A thought about this from an artist's eye. One technique I use to "connect" the wheels to the ground is to deepen the shadow at that point.
See the image below for what I mean. I think you'll agree it works.

Click to view attachment

Well since you asked, I do think that a little dust in the concavities of the wheels, as in Astro0's examples, would add realism and would also highlight the wheel shapes nicely. But it's pretty darn close to perfect already...

John

Looks like I will have to deal with this render one more time, I am at work atm, so later on (I end at 23:00 local time) and if I still have strength I'll fix it then, once and for all

if you could rotate the wheels on the right hand side so they do not all have the release mechanims part of the tread at the top that would add to the realism too.

Since you are taking requests, could you make the wheels green for St. Patrick's day?

LOLOLOLOL... probably not...

...as for the above requests, there are a million things that could be done, and I could be working forever to please everyone. In my eyes this is a perfect render and I still get requests. Rotating the wheels etc, is out of the question for this render, it would take a lot of work besides re-rendering, a lot of post-process would be needed to redo shadows, dirt, etc. Please keep in mind that in the end this is just an artistic render I apologise that I won't be able to please every single one in this forum, but I am doing the best I can... considering I have a real life of my own

That is fine!

Your work is masterful, and while refinements can always be made (and from my experience even finished projects of passion are rarely ever *finished*), In my opinion you have more than accomplished your goal. While I can think of dozens of different environs I would love to see your model in, and a tweak here or there, it's not my model or my life!

Again, excellent work and thank you for sharing your journey with us!


-- Pertinax

I agree with Pertinax!

After a lot of thought, I decided to give you one final render...



...at this point I am not accepting any more comments on refinements though. Please accept as is!

Nick,

I know of no other Artist, in all of time, who has engaged an active community to help make his work more accurate, but your artistry has made it something more ... it is stunningly beautiful.

You have 'set the standard' for all future modelers.

nice
only one comment .It has to do with "depth of field"
now i have been a long time member of the f32 club

but

to get the rasp AND the background hills in focus i think is beyond the limits of the camera
but i might be wrong

having the background out of focus would look a bit better , but that is my opinion

<Admin and personal request mode>

Let's give Scooterlord a break. He's been at this model for nearly 6 years and I don't think we can ask any more of him.

I'm sure that we'll be seeing something new and exciting in near future but for now, let him take some time away from this project.

</Admin and personal request mode>

Well, after all this time, I know I would want a break! But he's always asked for comments/suggestions, every time he posted a render, so I suppose feedback is what he wanted!

Cristian

I don't know what you guys are talking about. I don't see any renderings.

I also don't know why scooterlord is posting so many pics of the rovers.

Hello, I finished rendering a few animation scenes of the mars rover as part of my showcase reel. I thought some of you might enjoy to see the Spirit 3d model in an animation scene.

Click to view attachment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il9MbC461lg

In addition to the opening scene, don't miss additional rover "footage" at 1:17 and 1:54 to the end.

Incredible work Nick. All of it. Of course, we are partial to the scenes of the rover. You even did a HAZCAM view!