Blue Christmas (2002) by Ryan Bliss

I've created at least one new Christmas render every year since 1998. Christmas (to me) is about traditions and in addition to creating new scenes I like to revisit some of my favorite themes from time to time.

I created the first "Blue Christmas" in 1999 using World Builder. It was extremely popular. I "faked" the tree lights using Photoshop though and that always bothered me a bit (I like everything to be done "in engine").

By 2002 I had learned Lightwave's particle system and had used it to create "Pyre" and "White Magic". I used the same techniques here to decorate my tree with blue lights. The scene is one of the rare landscapes that I rendered using Lightwave3D.

I've created a couple new versions of this scene in the years since but none has been quite so popular with my fans as this one. It is probably my signature Christmas render.