Keep Out! (potential NWDA entry?)

[Kevin F]

Here's a new one that I've been working on for a while.
C&C welcome as usual. Heavy use of objects here.
Might put this up for the NWDA competition?

thanks for the objects go to:
boat = "Small wooden craft bark boat vessel" - 3d model
ferns = Walli
other veg = Xfrog
birds = TerrAde
Skulls and people - Poser5 freebies

Thanks to all of you.

[deepdish]

SCARY!

The only thing I think you should add is a bit of diversity to the riverbank, either through colors or fake stones

this is really original and great though 

[MacGyver]

Yes, this makes definitely for a scary scene
Like your use of the fern here, I noticed it instantly as I rendered some images with it too
I personally miss some action in the background or to say differently, some more variety. Good start, very imaginative!

[FrankB]

Hey Kevin, if you are looking for some advice: the idea for the scene is really original, and especially the muddy water is not seen oten around here, but the image is lacking impression of depth, if you allow me to be honest about it. The depth works well from the foreground to the skulls, but after that is looking rather flat. My eyes can't find the right anchors to get an idea about scale beyond that point.
If you want to have an easy time, you could place trees right behind or even at these  poles with the skulls, so that we can only see some tall trunks, and some groundcover mixed in between. So essentially, you'd only have a small area to oversee. Could be cool actually.

You could blend the colors and light away with a distance shader, as we look deeper into the woods.

Cheers,
Frank

[Henry Blewer]

Great advice. I like this image.

[Tangled-Universe]

I agree with Frank and deepdish. The idea is very good and original, the muddy water is very nice and the image is indeed built up nicely.

Regarding the "lack of depth" to simply put it: perhaps you should increase the size of trees in the background. Try to make the atmosphere a bit hazy to a level that you just can see the "5th row" of the trees if you know what I mean. Preferable you would be able to see very little of the atmosphere. A slight overcast will make it very powerful I think.

I agree with deepdish about the waterbed, it looks a bit 2D and I think if you add some fake stones and variation and color it will look much better. There are some good clips available through the forums here and you still have plenty time.

Looking forward to see your next version.

Martin

[Henry Blewer]

Maybe some debris or leaves floating on the water would help. The shadow from these would help establish depth.

[tumasch]

Agree with what has been said before. Additionally, I think the skulls themselves look too white, they could use some work perhaps.

[Kevin F]

Thanks for the comments folks. The comments about the sense of depth are appreciated. I did think that the three "natives" would give a sufficient feeling of depth, but they would have to be placed so far back in the wooded area that they would be too small to distinguish. As for fake stones – I have them already they were just disabled. As for the skulls - I had lots of problems with them and this version is just the easiest. I'll work on that.
Back to the drawing board!

[Henry Blewer]

These guys are tough. But, the comments are very constructive.

[rcallicotte]

Oversaturated, but original.  Maybe the sense of depth is related to the oversaturation, which might mean your atmospheric settings or even your camera lens width.  You know, like with a camera, when your lens is really tight (high numbers like telescopic) the impression of depth is incrementally neutralized the bigger the lens.  It's possible a wider lens (smaller numbers) might help with a sense of depth, as well.

[Kevin F]

Here's an updated version addressing some of the comments made here earlier.
C&C welcome.

[Henry Blewer]

It's better. I wonder if the DOF difficulty has to do with the scale of your objects and terrain. It could be that everything is so tight that the atmosphere settings are not getting a chance. Is the object scale on the populations 1? That would make everything really close together.
I try to make things large, get the atmosphere settings, clouds, and terrain shaders done first. When that looks good, I add the objects, scaling them up to fit what I have in mind.

[FrankB]

is that a moonlight scene now?
Interesting and different. You should now ensure that there's some jungle behind that first line of trees, or add many more trees behind that, so block the view to the background.

Frank

[deepdish]

the new view is a huge improvement. If you have the full version (unlike me  ) then you might be able to add some grass, ground cover around the middle-ground bushes to break up the uniformity. Maybe you could vary the scale of the larger plants in the population settings to make it look more natural (or random)

I'm loving it though