Hey all,
Im working on some continued Rnd into modeling and rendering clouds. Just wanted to share my results. Im pretty happy with the shading setup now, so I’m moving into development of different cloud types, by elevation and droplet size/density. These are still pretty low resolution but Im starting to get up there.
cheers,
Matt
Clouds are tricky. I used to mess around with environmental stuff years ago and back then the algorithms were terribly slow, based on ray-marching. Perhaps it was just my old CPU. I guess things have moved on a lot since then. You’ve done a great job. I wonder if you can get the edges of the cloud to be a little crisper and less soft looking? Cumulus tends to look like this in strong light.
These look amazing.
Do you have other types in mind as well? Cirrus and stratus clouds, for example?
I’m curious about the techniques you’re using to achieve these, both the modeling and the lighting!
thanks guys… I’m definitely working on other cloud types including some massive thunderheads with much higher density ranges, which are what give really hard edges to the clouds, almost like a solid surface.
I’m building these all in houdini, both manually and dynamically (depending on the cloud type) with some customs tools. They are then exported into a library that Im assembling as VDB files and then rendered through various renderers (arnold, octane, maxwell, mantra, etc.).
For these specifically, I built a special material in Maxwell, which at the moment is my focus because of its ability to do some things with volumes that I haven’t found anywhere else. Plus, I’m also absolutely in love with maxwell and love to use it every chance it get 
I’ll share more images when i finish some additional types.
cheers,
Matt