Wintry Roman scene

[TheBadger]

I really like the landscape. Only thing I don't like is the dead tree (just doesn't read as really part of the rest) and the tower does give a point of interest and everything, but kinda steals some of the glory from the terrain, a little, in a way.

The bridge works great for me though, pretty perfect regardless of what period its from.

About the christmas card thing... Curious what period of Roman history that tower represents? Not that it would bother me, but if it is from "Pagan" Rome, and it is for a christmas card, you may want to be sure of your metaphors.  On the other hand, maybe you are exactly sure of what you want to say, and are saying it very smartly? Could go a lot of ways with it if one wanted to... Which does make the image much more interesting.

Heaven forbid an artist makes art.

[Dune]

Thanks. First, the muddy ice is from Kevin's ice, and indeed it has a very nice color/texture. I'll have a look at the clouds, though I wanted to have these wintry soft clouds, I admit they are a bit 'simple'. The tower is one of a continuous row of watchtowers (every few hundred meters) the Romans put at the northern border of their empire, which happened to be along one of our main rivers around the years -100...200. In the distance there's a 'castellum' (fortress).
And no it actually has nothing to do with X-mas whatsoever, apart from the snow 

Some tests at sundown...

[inkydigit]

Top notch as ever Ulco!

[j meyer]

  Almost hear that guy mumbling and grumbling.

[TheBadger]

Nice

Almost hear that guy mumbling and grumbling.

LOL yeah. I think if we from today were all transplanted back in time to then, we would most of us, just drop dead.      I have no idea how to make my own shoes.

[Antoine]

The sunset version looks great too, excellent work !

David.

[AP]

The lighting and the sun looks quite interesting. It seems more realistic then what i typically am used to seeing.

[Dune]

Only, if getting this close, you see I made the watchtower for bigger distances. It needs a real roof, and even better beams of wood. And with a little more work I can take the snow off areas that are under the roof (simple shape mask, simple). Also some snow heaping against the fence is not too hard. This small 0.6+6 render (not even soft shadows) took 2 hours on an i7, quite long, probably due to the water/ice. If it's perfected, I'll leave it overnight.

Yes, these guys must have had a hard time. I don't even know if they were allowed to have a small fire... and no TG to play with in the long watch hours 

[DocCharly65]

A really great landscape again, Ulco!

I like all of the images. Each one has it's own "personality". Cool to have the view from the tower.

[dorianvan]

Wow! I hope Planetside gives you free software because your work is a great source of inspiration and advertisement. Also your forum help is fantastic. Thanks for all you do. You deserve the Planetside Award for excellence (if there was one)  IMHO

[Dune]

I am honored, Dorian, thanks.

[masonspappy]

Wonderfull image Ulco!

[Lady of the Lake]

I like the close up.  Somehow the scale of the log and the tower just don't jibe for me in the other.  That icy river is super.

[Dune]

The tower is 2 large stories high, so maybe max 10m, so the log is slightly bigger. Not too big for a decent tree. But you may have a point (there were more complaints about the log  ), I might take it out for a possible final.

[Dune]

I did some work on this again yesterday. Changed the tower roof, though I have to figure out if the tiles aren't a bit too large. I think they used pretty big tiles back then (60x25cm). Some small shrub are the wrong color, forgot to add 'real snow' to the branches.
I also changed Kevin's ice to a simpler version which reduced render time immensely. The small bumps and cracks in the ice made it hard to calculate.
Blue tint is PS, perhaps a bit too much.