Every Friday evening from September through November activity ceases in small towns all across America as families, friends and neighbors fill the stands at the local high-school football field to watch as their young gladiators do battle with the team from the next town down the highway. Winning teams are revered as saints and stories of noble feats in epic games are told and re-told for generations. In West Texas, where I was born and raised, horizons can seem to stretch forever and small towns can be recognized from a great distance just by the lights from their football field and their water tower, which are usually the tallest things on the landscape. On Saturday mornings, there's usually a lot of trash to be picked up, but that's a totally different picture, and I would have to go download all of ernyoka's stuff. ;o) Assorted free stuff from baument, 3D Cafe, and Carrarra content cd, I believe. Some modelling in Bryce. Grass is composed of spiky terrains at global resolution close to the camera and decreasing in resolution toward the distance. Only post was some work on the grass at the bottom of the image and adding the wires... and the name, of course.

Very nice! I'd wondered about using terrains as grass--turned out great!

I like this angle and the subdued colors. I can almost see people filling up the stands and the football teams forming up on the field. Lin

Lol...oh this is great! I only laugh a little because the windmill and water tower in the back remind me of high school in Illinois. (And, I was a tight end in football) Thanks for the memories. AgentSmith

Just excellent! The Bryster

Outstanding!! - Very Realistic & Great Details Roch222

Great Scene. Lived that one.

Beautiful, very realistic. Glad I didn't enter this challenge. :)

Great job on the grass!!

Thank you all for the comments. I've been reminiscing a lot lately because my oldest nephew is playing junior high football this season on the same field that I played on when growing up, which also looks a bit like this one. BTW, AgentSmith, I played defensive tackle in H.S. and college.

Wow. That rocks. The only thing I'd do differently is get rid of the birds. There are just too many birds in CG. Actually, I can imagine birds lurking over a field for the dropped fry, or whatever. But still, why do people put birds in every movie with CG? Killer pic though. It really goes above and beyond.

lol... thanks... I needed something to break up that large expanse of sky. The birds are actually over the farm in the background. The mosquitos, flies and gnats that are there in reality didn't show up to good here, so I left the birds. :o)

Nice looking entry you've got there. The grass is very nice in the distance, but it misses something when it's close to the camera. I can't figure out what the close-up grass it needs exactly, but it needs to look a bit more realistic. I like the birds.

Ray: Does the grass need to be greener? The Bryster

I think the 'problem' may be the unnatural uniformity that is bound to occur when using this technique to create grass. Every 'blade' of grass is going to be pointing in exactly the same direction... straight up. I attempted to soften this with a bit of painting in the foreground, but was afraid of over-doing it... I'm still getting used to using Painter and Photoshop with my new Wacom tablet. Also, I think a few fluffy dandelions scattered about would've added a little more realism to the scene... but I didn't think of that until after I posted this. Might change it, but, again I worry about over-working just about everything I do.

The grass in the foreground needs to be just a bit greener I think. (thanx cshaftoe) and maybe it could use a bit more contrast. And I think the fact that all the grass is pointing up doesn't help to much either. I think it's these little tiny things that make it look not as perfect as it could have been. Maybe you can use imported grass-objects in the foreground and keep the terrains in the background. If it's overworked you'll hear it from people (especially when you ask if you've overdone it). If this version turns out to be the best one you can always ask/tell AgentSmith to use this version for the challenge when it's voting time.

Don't get me wrong. I already like the image a lot. :)

cool... thanks for the advice. I'll definitely keep it in mind. We've still got a couple of weeks to go. Maybe something I think is just a little better will work itself out between now and then... :o)

I'll see if I can do something with 'greener', without taking away from the faded photo/memory kind of feeling that I've got going with the subdued colors. :o)

By Jove! I think you've got it!

amazing really really excellent work

This is really good. Takes me back to high school. From my view point in the stands, I thought all FB players were tight ends? :)

Oh... you goober. :c) That rendering's gonna be tough to beat. Great concept and work.

This is an excellent challenge entry. Very nice POV and the gras is awesome. Greets, Jimi