Or does it look better with the snow

It appears lighter because of the lighter fog I added to represent background snow - you're right that it looks foggy. The large snowflakes are in the extreme foreground. I'll see if I can get some smaller ones into the middle and background, but they'll mostly disappear. I tried tiny snowflakes at first and it just looked like graininess on the image. It looks a little dark on the roof because the roof is not being hit very directly by the moonlight. I might give it a bit of a once over to even out the tone. I tried to match the trees and shrubs to all the vegetation around her house (seen most clearly in the opening of her scene in SFK4, from this exact camera angle). The window-shaped lights on the snow and the glow from the windows was all added in Photoshop - I couldn't produce satisfactory results for all those lights from a direct 3D render. But that's part of the magic! ^_^

The one with the snow appears to be taking place earlier in the day. The one without snow seems darker. I still like the one without snow, on account that I have to agree something about the snow effect seems off. It looks more foggy than snowy. My critiques (coming from someone with minimal drawing skills): Could you reduce the snow flake size and increase the number of particles on screen? The idea would be to add more chaos to the picture without the snow looking like dandruff, thus creating a good blizzard environment. You'd probably have to put in some kind of wind effect as well for the snow on the ground, like a thin veil of drifting snow perhaps, to get a blizzard effect. Sound effects will also greatly add to the effect. Also, is there anyway to 'whiten' up the snow a bit, namely on the roof? It seems a little dirty. Otherwise the house looks good, I like the buried bench and windows. Tree placement and shrubbery is nice, and the lighting and shadows look great, especially under the doorway. Looking forward to your next completed work! :)

sblgpfan

Hmmm snow looks good it depends on what you want them to focus on... The weather or the house :)

The snow should work for the intro then, since not much time will be spent on it (and taking shelter in a blizzard is part of the plot). Maybe I'll use the snowless one for menu backgrounds though.

On first impression: definitely snow. When looking longer though the snowless one feels more 'right'.

they are both good.