Aye, I've been slaving over this scene for some time. Mostly, it's for a portrait of Rand, the so-called Dragon Reborn from Robert Jordan's WHEEL OF TIME book series. The shot is in the Heart of the Stone of Tear, a ridiculous fortress. The sword is Callandor, and isn't really a sword at all, but a Sa'angreal of great power. With it, one could, say, toss Seattle into the sea. So, nobody would ever use it to cut someone, it would be redundant. All of this is modeled in Rhino. The scene model ws 400MB, which made Rhino nearly useless and Bryce fully useless, upon import into Bryce it rose to over 500MB. So I did some optimizing, cutting polys in the chains and distant pillars and pretty much everywhere. Now the full scene, in Bryce, is still under 200MB...! Functional, at last. It took 5 hours to import the original Rhino scene model into Bryce. Rendering was copmletely out of the question. Anyway, from an architectural standpoint, how is this looking? From an artistic standpoint, where should I go next, aside from adding my characters (Rand and Bel'al and Moiraine...)? Thanks for looking, and feel free to rip this image to shreds!

And here's a progression of the last four renders...

I love it - I think the final picture is going to be very good :)

Very nice, I like the tilted perspective. The only thing that seems wierd is the markings on the floor. I can't tell what they're supposed to be/respresent. Cool scene.

I like the one on the lower left best, only thing I don't like is the sword's nimbus. It seems too regular and formed, with something that powerful you'd expect light-rays shooting out here and there from the handle, points, edges etc.

Looking good, although I have to agree with Pogmahone about Callandor, and again with dvd_master about the floor.

Waiting with bated breath to see further progress.

I like the way you are portraying various scenes from WOT. I have always been fairly critcal of the images that have made cover pics on the mass market paperback versions. Being a cheapskate I only have these versions of the books.

Message edited on: 01/26/2005 03:32

To be honest, this scene is not only a scene from the WOT but from my dreams as well. The Wheel has often been a catalyst for my forays into Lucid Dreaming, or Tel'aran'rhiod, as we know it... And in my dreams, the Heart of the Stone of Tear's floor is covered in blood, like in the first two here. But I'm also trying to retain accuracy to the story, which depicts the floor as worn grey stone slabs... So, the smattering of red is my compromise. I doubt I'll keep it that way in the real image, probably more of a blend between number 1 and 4 here, in terms of the floor. Thanks for all of your feedback!

You know my pet peeve lately is always scale. If I take my eye on a line from the sword to the gold bit to the left...the bit that looks like a doorway of some sort to me... there is very little between them visually that helps my brain grab the relative sizes in perspective...thus the sword looks like it is the size of a large door. The height of it seems a bit odd too...almost like the bottom of the sword is at the height of the top of the door. I typically picture floating icons of incredible power to wind up about chest or at highest eye height. Of course I could be all wrong...that thing might not be a door at all... I think I like the lighting on the bottom left best though I am assuming you'll make the numbus less "regular" in post work.. I don't have as much trouble with the reds marks on the floor other than that they look like they lay on top of the stones rather than seeming to follow the countour of them as dried or fresh blood would do.

wow, these images are magnificent, all...the day I can critique work like this, is the day I can actually create something half as good as these without encountering a problem or obstacle at every turn...hehe

No, Claymor, you are definitely right about the scale. I'm going to do some heavy re-scaling after I wake up... The sword needs to set the scale, also the characters must match the sword, and therefore the door... Pogmahone, you are dead-on about the glow. Fixed that in Maya, Bryce doesn't have glow-options... Any better? For anyone who cares, or would like to help me more on this Wheel of Time scene, here is some defining text from the books, especially Book 3, "The Dragon Reborn", in which this scene I'm trying to render takes place... **He shivered with the cold and knew this for a dream, certain and sure, from the first moment. He was dimly aware of some shadowy memory of dreams preceding this, but this one he knew. He had been in this place before, on previous nights, and if he understood nothing of it, he still knew it for a dream. For once, knowing changed nothing. Huge columns of polished redstone surrounded the open space where he stood, beneath a domed ceiling fifty paces or more above his head. He and another man as big could not have encircled one of those columns with their arms. The floor was paved with great slabs of pale gray stone, hard yet worn by countless generations of feet. And centered beneath the dome was the reason why all those feet had come to this chamber. A sword, hanging hilt down in the air, apparently without support, seemingly where anyone could reach out and take it. It revolved slowly, as if some breath of air caught it. Yet it was not really a sword. It seemed made of glass, or perhaps crystal, blade and hilt and crossguard, catching such light as there was and shattering it into a thousand glitters and flashes. He walked toward it and put out his hand, as he had done each time before. He clearly remembered doing it. The hilt hung there in front of his face, within easy reach. A foot from the shining sword, his hand splayed out against empty air as if it had touched stone. As he had known it would. He pushed harder, but he might as well have been shoving against a wall. The sword turned and sparkled, a foot away and as far out of reach as if on the other side of an ocean.**

I think the image is great, and Robert Jordan and his publisher would be proud of the fan art. Its too bad that Jordan stopped writing WOT series after book 3 and opted to submit outlines to his publisher to be filled out by an associate writer. Books 4-9 have been a colossal waste of time, and the writing shows it. I don't know how many books are planned, but I've given up on the series. I'll stick to George R.R. Martin.

<strong>bandolin</strong><br />
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Aye, Bandolin, I love George R. R. as well, but you're sadly mistaken about Jordan. I've known him for quite some time, and assure you he penned each and every word in that series. "Winter is coming..."