Happy holidays, everyone

[sboerner]

This year's Christmas card. (There's a story behind this one. If I get it written up for my blog I'll share the link.)

Best wishes to all. Stay safe and here's hoping 2021 is an improvement over 2020.

[luvsmuzik]

Truly love this. I too have a few skating stories. Granddad skated the canal in Indiana early 1900s. He and friends would often race between bridges. We used his old double bladed trainers then later the black speed skates. Our yard would melt snow then freeze again giving us a small pond to skate on. Ponds and abundant lakes to try in my generation. Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2021!

[Dune]

What a wonderful scene! Thanks for your wishes and Merry Christmas and a good (much better) and healthy 2021 for you too!

[mhaze]

Brilliant! Happy Christmas and a great new year!

[sboerner]

Thanks, everyone. Had to finally deal with two concepts that had been eluding me: intersect underlying and subsurface scattering. Pretty sure I now understand them better than before. And impressed as ever with Terragen's capacity to render large, complex scenes.

Granddad skated the canal in Indiana early 1900s. He and friends would often race between bridges.

What a wonderful memory! I've seen several photos of people skating on the Erie Canal in Rochester around that time. Those were the days!

[Kevin F]

Agree with everybody: great scene and very appropriate. Have a merry christmas and a better new year than this one!

[RichTwo]

Yeah 2020 has been a real bee-othch...  We are hunkered down and doing our best - thanks, Steve and may you and yours stay well and prosperous!  And love the image!

[DocCharly65]

Best wishes for Christmas and the new year. And a "big like" for the great ice skating scene - wonderful!

[Jo Kariboo]

Beautiful scene ! Happy holiday !

[Hannes]

What a nice image!!! Merry christmas to you as well!

[masonspappy]

Looks like a fun image! Merry Christmas to you!

[sboerner]

I've been digging up a little more information about the story behind this picture and have decided to update it. One addition will be this early freighter. It was small, only about 19x2m, and could carry about 30 tons of cargo. (Another addition to the fleet!)

[DocCharly65]

I'm already looking forward to the next version(s)

[Dune]

Great ship again. I've been working on a new (old) rowing boat too, and still have to get to grips with bending a pre-UV'd hull (not using Substance painter yet). I may have to try another software than LW for it.

[sboerner]

Reworked the skater model to make him appear a little more travel-worn. His name is Lars Larson and he is from Stavanger, Norway. In reading up on information needed for this picture I've learned a little about distance skating, which is not very well known here but is very popular in Nordic countries and the Netherlands. So Lars is hopefully better equipped now for a long trip.