about my thread (ancient fantasy), why doesn’t it show new post? I had post something before but it never shown up (or is it just my computer?)
edit: since my other post doesn’t work and I don’t want to keep adding topic to the forum, so i will just turn this thread into my ancient fantasy #2
Probably related to what’s been described in this thread.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=207254
The forum database has had some issues in the last few days and in some areas have already been mostly fixed by Goofster.
At the least the database errors aren’t showing anymore, but the display of posts aren’t completely fixed in all areas yet.
I was trying to get to the site earlier, but the system wouldn’t let me connect. It appears to have been cleared now.
since my other post doesn’t work and I don’t want to keep adding topic to the forum, so i will just turn this thread into my ancient fantasy #2
by the way, thanks for the info about what is happening before.
Are those tower-like things in the front supposed to be all black like that? Because with more light on it the details (which look like they are good from what I can see) would be able to be more easily appreciated. I don’t know if you can change the exposure in blender, but if that is possible, HDRI can achieve great looking effects.
You still need a certain level of ambient lighting in all areas of the scene, even at night you can’t expect to see large areas that appear perfectly black, create some ambient lighting using hemi lights then use AO set to multiply (if you’re using 2.5)
Other than a clip near the middle, the background is really starting to show quality.
The main thing left is to improve the lighting in the front (perhaps replacing some point-based lamps with an area-light rig), and increase the complexity of the materials in the front (using more textures, stencils, even node trees).
The background is quite good now, now you need to bring the front up to the level of quality seen in the background.
Be cautious with area-lights though, usually you want the power to be very low due to their nature to wash things out if they have a long range with a power of 1.
I like the less saturated version better. Also try to adjust the DOF to increase the focus on the center of the image.
okay, add some detail on the texture and the water
edit: also do some painting on the mountain using gimp
Having trouble verbalizing my critique, so here is “lateral thinking”-approach: Scroll through this thread to see how desaturation, value studies and composition really can add quality to an image: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=359226
It is perhaps the most visually educational resource i know… 
