Same scene, but after some feedback received, I got the depth of field out (I was too keen on testing compositing stuff):

Don’t worry, I won’t be posting every new rock and weed I blend, I just needed to get the right version online instead of the blurry one.

I also have to explain the blue dots, these are markings for hikers made with paint on trees and rocks along the mountain trails in Romania – like this:

So my image represents something like an abandoned farm used as storm refuge on a mountain trail. I am nostalgic over mountain trips, haven’t been up on a trail for a while…

Back to the render – I really struggled with the compositor!

Actually the compositor part of these tutorials are one great outcome for me. I never made time to try this stuff by myself. It’s a bit fast paced but with much replay I was able to follow.

So, my view on the course: it’s well thought out and full of stuff as expected and I feel I am learning some useful stuff. Along with the main subject Andrew gives all kinds of useful tips. Sometimes he’s a bit too fast or starts zooming and panning unnecessarily but on the whole he is holding the nice Blenderguru tutorial style. The “all on the same page” idea of the course seems to work as people do compare work and much feedback is passed around. One minus point in all the package – forums are really basic, no images posting or links. So to have images critiqued you have to post the image elsewhere; to look at images you have to copy paste addresses. This really annoys me because people are posting tons of interesting variations on the tutorials and you can’t keep track of them. I’m sure  this will be fixed for the October series because many have complained, but not sure it will be fixed this season of the course. Other than this I love it, happy to get over the boulders and on to the tree tutorial.

I made a separate gallery page for my nature images so I won’t be writing a new post for each tree and rock I make. So Blendermama does not become naturemama but if you want to follow what I’m doing it will all be here.