Glacial Crevice WIP - Help with material and render settings

[peterC]

Hi
Ill post the maxfile tonite when i get home.

Peter

[djembe]

I've closed the glacier geometry as in this screenshot. I hope to spend time tomorrow developing the materials.



Joost: Thanks for the suggestion. I did indeed use the shell modifier. I cleaned up the resulting mesh in Silo to fix where polygons had rolled up along tight corners. Importantly, my original UVs remained intact.

Peter: Thanks man.

[jacksc02]

looks like something...... cant quite put my finger on it

[DaForce]

Yeah I have kept quiet about what it looks like.

[priad]

me too

[jacksc02]

cough cough

[pengo]

jacksc02

not conscious design (maybe)

[jacksc02]

maybe

[RErender]

Took you guys that long? Poor artists, always the jilted ones...

[djembe]

lol. Yeah, I almost didn't post this scene initially because of it's suggestive form.

My current series of paintings are all of glacial and geothermal features. In both cases, there is an inherent tendency for viewers to see familiar shapes. This is not unconscious nor meant to be as blatant as it appears in this context.

I certainly hope I haven't offended anyone.

[pengo]

I talk for me I feel not offended
instead u made me have funny reading with those last messages of the other users.
Really no problem for me
I hope to see it finished

[jacksc02]

yeah I have no problem with it, just thought I would state the obvious.
Do you have a link for any of your paintings, I would be very interested in seeing them

[peterC]

Hi
Sorry for being late with this
http://www.daddy-design.com/transfusion/glaciermat.zip
hope it helps.
Peter

[djembe]

It may be those who haven't commented who feel my geometry is prurient rather than artistic in nature. At any rate, you guys all have healthy imaginations by my measure. I'm innocent.

pengo: Thanks. I hope to see it finished too.

jacksc: Thanks for asking, but I don't have any paintings viewable online, sorry.

peter: Thanks. Your timing is just fine. (See below)

--

After more experimenting, I'm wondering if real, calculated translucency may simply not be well suited to a large slab of geometry that fills the entire scene. The test rendering times I'm getting are very high as soon as I enable translucency, even with fairly low refraction subdiv values and with displacement turned off.

I have a suspicion that I should use another method to suggest translucency instead. As examples: Dwayne's clever glacier material doesn't use translucency, but instead uses a Top/Bottom material, some mixed textures and a gradient. Likewise, Peter's clever glacier material doesn't use translucency. Instead it achieves its appearance with the combination of a Shadow/Light Falloff map in the diffuse slot and refraction with a blue fog color.

I'll go down these roads and see where they take me. Thanks for your patience everyone. I do intend to post another render, really.

[DaForce]

Why not try fastsss?