My first picture post..Would like suggestions and lighting tips..I can take it...I just bought a case of beer...40S...I want to thank Arianod, Xceiverx, and the Dude for their freebies...If you see something of yours, let me know and I'll be happy to credit...

Sorry Ascript..Just noticed I forgot you...My thanks for the great Barn.

-Texture looks good on the truck except for where it tiles on the door, that could be fixed by scaling or in post work. -The dirt raod looks a little funky, maybe a different mapping for the texture...object cubic perhaps? -The road sign looks scaled a little small...maybe just short. -Not sure whefre the primary light source is supposed to be. It almost looks like the sun is setting back left, then there is the lightning strike off was back right, but the truck shadow indicates something close to noon. Did you use a yellow ambience for the sun? Maybe softening that a bit or changing to more of a grey? All in all good stuff for a first post!!!

Well, slap my behind and call me Mary...I now see a major error but I'll wait to fix it after tips are all in...One case isn't enough..I can see that now...

i rember my first post.....anyway - the grass texture in the back dose not look right it needs more definition. i live in kansas so i notice these things - the lightning bolt looks out of place. -the truck its self looks great, but the tiers lok out of place. show some wear - the dirt rhode needs a little work, and put a gate or take the fence out from in front of it

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andd the licence plate is a bit too white and clean.. tree in back of car or on the ground? like the dog...

Good work for a first post,......Mary. I'll pass on the behind slapping.

"Any club that would have me as a member is probably not worth joining" -Groucho Marx

everyone else pointed out most things but i'm surprised no one pick this fault with the truck. Lower the truck at the moment it is above the ground or at least the tires and shadow make it look that way. If it is caused by both of them then lighten either the shadow or lighten the tire texture

I can't be sure, but I think there is a major flaw. If you look at the rear window of the truck, there's no gun rack! Doesn't route 66 go through the american southwest (Arizona, New Mexico etc...). I'm trying to remember the lyrics of the song. Your pic looks like the American Midwest (Iowa, Nebraska, etc...). Ok, my bad. Had an mp3 of the Nat King Cole version; the 2nd verse goes: "It winds from Chicago to L.A. More than 2 thousand miles all the way Get your kicks on route 66"

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i am soooooo sorry pardon my spelling please. this is what i get from 8 cups of coffee

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Aye, aside from what the others said, remember that we're only being critical to help you out! I think that the color scheme and lighting are the major issues, aside from the texturing afore mentioned. Green skies...? Light sourcing? Also, give soft shadows a whirl, if you ever get a chance to go to sleep and let it render all night, they work pretty good!

okay Mary, here's my comments and what I see. First impression: I didn't like the overall green cast. Then I got to thinking about it. Storms before a tornado often give a green coloration. But then the shadows wouldn't be so sharp. I'd say turn that windmill around so it was facing the background (the storm), and change the sky to look more like a tornado storm. Have the green lighting coming softly from the background direction but maybe put in large yellow-white light off to the left to simulate the sun shining on the truck below the clouds. And the dirt road with the fence in front? That's really a plowed field right? And route 66 also went through Missouri and Oklahoma. Maybe a bit of Kansas too in the southeast corner.

The transition from the dirt road on the side to the main one is too sharp. It'll probably need fixing with postwork.

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Also feel free to browse my freebies at ShareCG.
There might be something worth downloading.

Or you could make a lumpy bumpy dirt track in the terrain editor and cover it with dirt. That would give it the look of a real lumpy bumpy dirt track. 8)

Looking at it from a photographers view, I would suggest this: The car/dog/tree/cows ... need to be disengaged, especially the tree looks a bit weird in relation to the car. Same goes for the Route 66 sign, it is to close to the car. You could resolve this in changing your camera angle or moving some of those objects or even removing some of them. The easiest way to resolve it would be to put the tree/cows a bit more to the right and backgrond, just where that rectangular object is on the grass or maybe even a bit to the back of it and then possibly move that dog a bit so there is no collusion between the tree/cow and dog. The dirt road, the rear wheels have already been addressed, but I think i found another minor problem with the arm of the driver which could use a slight more angulation towards the car at hand level. It seems to stick out a bit unaturally now. I would remove the lightning or postwork it more. Shots of lightnings look wayyyyy different ;-) Finally, most important, the light: Storm skies - unless you are standing in the middle of it - almost always show some distinct graduation from clearer/fairer parts to darker parts close to the storm front itself. I would try that out, if you can, it usually adds quite some "drama" to the scene. Apart of this, I like your idea a lot, nice render too :-) Cheers, Valerie