Antarctic scene

[schmeerlap]

The slanting tower is an Inverse Crater with directional displacement. This side of it to the right is another deep crater. The flat island terrain is an image map with displacement. In the background is a fractal terrain masked with a black/white image map. And the clouds are kept in the background with a Distance Shader. Added some green (simple Surface Shader) on the bed of the shallow water to simulate some organic growth there; probably could have done that better.

John

[schmeerlap]

Sorry, couldn't see a way to delete the above pictureless upload; so here is the pic I intended to upload.

John

[nvseal]

The atmosphere looks really nice. It has a very appropriate barren feel and a nice scale. The big pillar in the middle looks really good too. I only have two problems. One, I think the water transparency should be blue. The green kind of clashes with the rest of the scene as is and a blue would seem more realistic IMHO(kind of like this http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/antarctic-wonderland.jpg). But then again it is your scene, though you may want to try and compare the looks . Second, the mountains in the background seems to appear and disappear rather abruptly (looks a little too much like a displacement rather than a mounatain), I think they should be lowered or better integrated into the scene some how. Good work so far, again the pillar looks really good and fits the scene really well.

[Tangled-Universe]

I agree with the comment above.

You could try to add an alpine shader (for example), still restrict it by distance, but make it along the whole horizon.
With the proper distance shader settings there will also be a kind of a build-up for the heighth of the alpines.

The water transparency could be better indeed, though I don't find it really disturbing.

The tower looks amazing. I really like it. Great displacements and good shading as well.
Atmo and lighting are just fine. So in overall I think this is good work.
Looking forward to see your update

Martin

[rcallicotte]

Everything looks perfect to me, except the dots in the snow in the foreground.  You could use a Distance Shader to move those away from the front of the scene.

I like seeing terrains that are similar to Earth, but not the same.  This is very cool.

[Oshyan]

A  very cool and for the most part highly realistic scene. I agree mostly with the comments about the background mountains - they should be a bit shorter and blue and translucent if they're meant to be iceberg, or they should be more contintuous along the horizon if they are truly mountains. The water transparency could be more blue to be a realistic earth equivalent, but I do not think it looks bad green either. The pillar is certainly the stand-out element of the scene and nothing there needs to change. I personally also like the texture of the snow in the foreground, including the "dots", as it adds nice detail in my opinion. Great work.

- Oshyan

[Volker Harun]

The overall scene-setup is imo flawless, as the eye gets caught.
I do agree with the critiques - for the realism part.
I disagree in form of some surreal fanship ,-)

Volker

[schmeerlap]

I disagree in form of some surreal fanship ,-)

I don't understand this comment. Please clarify, Volker.
I made some alterations guided by the critiques.

John

[nvseal]

Much much better, the mountain in the background makes all the difference. Great work.

[sanosoke]

I disagree. . .

The first image had a much nicer sense of scale. Because the mountains behind were so far back, it made this middle structure look mammoth. . .now I don't find my eyes are drawn to it.

I agree that the water should be blue, but I would be less subtle than this. Make it really blue, antarctic blue. Now I'm missing that little bit of color that was in the scene before, and it looks a little plain.

Lastly, now I think these foreground stones/platforms .. .whatever they are look much more repetitive. I liked it more before when it looked more random (due to the POV) and I think it was more realistic then.

[Mahnmut]

I totally agree with sanosoke concerning the distribution of the flat structures and the colour.
But besides the less antarctic look (imho) I also like the second version, it looks to me like a colony of stromatolites "surprised" by a blizzard.
Maybe the Tower is the mother of all stromatolites, I´ve read they once grew that big, but where more conical.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolite

Best regards,
Jan

[buzzzzz1]

For me the first one wins the prize.   

[rcallicotte]

Very nice.  Sensational.  Both are nice, but I prefer the latter.

[inkydigit]

both are excellent..I can't decide which I prefer!

[Oshyan]

I'm with Sanosoke on all points, but I like both regardless.

- Oshyan