Hi m477,
much better now… I like your new sky, it just needs a bit more detail and than it gives your image a great atmosphere. For the moon: I would give him a bit of a gradient fading so it gets darker to the corner. But besides you get a real nice mood here so far.
Thanks theuni!
I have altered the lighting on the planet to make it look more distant. Also, I have added a haze over the planet surface. May add some stars etc into the sky, or a distant ship…
Added a quick few blasts from the ship too, needs work. More to follow!
Hey, your just going on dude! Great work! The composition looks interesting, and even more now the aspect is wider! :arteest: :rolleyes: Looking forward for what will be goin’ on next! 
Just one point’a critique at this moment; be sure to not put to much ‘extreme contrast’ in your image… I like this one lots better than this one, when you’re talking about lighting, coloring and contrast… (in that first one the combination of the lighting / color tweaking is really AWESOME! )
Good luck & wish you the best for 2005 :bounce: ,
Gijs
Wow Matt “if i may call you”, you’ve really put a great effort and thought into this. Is it mayhaps by chance that you thought of this… In a composition, you view an image whats to the left is the past, to the right is the future. This can be viewed in many ways ofcourse. But As I see, it they walk towards the future. Which proves against a good Composition.
Good luck.
Nice work keep it up. Just a bit to dark for me, the ground have a nice disign you can put some craters. Anyway great Sci fi Theme, just try to make the textures on the soliders and the spaceship more dirty and damaged so it would look more real. I like the dust effect.
Okay it’s 2005 so now my resolution is to finish ALL work I start on… :argh:
Above is my most recent render, I have added texture to the ship to make it look a bit battered (something I should have done ages ago!) :banghead:
Dutchman - Thanks loads for your comments, I have duplicated the render as you see and changed the colours back to what I sketched in the concept stages (just quickly in photoshop though!). Looking at the two images together I’m pretty undecided which path to follow. With more colours the image seems deeper, but I do like the whole sepia thing as it relates back to old photographs in war times of our history so it’d be interesting to see what anyone else thinks. I also changed my exposure controls, reducing the ‘extreme contrast’ but think I may be better off adding some weather, ie fog, smoke from explosions, or even a thin cloud layer to deepen the image… Thanks for the crit though, very helpful! 
Mireneye - Matt is fine! 
In the early stages many people seemed to discuss the composition and where to place things on their threads, I however have always placed objects close to the screen on the left and distant objects on the right as the eye seems to be more comfortable moving from left to right as that is how we read (at least in my experience!). If the general opinion changes and the whole image needs flipping horizontally then hey that’s easy, but I like it how it is for now 
Vlatkozis - Thanks for visiting my thread I added the dirt to the ship as soon as I read your words, maybe I’ll spend time adding more intricate texturing but it did need something didn’t it!! The ground may well be covered with soldiers… However if it is not, I will surely add more detail you’re absolutely right!
Thanks for the words and a happy new year to everyone!
Hey Matthew,
Its better and better. Youre on the right direction.
Love the landscape, and the sky with the moon (or a planet?) is creating the proper mood for the scene. I like the colors too( like the planet or the sun is dieing).
Also I like very much the sketch from page 2. The idea of putting the flag in the hands of the foregroung character it was a real good one. You know, when flags are out, something important seems to be happened.
Anxious to see the Great Exodus in the final image.
I`ll be back.
Keep up the good work!
Happy New Year Matthew !!! :bounce:
Hi m477,
I agree with PROctavian it`s getting better and better. Maybe you should use a slightly different color for your ship than for your rocks to get a better contrast and keep the watchers focus on the main part of your image. I mean if it is the ship of course
the scene is rendering out to be very good :eek:! only the bottom edge of the ship is too hard making the ship stand out of the picture ,maybe too much glow . other then that its purely incredible :).
This is the latest render! I added an extra iteration in the terrain’s mesh smooth modifier to add a little more detail, but mainly added a few soldiers in the distance (about time me thinks!) This is the size I’m thinking of. I’ve yet to position them on the terrain and add a few different poses etc, maybe a large flag or two. Oooh and a quick explosion test for good measure, might add some debris and a flying soldier or two
The camera is in a different position, but I will be moving it back as it was purely to show the explosion and soldiers more clearly.
PROctavian - Many thanks! I keep calling it a moon, then a planet, then a moon… so it’s now officially… a planet… no a moon… erm :shrug:
theuni - thanks for the comments, you’re a big help. As for the colours, this last render above uses radiosity which is what I will use come the final image, so I hope this covers your concern with colour?? let me know
yunisirees - Yeah I see what you mean, maybe I could add a glow from the boosters over the ship slightly… I may well have a go if I get a chance! :bounce:
HI there! great terrain and lighting. I can only propose now to change the “pose” of the ship. It shouldn’t be so parrarel to the ground. I know that this kind of ship would probably lik ethat. But sometimes unnatural things look more natural than natural ones in 3d:) I would make some tests, and put the front part lower, back part higher, right part lower, and it should look good. But of course those moves should be very small, very gently.
hey art! Yeah, you may be onto something there. I have played around with some different positions, and this then made the boosters look odd as the blast from the front would push extra dust and clouds of smoke up from the front… so now I’m thinking I could add more effects and make more of an action picture… It’s time, and how much I have left. What I’ve decided is to get the scene filled with the army ASAP and put the foreground soldier in place before looking into it. But I will try and do something like that to add that all needed sense of power to the ship. :twisted:
The sketches are very good.
Maybe you should try to dive a little displacement to the groun, to give it a bit detail.
Good progress here :applause:
If I can suggest one thing you have to add more color variety on your terrain and your planet. Adding some procedurals on the color channel shoud be enough.
Keep that direction
As I haven’t posted for a few days, this is my offereing. As you can see I’ve added another ship into the distance (not really following the story but hey, it’s art). I also placed the foreground character in place, no flag yet I’ll add that asap. As I just got a new job, I am running out of time in a big way, I’m trying to finish textures off and get the lighting finished but I think that’s all I’ll have time for unfortuanately. Still want crit though! My first ever full scene though so be kind!! (no, say what you want I can take it) Thanks!
I’m re-lighting the scene as I feel this is the key to finishing without modelling more soldiers. This is the first stage, I will add a few more lights and try to pick out the army in the distance more. The ships thrusters will be changed for the better too with luck!
Hi M477
the compo is turining out very nice indeed!:) triple chees! hmm…the weapon that the front guy is holding is it a low poly cause its a bit jagged from the angle.maybe u could give a smooth look cause its gonna be very close or is it supposed to be t=like that. but anyways ur doing some fantatstic work here.
This is as much as I think I’ll manage on the background, a few tweaks here and there maybe but otherwise it’s finished. I’ll add lights under the distant ship and maybe a few more fx though Roll on the foreground… Curse deadlines!
Time has unfortunately tricked me into having to rush this piece now, which is unfortunate. I have added blasts to the ship in the distance, and removed the soldiers that will be masked by the forground soldier (of which now there will be just one). Added a bit of post, film grain, blur etc. Hope to render out the final piece over the weekend. Now… I sleep! yay
