Rainier

[ProjectX]

Don't expect a realistic render guys. This one is another mountain / lake / sunsetty render. The stones looked a lot more like seaweed in the preview window, I can tell you. Perhaps increasing the displacement offset...

Anyway, other than some colour touch ups in photoshop this is a TG render entirely. The clouds are standard cumulus given a decent cloud depth (approx. 2500m) and stretched slightly in the Y axis. Expect another shot of this fantastic terrain (thanks Bigben!) soon.

[efflux]

Good POV but not as good as the two you last posted over at Renderosity. Look at the thumbs and think about how nice they look before you even see the full size. Very nice and balanced compositions. The wide format was cool for the scenes. On this render hold a piece of paper up to block out the top third. I think it looks better. I'm not sure the stretched clouds helps the realism and it looks a little indistinct and blurry but it's cool to try something else. Were the clouds more orange tinted initially as is suggested by the reflections? It looks like too much is in shadow but I see a kind of style in this. White mountain tops create a situation where you can have dark hills against lighter background and light hills against a darker background - great for interesting compositions and plays of depth. I hope I'm not seeming to critical but just my opinions on a very nice atmosphered image.

[rcallicotte]

Looks a lot like a water color.

[efflux]

Agree with Calico. The stretched clouds aid this I guess. I think you have a style coming on which could be very good.

[ProjectX]

Thanks for the crits, this is just what I need to improve my images, the clouds were originally slightly (but only very slightly) more orange than they are now. I'll consider cropping to widescreen again for this image, and I'll play around with a few things to see what gets results. I quite like the clouds myself, but agree that they are certainly too blurry, perhaps increasing cloud density might help, while retaining this strange style.

[efflux]

Hi ProjectX.

I have a lot of opinions on what final renders look like in terms of colours, composition, mood etc because I come from a traditional art background. I just hope it's not seen as too critical if I comment a lot on these things. It can make a world of difference without even changing the contents of your scene much but just altering things like POV, lighting etc. Some people have an eye for it anyway without even having any traditional skills. Great photographers don't necessarily have any drawing or painting skills but they still know how to get a good picture.

In my opinion the reason the picture looks better with some cropped of the top is because the open blue sky is too much. When cropped you have a better balanced composition with better feeling of depth with that dark foreground area. The previous picture you posted also has a very painterly quality. Something you should try to retain. I like it. I think, over at renderosity for example, comments are too weighted on technicalities rather than whether it's simply a good picture or not.

[ProjectX]

don't worry about being over-critical, I love criticism, it helps me make better renders. Thanks for all the helpful insights you've posted here, I'm definitely going to play around with the file a bit more, to see what i can do with it.

[Harvey Birdman]

I like the depth of field effect the smeared clouds give. It's different. Maybe not photorealistic, but cool nonetheless.

[sjefen]

It dos look like water color. I like it.

[dhavalmistry]

looks like the sky is falling.....everybody RUN!!!