Nice one, but I think the grass/trees are too "noisy", pixels are very visible. How about some antialiasing?

completely amazing. i feel like i was there !

one of the best yet

Good job on this image! Only thing that i really had an issue was with the trees in the distance looking too dark, but eh, so what, there could be clouds there. Thanks for another good image :)

I like the picture, but my eyes immediately caught the low sun on the foreground grass and the lack of sunlight on any of the treetops further in the background. Sky seems fairly clear to allow some sunlight to filter on the tops of the trees. Granted, there is no way to know what kind of clouds exist to the right of the picture, but sunlight grazing the tops of the trees would look nice, given the cloud visibility.

I really like this new image. The realism of the terrain and grass is great. I agree that the central peak is a bit conical. I also think that the largeness of the central peak along with its symmetry detract from the beautiful grass covered terrain. What if the central peak was not there at all? In place of it, a grassy valley between the two mountians that are to the left and right of the central peak. The valley can be somewhat obscured from fog or whatever and fade into the distance. Just some suggestions, I really like this picture though, the grass, river and tree make this relaxing to look at.

I'm not sure how you can invalidate solicited individual interpretation under the pretense of "out of the box thought." Just as Ryan's artistic creations are bound only by his own imagination, one's impression of the creation is not bound by a lack of technical expertise. Surely, you would not argue that one cannot be critical of Windows, for instance, because they are incapable of designing an extraordinarily complex operating system.



As members who post on this website, wouldn't it stand to reason that we all share a preference for Ryan's work? As a lifetime member (customer), I feel free to give my feelings on the piece, and Ryan has provided a place to do so. Out of the box thinking and opinion are not mutually exclusive.



Sorry if this is inappropriate for this forum, but it just gets under my skin when a free-thinker feels compelled to tell me how to think.

I'd like to see that pickle jar. I'd agree that the central peak looks a little too conical.

I don't comment too often, and it is interesting to read comments. My comment; maybe this isn't earth. Maybe this is another planet, earth like in some respects but perhaps having a different gravity, a different atmosphere, or size or shape.

I know Ryan said he was inspired by a mural at a museum, but that doesn't mean it's a view of some place on earth.

There are many possibilities. I guess I have a hard time with people wanting to fit Bliss's work into our own little boxes of thought, experience and view of what is real. This is art, that means it's someone's vision and it doesn't need to be real.

To me either you like it as is or you don't. Who are we to say, "the mountians are too pointy or the clouds are too thick"? Especially since most of us couldn't even begin to do work like this.

Personally I don't care for it much but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the work, effort and thought that went into it being created.

I like all of Ryan's work in the sense that he has dedicated himself to doing quality artwork. It is all good. Some of it appeals to me and some of it doesn't. Other than that, I can in no way criticize the work, unless I was capable of turning out creative illustrations as he does.

I really love the lighting in this artwork. Creates a lot of depth. I also appreciate the way you handle clouds and sky lately. They seem to have a more prominent place, with great results.



Well, maybe the mountain indeed should have a sharper top... But hey, there are a lot of odd shaped mountains in this world, just like this one.



I wouldn't change a thing in 'River Valley'. It's beautiful the way it is now.



9*

To all those who think the mountains looks unrealistic...



http://www.glasshousemountains.com.au/waynesmodified/groupwe.htm



Another nice render. ;-)

I love the sky, and I'm really impressed with the texture and colours of the river and vegetation. Like others I have concerns about the central mountain - it looks a bit too perfectly conical to me, and the clouds do obscure the other mountains in a very sharp cutoff. However, if that was intended I respect Ryan's judgement :-)

Truly fabulous.

I was reading a few of the other comments. Someone else commented about the mountain looking too pointy. I had just assumed it was a volcano. Is it?

I'm very impressed with the wallpapers lately. They are looking so sharp and realistic! I always enjoy your nature sceneries :)

Wow, absolutely beautiful! One of your best landscapes yet...

wow ok.. totally put into perspective ^_^ thanks anyway for your constant effort into the best quality of every type of work.





i really love all your pieces

how hard is it to get a animation of a scene like this? like.. i know that space scenes are the easiest to animate.. but i would REALLY love to have an animated scene like this where the clouds are moving and the grass is blowing..



dunno how hard would be.. so figured i would just ask ^_^

I really like this, except for the mountain range. It kinda look like a set of teeth to me, rather than a collection of mountains in a range. The middle mountain is too rounded and too pointy.



I keep thinking of Ngauruhoe here in NZ ... it looks so different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Ngauruhoe

flipping crazy. love it! simply amazing!.... love it!!!! keep up the great work ryan!!!

Great idea, maybe slightly rushed though. I wasn't expecting a new one for several days. My issues:



-The first thing I spotted was the middle peak. It looks far too rounded.

-The mountain texture is far too distorted.

-The 'flat-top' mountain to the let of the main peak looks weird. I think the clouds should be more transparent.

-Mountains should be further away.



However, I do like the

-clouds

-grass

-river

-sky

and the vegetation. Keep at it, I look forward to some more revisions.

I love this one! The only thing I would suggest is making the mountain in the center shorter or wider (basically just make it proportional). Other than that it's perfect :)

This is a place I'd imagine visiting, sitting under the tree with a good book, occasionally looking over the landscape for hours.



Great job! Change nothing, it is perfect as is!

For me the only issue is the shape of the main mountain. Very odd. Looks like sub on my creature speakers. ;)



Overall. It's beautiful. Thanks

This image looks great; however, i think the river should look more blue, instead of gray, as it is reflecting the blue sky.

The grass blades on the right of the picture look real! Excellent!

I really like this image however my only real problem is the clouds. I would prefer that the upper clouds were more fluffy white and realistic, like colombus clouds. The tree leaves look odd and a bit flat I would like to see more depth.



I also notice there is not much too look at in terms of detail my eyes are only drawn to the grass and the mountains.



Still the mountains and grass look excellent to me.



I give it a 7/10.

I like this one. i usually go for the planetscapes or moons in BG or night scense, but for some reason I just really liked the greass on the closest hill. Very realistic. Might there be a twilight/night version comming?

I especially like the foreground in this, in previous renders your foliage such as bushes and small plants has looked rather "plasic" but the grass here looks awesome. I don't know a great deal about composition but if it were a picture taken by a camera or painter I'd be impressed with it. As a suggestion how about adding some animals to a future render, that would satisfy those saying that some of your works seem devoid of life. Keep up the good work!



8/10

Good things first: the foreground is beautiful. I like the tree and absolutely love that sunlit patch of grass. The water looks quite realistic.



The background lacks life. It looks flat somehow. There's an unpleasant graininess to the distant trees, grass, and the lower part of the mountain. Perhaps this is meant to suggest mist, but if so it comes off more as a photograph of mist than the real thing.



Your last few nature renders have had very realistic skies and clouds (at least to me), this one not so much. I think I would prefer if you stuck with the thick, looming clouds and removed the wispy ones in the upper left, or maybe vice versa. The combination doesn't ring true. The wispy clouds look like they belong in a higher stratum. (The color of the sky, on the other hand, is perfect.)



8/10, readily upgradable as usual!

I love the view. The mountains seem a tad odd being all 'cone'-ish shaped instead of one long varying ridge, but there's no reason they can't be cones so it's all good. You say you weren't concerned with photo-realism, so stopping there it's really a great piece of work.



Still, the lighting really does seem strange to me. It's as if there's actually three separate lighting conditions in play here:



1. Mountain area: Partly cloudy, but bright. The angle of the sun, judging by the shadows of the clouds on the mountains, seems to be sort of 2-3pm maybe?



2. Valley floor: This area gives the impression of a completely overcast sky, despite the apparent fact that no clouds should be in the way given the sun's apparent position off to the right of both clouds and viewer.



3. Foreground hill where viewer is standing: As others have said, the shadow is just too deep here, both on the ground and on the tree I think. It's almost as if it's actually night, but someone setup a few sports field/stadium sized lights to the right to allow the viewer to do some night-time nature filming or something odd like that.



Despite the angle of the sun, with a sky that bright there should still be enough light bouncing around to illuminate the valley floor and those foreground areas by around 25-35% more than what we're seeing I think.

...I wanted to add another comment as I felt compelled after looking at it on my desktop to recommend you try a few more like this. There's something about the image that puts me right there like i'm looking out a window, feels real in a way. The river runs right off my desktop to the lower corner, simply awesome!

I rather like this image. The mountains are very cool as they add a huge sense of 'scope' to the scene. You have acheived a painting look I feel because the tree growth is simple as it would be in a painting, as with the haze...but gives it an uncanny detail that is quite stunning! I feel the river color is fine and reminds me of the Amazon river through a bunch of growth around it.

I'm amazed by this picture.



I quite like all of it. The only suggestion I have is possibly lighten up the water, it seems very dark compared to what is above it-blue sky. It seems, instead to be reflecting the clouds which are further away.



Otherwise, I love it, and particularly the little blue flowers in the foreground, they are great. :)

I feel like there was a lot of loss on the thumbnail for this one (though that sort of is the definition of the thumbnail) I almost didn't look at it but once I looked at the 1600x1200 I had a much greater appreciation for this one. So if you are skimming the comments and haven't looked at a higher res version of this you should you might be similarly surprised.



Good work again.

I'm not always after photorealism for sure, but I have to agree the mountains take away from this one a bit.

Nice image, I love the grass on the forground...that look so realisitic I would leave that alone, but you have too much shadows at the bottom , unless you have more dark clouds on the sky or have a big mountain not shown that would be there....the mountains needs a little more formation at the back and maybe add a tint of haze at the bottom where those little trees are to add more realism that you are really high up on that foreground mountain...(you dont appear high enough because from looking at the background mountains, you still seem on low ground....Those are just IDEAS to perfection....the image is still outstanding better than what I could do (I am a vue user also)

This is very beautiful, but also feels plastic to me! I did read that your aim was more of a painting than realism, but i can't help but wish that the sun was on such an angle, that it also reflected from the water, not quite sunset, but late afternoon kinda glow would have been nice!



a Night version would look stunning, perhaps bits of light from between the forest trees showing that there is life(or a tribe)under all those trees, perhaps also with a beautiful evening sky to compliment it!!!

Typically I enjoy your compositions, and this one is no exception. None the less, I feel you could use to learn a bit more about natural mountain forms.



As always, I look forward to your future work.

You are doing a great job with this new program of yours! I really like the effects and the depth that you have put into the picture. Keep up the great work!

This wallpaper is detailed, but for some reason it doesn't look that realistic (perhaps too much haze and the light effect on the grass / tree looks a little artificial). Overall its still very nice looking but in terms of quality and focus, it it about the same as the recent waterfall wallpaper, which I wasn't all that impressed with.

This wallpaper is quite beautiful. This is definitely one of my favorites you've ever made. I love stuff like this. Keep up the good work.