Nebel Tutorial

As several people asked for a fog tutorial, now here it is.

Fog is one of the easiest stylistic devices and also easy to realize as effect in Terragen.

The settings for fog can be found by the atmospheric stettings.

There are several reasons for using fog. Some are:

  • hiding of transitions between land and water
  • stylistic device for the atmosphere of an image
  • strengthening of rays
  • generating of atmosphere for planets



1. Ground Fog

Ground fog is very helpful for hiding of transitions between land and water and contributes a lot to the atmosphere of an image.

As example following images are A: without and B: with ground fog.

A
B

Following settings were used for "Simple Haze" in order to create the ground fog:

  • Density: 99%
  • Half-heigh: 142,0 m

These two settings have to be adjusted to the corresponding terrain. For low fog for example the half-height has to be reduced, or for mist (lighter fog) the density has to be reduced.



Strengthening of rays through higher fog

It often happens that rays are there, but only come out weak. This can easily be remedied by higher fog.

Again two images as example A: without fog and B: with higher fog for strengthening of the rays.

A
B

Although it looks like only the sun was strengthened (which would also be a way), simply the fog was raised in the right image. The stronger sun results from the reflection of the sun in the fog.

The effect isn't very strong, but sometimes very helpfull.

Settings here:

  • Density: 25%
  • Half-heigh: 1499,2 m

Again the settings have to be adjusted to the corresponding terrain.


Effects through fog

Fog sometimes makes interesting effects, such as the "flame effect" in this image. Certainly not a 100 % result, but nevertheless a possibility for turning out more interesting images.

Again example images A: without fog and B: with fog.

A
B

For this effect again ground fog was used in connection with rays from the side in interplay with glow effect.

The fog "refracts" the light of the glow and forms such "flames" together with the fog in case of the right point of view.


Strange light-effects are working with fog too.

Again example images A: without fog and B: with fog.

A
B

As well ground fog parallel with rays and again "blur effects" that make the lighting of the image more interesting.


It has to be remarked that there is no magic recipe for use of fog. If and how an image or an effect shows depends on the terrain used and the settings for light and colour.


download Tutorial