This is the other statue, a sa'angreal representing the male half of Power, Saidin. It is called the Choedan Kal, and is an artifact of such power one could challenge the Creator, or the Dark One, with such a device. It is accessed by a "key' ter'angreal, a 1-foot tall version of the same statue. Anyway, I'm almost done laying out the landscape. This scene is inspired by the book, "The Great Hunt", the second book in the Wheel of Time. So far it's historically accurate, all things considered... It is being excavated by Cairhien's too-proud king to take to his palace. This king gets himself murdered by the end of the book, for his idiocy! Maybe some feedback? I haven't started inserting the characters yet. There will be three (Rand, Huirin, and Loial) on the top right hillock, looking down. And maybe as many as 100 people in the quarry below, with horses and wagons and perhaps a small trestle for beingnig up rock and dirt. Any ideas would be appreciated! Anything that stands out as being stupid looking? Thanks for checking it out!

How DO you get such nice trees? I like the way that they are spaced. Trees are holding up a couple of projects of mine. Just can't seem to get it right. Great job on this and I can't wait to see it when finished.

Looking good so far. Can't wait to see how you deal with Loial. BTW have you read the latest episode? I read a review and they said it was very disappointing, so I haven't ordered it yet.

The latest episode being New Spring, or beign Crossroads of Twilight?!?! CoT is Book #10. New Spring would be Book #0, it happens before TEOTW and comes out on January 6th. Robert Jordan has a book signing up here shortly after that, and I plan on meeting him finally! Kimpe, these trees are simple, relatively. You make your terrains, duplicate them. Take the SECOND terrain(s), and lower them one click (don't know how else to measure it?!?!) Then go into the Terrain Editor and turn the resolution up a notch for the "Tree" terrain. Spike it, slide it pretty good, you can always undo it later. This will create spikes sticking up through the ground, and since we lowered this terrain a notch you will ONLY see the spikes, as they poke therough the first terrain... Change the material, I use Blend Tranparency types of mats on this image to make them kinda fuzzy. Piece'a cake... Of course, the foreground plants are Treelab trees/bushes and imported grass from 3dplants.com.

I NEVER read fiction, so I don't know anything about the world this is taking place in, but it looks mighty fine so far. With plans for so much activity in the quarry you might want to make sure to place a slight dust cloud rising up from it for the final render.

Good call, GG, I would have never thought of that! (bows to you)

Read the books up to 10 (wish he would hurry and finish all the stories he has going). This is a very good rendition of that scene though I thought it was a pit not just the side of the hill.

Helll.....Damnation and all that crap...Here I have been waiting on book #8.......Arrrgggggg I need to get away from the computer....SDL Where is the book signing at?

Aye, you're right Aldaron, it's just difficult to make it SEEM like a pit. Any ideas about that? Perhaps I need to make the "side of the hill"'s level the ground level, or something... Foleypro, I will let you know as soon as I know when the signing is, it would be interesting to meet you there as well! I've heard that book 11, NOT book zero, is also out, but haven't been able to verify that. Book 10 was slow, but interesting, kinda like CoS and PoD were, just leading up to the climax at the end of Winter's Heart...

SDL... I havent even read book 8 yet...I will head over to half price books this weekend to find 8,9,10

Oh... SDL.... When you are ready and you need some magic I can let you Betatest my Magic Pack for Bryce...I am in the process of doing another Pack of Magic for Bryce and finishing up a Full Blown Particle System too,But I have been Really busy on Aveara and have had no time to Play really...

SDL, the only way I can think of the pit right now is just booleaning a terrain into the ground. The side effect of this would be you would have to move your camera to look down into the pit or some of the "action" will be covered up. Perhaps just leaving it as is may be the best :)

Aye, in truth, only the hand and sphere was emerging from the quarry in Book 2. We only know what the rest of it looks like from the descriptions of the ter'angreal access keys that Rand finds in Rhuidean. It's not historically accurate, Aldaron, I suppose, but much more picturesque? (hopes!) Now comes the people-part, I'm using mostly 2d pict people, the same ones I used in my Shadow's Wall scene, and mesh wagons and stuff. 2d horses, probably, from this distance there will be no need for mesh horses. Only the foreground three will be mesh people, I already finished Rand's face and now I'm on to modeling his coat in Rhino... I plan on presenting the author with a printed/framed version of this and the other one, the female one, when he comes here in January... (grins at Foley's Magic Lab!)

grins at Foley's Magic Lab! It is still a little ways from being done but I think I am up to 1500 particals with Minimal loss on Rendering times...I plan on making several dozen(With upto 5,000 Particals as a base) that will follow Paths and already be animateble so the end user just needs to incorperate the Particals into their Animation,tweak a few things and there you go...Also I am working on a Several other Effects to go along with the Partical System....Time is what we need most of all..