tsunami - New! with crows and a Fiat.

A quick render of a scene I started. It’s pretty dark in every way. But considering my last completed project was a candy cane village, I thought I would switch gears. I think a lot about our attitude and action toward the planet, and this piece is a reminder that we ought to consider the powers we are playing with.


nice! is that a photographic texture being applied for the foamy streaks on the water surface? i’d done something similar for a project, but i’m always keeping an eye out for new techniques!

if i had a bit of feedback, it would be that the lightning, being the primary light source in the scene should probably be more luminescent.

@shteeve. Thanks.

Yeah the lightening isn’t quite right. The bolt is fully modeled, and has facing mix of emission and transparent, but I need to figure it out. The real light source is a washed out hdri. The ocean foam is made with a tileable black and white mask I made from a photograph (guilty as charged.) That mixes glass with diffuse mostly. There is also procedural noise in that mix. I’ll experiment with some sss now that it’s gpu supported, and I may also add some modeled foam bubbles using the mask as a density map. I plan on redoing the trees for a really convincing silhouette. They are pretty much the only true shape in the scene, so I’d better get those looking better.

nice action render! I didn’t notice the body in the water right off the bat.

Thanks modron. At this size it’s pretty subtle.

Wow, very candid style action shot. Nice work!

This is looking great. I think the lighting is a bit too light, you could make it a lot more dramatic and not so fun to play in, by darkening up the lights and giving the lightning more contrast.

Is this for the BG contest?

@shadow, thanks.

@Tardis AMaker. Thank you. I’ve agonized over the lightening, as technically the mist/haze is so strong that it shouldn’t be showing. Yet it looks really good. I wish I saw this post earlier, as I had already rendered out two composites to photoshop and the lightening was weaker in them. I did darken the lights as you suggest. I will consider cranking the contrast on the lightening next render.

And yes, I plan on entering it in the BG contest.

Other changes, redid tree bark and leaves. Moved the body. I think there is a natural draw to the center of the piece where the lines converge, and then a traveling up the wave to the right. It’s my hope that the body comes a little bit as a suprise. I may submerge it even more.


Glad my post was useful. You darkened up the lights for the next render?

How about adding a building in the distance? Maybe a few breaking apart. Maybe even one in the foreground. Just something to give a bit more depth.

Well I changed the levels in photoshop. On this next test, I am actually going to darken the white foam color in the nodes. The sea foam is created with a mask so I can have hex level control on the foam material.

I’m experimenting with a much darker volume scatter and more powerful lightening. The contrast is striking (pun intended!) although it also has a bit of a fake feel to it. Even with gpu on the volumetrics it’s still a very slow render. I’m red lining the memory.

As for houses and other background elements I am going to add some. Because of the heavy scatter I can drop in low poly and never notice.

Here’s a viewport thumbnail:


Looking pretty good so far. Good Luck with the BG contest.

Thanks spanishrose. I did some experiments and think i am going to go with something close to this. Added a house, and gave the lightening more contrast, but the spray haze being as it is visibility is only about 200 yards. I also added a smoke sim at the top of the wave.


A unique scene for sure Photox. I read you were struggling with the lightning, the branches look good to my eye, but I wonder if there is a touch too much yellow. The tree branches look much better in this latest render.

Thanks harley. I forgot how much fun smoke sims are, hello tornado!

This is the latest version. I can’t tell if I am destroying it.


In my personal opinion I prefer this one. /uploads/default/original/4X/9/a/9/9a9eba6083b2bb16f7433d9ef0084b678aa54b89.jpgd=1414702938&thumb=1
Except with the wave changes you made to this one. /uploads/default/original/4X/d/b/b/dbb3f1a1590f8217fe2b87f0488ebbf7f5931f75.jpgd=1414778305&thumb=1

Because your thunder looks better in that first one but the waves/mist were improved in the second. I also feel like the part where the tree meets the water should have some mist/water splashing around it.
All of which is just my opinion. It all looks awesome though. Good luck!

the lightning isn’t affecting the scene at all… there’s a really bright purple-ish hue all over the place whenever lightning.

Like pranavjitvirdi said, Lightning usully illuminates everything with a blueish light. I’ve never seen yellow lightning, I think that’s the main problem with it looking cartoonish.

When someone looks at the image, you probably want them to be distressed by the distruction. Take a look at some reference.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lightning&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=DSZWVMejNYGPyASppYKQAg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=1041

What I see when I look at these, is the lightning being so bright that it comes out as white, that means that when you render it out with a format like exr, that keeps the values above one, you should probably see really high values (above one) where the lightning is. Almost all the lightning there is also is making the clouds that it’s coming out of glow like crazy. It also illuminates everything else.

Hope this helps.

Ok thanks guys. Here’s a test with very strong blue/purple emission, and all the other lighting turned almost to 0. I live in florida and I see yellow lightening every night, but I guess it’s more of a florida heat lightening thing. This render is different for sure and I lose my ocean but there is something nice about it. The lightening center is almost pure white.


I guess I’m really mixed on this last render, to me it takes away a lot of the things that I thought were really great about earlier renders. Specifically the great looking foam you had and some very good looking waves. IMHO post #12 is my favorite.

I think what has happened is maybe your trying to make the lightining the main focus, and in reality it should be the power of the water.