Hey all! :o) I'm nearly done with this and wanted an opinion, or two or four. I've added more flowers and some birds and bugs. My question is the bees. I'm afraid they mostly don't come across as bees. There are four birds in a group (three little ones chasing one big one); all the other specks are bees. For whatever reason, the ones that are in front of the grass aren't showing up. Dunno if I missed on the placement or what. So, lose most of the bees or are they ok? And, anything else jump out at anyone? Oh, and it's not quite finished rendering so there's a strip at the bottom that's still funky. Thanks for the input before everyone. Ya'll are ~sniff~ peaches! ~wiping tears~ :o)

Don't change a thing! Post this and watch the votes flood in. If they don't, let me know and I'll break some legs......

I like the daisies a lot. Only change something now if YOU want to change it. Looks fantastic! John

:D @ Bryster. You are so funny. :o) Thanks guys. I think I'm going to take out that one bee that's too close to the birds. It just looks like a speck to me. There's also one texture I probably should fix and I think I can do that with a plop render. Hopefully I'll be able to have this in the gallery in another day or so. This one has been my longest render yet. It's been rendering nearly non-stop for about 36 hours so far. I don't know how you all stand it when you have them that take days and days. Thanks bunches! :o)

great pic

N I C E.... I think you're being too hard on yourself, it looks great. But, then again, I know how hard I'm on my own self, so.... Only thing; I have seen cloudless blue skies in real life, but when suddenly you do a CGI picture with such an attribute, people (I guess like me) will mention something about needing clouds or some stupid thing like that.... I would only suggest a tad bit more of a gradient in the sky. They are almost never the same shade of blue near or on the horizon as they are when looking upwards. JUST a nit-picking suggestion. AS

i would lose the birds personally. i think the scene is too crowded with them in it. but then again when was MY last image post? ;] John

Uh, John? Ppffflluugghhtt! :oP Nope, the birds are staying. That's a common sight in my area (I always get a chuckle watching the little birds chasing the bigger one away; sort of like David and Goliath). Now, the bees are another story. I know at least one will go, maybe a couple more. That's just tweaking now tho'. Now, is it just me or does the sky really come across as no graded? On my computer(s), the sky is considerably lighter in the upper right corner, darkening as it goes across the picture to lighten a bit again where the horizon is...which is still probably too visible.

Looks good, but personally I want more shasows and less ambience on the plant stems. Also try moving the tower a little to the left (rule of thirds). And I wanna see some dramatic realistic clouds.

The sky is certainly graduated nicely on my screen. Feels just like one of those hot days when the bees are out in force. Im not sure about these bees, tho. Do lose the one on the right and maybe put a couple on the flowers, dark on light, as you have done with the butterflies. If you have some big ones, closer to the camera, it will confirm what they are. At first glance I wasnt sure. Love the birds. I often see crows mobbing a hawk around here. Looking good.

Well, I wasn't going to comment, 'cos I LOVE this image, but (opens mouth, ready to receive foot)... On a clear day (you can't see forever, that's reserved for nights), the atmosphere reflects and refracts the sun's light, and the thicker the atmosphere, the greater the effect. The atmosphere reflects/refreacts most in the "red" zone and least in the "blue" zone (which is why the sky appears blue - mostly blue light getting through to our eyes). Since the atmosphere it thinner looking up than looking towards the horizon, the greatest effect of that is towards the horizon. The net effect is that the sky looks more grey (gray) towards the horizon, and more blue the higher you look. So, unless there are other (cloud/industrial) reasons, the sky should just shade upwards towards blue... So: May I suggest trying a sky which just grades upwards from blue/grey to a deeper bue?? Cheers, Diolma

Dammit!! "blue" (not bue"). BTW, eelie, the only reason I posted the above message was 'cos I looked at the image and something struck me as strange. I realised what it was, then read the further posts. Then I read your own post about the "sky gradient".. and decided to jump in with both galoshes ..:-)) Cheers, Diolma

Thanks for all the input folks! It really means a lot to me. One bit of advice I won't take (sorry!) is to add clouds. I've lived years in the midwest and hot summer Oklahoma skys (or any other state in that general area) has cloudless skies all too often. That's what I'm going for here...one of those bright late spring days, just before the summer really hits when there's not a cloud in the sky. Bees are humming, the little birds are harassing the big birds to leave their nesting areas alone, flowers are blooming and, for once, all is right with the world. :o) Now, about that sky. What I was going for, trying to recreate, is that glare of the sun that you almost have to shade your eyes from. Hence, the lighter sky in the upper right. It's not that the sky isn't darker there, it's just that the sun is so close to the field of vision, the light washes out colors. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! :o) Thanks again folks. I've had to take a bit of a step back. Silly me, I didn't save the file when I got home from work and it had finished rendering. I did a bit of tweaking and while a bit of render was going, decided to switch to some other things. Normally not a problem but I'm doing a program beta test and the stupid thing locked everything up. So, I lost the last, oh, 4-6 hours of rendering. Oh well....c'est la vie (or however it's spelled!)

Know just what you mean about the clear cloudless skies. I live in South Dakota and the prairie sees skies like this quite frequently. The sky immediately above is the darkest... it lightens as you look closer towards the horizon. I also know what you mean about the glare of the sun you referred to. This is an awesome image. I really love all the flowers you have in it. I would keep the bees being you have all the flowers. Maybe there are hives near by. Lol Nice work. 8)