*&^%*** phone company went and cut me off accidentally when repairing a neighbour's line yesterday, I had NO INTERNET CONNECTION FOR TWENTY HOURS! Aaaarrrrgghh! Was ready to do burglary next door, they got broadband I know, they told me, they showed me my web site, it loaded as fast as it did when I tested it on my hard drive...

Withdrawals, withdrawals, man the restlessness...

Anyway, the relief of getting my daily fix today is immense, and here is the dragon family, now complete with daddy in the background keeping watch for wolves, bears, trolls and anything else that might regard baby dragons as food. I changed the viewpoint slightly and tweaked the rock material, though at this resolution you can't really tell. This image is going to be rendered at 3000x2000 though, for a print, so I had to render patch renders at that size and check it out. It's OK now.

In case this looks finished to you, it isn't; it needs a few rocks and bits scattered about on the ground, just to break up the flat plane at the left side, and I may tweak that smoke yet again. This was tricky to assemble, not tricky getting it all in, just endless tiny tweaks to get things in place to my satisfaction. Actually I am not satisfied, but then I rarely am (girlfriend gives me a dirty look here, no dear, I meant I am rarely satisfied with my artwork).

Please feel free to make a few suggestions, I will read them all avidly even if I can't or won't follow them.

The coolest thign about having your 'Net access disappear is that you get some more time to render and model and conceptualize... This scene has a good foundation, but for some reason seems not dynamic enough. It doesn't impact my senses, you know? I think it's the 2-dimensional angles of the scene. I think that you could put the humans in the foreground, and twist them accordingly, to bring the viewer into their world a bit more. Much like a 3rd-person perspective, where it's obvious the humans (like ourselves, sometimes) are surprised and excited to see the dragons hatch? Make any sense? As it stands, the other thing is the main (Mommy?) dragon's pose. Those of us who use the Mildragon know what's occuring, but if you've never posed it before you don't know where the eye's should be and such... The beak looks so mouth-like from this angle as to seem like an error. Much of this can be fixed with lighting and camera-angles... Turn the dragon's eye ambience up, or make a pair of special spotlights just for the eyes...? Just some ideas!

I recently had my internet connection cut off as well, though it was lack of funds that caused it for me. I hear you when you say you had withdrawals. Back on topic ... To me, the image looks pretty good. If you can, maybe try to increase the bump in the terrain so the cracks don't look painted on. Also, perhaps giving the inner egg texture a slightly different look (if possible) would increase the sense of realism. Anyway, just my two cents.

Congrats on getting the line back, I can imagine your pain. My main computer has an ailing videocard and I am stuck in 640x480 video mode. Got parts for a new system and waiting for some help. Scene looks great, good job with the dragons and people. Maybe you could add some slime or egg white. When baby chicks hatch they are wet, then they dry out. The inside of the eggs are not dry, there is some stuff inside. Bump maps need to be pumped up a bit, ground and wall textures seem too flat. What color is the sun light? I prefer a golden yellow light for a happy scene, maybe the bluish lighting sorta affects the mood of the picture. This could be a style thing though.