Realistic Ice Effect in Kerkythea

[swedishnitro]

Hi all,

I'm currently working on a piece from the HBO/Popular book series Game of Thrones as a present for a friend. For those of you who watch the show or read the books, I'm eventually working towards a view of the Wall looking towards the Shadow Tower. So far I've been experimenting with Protude.rb and Greeble 2 to create a huge monolithic wall several hundred feet high made of ice. I'll be refining the process over time, as well as adding more details.

My question is; has anyone done any realistic looking ice (more like glacier solid ice rather than translucent ice) in Kerkythea? I'd be particularly interested in materials settings.

Thanks!

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[tridem]

I cannot recall anyone having shared such a material...there's a translucent library in the KT site but the ice is quite transparent there.
Ice and snow can appear in very different ways indeed, have you a reference image?

[charly2008]

Hi Jordan,

One possibility is the frosted glass in Kerkythea. You should experiment with this glass. It would be nice if you show your results later.

Charly

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[swedishnitro]

@tridem - probably something like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Upsala_Glacier_3.jpg
and this http://my-blackberry.net/wallpapers/42/m/Ice_Cave%2C_Spencer_Glacier%2C_Alaska.jpg .

I want to get across the sheer monolithic monumentality of the wall itself (700 feet high 300 miles long!), which is why I'll be refining the block work so it's slightly smaller but obviously much larger than a person would be able to lift.

Thanks Charly, I'll look into that particular preset; I can do a bunch more post-processing in Photoshop when I get a half decent render out...

[tridem]

Agree with Charly, the frosted glass is a good starting point, with a very low transmitted shininess value. The IOR of ice is quite difference than glass, it should be 1,30...I wonder if it makes any noticeable difference.
Though, I think the hardest thing to figure out is how the surface should look

[EscapeArtist]

Ice needs to have blue SSS or translucency. The frosted glass is a good idea, as mentioned.

[tridem]

you're right, it's not going to be easy...in Kerky I'd say the translucent component corresponds to the transmitted with zero shininess, it's a sort of fake SSS since the final aspect is not related to the thickness. Nevertheless the correct parameters for SSS (the panel "fog") are a bit difficult to be managed, and very time consuming