Gabe

Brilliant work Taz, this has to be one of my favs of your creations! You really are putting that stacked plate technique to great use, and it's rough hewn look suits Nocturnus perfectly. The half-timbered upper story sits perfectly on the stone foundation, and the tower looks as though it is growing organically out of it. It might be my imagination too, but it looks as though the tower is leaning slightly to the left, accentuating the ramshackle nature of the buildings. Oh, and top notch work on the landscaping too... what a great free build!

Top entry Mikey B! I loved the story, and the series of vigs to illustrate it worked really well. The cliff with the greenery and ruined tower on top looks very nice, although perhaps using dark bley for wet areas of rock might have made the waterfall area a bit more obvious. I notice that some of the bricks in the "behind the waterfall" shots are lifting up a bit too, which is rather distracting. Anyway, nice work, best of luck in the voting!

Nice little series of vigs Jason, with quite a cinematic feel - even a love story! The gaurdians look great too - although let me get this straight - the gaurdian(s) were just moaning on about hard their lot is and how unfairly Talonmere treated them, and then the adventurers respond by killing them?? Sounds like that mage has a few dirty secrets he didn't want to come out...

I lol'ed at "High king whatisface"... Great story glenpinpat, and nicely illustrated, with a good variation of perspectives. You might want to consider doing a small amount of presentation work to make your pics even better, things like orienting your pics so the figs in them appear to be upright etc make a big difference. Best of luck!

Wonderful entry Ecclesiastes, that statue is amazing. I love the wild wood as well, and the concept of the deadly flowers is a great plot point. The only thing that niggles at me is the feeling that the ditch that the flowers are in ought to look less die-straight... just some ground cover growing over the edges of the ditch would have softened the look of it considerably. But overall it's a magnificent creation. Best of luck!

Seconded! It's a beautiful start... I'd love to see where this is going as well.

Great little entry Kabel! The snow covered arches look good and the yeti with the barrels is a cute touch. I also like your gaurdian very much - it looks very menancing in the second to last shot. It's also great to hear that the sod house has had a reprieve. Good stuff!

Nice entry Soccerkid! Your ravine is a very interesting build and i love the little cart going up the hill! I wanted to see the functions, but unfortunately your video wasn't working...

Beautiful work on this Zcerb, the ruined chapel/crypt is just perfect and the wolfpack tower has has the look of an awesome remake of some classic set from yesteryear. (actually, it kind of reminds me of the forestmen river fortress!) The fight scenes inside the crypt are expertly handled too. Some of my fav details have to be the rose window and the subtley textured floor of the crypt, as well as the curved details over the doorways. Best of luck in the voting!

Awesome story Jareth, very entertaining! You really had me going back and trying to spot all the other gems in the different chapters afterward. Some very cool techniques used throughout the chapters too. One thing that might help you in future is to work on your presentation - i could see some cars etc in the background in some shots and it was quite distracting. A bit of photo editing would be an easy fix for that. Anyway, great entry, best of luck in the voting!

Cheers DC, i'm glad that you like it! Yep, isn't that the truth... i'm also habitually guilty of biting of more than i can chew with deadlines as well. Anyway, 1'll be posting my continuation of this story here at a later point and i'd be interested to hear what you think about it. Ooh, really? That would be awesome, thanks! I'd love a black falcons shield.

Thanks fellows! I'm stoked that you like my entry. Thanks Zcerb. I do understand your feeling of let down by the island being the gaurdian - it may have something to do with the unfinished nature of the entry? Originally i had planned another scene in which you actually saw the "revived" giant turtle in a FP type of shot across the water, but i had to cut that as the deadline loomed. I am planning to get back to finishing up this story once i've recovered a bit though. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts! Thanks Cptn BB for your kind words. In answer to your questions; yes indeed that is the water horse guiding the ship ahead of the bow, and yes, a dark background can be very useful in photographing your mocs. I feel like the darker background helps the dynamic range in the darker tones, and prevents the highlights from getting blown out quite so much - that's just gut feeling though, i don't actually know. I do know that black or dark grey on a black background has a tendency to look like silver in photos though, which can be pretty cool. Play around with it and see what you reckon! Cheers NM/Gex, i'm just happy to have made it after all that rushing around last week! I'll definitely need a couple of weeks rest before the next challenge... Gosh, thanks Si for your very kind words! Actually, my lighting tests were partly inspired by your amazing "Temple of Lazarus"... that spooky blue lighting really made an impact on me when i first saw it. There is also a NZ builder on MOCpages who goes by the name "Leda Kat", who is a total master (mistress?)of cinematic lighting in mocs - i was up against her in the MocOlympics last year and she trounced my posterior! So she's a major inspiration too. Anyway, lighting, photography and presentation is something that i really want to work on this year. Thanks again for the lovely compliment! Thanks gedren y, for both the kind words and your vote! I don't have a pic that shows much more of the centre detail you are interested in, but the printed tile in the middle was this: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=4150px5

Stunning architechture as always Angeli! I'm so impressed by that bridge - it's a massive span. Is there any technic in there to strengthen it, or is it all brick? I love your story too, its so poetic and grand! And your battle scenes really suit the epic scale of the city. Best of luck in the voting!

Your entry might be small, but as Erynlasgalen says, it is well presented, which helps a lot. I also enjoyed your short story to go with it. I'm glad you found the time to make an entry for the challenge, kudos to you for that!

I like the idea you had going on with the tortured skeleton throne, and floor is nice too. The fight scenes are detailed as well. But i feel that you could have raised the walls up a fraction, and as deGothia says, perhaps a touch of landscaping could really bring the surroundings to life. Best of luck in the voting!

Great work Bartjuh, lots to love here. Your lanscaping is very well done and the main arch of the ruin is lovely. I also like the Mitgardian colours incorporated into the walls below ground. Your gaurdian is sweet too, although... Glad i wasn't the first to think it! It's still pretty awesome though. Good luck in the voting!

Well, it looks like it's Cara first, daylight second! And i have no problem with that. 10. 1 point 11. 3 points 16. 1 point I wish i could give points to so many others too, the standard of entries for this round is great!

My apologies for taking so long to comment on your excellent entry deGothia! That's a beautiful temple and the storyline and characters are very engaging. I really like the prickle bushes behind the heads of the killer plants too, they give it a wonderful sense of movement. Btw, i refuse to beleive that Quinn doesn't come back from this, she's an awesome character and surely not killed off that easily??

Lovely work Capt Beerbeard! I really like your dragon house, and the Genosian torsos for the knights work really well. I like your bionicle-infused gaurdian as well, particularly the snakes in its hair. I do find perhaps your scene with the gaurdian to be a mite over-busy - it's really hard to make some of the details out(like where the crystal is before Cptn BB grabs it). But then again, the whole scene does have an engaging sense of chaos that i really like too. Best of luck!

Dude! That is amazing, and what's more, really captures the spirit of Nocturnus! The sense of energy in the lava flow and the giant wyrm is great, and i really like how the various scales of the windows in the rock distorts the veiewer's sense of perspective. Truly outstanding.

Great work Rogueang, i really like the cinematic feel of your series of vigs - i really get a sense of being immersed in the world of your story. Having concentrated on lighting a bit in my own entry, i can appreciate how tricky it can be to get it just right - i'm very impressed with the number of different approaches you've taken to the lighting in your story. I also love all the neat touches you've added - the hand carpet (never seen that done and it works quite well!), the scroll and open book in the library, the stained glass and the crystals in the cave etc. An impressive entry!

Great stuff Hersbrucker! Your fleet looks great together and i like the raised landscaping around the temple. I'm glad to hear that the information your scout gained in Berigora was helpful - thanks for the link back!

Thanks Mikel! Yeah, i wonder if i have the largest gaurdian in the comp? I was sort of going for the horror movie principle, where the scariest monster is the one you only ever see flashes or parts of.... Haha, thanks Angeli! Yes, there's nothing better than a fancy room to come back to after a hard day's adventuring... Thanks Basiliscus! Yes, they say that neccessity is the mother of invention, well that is certainly true of my shots of Erudhalion and Nammuat climbing out of the belly of the beast. Given more time, i would have perhaps tried a "rising water" effect somehow, but alas... Haha, umm thanks Kayne! But no chance of a three-peat i don't think, not with some of the other amazing entries. I already have my vote on Cara to take the joust (i just love it!), and there's heaps of others in the running besides. I'm just happy to have made the deadline for the challenge. Cheers Erynlasgalen, glad you like it! One of the things i really wanted to concentrate on with these builds was my lighting (i have a lot to learn in that department!), so i'm chuffed that you think they work well. Aw, thanks Cara! Glad you like it! Thanks ISC! I'm not so happy with my writing of the story, but ah well - something to work on for next time i guess. Thanks soccerkid, glad you like it! (Yep, brick built hulls rock! I want to make some more now...) Thanks Hersbrucker! It was a bit of a mad scramble to get those builds done in time, so i'm glad you like them! ~~~~ I did go back and take some more nighttime shots of the cavern after the entry deadline - still experimenting with different lighting. I found that if i took part of the cavern roof off and used both yellow and blue light sources (and a tripod due to the slow shutter speed) i could get some quite interesting effects. Anyway, i thought i'd share with you the best shot of that last lighting test. Hope you enjoy it!

Great stuff Mikel, i especially like the pulled-back images, they really give a sense of the grand scale of your creation. The landscaping with all the vegetation looks really lush and tropical, and the ruined structure with the towers (temple? old castle?) are fantastic. Best of luck in the voting!

Fantastic story NM/Gex, very entertaining! I'm liking the cavern floor with the crack a lot too, and your build is visually interesting without being too cluttered. Great presentation too. (Neat idea to use the paper towels ) Best of luck in the voting.