Tropic Sunset

[GunnerMan]

Well the Moon Lake tut inspired me to attempt something similar with a tropic setting.

So here is what I came up with, im still extremely bad at making my own atmospheres, im learning and practacing though! So this is a premade one...

Now the scene is just about done but I want to refine the sand a bit and make it appear underwater a bit so it is beach and not a hard edge like I have

[kepli]

Very nice setting :D

I think the water up front is a bit too blue and bright for this shot.

[aegean]

Have to agree with Kep about the colour of the water in the fore ground, but ı do really like it when the trees reflect dark blue further back.

Is it possibleto puta small greenish terrain under the water in the foreground to darken it a tad? but I do agree with you that the water to land transition in the foreground / Island is a bit "sharp", wish I could suggest something, but I will be watching this thread to see if anybody has any good ideas for this.

ae

[vovka]

I acualy lice blue color, it is nice contrast, but island adge littlbe to sharp for my test.

[GunnerMan]

I agree vovka but im not sure exactly how to soften up the edge some.

It did cross my mind that the foreground water was a bit to bright. It looks good the way it is but im going to try and darken it up some, try and find a happy medium.

Ill expirement with softening up the edge today.

[GunnerMan]

I attempted to darken up the water and add the underwater sand look that these tropic beaches have. What i discovered was that neither worked well in vue. The sand I got looking OK but with the clear water material it just added another hard edge underwater for me to deal with plus it just didin't look right. Well it didn't look right because it dosen't happen in nature, I looked at some island photos and nearly all of them have darker water so you cant see under it. The beaches have a hard edge but not hard like mine, there is enough randomness to make it look real.

So my solution to darken up the water did not come from VuE(although it is possible) I used the Burn tool in photoshop at very low exposures 13% and less and a larger soft brush and just kind of darkened up the bright area a little bit. Works well and I have a lot more controll over it rather than put a terrain in there for this case.
I attempted the blur tool along the edge of the shore but it wasint giving me a very good result. So if anyone has an idea for softeing up the edge im all ears. i will work on it throughout the day.

[vovka]

that's it, decrease reflectivity on water, so we can see smooth transition in water.

[GunnerMan]

Hmm it is set for 0% Global Reflectivity. I did reduce the transparency and that darkened it up nicely but took away from that bright sunset feel I had and didnt blend enough to justify. I guess ill stick with burn and blur for this one.