Tinkering with Alpha Masks

[Tommy]

The snow at the last picture looks very nice. I believe the Eskimos have a lots of words for how snow are. For me, living in the northern part of the earth looking at the picture. The history for the snow are :

It has been snowing for a while. When some warm weather followed with cold weather with a crust on the snow and then hard winds which blows the snow under the crust away and bring some dirt to the snow. Again little warm weather and at last a little cold for the ice in the front.

That's a very good picture which can bring out so much from my experience and imiganation.

[tahnoak]

The snow at the last picture looks very nice. I believe the Eskimos have a lots of words for how snow are. For me, living in the northern part of the earth looking at the picture. The history for the snow are :

It has been snowing for a while. When some warm weather followed with cold weather with a crust on the snow and then hard winds which blows the snow under the crust away and bring some dirt to the snow. Again little warm weather and at last a little cold for the ice in the front.

That's a very good picture which can bring out so much from my experience and imiganation.

Tommy...thanks for the feedback. I tried to draw from what little experience I have here in Virginia when it comes to snow but from what I have seen the snow certainly melts and re-freezes in ares that are exposed to the sun light (the center of the path between the buildings) whereas closer to the buildings that are visible does not get any sunlight because it is in shadow all day until the Spring.

[tahnoak]

Just when you think you've seen the last of this thread... BAM, here it is again.

Updated screenie. Changed the terrain and added another building (smithy).

Things to do:
1) I have been able to re-create the displacement map in Vue but not really to my satisfaction in trueSpace but it is a b*tch exporting to Vue and then having Vue handle boolean objects gracefully unless I am just doing something wrong.
2) Add more shutters
3) Add falling snow (still...but this is post production)
4) Add landscape (Vue)
5) Model some of the smithy tools, to include the forge
6) Fix the horked up texture on the top floor of the building
7) Tweak the lighting for a bit more blue hue
8) Make a daytime version

[Tommy]

It's looking great. Rather dark so I am looking forward to se the daytime version. Keep on posting your progress. A have also began to explore textures and alfamasks.

[trueBlue]

1) I have been able to re-create the displacement map in Vue but not really to my satisfaction in trueSpace but it is a b*tch exporting to Vue and then having Vue handle boolean objects gracefully unless I am just doing something wrong.

This should help:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=237" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Steinie]

I notice this on most of your recent work that your work is too dark.
I've checked this on two different monitors so far.
Have you adjusted your monitor lately? I can barely make out your scenes.

Check out your own stuff on another computer monitor
to see if you see what I don't see...

[tahnoak]

I notice this on most of your recent work that your work is too dark.
I've checked this on two different monitors so far.
Have you adjusted your monitor lately? I can barely make out your scenes.

Check out your own stuff on another computer monitor
to see if you see what I don't see...

I think you may be right. I have no checked my monitor lately but i do find myself sitting up in my seat a little higher to see things. Let me play around with the monitor and see. I am looking at it on my laptop right now and while it looks a little dark (maybe too dark for night time) it is not overly dark on here.

[tahnoak]

It's looking great. Rather dark so I am looking forward to se the daytime version. Keep on posting your progress. A have also began to explore textures and alfamasks.

Tommy...Thanks. I am seeing a pattern in the comments about the darkness Let me see what I can do about that.

[Finis]

Style and art: Great.

Darkness: Like your bar-in-the-alley, with more contrast a dark scene looks better. That is have some bright objects or areas. That way the dark parts can look dark while not really being near-black. You get the emotional/visual effects of darkness but can still see things in all but the darkest areas and, being brighter than it seems, the image will look good on more people's screens. On my monitor the barrels are just a silhouette.

Ground: Looks better. Less flat.

Buildings: There should be things inside the rooms. The lit rooms should not all have the same brightness. The building with the lit windows looks thin. The side facing the smithy is either cut off by some object I can't see (dark) or the building is like a cereal box turned on its side.

Foreground: It needs objects in the foreground. They would be lit by lights behind the camera since there are buildings there too or the viewer might have a lamp.

[tahnoak]

Style and art: Great.

Thank you..

Darkness: Like your bar-in-the-alley, with more contrast a dark scene looks better. That is have some bright objects or areas. That way the dark parts can look dark while not really being near-black. You get the emotional/visual effects of darkness but can still see things in all but the darkest areas and, being brighter than it seems, the image will look good on more people's screens. On my monitor the barrels are just a silhouette.

I brightened this one up a bit, but maybe not enough yet.

Ground: Looks better. Less flat.

Buildings: There should be things inside the rooms. The lit rooms should not all have the same brightness. The building with the lit windows looks thin. The side facing the smithy is either cut off by some object I can't see (dark) or the building is like a cereal box turned on its side.

Yeah, I need to personalize the rooms a little bit. Right now it is supposed to give a feeling of comfort and safety inside the warm glow of the room from the cold outside. The smithy is not very bright (no pun intended) yet..

Foreground: It needs objects in the foreground. They would be lit by lights behind the camera since there are buildings there too or the viewer might have a lamp.

There will be some trees and probably something else prominent in the foreground if and when I get this ported over to Vue and can take advantage of the Eco-systems capability.

Thanks again for the comments. I always appreciate them.