With all of the Star Wars hype, I figured I would have a go at a Hoth Scene. The focus of this scene, and what I would like critical feedback on is not the modeling of the walker (done by Natman from Blendswap), but the snow landscape, material, and overall scene/composition. I am hesitant to put this on a ‘finished projects’ thread. Any feedback would be great! Thanks in advance!
The falling snow feels like an overlay on the camera and not like it was in the scene. With so much snow coming down, the visibility should be more impaired in the distance. Maybe try this:
- reduce the falling snow in the foreground a bit
- increase the fog density in the background
- sunlight. A rising or setting sun in the direction the walker is heading that pokes through the clouds and throws light at the snowy hills on the left
- snow particles on top of the snowy hills left towards the right
The composition works for me, I’d keep it like that 
I appreciate the feedback Sersch. I think you are right about the foreground snow and the fog. I gave another go at it…I think this is better, but maybe still needs a tweak. I would like to avoid the light rays as you mentioned, but it sounds like a cool idea.
I agree the snow falling takes a bit away from scene. 2nd pic is better but snowflakes look all the same somewhat. maybe closer ones need be more unlike each other. Great post
The snowflakes are still not perfect, but that’s far better than the first one, good job! They have much more motion to them now and the scene feels more uninviting than before, that’s a good thing.
Thank you both for the good feedback…I knew something wasn’t right with the original. I’m used to architectural scenes, so creating a scene with an uninviting environmental factor is brand new to me. This was obviously for fun…and it was! This being said, I probably won’t devote any more time to getting the snowflakes “perfect”, as I probably can not achieve that. I think I am happy with the scene as-is…probably just as a desktop background theme. Thanks again for great input guys. Cheers!
My first thought on seeing the first one was “why isn’t there any snow sticking to the lens and melting?” I think that would improve it if done tastefully. HTH - Jerry
Yeah you are right. I agree with you.
If you would invest a little more time into the snowflakes you could imho improove the image considerably. What strikes me are mostly theese points:
In the first image the snowflakes create a feel of depth because of their different size (but seem to be too big close to the AT), that feeling of depth got lost with the second image mostly. A combination of both picturer wih a better perspective of snowflakesize would be good.
Depth of field: Camarea shoud have a focus level (where the At AT is most likely) where also the snowflakes would be “sharp” whereas the snowflakes away from this focus level would be blurry (depending on camera-settings).
Snowflakes are mostly very irregular in shape and size and density and not just round dots.
Using a search engine for reference images (search term could be “snow storm” here e.g.) is always a good idea.
Thanks everyone, these damn snowflakes are going to kill me! :spin:
Thanks for the feedback…I am determined to get it right when I get some spare time.