UPDATES- 26/5/2012 [WIP] Photorealism: Project Amazonia

[MOTHERJAVA]

The scene has come a long way in the last couple of months. Lots of hard work and tons of experimentation. Comments, criticism or thoughts on any aspect of this are welcome as always.

26/5/2012:
Playing with color:



25/5/2012: Project 'Poster Shot'

20/5/2012:






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Old Screens:







So far:

- 90% custom assets,textures, etc. ( one or two placeholders here and there)

- foliage shader - utilises translucency and MassiveLod with parent meshes to blend seamlessly into the terrain (needs work)

- Water shader - almost complete; needs work (Shoreline,foam, etc)

- Post Processing -
-Custom tonemapper + contrast gradient
- vignette
-chromatic/color aberration
-SSAO
-CustomDOF
-color grading + LUT

- Suggestions?

More updates to come, as well as a video (Eventually), and possibly a writeup on some of the methods used to create Amazonia (once some issues are worked out and/or if the demand is there!)

Thanks guys

[sbetween]

Looks great. My only suggestion would be covering up the landscape thats near the water in pictures 2 and 3. Maybe some rocks or appropriate vegetation. Maybe some reflectivity (with distortion of course) with the water too.

Otherwise, great job

[MarkG85]

Some gorgeous scenery there man, good work

[BmB23]

It's nice looking for sure. But hardly photoreal.

If you want anything to be photoreal you should probably stay somewhere in the region between a hundred thousand to a million miles away from colour grading too.

Regardless of what fancy effects you use, remember this: A renderer is only as good as the assets it renders.

[Private Tux]

Fantastic work man! Probably the biggest things about the springtime of this project.

[MOTHERJAVA]

Thanks for the great feedback everyone.. I'm working at the moment on improving the lighting and tweaking colors.. Certain things are def. over-saturated.. And the bloom is somewhat unrealistic..

@sbetween, you're totally right.. Shoreline is lacking in detail currently.. Definitely on my to do list.

@BmB23, -valid point. I agree that color grading is not typically a staple of photorealism, but IMO it helps create a mood, which in turn adds to the overall sense of immersion, which in a way, adds realism.. Still, I do need to work on improving my lighting and create immersion that way instead if just relying on coloration.


More to come soon!! Thx everyone!

[BmB23]

But really I need to absolutely stress my point here.

Photorealism comes from the art first and foremost. If the models and textures aren't realistic to begin with then no renderer - not even Maxwell - and no lighting setup, and no fancy BDRF materials will ever make them realistic looking.

[MOTHERJAVA]

I agree entirely.

[willyfreddy]

Looks beautiful. Great job!

[Techy]

i love the grass and the landscape

one crit Even though i know you don't want to hear it

I would use bamboo and Broadleaf Trees To make more of a canopy

because usually the amazon rainforests have very dense foliage and fog and lots of moss

[Techy]

oh and bm don't even know what he/she is saying your map looks great maybe a little to colorful but great

but none the less an achievment

bm criticizes Your work with no explanation as to what he is talking about. he is .........

it's like bringing a book to a publisher and they say they hated it with no explanation as to why.

this isn't psychiatry you cant give retarded criticism in order to look smart

"the essence of photorealism lies within the art" it does but atleast give the person a list of tutorials or lessons so they can learn

like this


http://www.3dtotal.com/index_tutoria...roPos=1&page=1
http://cg.tutsplus.com/?s=foliage
http://www.hourences.com/an-entire-simple-udk-game/
http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_home.php

[MarkG85]

oh and bm don't even know what he/she is saying your map looks great maybe a little to colorful but great

but none the less an achievment

bm criticizes Your work with no explanation as to what he is talking about. he is .........

it's like bringing a book to a publisher and they say they hated it with no explanation as to why.

this isn't psychiatry you cant give retarded criticism in order to look smart

"the essence of photorealism lies within the art" it does but atleast give the person a list of tutorials or lessons so they can learn

like this


http://www.3dtotal.com/index_tutoria...roPos=1&page=1
http://cg.tutsplus.com/?s=foliage
http://www.hourences.com/an-entire-simple-udk-game/
http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_home.php

I couldn't agree more man. This is meant to be a community and community's help each other not slander each others work.

It's all well n good being honest but at least be helpful in the process offering advice on what you would change etc.

[MOTHERJAVA]

Thanks all for the kind words.. criticism is great , all valid points he raised - though pretentiousness is just a waste of space on these forums - or any forum for that matter, IMO...

@techy, thanks for the links.they look very helpful!! I totally agree some broadleaves/canopy would help lots.

big updates coming soon!

[BmB23]

I couldn't agree more man. This is meant to be a community and community's help each other not slander each others work.

He claims his goal is to be photoreal, I tell him that I don't think it's photoreal and that he has a ways to go on his goal. Then I compliment the existing progress and give him my thoughts on what to focus on and what to avoid. How is that slander? If I'm going to slander anyone it's you for being so limited. Criticism isn't slander. It's that kind of attitude that you shouldn't listen to anyone who says "bad things" that makes absolutely sure you're never going to improve. There's always a horde of you ****ers surrounding even the worst mspaint **** on deviantart. Go away.

[flota113]

I wouldn't say, that you are the newbie Great work, I'm looking forward to seeing next pictures ;D

[Techy]

Ya Bm what i meant to say is you criticized his assets with no explanation.. are you saying all his assets are crap? Ya next time you insult someones work
atleast come up with a reason why.

for instance his grass (very good)
his landscape (very good)
Lack of vegatation (not good)

then after you criticize provide Tutorials so the person can learn

what your doing is down right insulting the person.

and where in your sentence did you provide info on what to avoid

His assets are quite good only thing he needs is more time to tweak the lighting.

[Techy]

sorry bout my anger issues.
But this annoys me.... people use to do this to me all the time when i modded on crymod

[BmB23]

Maybe you just don't take criticism well, Techy.

[Techy]

Maybe you just don't take criticism well, Techy.

Ok you obviously don't know the difference between constructive criticism and insulting criticism

So im going to end this 2 day argument

i already proved my point no sense in prolonging an argument

BmB23 enjoy.

I will not be reading any of your comments any more.

[BmB23]

Typical isn't it, someone says something you for some reason don't like and you just ignore them completely. That'll get you somewhere.

[jak_carver]

It's nice looking for sure. But hardly photoreal.

If you want anything to be photoreal you should probably stay somewhere in the region between a hundred thousand to a million miles away from colour grading too.

Regardless of what fancy effects you use, remember this: A renderer is only as good as the assets it renders.

Photorealism comes from the art first and foremost. If the models and textures aren't realistic to begin with then no renderer - not even Maxwell - and no lighting setup, and no fancy BDRF materials will ever make them realistic looking.

Don't know if you realize this, but these posts and others I have read from you throughout this forum come off as arrogant and condescending. Not sure why you're doing this, but you really need to pull back on this as it's not good for this community and for helping users here get better with their work. For example, your post about Maxwell and throwing terms like "BDRF" makes it sound like you just learned that stuff and now you're trying to put down someone else's work and "show" how much more you think you know in order to feel better or smarter. That's not cool; I've seen this kind of attitude throughout the years working professionally and when I was a modder/hobbyist. Believe me it's not a good attitude to have and it will get you no where fast in this industry; which is very small and everyone knows each other and people remember you, believe me. You're better off giving some constructive criticism or not saying anything at all, trust me, I've seen people get burned by doing what you're doing. Just the other day at lunch my buddy from work was telling me how a guy he knew working at SCEA lost his job and got burned because he talked smack on a public forum like this one. It's an extreme case, but I'm telling you, this kind of stuff doesn't help you or anyone else.

As for the thread starter, you have great work- keep it up dude!

[MOTHERJAVA]

^ good advice here.. Sums it up well...

... Lol.. At some point this thread took on a life of its own..

[MOTHERJAVA]

...at least I'm getting a bunch of hits on my thread.... Must be cause of my artwork...

Anyhow IMO what bmb23 originally said I don't disagree with.. I did ask for ANY criticism or thoughts and though I may not 'like' to hear it, he isn't wrong.. Harshly stated perhaps, but important nonetheless.

though, working with udk for only a couple months, of course its not great.. I'm a noob for Christ sake. but I've seen peoples work who havebeen here for years that isn't much better.

[BmB23]

Don't worry. You'll get better in no time. Practice as they say, makes perfect.

And thanks for not going off like everyone else.

[MarkG85]

Typical isn't it, someone says something you for some reason don't like and you just ignore them completely. That'll get you somewhere.

You my friend are just hear to show off how much more knowledge you believe you have over everyone else. It's not about kissing ass it's about praising somebody for actually putting time and effort into something and learning a new technology. It's called praise and people respond to it generally in a positive way and it spurs them on. This is how you get the best out of people.

[DoomTobi]

It's just awesome... How is the performance?

[MOTHERJAVA]

^ thanks. . I'm getting 35-45 fps with everything 'maxed out'.

[Cuplacakes]

What are you system specs?

[MOTHERJAVA]

Asus g74sx with core i7, nvidia gtx 560 and 8 gb ddr 3. At this point though, there is still allot of room for performance optimisations.

[evilmrfrank]

Love how smooth the grass looks Cool scene!

[marie.weaver132]

That’s Image was perfect. I suggest that improve of your image color different way to put him.

[MOTHERJAVA]

Updates in first post...Enjoy and pls comment/critique/rate

[skwisdemon666]

Very nice. I think the colors are pretty great now. I really can't think of anything to criticize about it.

[Private Tux]

100% pure artistic mate! Like the forest landscape setting, lighting, and some others are better now. Great work.

[MOTHERJAVA]

Thanks guys. tried to really improve and tweak this scene based on what I learned while making my forest environment. I think the lighting and coloration for the most part are looking how I want then to.

[stevelois]

All I can say is that all pics look fabulous & realistic !!!

Awesome work

[MOTHERJAVA]

^ thx. I think the last pic is the least photorealistic, but its a cool shot IMO so I included it anyways

[makan ansari]

Impressive

[stevelois]

^ thx. I think the last pic is the least photorealistic, but its a cool shot IMO so I included it anyways

Your to modest

It's a fantastic job, believe me

[MOTHERJAVA]

haha okay maybe a little. just glad so many ppl like this.

I updated the FIRST POST with a 'cover' shot for this project.