Well, here's an early WIP for my winter challenge entry... It focuses around a solitary rose, now, the interpretation of this can be taken many ways, a heated winter romance, where the very cold chill around you seemed to melt away. That one shining bit of hope in the coldest darkest days of winter. The feeling of the invading approaching spring. The warming of a wintered individual with love. Flower power etc. Jk on the last one. The image itself is all bryce except for the motion blur effect which was created afterwards in photoshop, the rose is supposedly melting and breaking the ice around it in a rush of water etc even through the snow itself. I know I need more greenery in the back. Metaballs, terrains, my grass, patience, simulated caustics, etc... I need some ideas for this image and fast. I'm going to delete this after I get enough criticisms so that I can improve it (just the image that is, not the post). Thank you VERY much if you are able to help out.

ummm maybe some of the snow on the rose could be less ball like? maybe flat or something and maybe a little lighter red on the rose, kinda make it glow from within the snow grins

I love the wet snowy atmosphere. It looks very cool and abstract, but it sounds like that's not what you are going for. I'd say for me the image is very visually confusing. It's a little hard to tell that it is a rose in fact. maybe change the POV to emphasize the rose more and take away some of the ice/water spray that is covering it? not much help probably, but good luck w/ it

I have to agree with Hepcatbrandon. The effects, brilliant as they are, tend to obscure the rose. Perhaps you could move some of your metaballs instead of the POV so that the rose is more readily apparent. I really like your concept.

I agree. i also think you need a stronger color ofr lightness contrast between the snow and the melting snow, so we know what's happening.

This looks good! I agree with danamo about spreading the load of the metaballs, the bottom of the pic doesnt seem to be getting any at all. The splash back on the camera looks good aswell! :)

I think the image itself looks really good, but I'm not sure how usable it is as a magazine cover. You might want to make it somewhat sharper and more vivid, while trying to keep the current 'emotional feel'. Try making the Rose more prominent.

Zoom in

I enlarged the rose, increased color saturation, created more definition, it's rendering now, should be done in a few hours. Thanks for all the feedback.

I'm looking forward to seeing the new render :)