Not giving up

So, the results of the Christmas competition are in, and—surprise!—I didn't win. I didn't place among the finalists either, but looking at the quality of their renders, I still have a long way to go. But, I won't be able to tackle everything at once, so let's focus on one thing at the time. 

The element that is most often cited to elevate a good render to a great one is a "story". However, it also happens to be the most problematic element. At least for me. It doesn't always seem to be pure action or activity captured in a frame. I've come across some quite static scenes that were highly praised for their storytelling. My working definition at the moment goes along the lines of "a visual element that captures the imagination of the audience". Popular renders seem to be able to lure you in, to pique your interest and make you want to know more about the environment.

Well, it's *definitely* going to be a long time before I can do that, but I can try to be more mindful of placing such elements into my scenes. And, thinking about all this storytelling stuff has already born some fruit. It put an idea inside my head, which I eventually turned into the render you are now looking at.

I think what inspired me the most was a conversation I overheard while doing some last-minute shopping. A young woman, who was buying a poinsettia, was quite irritably explaining to her friend on the phone that she is NOT going to buy a bigger planting pot for the thing because it's going to die anyway. Well, hers might, but mine will live forever.

Scene-wise, this was a quick one to make. I was lucky enough to be given Grass Essentials as an early Christmas gift so I thought I would put it to good use straight away. Setting up the particle systems takes just a few clicks—first to import the grass species and then to adjust the number of emitted particles. I honestly think I spent more time deciding which species to use than actually putting them in.

Branch close-up

The one part of the scene I wasn't quite sure how to make was the snow. There are some snow tutorials out there, but I ended up not having enough time to go through them. Eventually, I created a plane with the snow texture, I displaced it and randomly moved its verts around so that they went through the grassy plane. It is not absolutely photo-realistic, but I'm happy with it for the moment.

And for the next week, I *have* to start doing the Animation Bootcamp for real. I have been putting it off for way too long. And I'm not even sure why, since I'm genuinely looking forward to it. So, without further excuses, next time is animation time!