Avalon Circle

cyphyr · February 09, 2013, 10:01:42 PM

Getting there

I'm doing another render now with some tweaks, fixing the evenness of the grass, the position of the circle and the god rays in the midground.

The henge circle (ring and ditch) is on a hill nowadays called Stone Down and although no excavation has ever been conducted it would be the perfect place to observe the path of the sun at Winter Solstice as it tracks up one side of the Tor, the large hill on the left of the image, and down the other appearing to roll along its silhouette. Old maps do show a scattering of stones simple marked as "stone", very few remain today or can be found easily. Local legend not only speaks of this but also of an avenue of oaks leading to the foot of the Tor. Two of these remain, Gog and Magog. If I can figure out a reasonable route for this I may try to add this in too.

Thanks for looking and as always C&C very welcome.

Cheers

Richard

yossam · February 09, 2013, 10:46:37 PM

I really like this, the lighting is great.

Kadri · February 10, 2013, 12:21:01 AM

Nice image!
Curious about the new render Richard.

zaxxon · February 10, 2013, 01:29:44 AM

Really, really, really nice!

Dune · February 10, 2013, 04:11:27 AM

Well, you know I can't take my eyes of stuff like this, Richard. Terrific, makes me want to do something like that again. May I; I think the ring may need a little wear, it's very 'clean'. And I believe you have some trees in the water?

mhaze · February 10, 2013, 05:50:14 AM

This is a fantastic series of works and this is, I think, the best of them. Are you using more than one light source? as the position of the sun and the shadows cast by the trees don't seem to match.

Jo Kariboo · February 10, 2013, 07:17:04 PM

I very like this one for the light and the effect of fog in the trees. Very nice point of view to !!!

cyphyr · February 11, 2013, 09:36:25 PM

A little update, pretty much finished I think although I am doing another render overnight LOL, for one thing the ground is now too lumpy ...

C&C very welcome.
Cheers
Richard

Oh by the way render time is 10 hours 30min
Detail 0.8
AA 6
GI 3 3 8

Jo Kariboo · February 12, 2013, 01:44:02 AM

A other beautifull render !!!

Dune · February 12, 2013, 03:58:09 AM

Absolutely great, Richard! Another one copied to my favorites folder for inspiration. Did you use a low thin cloud layer to catch the rays?

mhaze · February 12, 2013, 04:08:12 AM

Brilliant! one of my favorite renders of all time!

Kadri · February 12, 2013, 04:47:29 AM

Great!

cyphyr · February 12, 2013, 06:45:28 AM

Thanks guys

The only "trick" with the clouds was FrankB's (I think?) suggestion about using a negative noise variation (-0.27), a very heavy coverage and some camera projected images to punch holes in the clouds to get the light to fall where I wanted.
Cheers
Richard

j meyer · February 12, 2013, 11:22:29 AM

Great indeed! Nice cult place.

cyphyr · February 12, 2013, 01:39:00 PM

Ok, here's the final! Woo n' stuff.
Minor post for dof and some colour adjustments.
I've had a couple of requests for posters so I may render this at a higher res. If I do I wonder if I could get away with lowering the detail, AA and GI settings just a little.
Thanks for looking.
Richard