rays. Both cloud layers were set up using information from the AsileFX cloud tutorial. The atmosphere quality setting was +6 for the final render to smooth out most of the noise.
Final render took about 36 hours, over the course of three evenings - 'resume render' is your friend :)
Postwork was more or less limited to exposure and gamma adjustment.
For those paying attention - this was the piece I was considering adding a dragon into (see the text associated with "Red (draco rufus)"). It would have been placed on the left side of the image to provide a point of interest to balance against the castle on the right. In the end I felt that the image was better off with a strong weighting to the right and that the light and god-rays coming from the left served to lead the eye naturally around the image. I also found that the red dragon, rather than providing contrast to the primarily green image, was a disruption.
As always your comments and critique are most appreciated. Have a great 2011!
Comments (31)
vintorix
Beautiful and stunning and dramatic, just my cup of tea! Great work. I am glad you didn't add a dragon dragons are overrated and overused IMO!
TooL_PePe
A gorgeous scene. Everything looks great. Lighting, atmosphere, foliage, etc. Excellent work!
pit224
Great landscape! Fav!
FlashbacksArt
Wonderful scene. Could pass as a photograph with its detail. Great job.
Brian S.
I really like what you've done here, I don't think a dragon would really accentuate this image much anyway, it's impressive just the way it is.
KnightWolverine
Wonderful Landscape/Scene!
Timesurfer
WOW love the atmosphere!!!
Tugpsx
Dude, this is so awesome. Love the POV and your attention to detail as usual. Thanks for the mini-tutorial. You made the correct decision not to add the dragon, it would have taken away from this serene environment. One can just imagine the wind blowing through the ruins and the screech of some distant hawk
anitalee
Excellent
fivecat
Another beautiful image. Thank you for sharing how you created this image -- this is why you stay in my favorites.
Seaview123
That darn 'real life', it always gets in the way of what you really want to do. Nice work on this picture!
Winther
Very nice landscape work :)
kits
Great job, brilliant lighting
swjkie100
Simply amazing!
drifterlee
Beautiful. I love the castle ruins.
ia-du-lin
great scenery, wonderful landscape
kobaltkween
i think you made the right choice about the dragon. as it is, the scene is very peaceful. i can see how a large red carnivore would disrupt more than contrast. the mist is lovely, the light is perfect, and the ruins fit your scene perfectly. i think the lake could be a little stronger somehow, but i don't have a good reason for that. overall, it makes me think of the land of Skye described in Patricia McKillip's The Tower at Stoney Wood, despite not seeing the sea.
efron_241
one can see this castle has seen many ages 36 hours of render.. ha ha.. one can imagine.. one hears clannad music with this one it's Utube.. grin.. i went there to listen to it while watching this beauty for a few minutes in fulllll size
Orinoor
I really like this, just the way it is. You have beautiful lighting and atmosphere; the foreground is perfect.
geirla
Great image! I really like the lighting and the sense of depth. And I think you're right - a red dragon would be... discordant.
maraich
This looks to be right out of LoTRs. You've well and conquered Vue. I miss your DS work, but considering the beauty of your Vue work I can understand how it has lured you away. This one is definitely getting added to my favorites.
bigbraader
Excellent composition & render, great atmo. Good thing you didn't add the dragon.
Lyndseyh
Fantastic - Can't believe it's not the real thing!
texboy
delicious and most outstanding!
fallen21
Excellent work!
NefariousDrO
Wow, this is magnificent. It works on so many levels, the dragon would have been over-kill. Great stuff!
PhilW
Very atmospheric and beautiful!
faroutsider
Superb image and mood. I agree with you - no dragons required!
London224
This is a terrific image!! and a must ZOOM IN image for all. I have to agree with your decision not to add a dragon. As one who prints his work large.. 14/20 x 40", I see this as more fine art if printed out large and the dragon, regardless of the composition effort I think takes this into a different direction. Wish I could rate this... 5++++
garyandcatherine
WOW. Very very good.