or how not to do it. Every improvement I tried to make took me 2 steps backwards. This is now headed for the bin (so I've still got time left for this month's challenge). Just so you know, the original idea was to use Spike Milligan's parody on John Masefield: "I must go down to the sea again, The lonely sea and the sky. I left my shoes and socks there. I wonder if they're dry." But it doesn't work. Even I can see that. The composition is wrong (my eyes go darting about all over the place). The textures are wrong (sea is too still; foreground sand is too coarse). The lighting is wrong (needs to be more brooding). About 3 days work wasted, 'cos I didn't really understand what I was doing. But I learned a lot about how NOT to go about things:-) Ah, well. Back to the drawing-board (and the library). Cheers, Diolma

I don't think I'd scrap it. It looks like a painting right now. Maybe you should look at it differently rather than trying to give it a different look. Personally, I like it very much. Maybe a bit more haze at the horizon, but that's about it for me. Susan

I think you're being too hard on yourself Diolma! I learn more from my mistakes and failures(had plenty of 'em,lol) than I do from my effortless triumphs. I would suggest bringing the shoes and socks closer to the camera. If you give the shoes a lighter color, even if it's a lighter brown, it will give more contrast and draw the eye as a focal point.

Since your terrains are close to the camera might I recommend some tiling photographic textures? The site that Rochr recommended a couple of days back has some great non-copyright textures, including several kinds of sand. There are several good tutorials on making waves here in the archives and elsewhere.

All I'm saying is, give yourself a break and don't get too frustrated. Most of the artists here whose work you may admire had to go through all the steps of learning that you're going through. I think this has the potential to be a great scene, and I love your theme, so don't give up. End of speech,lol. Dan

I agree with what Dan has said, DON'T SCRAP THIS! The sand terrain is excellent, just get a better texture. And make a few other changes and this will be wonderful. Its such a good start. Please don't scrap it, tweak, tweak and tweak it and it'll come out real nice. Angela

hey, I've had some bloopers meself..;) no great work of art is ever finished, merely abandoned..

No, no, don't let it go. It takes some people more than a few days to get an image the way they want it. You have the rest of the month to improve this one. I would suggest that if you get sick of looking at it, start another one if you want. Then when you get tired of looking at one, you can go to the other. Then you just pick your favorite to enter. Really, I wouldn't trash this one. I really like where it's going. Look at me, I'm trying to get stuff together to enter the contest and I don't even have enough for a wip yet. I keep deleting things. But I am going to keep going because I like the idea of my image. So that's it. Don't delete it. Keep working! ;)

beach scenes are deceptively hard to get right, especially waves. Even Hobbit has had some trouble getting waves right in the past. Keep at it! - TJ

The stretch of wet sand (between the water and the dry sand) is really excellent! I like the whole pic.

Aaww, Shucks! You people are too kind! When I said "bin it", I really meant "shelve it (I always keep at least 1 copy of everything I do - just in case I ever get inspired.) Bringing the shoes nearer might work.. Hmm. I've tried to get more haze near the horizon, but it's the 1st time I've played with haze, so I don't really know how to do it. Would a (BIIIG) volumetric cube way out, with a foggy texture work better than playing with the sky/fog stuff? (Bryce 3.1 - don't have as much control as in Bryce 5.) Will certainly think again about the "near sand" texture. Cheers, Diolma PS - one of my problems is that I have to keep rendering to see the finished effect (I'm not yet experienced enough to be able to mentally preview it), which takes a lot of time; that ocean is made of 3 separate terrains, each of which has transparancy applied. Ahh, well..

Just a little reminder Diolma, plop-render is your friend! It works great for getting an idea how changes will affect(and effect) a scene. You can just select a small piece of screen to render. I use the "spray-can" a lot too. It really comes in handy when positioning stuff like trees, rocks,people etc. when you're not sure they'll be visible in a render, or the little preview window doesn't show them.

I rather like it, please don't give up on it. Maybe if you put a buoy half way out in the water, to the right of the image, it would pull your eyes across the sand over the shoes, and give the image something to keep you focused. 8) Catlin

Danamo - thx, but I do use "plop-render"; but I still need to see the whole scene to get the total effect into my mind. Bryce 3.1 here - I don't think I've got the "spray can" :-( Catlin. Hmm. My only objection to using a buoy is that "lonely sea" bit in the quote - I'd rather keep the sea uncluttered if possible. Good idea tho.. After the rather comforting (thx!) remarks, I've decided to persevere (at least for a while). I'm going to re-do the shoes/socks. They are just poser props, with the socks "clothified", but they're too low-poly to work as cloth, I'll need to take the objs into a 3D modeller and sub-divide. That is going to get some time to get right. I've played with the waves, and have something I like better; still not totally happy, but definitely better. I've also got the sand texture better, by changing the sand texture (as opposed to the "ripples") to "object mode" instead of "world mode" (DOH! I thought I'd already done that!) - may reduce some more. My main problem (ie the one I don't have a plan for solving) is getting haze to work properly. I want to soften the horizon, or possibly add a looming fog bank, but: If I increase the haze then it affects the colours in the rest of the scene (makes the near rocks go purple-ish) - I only want hazde in the distance; If I use volumetric cubes/spheres/cylinders sent waaay out there I get a distinct visible line in the sea, and also the smog that I was using shows up as blotchy bits rather than as a smokey effect. I don't know how to solve this yet:-(( Any help on how to soften the horizon would be much gratefully recieved! PS - I deliberately didn't repost a pic so as to cut down on WIP fatigue..:-)) PPS: have made mental note to self "NEVER EVER start a scene with the cam in the default position - always move it to the bottom or top of the screen (as seen from the top view), at right-angles to the default ground plane. That way x and z movements work as expected rather than zig-zagging unhelpfully around"...:-)) Cheers, Diolma. And thx again for encouragement - much appreciated!