Edit:
Updated version. Changed the viewing angle and blurred the aurora in the compositor. Many, many more samples this time:
Original Post:
Low-sample test render of a nighttime Christmas scene. Thoughts?
That is a really good scene! The only thing that sticks to me are the people. The light on them is a bit too much. If you copare the brightness of the windows and the one on the people, the people are brighter and that’s not going to work. Besides that the tree is just WOW!
Andreas
The snow on the roof looks fake, I mean the pattern of it. It’s obliousvy based on a noise texture, you should change that - adding more complexity perhaps or modeling it aside from the roof. Also, overall, the snow should be more reflective I think. The ice on the river looks like a problem area as well. Other than that it’s quite good, keep going !<br><br>
Thanks. The people are manger scene cut-outs lit from behind (or in front if you were at the house). I tried to light them from the front wrt the viewer, but they got lost in the snow. I’ll see what I can do.
Thanks. After a recent snowfall, I noticed how the snow film was distributed in random blotches on the roofs and thought it looked interesting (of course, now all the roofs have a solid white film). Will give it another shot.
Here is the latest iteration: brought out the glisten on the snow, improved the roof snow, throttled back the manger scene illumination, and a new (image) texture for the creek ice. Thanks for all the comments!
I love the composition and detail. Nice work. My only criticism is the bright star right over the tree. It seems a bit too obvious and unnatural and because the scene is put together so nicely it isn’t needed. If you want a topper for the tree, put one on it, if not, move the star.
Such a small change makes a big difference. You went from a grounded triangle composition to a more circular competition just by moving the star a little to the left. Nothing wrong with a triangle comp, in fact it is often used in Christian art. For a Christmas scene for a church it would be perfectly fine, but I think you were going for more flow around the image. Moving the star helps with that.
It almost seems like it now has smaller triangles in a larger one. Need to look up triangles/circular composition. Thanks.
Just think of it as imaginary lines formed by major objects in a scene that guide the viewers eye. Before you had the tree which is a triangular shape within your landscape pointing toward the star. The relationship between those two object drew the viewers attention toward the star and away from the other objects in the scene. That is not what you want for a landscape. Now that you have moved the star you have in this order-star, tree, manger, house, northern lights. The direction of the circle is controlled by the depth and direction of the stream and the ascending elevation change (from left to right) in the topography It is now all very circular and very good for a landscape. The viewer is not drawn toward one object but looks all around the image. Nicely composed.
Edit: Consider cropping out the dead space on the left of the image. (Just to the left of the star) And a bit off the bottom. It will make a huge difference.
Thirds
Maybe nudge the house and the manger over a little.
Nice suggestion. I probably won’t cut out the rabbit, but yes, a lot of dead space on the left and bottom doesn’t need to be there. Thanks for all your help.