Not sure if this should be in here as bryce isn't the modeller used for most of it and its more of a scene creation question, but it is/will be rendered in bryce, so.... This pic is the environment part of a picture of a castle under attack I'm attempting (POV is the POV that the final pic will be taken from). The next stage (hopefully) will be to populate it (attackers/defenders/blah/blah). My brain has just about fried from looking at it, thus demolishing my own ability to look at it subjectively, and so.... is there anything else it desperately needs before the next stage or that I've overlooked?

Holy Cow, this is great! The POV rocks as does the modeling! For a critque my only point is while I think the background forest is great and the ground mats on the left are very realistic, the ground in the forefront middle against the castle wall needs some work. I can't wait to see this finished. LynnDee

Maybe a little volumetric fire as a source for the smoke, darker atmosphere for mood with some isolated light source effects? Something bugs me about the closest catapult, maybe a tiny bit of bump/tex. I had a ship like that,I added bump, didn't show up real well...and any increase looked like too much. The back drop trees are great, the modeling is good, scale looks good. I like the smoke and DOF. Probably going to be a render-bear with figures and additions. Nice Start, can't wait to see the finished product. ICM

I just noticed your little naked person. It looks pretty funny in the middle of all that war, but I know you just want it for scale. I'm wondering if there should be more equipment - stacks of arrows, rocks for the catapult, discarded armor and weapons. Of course, if that all comes under your 'populate with people' plan, then you can ignore this suggestion. I agree about the touch of fire and the foreground. Excellent pic, be sure to post the final and tell us about your render time nightmares. Lin

Yup, small stacks of equipment, quivers, etc. laying on the upper part of the castle. Try and match up your foreground trees and ground with the background a little more, it's close but it could get closer. More realistic wood texture on catapaults. Awesome work so far! Keep us updated on it. AgentSmith

Great job love your castle wall texture.

make the moat. maybe have bodies floating with blood around them, etc. get rid of the little green pillar things around the castle, because i don't know what they're supposed to be and they don't look realistic (for anything). short grass here and there maybe. put people in it. otherwise an awesome pov, great castle textues and smoke, etc.

oh yeah, and you migth want to batter the wall here and tehre, not just the towers :)

Center foreground ground - yeah, now that you mention it, it does look a bit iffy. But theres a strong possibility that it will be covered with swarming attackers and scaling ladders, so it may not be seen, but I will keep an eye on that. Catapult - Better wood texture/any wood texture. Yup. Dunno how I missed that one lol. Random equipment and catapult stones - coming with the populating, but thanks for the ideas - a few items I hadn't thought of. AgentSmith, Draculaz-> Oops, there are no foreground trees. A different view of the pre-attack castle and terrain is above (should've put this WIP pic in earlier) .... so the background trees (they are trees) are actually grounded below the castle elevation (in the valley at the foot of the cliff it sits on). The green bits are an "attempt" at some simple greenery that sticks up through the rocky ridge that the castle sits on. Once attackers go into the scene, I'm not sure how much of the "green pillars" are going to be seen, so may remove it totally. Moat - its a dry moat. Battered walls - hmm..... boolean bits out or post work it? Thanks for comments/ideas so far :)

Impressive work.

cauldrons of Hot boiling liquid ready to pour on the invaders.

I'm impresssed. but there are a few things I do need to mention. I see lot's of smoke in the first image, but there doesn't seem to be any fire or another source for the smoke. And the poser-figure have no colthes and the default pose.

I agree with the others comments.Love the POV, and the stone texture is quite good. The only other thing I might suggest is putting keystones at the top of your portals and arches. This is an impressive WIP.

Rayraz - hehe, yeah the two visible poser figures were just in there for scale. Pretty sure they won't be there soon ;) Volumetric fire in the tower is being added. Flagstones...hmm... postwork I think. Once again, thanks for comments :)

You could keep the figures if you pose them the right way. You could even make an army that's storming the castle and another army that's trying to defend the castle. That could be relly cool.

relly is really

Rayraz - that's exactly what I'm planning :) So the nude guys will have to go.

cool!