Blender again

[Lúthien]

[...] This is a first attempt and I could not resist adding those kitchy effects to the halo, so please forgive me

By "kitchy effects" do you mean the star-like diffraction spikes?

Indeed; both the diffraction spikes and the lens flare rings. I feel about them as a bit kitschy because, basically, it is just an added effect and a bit too glib to my taste - not least because I am still not satisfied with the light and glow itself.
What I mean is - you know, something like when people want to visualise a romantic scene and they use this soft-focus effect ... used very sparingly, those effects can indeed contribute to an image but it is so easily overdone.

They are in the original source description:

[...] and its blossoms did not hang in clusters but were like separate flowers growing each on fine stems that swung together, and were as silver and pearls and glittering stars and burnt with a white light

Oh yes, that IS true. But I think I'll try and visualise that with a little bit less "bling"
The flowers aren't in there yet anyhow.

In the standard equation for EM radiation intensity, Intensity ∝ 1/distance²

But as we've both noticed, what we're observing in the Imaginal is closer to Intensity ∝ distance², but as your analogy to the strong force points out, the equation is probably not that simple -- perhaps a limiting function has to be applied to the exponent?

I'd say that at a certain distance range it seems to be like intensity x distance. But indeed that cannot just go on like that; from a certain distance the luminosity does indeed start to decrease with distance.

Can Blender vary these parameters? If not, i know that Mathematica can; to get the basic equation, or for test cases numeric solutions.

For the point and spot lights, yes: see the manual page about it on http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2 ... ttenuation

There are quite a lot of options available. Maybe the most interesting one for this use is "custom curve".
I made a quick test of a plane with a few cubes, illuminated by a point light that has a bell falloff curve, starting from nothing, increasing to a maximum at a certain distance, and falling back to nothing further away again.
The light itself is (as always) invisible, but it is above the center of the light ring:

What I'm thinking is that if you can find the right exponent by comparing your memories of visual images for different values of the exponent, we may be able to get a more accurate idea of what may be going on (I have an idea that this may be related to cognitive 'reception', but I don't have enough data to form a non-trivial postulate).

I think that that approach might work quite well indeed. The only limitation is that these customized falloff settings apply to point and spot lights only, not to indirect lighting by luminous objects (such as in my previous post with the luminous leaves).

What might work very well is to use indirect lighting with the leaves, and add one of those custom falloff lights to every flower. The leaves would then illuminate the direct surroundings of the mound, but the light of the blossoms would carry far and illuminate the whole scene.

That actually sounds quite good ... I like it.

[Eruannlass]

Suilad ~

It's always enjoyable to see your Blender renderings, Melleth, and these are no exception. There certainly is a lot that can be achieved with this program. Those examples you posted look like photographs. Of course, I found the one of the white room and piano at John Lennon's Tittenhurst Park to be quite impressive.

As for the Trees, each variation that you've made has elements resonant to my own experiences at Corollaire. I've also seen the Trees as being very bright from afar, but possible to look at closely when sitting beneath them. I enjoyed seeing the 'kitschy' star~like illumination, because while it may not be that prolific, it is there. Perhaps just centered on one part of the tree, like the flowers, as cited in the latest Lore passage meneldur posted.

I look forward to seeing your continued refinements of the Trees, and the other landscapes as well.

Eruannlass

[Lúthien]

Experimenting with unnatural lightening ...



It turns out that, in the Cycles raytracing rendering engine of Blender, you can manipulate the light using the material & rendering nodes. For example: in nature, the light intensity falls off with the inverse square of the distance: something two times as far away is illuminated four times less bright.
If you want to create an illustration of the Trees from JRR Tolkien's Silmarillion, this is a bit of a problem: for the light of the Two Trees was supposed to illuminate maybe not all of Aman, but at least the central portion of it. If that light would have followed the same sort of fall-off laws, even when Corollaire would have been unbearably brightly lit, the rest would still be way too dark.

Enter the constant light fall-off option in said nodes - among other things, it's possible to separate the light that the camera sees directly from light that's bounced off diffuse surfaces. So, the "reflected" light can be routed via a constant intensity fall-off route while the direct camera light can be left in the default quadratic fall-off position. This has the overall effect that the emitted light that illuminates the world around the tree doesn't weaken with the distance. It still casts shadows, of course, so eventually the circle of light is still somewhat limited. But that's OK. The direct camera-light cannot be done that way because it would completely oversaturate the image, leaving only washed-out white "holes"; but with that light following a regular path it works well.

This is just a very rough generated landscape with one grass texture, and a tree with a handful of leaves - just to try the concept.
And Telperion, of course, with just leaves - no flowers.

The 1 x 4 x 9 sized black slab appears courtesy of Arthur C. Clarke

PS Facebook, I wasn't with anyone in particular while doing this. Or maybe I was. Whatever, it's none of your business. Just as "where" I was. Blehhhh! *long nose*

[Calantirniel]

I saw this thread the other day as it showed up in my email (for some reason), and then another artist friend of mine says he is looking into this program: http://curvy3d.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and I wondered if you knew anything about this one! Can't wait to see your further developments with the Two Trees design! :-)

[Eruannlass]

Suilad ~

This is an interesting reckoning of how the light of the Trees would spread around the Blessed Realm. I've noticed that, regardless of the medium, whenever any of us put our minds to an artistic expression of the Realm, insights about what we're working on just flow through it. It's strikes me as a place where, through our sub~creation, we connect to the Imaginal, and are able to bring back some 'faery gold.'

Eruannlass

[Lúthien]

I saw this thread the other day as it showed up in my email (for some reason), and then another artist friend of mine says he is looking into this program: http://curvy3d.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and I wondered if you knew anything about this one! Can't wait to see your further developments with the Two Trees design! :-)

Ah hi Lisa, sorry I did not see this post before. I was just away on holiday when you posted it.
I haven't seen that program (curvy3d) before .. I actually hardly look at any other programs because Blender offers anything I'd ever want - and it is free as well.
By the look of it, it seems like a decent product, targeted at people who want to avoid the higher learning curve of Blender or Maya:

Many computer users think that traditional 3D modeling programs such as Blender or Maya have a high learning curve. Novice users often have difficulty creating models in traditional modeling programs without first completing a lengthy series of tutorials. Sketch based modeling tools aim to solve this problem by creating a User interface which is similar to drawing, which most users are familiar with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketch-based_modeling

I'm now working on a regular image - I'll post it as asap.

[Lúthien]

Suilad ~

This is an interesting reckoning of how the light of the Trees would spread around the Blessed Realm. I've noticed that, regardless of the medium, whenever any of us put our minds to an artistic expression of the Realm, insights about what we're working on just flow through it. It's strikes me as a place where, through our sub~creation, we connect to the Imaginal, and are able to bring back some 'faery gold.'

Indeed, that is exactly what is happening - such has ever been my experience!