I have an entry.... Final

[mhaze]

Thanks Dune.

[mhaze]

Before I get in to final tweaking, I would like your comments. 

The funny building with a pole sticking out of it is a Viking lighthouse!

The clouds on the mountain use the cloud following terrain tut from Martin very useful and gives some interesting results.

The picture is just over 2 Megs and I'll have to make it even smaller to get down to 2Megs, So there's quite a lot of detail loss.

[Kevin F]

Great moody scene. Love the sparkly ice  - good luck!

[choronr]

Your attention to detail here is very evident here Mick, this is a job well done.

[Oshyan]

Love the beach, the runoff/meltwater (?), and aurora reflected!

For your image, get XnView (free, multi-platform), load your original TIFF output (or if you're outputting EXR and tonemapping or something, then save as 8 bit TIFF from there and load in XnView), and then use Export function on the File menu with the JPEG options. You can get very high quality output with good compression (reasonably file size) using the right settings there. I recommend:
DCT Method: Float (best but slowest)
Remove All Metadata: checked (yes)
Smoothing Factor: 0
SubSampling Factor: 1x1, 1x1, 1x1 (best quality)
Progressive: checked (enabled) - this one is fine either way, it only saves a small amount of file size
Optimize Huffman Table: checked (enabled)

Then try Quality slider setting of 85-95, check the preview above for quality (right-side is output, left-side is original, compare the two, make sure you zoom to 100% first though).

You can also use Photoshop's Save for Web feature, but XnView is free if you don't have it.

- Oshyan

[Dune]

Nice update. Is the flame procedural? And the smoke? There are one or two things that may need some attention, IMHO. If the smoke is procedural, which I think, I would make it angle up, not go straight up. That's not hard to do. And the dips around the boats are quite large and similar, if you used a simple shape, why not give it some (not too fine, strong fractal) warp, and make them a bit smaller, like the small currents around the boats, when the tide was higher, have washed away some sand.

[mhaze]

Hi All

Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions, as others have said it really helps - I get so involved with the image it's hard to detach myself enough to "see it".

Thanks for the tip Oshyan I'll try that, the melt run off is a painted shader.  Dune, the flame (3 localized cumulus clouds) and smoke are procedural.  I have had absolutely no luck in trying to bend the smoke, I'll continue to try though.  I like your idea for the the dips around the boats I'll have a go at that.  Mind if the node network gets any more complex my brain will short out!

[Dune]

Yeah, I know, after a certain time of perfecting, the nodes tend to get tangly. Best to keep it clean from the start, and name all!
You can bend the smoke by using a distribution shader, or distance shader pointing up, so you get a grayscale from black at ground level to white at the level you want the smoke to go really sideways. Then vector displace by this, thru warp shader.

[mhaze]

Cheers Dune,  I've already discovered most of that, just got to perfect it and clean it up.  It's amazing how you manage to push me into new areas!  I've sorted the sand it took me a while to understand what you meant then I remembered my youth on the coast.  I still have to clean it up but that's just detail and pushing the seed button.  I do name the nodes, it's the complexity of masking something with several other things that gets me tangled :  

[mhaze]

It's amazing how long you can go on making the same mistake over and over again - tearing your hair out in the process - then the penny drops and the solution is obvious... 

[Dune]

Indeed, the need of 'submasks' make it more complicated, adding more and more merge shaders, until so many lines are crossing, it gets dizzying. Especially hard if some masks are inversed halfway.

[mhaze]

I tend to use multiply,add and subtract colour blue nodes for combining masks - easier to see what is going on.

[Dune]

Yes, but that takes more trying of blue nodes if you're not sure yet what equation is most useful, and you can't partly or 'masked merge' then. But it sure is handy for straight simple equations.

[mhaze]

True, but I generally know what I need and if I don't I use merge. I find multiply colour the most useful as it gives a better B/W blend..

[mhaze]

OK candidate for final entry.

Thanks to all for your very helpful comments.  Dune for pushing me into new areas and his helpful tops and hints.  Dandelo for the background and snow. Martin for his "cloud following terrain" tutorial.