Well, this is now officaly my favorite piece i've done. Ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

some specs first:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Render size- 3200x2400

 

 

 

Terrain- Created in WM 1.0 Standard Edition

 

 

 

Render time- 7hours

 

 

 

Clouds- [link] . got there, stock clouds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, here it goes. I just finished rendering this with a bit of intention as to just have it as another wallpaper. however, after messing around, and creating a mask for the sky/land in terragen, I figured... hell, this is the perfect time! Merge real life clouds with the terrain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found the lightning on mayang.com, and damn, it fit's perfectly almost. After playing with curves, color ballance, all that good stuff, I was finished. I put it into this size, and was ready to go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.deviantart.com/view/22238882/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I said most of it on deviantart. I realy do like this piece. I hope you all do too.

i thought lightning has to hit something. not just zap randomly in the sky? i could be wrong becuase i know nothing about lightning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

its ok (dont really like it), but i have liked some of your past work.

The lightning is behind the mountain. So it's hitting...something, but nothing thats shown.

the terragen itself is.. funky very groovy textures.. very sharp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

that cloud and lightning really bothers me tho..it just doesnt look right.. :(

I'd dare to claim that majority of lightning strikes never hit the ground but rather another part of the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the image. NO..bad boy...NO!! Nad, you really should get your eyes checked since the cloud image is bad bad bad. It has got pixels the size of the mountain. Horrible quality versus the a bit over sharp ground. On top of that the cut out is very pixelish. Forgot to AA?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's almost decent when you scroll down enough to cover the higher lightning stuff but as a whole it's like a concept drawing of something that might look good if well executed. I'm afraid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have really liked a few of your landscapes, but I must say this is below you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS Something very postive about it though!!! The "bump" map is looking rather realistic! Good job on that....seriously!

I'd dare to claim that majority of lightning strikes never hit the ground but rather another part of the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the image. NO..bad boy...NO!! Nad, you really should get your eyes checked since the cloud image is bad bad bad. It has got pixels the size of the mountain. Horrible quality versus the a bit over sharp ground. On top of that the cut out is very pixelish. Forgot to AA?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's almost decent when you scroll down enough to cover the higher lightning stuff but as a whole it's like a concept drawing of something that might look good if well executed. I'm afraid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have really liked a few of your landscapes, but I must say this is below you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS Something very postive about it though!!! The "bump" map is looking rather realistic! Good job on that....seriously!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah the surface map looks great, but the clouds stock is just horrendous. It's such poor quality that it just destroys the image.

It looks good zoomed out, but once you zoom the in the poor quality of those clouds show. And that lightning at the top looks a bit out of place. Otherwise I like it.

Bad clouds, good (ub3r sharppe) land, but odd lighting on the land....I think that it doesnt exaactly match the sky....."theme"?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

J272

If you wanted to make this believable, get a higher quality cloud picture, and make the lightning strike somewhere on the mountain where we can see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we do visual effects, we are constantly having to put fake things, into real environments, sort of like what you have attempted here. One of the key ways to accomplish this, is to have the two elements interact, otherwise they just look stamped onto each other. Somehow they need to complement each other, be it shadows, lights, or another element. But somehow...

I think you would've had better results by making the lightning in Photoshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The terrain's good, but as other people have said, the clouds and lightning leave a lot to be desired.

If you wanted to make this believable, get a higher quality cloud picture, and make the lightning strike somewhere on the mountain where we can see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we do visual effects, we are constantly having to put fake things, into real environments, sort of like what you have attempted here. One of the key ways to accomplish this, is to have the two elements interact, otherwise they just look stamped onto each other. Somehow they need to complement each other, be it shadows, lights, or another element. But somehow...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I see. I tried to somewhat acomplish that with some curves and such, but I get what you mean. I'm going to try some more of these, see If I can't get some good results :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the help.