Hi! This is going to be an animated background for reallife santa shoot(with camera) against chroma green. I'm probably going to add a smoke trail from the pipe and animate it and the aurora borealis. What do you think about the lights? Any suggestions how to make them better? Maybe I should light the snow on the cottage roof from a low angle, what do you think? The lighting should give the image a magical feel like northern lights do in real life. The trees could be better but I think it would take too much time. -HK hkulju@dnainternet.net

I think a bit of blur on the aurora might soften those edges in the middle. You could use the 'blur object' function to achieve this (assuming you've shaded an object). I'd also add a bit of pink to the colour. I agree about the cottage roof. The whole foreground would be improved by a little more moonlight to bring out the detail, particularly in the trees on the right. If you use cool moonlight you could strengthen the light from the window to a bright yellow so that it's not lost. A great image! Good luck.

How about some glare?

I like the overall effect. If you could figure in a bit more transparency in the aurora it might look a little better . . .

Thanks guys! I think it is now ready enough. I've already spent too much time with it and yet I must render it to animation. I didn't get the blur and the glare affect so much the northern lights but I let the glare on because it enhances the image other ways. It was a good idea to bring red to the streaks. It makes them a bit more dramatic. I added a starfield behind the scene and dropped the glowing amount of the aurora so the backdrop can be seen better. I think bikermouse was right on this. I thigtened the view closer to the cottage so there isn't so much empty space on the foreground. -HK hkulju@dnainternet.net