UltraScenery - new territory [Commercial]

Jason Galterio

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

Haven't made anything worth posting in a while...  but US was one of the first things I opened when I got back in.

US works pretty well with the MARSA elements to create a snowy landscape. There were a few little tricks that needed to be done though...  like altering the grass textures, removing some of the smaller vegetation, and, most importantly, making the leaves invisible. Even though the leaves were invisible in US, MARSA still applied snow to them.

(Also wanted to see how Gallery image linking worked now.)

That's a nice scene. I meant to comment when it was first posted, but I got distracted - sorry for the delay.  I like the bluish tint that gives it a cold winter feel.

Thanks! I wasn't really happy with the way MARSA reacted to the trees, so it took a lot of touch up to hide the flaws. So there as a lot of post work done, the snow, the blue tint...  The blue did lead to the idea of using the Fennec Fox, since I wanted something that blended in with the sky.

Speaking of which...  Posing that fox was the hardest part. The tree branches aren't visible in the viewport. So there was a lot of trial and error to get it positioned to not look like it was hovering in the air. Just a word of advice to anyone contemplating placing birds and such in the trees.

Artini

Yes, I agree, posing animals on the trees is a very tedious process.

It will be nice, to have a tool, to show up a single tree close to the camera, to see it in its glory and make a posing there.

That way, making interaction with the vegetation items in UltraScenery would be much easier to achieve.

 

barbult

Jason Galterio said:

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

Haven't made anything worth posting in a while...  but US was one of the first things I opened when I got back in.

US works pretty well with the MARSA elements to create a snowy landscape. There were a few little tricks that needed to be done though...  like altering the grass textures, removing some of the smaller vegetation, and, most importantly, making the leaves invisible. Even though the leaves were invisible in US, MARSA still applied snow to them.

(Also wanted to see how Gallery image linking worked now.)

That's a nice scene. I meant to comment when it was first posted, but I got distracted - sorry for the delay.  I like the bluish tint that gives it a cold winter feel.

Thanks! I wasn't really happy with the way MARSA reacted to the trees, so it took a lot of touch up to hide the flaws. So there as a lot of post work done, the snow, the blue tint...  The blue did lead to the idea of using the Fennec Fox, since I wanted something that blended in with the sky.

Speaking of which...  Posing that fox was the hardest part. The tree branches aren't visible in the viewport. So there was a lot of trial and error to get it positioned to not look like it was hovering in the air. Just a word of advice to anyone contemplating placing birds and such in the trees.

The least frustrating way I've found to pose something in a tree like that is to add a "real", not instanced, tree prop into a fairly bare area of the scene and use that instead. Kudos to you for sticking with the trial and error until you got it right!

Daventaki

TangoAlpha said:

Bit quiet around here. So here's a hint of things to come:

Ohh I like it!

barbult

I just noticed that the Accelerator is in the 70% off collection with coupon STRIVE-FOR-FIVE today. 

Doc Acme

It's a combo, majority in Daz of course for the instanced items.  And yes AM's skunk with fur keeping to the edge of the shadow.

FBX retains morphs and I manually entered the percentages (sifting thruogh 140 morphs for the barn, similar for the '39 Coupe) to get the Old Barn's decrepit shape replicated in LW. I'll post later but added a "decal" essentailly to the side of the barn that follows the morphing of the boards for the cracking & warping.  I'm sure that's doable in Daz but I haven't a clue how to go about it. Once I get back to main system, I hope to compare Daz's PBR system to LW's.

 

Tirick

barbult said:

I just noticed that the Accelerator is in the 70% off collection with coupon STRIVE-FOR-FIVE today. 

I took advantage of that fact earlier today. I can confirm it makes a considerable difference. I still need to render it, but it enabled a full scale test of a 3x3 grid with ease. Less than a min per full generation of scenery panel, with instances.

barbult

Tirick said:

barbult said:

I just noticed that the Accelerator is in the 70% off collection with coupon STRIVE-FOR-FIVE today. 

I took advantage of that fact earlier today. I can confirm it makes a considerable difference. I still need to render it, but it enabled a full scale test of a 3x3 grid with ease. Less than a min per full generation of scenery panel, with instances.

I'm glad you discovered it. It makes a huge difference in being able to enjoy tweaking and rebuilding UltraScenery scenes. 

Havos

Artini said:

Yes, I agree, posing animals on the trees is a very tedious process.

It will be nice, to have a tool, to show up a single tree close to the camera, to see it in its glory and make a posing there.

That way, making interaction with the vegetation items in UltraScenery would be much easier to achieve.

You can use this tool: https://www.daz3d.com/instaedit

It works very well with Ultrascenery. Once you find the instance group containing the tree, then with Instaedit you can break that down into all the individual trees of the group. After that find the tree where you are placing the animals or other props and change "Visible in Viewport" to true. Only this one tree will be shown, so it should not slow down your viewport significantly. 

TangoAlpha

Artini said:

TangoAlpha said:

Bit quiet around here. So here's a hint of things to come:

Will it be accelerator friendly?

Yes, it's built with accelerator in mind :)

Tirick

I'm not sure if this should be posted here or in a separate thread, but I finished rendering a 3x3 US scenery panel test. There were a few seaming issues, and my heightmap has a bit more roughness in it than is ideal, but it shows great future promise. With the Accelerator, this took very little time to prep. The largest issue I had is regenerating. Once the scene group has been moved, it cannot be regenerated in place, and is in fact easier to destroy and duplicate from the center panel. It is hard to tell from the long shot, but that fountain is almost the same size as a regular Ultra Scenery scene panel. The water is unparented from a water feature generation and scaled 300% in X/Z. I realize I forgot to change the surface shader scale, but as this is a test I'm ok with it. It looks good regardless.

I plan to test making a copy of one of the Feature sets, with the heightmap adjustment image replaced with the 'no feature' one, so I can get water feature elements inserted into the build. I need to also create variant masks for each of the features, but its been a fun process so far.

Artini

Havos said:

Artini said:

Yes, I agree, posing animals on the trees is a very tedious process.

It will be nice, to have a tool, to show up a single tree close to the camera, to see it in its glory and make a posing there.

That way, making interaction with the vegetation items in UltraScenery would be much easier to achieve.

You can use this tool: https://www.daz3d.com/instaedit

It works very well with Ultrascenery. Once you find the instance group containing the tree, then with Instaedit you can break that down into all the individual trees of the group. After that find the tree where you are placing the animals or other props and change "Visible in Viewport" to true. Only this one tree will be shown, so it should not slow down your viewport significantly. 

Ok, thanks. I have purchased InstaEdit long time ago, but have not used it yet.

 It looks like, I need to figure it out, to solve such problem.

 

Artini

TangoAlpha said:

Artini said:

TangoAlpha said:

Bit quiet around here. So here's a hint of things to come:

Will it be accelerator friendly?

Yes, it's built with accelerator in mind :)

Thank you very much for your hard work. It makes this item even more interesting for me.

Are there any dependencies on the other products required?

 

AnEye4Art

Artini said:

Havos said:

Artini said:

Yes, I agree, posing animals on the trees is a very tedious process.

It will be nice, to have a tool, to show up a single tree close to the camera, to see it in its glory and make a posing there.

That way, making interaction with the vegetation items in UltraScenery would be much easier to achieve.

You can use this tool: https://www.daz3d.com/instaedit

It works very well with Ultrascenery. Once you find the instance group containing the tree, then with Instaedit you can break that down into all the individual trees of the group. After that find the tree where you are placing the animals or other props and change "Visible in Viewport" to true. Only this one tree will be shown, so it should not slow down your viewport significantly. 

Ok, thanks. I have purchased InstaEdit long time ago, but have not used it yet.

 It looks like, I need to figure it out, to solve such problem.

 

 Some of the instanced trees look too low res for close ups so I used this: https://www.daz3d.com/ultratrees--arboretum-volume-1

This gave me a higher res trees that looks good close up and I can place it where I want.

Artini

Thanks for that additional tip, AnEye4Art.

I have purchased this item, as well.

https://www.daz3d.com/ultratrees--arboretum-volume-1

 

Jason Galterio

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

Haven't made anything worth posting in a while...  but US was one of the first things I opened when I got back in.

US works pretty well with the MARSA elements to create a snowy landscape. There were a few little tricks that needed to be done though...  like altering the grass textures, removing some of the smaller vegetation, and, most importantly, making the leaves invisible. Even though the leaves were invisible in US, MARSA still applied snow to them.

(Also wanted to see how Gallery image linking worked now.)

That's a nice scene. I meant to comment when it was first posted, but I got distracted - sorry for the delay.  I like the bluish tint that gives it a cold winter feel.

Thanks! I wasn't really happy with the way MARSA reacted to the trees, so it took a lot of touch up to hide the flaws. So there as a lot of post work done, the snow, the blue tint...  The blue did lead to the idea of using the Fennec Fox, since I wanted something that blended in with the sky.

Speaking of which...  Posing that fox was the hardest part. The tree branches aren't visible in the viewport. So there was a lot of trial and error to get it positioned to not look like it was hovering in the air. Just a word of advice to anyone contemplating placing birds and such in the trees.

The least frustrating way I've found to pose something in a tree like that is to add a "real", not instanced, tree prop into a fairly bare area of the scene and use that instead. Kudos to you for sticking with the trial and error until you got it right!

SOB! I didn't even think of that. Now I am smacking myself in the head for how long I messed with this...

barbult

Jason Galterio said:

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

Haven't made anything worth posting in a while...  but US was one of the first things I opened when I got back in.

US works pretty well with the MARSA elements to create a snowy landscape. There were a few little tricks that needed to be done though...  like altering the grass textures, removing some of the smaller vegetation, and, most importantly, making the leaves invisible. Even though the leaves were invisible in US, MARSA still applied snow to them.

(Also wanted to see how Gallery image linking worked now.)

That's a nice scene. I meant to comment when it was first posted, but I got distracted - sorry for the delay.  I like the bluish tint that gives it a cold winter feel.

Thanks! I wasn't really happy with the way MARSA reacted to the trees, so it took a lot of touch up to hide the flaws. So there as a lot of post work done, the snow, the blue tint...  The blue did lead to the idea of using the Fennec Fox, since I wanted something that blended in with the sky.

Speaking of which...  Posing that fox was the hardest part. The tree branches aren't visible in the viewport. So there was a lot of trial and error to get it positioned to not look like it was hovering in the air. Just a word of advice to anyone contemplating placing birds and such in the trees.

The least frustrating way I've found to pose something in a tree like that is to add a "real", not instanced, tree prop into a fairly bare area of the scene and use that instead. Kudos to you for sticking with the trial and error until you got it right!

SOB! I didn't even think of that. Now I am smacking myself in the head for how long I messed with this...

Remember that you can also use a layer mask in the Build tab to prevent UltraScenery from putting trees (or other layers) in a particular spot, so you can put a prop tree there later instead.

1. Use the orthogonal Top View in the Daz Studio viewport with the entire UltraScene terrain and the tree proxies visible. Then take a screenshot of that.
2. If you need a clue to help you find the correct tree in that Top View before you take the screenshot, have your camera be the selected object in the Scene pane. The camera will show up in the viewport and indicate which direction it is looking. Or, you can place some prop, like a tall bright red primitive cylinder, in the UltraScene and move it around into view of your camera, into the position of the tree you want to eliminate, before you switch to Top View to make the screenshot. (Remember to remove or hide that helper prop in the scene before the final render.)
3. In Photoshop, open the screenshot and create a new empty layer on top of that screenshot.  Then place a black dot on the tree area I want to eliminate trees. Fill the rest of the layer with white. Crop to just the square UltraScene terrain area. Save that black and white layer as your layer mask for use in the UltraScenery Build tab.
4. Once you have created your layer mask, you have to use it in the Build tab and then rebuild the UltraScene. With the Accelerator, that usually only takes a minute or two (or less!).
5. Add your desired prop tree to the scene. It is easy to add it to the right place while still in the Top View. Hold the Alt key and drag the prop tree from the content library or smart content into the scene. You may need to raise or lower the tree to match the terrain height.

barbult

Tirick said:

I'm not sure if this should be posted here or in a separate thread, but I finished rendering a 3x3 US scenery panel test. There were a few seaming issues, and my heightmap has a bit more roughness in it than is ideal, but it shows great future promise. With the Accelerator, this took very little time to prep. The largest issue I had is regenerating. Once the scene group has been moved, it cannot be regenerated in place, and is in fact easier to destroy and duplicate from the center panel. It is hard to tell from the long shot, but that fountain is almost the same size as a regular Ultra Scenery scene panel. The water is unparented from a water feature generation and scaled 300% in X/Z. I realize I forgot to change the surface shader scale, but as this is a test I'm ok with it. It looks good regardless.

I plan to test making a copy of one of the Feature sets, with the heightmap adjustment image replaced with the 'no feature' one, so I can get water feature elements inserted into the build. I need to also create variant masks for each of the features, but its been a fun process so far.

You did an excellent job combining those UltraScenes. I can't see a seam anyplace. This is very impressive. 

DoctorJellybean

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

Haven't made anything worth posting in a while...  but US was one of the first things I opened when I got back in.

US works pretty well with the MARSA elements to create a snowy landscape. There were a few little tricks that needed to be done though...  like altering the grass textures, removing some of the smaller vegetation, and, most importantly, making the leaves invisible. Even though the leaves were invisible in US, MARSA still applied snow to them.

(Also wanted to see how Gallery image linking worked now.)

That's a nice scene. I meant to comment when it was first posted, but I got distracted - sorry for the delay.  I like the bluish tint that gives it a cold winter feel.

Thanks! I wasn't really happy with the way MARSA reacted to the trees, so it took a lot of touch up to hide the flaws. So there as a lot of post work done, the snow, the blue tint...  The blue did lead to the idea of using the Fennec Fox, since I wanted something that blended in with the sky.

Speaking of which...  Posing that fox was the hardest part. The tree branches aren't visible in the viewport. So there was a lot of trial and error to get it positioned to not look like it was hovering in the air. Just a word of advice to anyone contemplating placing birds and such in the trees.

The least frustrating way I've found to pose something in a tree like that is to add a "real", not instanced, tree prop into a fairly bare area of the scene and use that instead. Kudos to you for sticking with the trial and error until you got it right!

SOB! I didn't even think of that. Now I am smacking myself in the head for how long I messed with this...

Remember that you can also use a layer mask in the Build tab to prevent UltraScenery from putting trees (or other layers) in a particular spot, so you can put a prop tree there later instead.

1. Use the orthogonal Top View in the Daz Studio viewport with the entire UltraScene terrain and the tree proxies visible. Then take a screenshot of that.
2. If you need a clue to help you find the correct tree in that Top View before you take the screenshot, have your camera be the selected object in the Scene pane. The camera will show up in the viewport and indicate which direction it is looking. Or, you can place some prop, like a tall bright red primitive cylinder, in the UltraScene and move it around into view of your camera, into the position of the tree you want to eliminate, before you switch to Top View to make the screenshot. (Remember to remove or hide that helper prop in the scene before the final render.)
3. In Photoshop, open the screenshot and create a new empty layer on top of that screenshot.  Then place a black dot on the tree area I want to eliminate trees. Fill the rest of the layer with white. Crop to just the square UltraScene terrain area. Save that black and white layer as your layer mask for use in the UltraScenery Build tab.
4. Once you have created your layer mask, you have to use it in the Build tab and then rebuild the UltraScene. With the Accelerator, that usually only takes a minute or two (or less!).
5. Add your desired prop tree to the scene. It is easy to add it to the right place while still in the Top View. Hold the Alt key and drag the prop tree from the content library or smart content into the scene. You may need to raise or lower the tree to match the terrain height.

That all sounds very complicated 

barbult

DoctorJellybean said:

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

barbult said:

Jason Galterio said:

Haven't made anything worth posting in a while...  but US was one of the first things I opened when I got back in.

US works pretty well with the MARSA elements to create a snowy landscape. There were a few little tricks that needed to be done though...  like altering the grass textures, removing some of the smaller vegetation, and, most importantly, making the leaves invisible. Even though the leaves were invisible in US, MARSA still applied snow to them.

(Also wanted to see how Gallery image linking worked now.)

That's a nice scene. I meant to comment when it was first posted, but I got distracted - sorry for the delay.  I like the bluish tint that gives it a cold winter feel.

Thanks! I wasn't really happy with the way MARSA reacted to the trees, so it took a lot of touch up to hide the flaws. So there as a lot of post work done, the snow, the blue tint...  The blue did lead to the idea of using the Fennec Fox, since I wanted something that blended in with the sky.

Speaking of which...  Posing that fox was the hardest part. The tree branches aren't visible in the viewport. So there was a lot of trial and error to get it positioned to not look like it was hovering in the air. Just a word of advice to anyone contemplating placing birds and such in the trees.

The least frustrating way I've found to pose something in a tree like that is to add a "real", not instanced, tree prop into a fairly bare area of the scene and use that instead. Kudos to you for sticking with the trial and error until you got it right!

SOB! I didn't even think of that. Now I am smacking myself in the head for how long I messed with this...

Remember that you can also use a layer mask in the Build tab to prevent UltraScenery from putting trees (or other layers) in a particular spot, so you can put a prop tree there later instead.

1. Use the orthogonal Top View in the Daz Studio viewport with the entire UltraScene terrain and the tree proxies visible. Then take a screenshot of that.
2. If you need a clue to help you find the correct tree in that Top View before you take the screenshot, have your camera be the selected object in the Scene pane. The camera will show up in the viewport and indicate which direction it is looking. Or, you can place some prop, like a tall bright red primitive cylinder, in the UltraScene and move it around into view of your camera, into the position of the tree you want to eliminate, before you switch to Top View to make the screenshot. (Remember to remove or hide that helper prop in the scene before the final render.)
3. In Photoshop, open the screenshot and create a new empty layer on top of that screenshot.  Then place a black dot on the tree area I want to eliminate trees. Fill the rest of the layer with white. Crop to just the square UltraScene terrain area. Save that black and white layer as your layer mask for use in the UltraScenery Build tab.
4. Once you have created your layer mask, you have to use it in the Build tab and then rebuild the UltraScene. With the Accelerator, that usually only takes a minute or two (or less!).
5. Add your desired prop tree to the scene. It is easy to add it to the right place while still in the Top View. Hold the Alt key and drag the prop tree from the content library or smart content into the scene. You may need to raise or lower the tree to match the terrain height.

That all sounds very complicated 

Only because I write things out in excruciating detail.  You could do the whole thing in about as long as it takes to read the explanation.

richardandtracy

I'd quibble with one word. Not 'excruciating' but 'comprehensive'. So much better than videos when it's all gone in a flash and you're left thinking 'Whaaaat!?!??!'

Regards,

Richard.

barbult

richardandtracy said:

I'd quibble with one word. Not 'excruciating' but 'comprehensive'. So much better than videos when it's all gone in a flash and you're left thinking 'Whaaaat!?!??!'

Regards,

Richard.

I appreciate the appreciation! My effort was not in vain.

Jason Galterio

I do that quite often. :)

Attached is the mask I use the most often. It gives a clearing in the middle of the scene and allows for the sides to be a tree line.

I have a bunch of others, but I tend to use them sparingly for specific projects.

Doc Acme

Old Barn update...

dawnblade

I'm enjoying what everyone has rendered so far! I just moved last weekend, and trying to catch up with some of my favorite threads as I find stuff I need in boxes. Plus the new gallery!

Jason: WOW! Your experiment with Marsa looks outstanding! Thanks also for the mask; I'm playing around with it now if that's ok. I assumed so since you attached it. :)

Doc: The barn scene is awesome! It reminds me of Back to the Future in a way. It just needs the Delorean crashed into it. On that note, won't it be great when we can emulate that type of collission within DS, rather than in postwork?

@Artini: If any/all of the characters are billboards, I couldn't tell at all. And I really like your custom height maps experiments!

@Fishtales: That alien scenery is very cool!

@Barbult: Congrats on the GPU! That was an awesome gift, and no one deserves it more than you.

@Gogger: I really like the portrait layout and style of the T-Rex scene, as it makes it even more huge and menacing!

@TangoAlpha: Your new product looks great! Looking forward to seeing it in the store. And thank you for the latest updates--You too Howie!

 

Jason Galterio

Thanks for the compliment. It took a lot of post processing, so MARSA isn't a flawless tool. But it was fun to experiment with.

Absolutely use it. Feel free. I have dozens of masks that I use for different experiments, as well as greyscales for the landscape generation.

The best thing you can do is see how that mask works, then start experimenting with your own.

alexhcowley

barbult said:

richardandtracy said:

I'd quibble with one word. Not 'excruciating' but 'comprehensive'. So much better than videos when it's all gone in a flash and you're left thinking 'Whaaaat!?!??!'

Regards,

Richard.

I appreciate the appreciation! My effort was not in vain.

I'm with Richard on this. There is a classic adage that goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. Not when it's a 720p video and the guy doing the narration whizzes through everything leaving you with no time to actually absorb anything.

Cheers, 

Alex. 

Artini

Thanks a lot, dawnblade, it's very kind of you.

 

barbult

I made a simple scene with Crossing 1 and Oaks 5. Then I used Alienator Pro to substitute other plants for the trees, daisies and some of the grass. Alienator Pro is even better than Alienator for this task, because it displays the dimensions of the original props and the substitute candidate props, so you can pick substitutes of about the same size as the original. I usually substitute wild colorful alien plants, but this time I went for something more tame.

richardandtracy

Thee's done it perfect. The first is good, the second image is superb.

Regards,

Richard.