Posted on December 10, 2003

• LATE UPDATE: I’ve posted a new render of “The Ride” on the new images pages. I’ve made a couple of changes to the sky to try and get rid of the color banding for the earlier version and I’ve calmed the water in the lake a little so you can see more reflections. I’ve also made the sleigh and reindeer a little larger (but not much). An updated “riderless” version is also available in the Pickle Jar.

• One of my favorite Christmas renders has always been “The Ride” from 1998. I love the idea, but the execution left something to be desired. For example, the “forest” was made up of bare spikes (that was all Bryce could do) and Santa’s sleigh was a low-res alpha map. I’ve always thought that I could do better, and this year I decided it was time to try.

  The new render is now up on the new images page. The image was produced using World Builder (which does really nice forests). I kept the sky from the original Bryce render, because I liked the ice ring, and I tried to keep the general composition the same. There’s also a version without Santa’s sleigh for those of you who prefer it that way.

  I still have a few issues that I want to work out, but I think it looks nice enough to share. What do you think?

• I’ve also added two widescreen Christmas renders. “Blue Christmas (2002)” and “Spirit of the Season” are available in 1920 x 1200 in the Widescreen gallery.