Boy do I feel silly sitting here right above ICM! =) This is my entry for the challenge this month. Especially since this is my first challenge entry, any ideas? The concept here is that the ball was discarded/lost (either way abandoned), and just drifted around until it ended up here in the forest, all alone in a place full of natural beauty where something synthetic really sticks out. For my next render, I'm thinking: 1. Rotate the ball a bit so it looks more like it's bob-bob-bobbing along =) 2. Add some animals, such as fish or maybe even a deer (I'll have a look through the free stuff), to give more life to the scene 3. This is what I really need help on. I'm considering adding a DOF effect (I'm already rendering on Premium mode, so it wouldn't add any more time to the render). But I'm worried about losing detail in the foreground and background. I'm in this more to learn and have fun rather than to place or win, so any ideas? Also this particular version isn't finished rendering, I figured it wasn't worth it. It's mostly rendered, just a bit towards the bottom of the pic left.

A bit of depth of feild will be nice but don't overdo it. Great look to the water looks good enough to drink.

Don't feel silly, we all start in the same place. (Damn, wish I had tentacles, LOL) Your landscape layout is excellent. I agree with Dann-O, water looks great, and easy on the DOF in this scene, it'll probably distort things more than you want. ICM

i like it, looks idyllic, like the sun-beams

This looks like a very primal scene....perhaps a Raptor sniffing at the ball?
Great work so far.........!

Message edited on: 05/05/2005 08:00

Thanks. I'm still scared of DOF, I'll have to play with it a bit. I'm going to add fish to the stream, for sure... anybody know where I can get a deer or something for free? Raptor idea is good, I think I may have a good variation on that, I'll have to check something. Thanks Bryster.

Attached Link: http://www.planit3d.com/

Try here they have a couple really excellent fish there. I have a few tricks to get the fish to look even better too.

Thanks Dann-O for that link! I know nothing about fish. Which fish work for my image (i.e. fresh-water non-ocean fish)? I'm thinking #2 and #7, sort of catfish and generic standard fish, respectfully. Also, it does say that the final render has to be in Bryce, does this mean that I can't add a photograph of an animal to my image? It does say that postwork is allowed... I'm thinking some photos of animals in both the foreground and background.

Too make the fish look better make a reflectivity map. Set the eyes for maximum and the rest for average. Grey and black will work.

...with a few improvements... =)

This was rendered without antialiasing and then softened in Paint Shop Pro. My final render will be on Premium with DOF I think.

If photographs are illegal, I'll just go with Bryster's Raptor. =)

Fish are a great idea! As for DOF, just because a technique is possible doesn't mean you SHOULD use it... And in this case I think that DOF blurring would change the scale, and make the scene more microspic-feeling. The only thing one would have then to "set the scene scale" would be the beach ball, but diferent people perhaps have different ideas of how big beachballs should be. One person might see it as a fishing bobber floting awry...? Lovely fish!