TERRALIVE Conference - Cloud session preparation and feedback thread

[FrankB]

Hi guys,

in the announcement thread, I wrote:

...here is some more info on my session on Saturday, January 19th.

I will have 3 example scenes prepared, and I will walk you through exactly how to make certain cloud types. I will have

1 - How to go from the default skies and clouds to some realistic looking cumulus clouds
2 - How to make a monster cumulonimbus clouds and make it look real! (The last part is the hard part, but I will tell you all the tricks)
3 - if time permits: The secret sauce for amazing sunsets!

See the example renders for 1, 2 and 3.

Don't miss the show! Get a Silver or Gold pass today!!!

Please check out the promo renders attached. They have been made to show you guys what you can expect to get out of the Cloud Session!

Now, I have a few questions to ensure I prepare this in a way that you guys can get the most out of it. Based on your individual self assessment:

A) Do I need to explain the basics, such as feature scale, lead-in scale, contrast, density, roughness, or is that clear for you?
B) Would you say you have a general grasp of the main parameters of the cloud shader node?
C) I am planning to not make this a tech talk entirely. Instead, I will discuss the scene creation from an artistic standpoint first, and then only get into tech where necessary. Would that work for you?

Thanks
Frank

PS: Partipants will also get a "commercial use" cloud package after the show from NWDA. It contains a lot of good stuff and has a money value of 69 Euro (about 90 USD).

[Kevin F]

Hi Frank,
For me you don't need to explain the basics and l have a good general grasp of the cloud shader. What l would like is a better understanding of the inter play between all the various parameters of the cloud shader. The number of variables is just too much sometimes.
The artistic approach sounds interesting and should work for me so long as the tech side is given adequate attention, but as far as the depth of understanding to aim it at, the wide variety of attendees will no doubt mean you'll have experts and newbies to satisfy. Good luck, l for one can't wait.

[otakar]

A) no
B) yes
C) yes, works for me, but I hope you can cover some of the more uncharted settings (fake dark power, fake internal scattering, the function modulators, etc.)

[zaxxon]

Wow! I'm looking forward to your session!  A. Yes. As a new user, while I'm making progress, some sort of overview from the Master-Of-Clouds would very helpful. B. As much as you can cover, please. C. That would be great.

Beautiful examples!

[FrankB]

A) no
B) yes
C) yes, works for me, but I hope you can cover some of the more uncharted settings (fake dark power, fake internal scattering, the function modulators, etc.)

Hi Jake, in fact the big badass cloud render uses all of these settings, so we'll cover that. (Although we won't cover all of the function inputs).

[AnneCHPostma]

If you can cover the 'From This To This' part, I will be happy. Just started working with Terragen 2 after a few years absence and I am currently at the 'From This' part and am trying to get to the 'To This' part a.s.a.p. So any help accomplishing that would be awesome

[FrankB]

If you can cover the 'From This To This' part, I will be happy. Just started working with Terragen 2 after a few years absence and I am currently at the 'From This' part and am trying to get to the 'To This' part a.s.a.p. So any help accomplishing that would be awesome

We'll get you there in no time on Saturday! ;-)
It's going to be fun!

Cheers
Frank

[TheBadger]

A) Do I need to explain the basics, such as feature scale, lead-in scale, contrast, density, roughness, or is that clear for you?
B) Would you say you have a general grasp of the main parameters of the cloud shader node?
C) I am planning to not make this a tech talk entirely. Instead, I will discuss the scene creation from an artistic standpoint first, and then only get into tech where necessary. Would that work for you?

A) Feature scale and lead-in scale could stand some clarification. But at this point my preference would be just to see them used "correctly". I don't need any more explanation about them. But when you get to the point in your demo project where those functions are used, maybe just  make a point of showing how not to use them, along with how they should be used, with respect to your example scene and realism in general.

B) Yes.

C) Yes.

[ajcgi]

Much agreeing with The Badger.

[zaxxon]

Thank you very much for the excellent presentation. The material covered, along with your insights into not just the process, but the 'art' of it was very informative, and most enjoyable .

[FrankB]

Thank you very much for the excellent presentation. The material covered, along with your insights into not just the process, but the 'art' of it was very informative, and most enjoyable .

Thank you for the great feedback!

[Tangled-Universe]

Hi Frank,

During the webinar I made this, following your ideas and workflow as you presented them with a little touch of my own experience

Cheers,
Martin

[Tangled-Universe]

Ha, it looks like a turtle I see now

[FrankB]

That's an interesting result. Perhaps some wispiness would be good to counter the turtle shield appearance a bit ;-)
But one thing I'd do for sure is to add between 0.15 and 0.2 to the current roughness. Try it :-)

[TheBadger]

I have to wait for the video release. I just sat back and enjoyed the show. Only one monitor, so not enough real estate for working during a live presentation.
But I really cant wait to get the info and get into some old files and fix em' up!