Rows

The vibrant colors and tidy handling gives this
picture a slightly unreal gaiety. A warmth
in contrast to a subject normally thought of as dreary
even derelick.  These rowhouses seem
homey, in a way, inviting.

It is a little like English painter, L. S. Lowry,
finding some humanity in the dismal trappings of industrial
sprawl.


The Castle of Saulxures

I thought this was an impressive first entry to the contest.
The scene is well framed with a beautiful, understated
harmony of saturated cools and warm grays, and is nicely
completed with a realistic sky and pretty grass.  The
approach to the topic is personal and poetic, to recreate
the appearance of a now dilapidated chateau.  And indeed
it comes back to life in this picture.


Futuristic Tower

This picture defines "futuristic" as dynamic, machinelike,
and having a certain inscrutible randomness.  The sky and
framing of the view gives the picture a very dramatic
atmosphere.  The color harmony, along a yellow-purple
axis, adds to the unease.


Simplicity

One wants to be cautious when interpreting Veijo Vilva's
finely crafted entry.  Previous entries indicate there is
always a great deal of thought put into them and a
meticulous craftmanship to the modelling and
texturing.  This craftmanship lends a sense of density
to the scene which is balanced by the fastidious placement
of objects and overall spareness of the composition.

The lines of the architecture are rectilinear with the picture plane.
The setting is idealized, an unreal sky meets the edge of
an artificial pool.  Immaculate instruments for music
stand on a thin stage above the water.

There is a feeling of reduction, of elemental juxtaposition.
There is spartan form and lavish texture, dense sky and flickering
caustics, transparent textures and opaque reflections.

Simplicity?  I'm not so sure.


-Jim

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news:3ee932e5@news.povray.org...
> The Castle of Saulxures
>
> I thought this was an impressive first entry to the contest.
> The scene is well framed with a beautiful, understated
> harmony of saturated cools and warm grays, and is nicely
> completed with a realistic sky and pretty grass.  The
> approach to the topic is personal and poetic, to recreate
> the appearance of a now dilapidated chateau.  And indeed
> it comes back to life in this picture.

Thank you !

There is other rendering of this scene here :
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/zesly/chateau.html
I'm sorry, its in french.

-- 
Sylvain Girard
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/zesly/

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"Jim Charter" <jrc### [at] aolcom> wrote in message
news:3ee932e5@news.povray.org...
> Simplicity
>
> One wants to be cautious when interpreting Veijo Vilva's
> finely crafted entry.  Previous entries indicate there is
> always a great deal of thought put into them and a
> meticulous craftmanship to the modelling and
> texturing.  This craftmanship lends a sense of density
> to the scene which is balanced by the fastidious placement
> of objects and overall spareness of the composition.
>
> The lines of the architecture are rectilinear with the picture plane.
> The setting is idealized, an unreal sky meets the edge of
> an artificial pool.  Immaculate instruments for music
> stand on a thin stage above the water.
>
> There is a feeling of reduction, of elemental juxtaposition.
> There is spartan form and lavish texture, dense sky and flickering
> caustics, transparent textures and opaque reflections.
>
> Simplicity?  I'm not so sure.

I understand what you're saying, but for me this image didn't really say much
about architecture. The modelling is very detailed, and the perfection of
everything seems deliberate, rather than just a side effect of it being CG,
which I like. But the architectural elements of the scene seem almost ill
thought-out. Like someone spent ages modelling really nice objects, then built a
basic scene to house them in, to get it on topic.

Obviously the argument against that is the architecture in this image is meant
to be very simple. I guess my point is that it looks not so much like a simple
building, and more like simple modelling. There's a difference there because I
don't get the feeling much thought has gone into the architecture itself, it's
simply been constructed in a way that was easy in pov to house the impressive
objects and to layout the picture in a nice way. It doesn't look designed to
fulfil a purpose as architecture.

Plus I really have a problem with that sky texture. Again, it doesn't look to me
like "an unreal sky", it looks more like a flat procedural texture. Something
simple to construct in pov rather than a simple surreal ideal.

It's a nice picture, but just doesn't interpret the topic in a way that I like.

--
Tek
http://www.evilsuperbrain.com

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Jim Charter wrote:
>Rows
>
>The vibrant colors and tidy handling gives this
>picture a slightly unreal gaiety. A warmth
>in contrast to a subject normally thought of as dreary
>even derelick.  These rowhouses seem
>homey, in a way, inviting.

Thanks!
The rowhouses are probably (as someone mentioned in the comments) a little
too varied for a normal street, but I was trying to show different styles.
The flat-roofed brown brick ones are like the ones I saw in the midwest,
the light paneled ones are like the ones in the small coastal towns here in
California, and the reddish-brown ones are like the Philidelphia style. I
had wanted to do the style that cover San Francisco & Seattle, but that
would have required more macros for bay windows, porches and fancier roofs
and time was running out :(

>
>It is a little like English painter, L. S. Lowry,
>finding some humanity in the dismal trappings of industrial
>sprawl.

Double thanks! The painting look was what I was after with the colors and
the sky, so I guess it worked!  Not familiar with Lowry, but I'll have to
look him up now that you said that.

>
>The Castle of Saulxures
>
>I thought this was an impressive first entry to the contest.
>The scene is well framed with a beautiful, understated
>harmony of saturated cools and warm grays, and is nicely
>completed with a realistic sky and pretty grass.  The
>approach to the topic is personal and poetic, to recreate
>the appearance of a now dilapidated chateau.  And indeed
>it comes back to life in this picture.

I thought this one very impressive, and the score it recieved was a shock. I
had personally rated it much higher.  This and M. Jacquier's "Erasmus" both
finished far lower than I would have expected, both I thought were
excellent.


>
>Futuristic Tower
>
>This picture defines "futuristic" as dynamic, machinelike,
>and having a certain inscrutible randomness.  The sky and
>framing of the view gives the picture a very dramatic
>atmosphere.  The color harmony, along a yellow-purple
>axis, adds to the unease.

An interesting interpretation. The tower itself was well done but I thought
it needed either a lower camera angle or something else in the scene to
provide a better sense of scale.


>
>Simplicity
>
>One wants to be cautious when interpreting Veijo Vilva's
>finely crafted entry.  Previous entries indicate there is
>always a great deal of thought put into them and a
>meticulous craftmanship to the modelling and
>texturing.  This craftmanship lends a sense of density
>to the scene which is balanced by the fastidious placement
>of objects and overall spareness of the composition.
>
>The lines of the architecture are rectilinear with the picture plane.
>The setting is idealized, an unreal sky meets the edge of
>an artificial pool.  Immaculate instruments for music
>stand on a thin stage above the water.
>
>There is a feeling of reduction, of elemental juxtaposition.
>There is spartan form and lavish texture, dense sky and flickering
>caustics, transparent textures and opaque reflections.
>
>Simplicity?  I'm not so sure.
>
>
>-Jim
>

I haven't seen anything by Veijo Vilva I would call simple!
As usual from Veijo, beautifully detailed modelling, good choice of colors
and meticulous arrangement of objects makes a very nice scene.  I didn't
find it all that related to the topic though, as the architecture depicted
seems almost like a stage set. The primary focus of the image is more the
objects than the setting.
(But I sure love those intruments! Would like to see an example of that
bass? being played... is it plucked or bowed?)

RG

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"Jim Charter" <jrc### [at] aolcom> wrote in message
news:3ee932e5@news.povray.org...

Mr

This picture makes me wish I had Jim's vocabulary. The fact that I am at
the moment working on something which is at least somewhat similar
highlites the quality of this image to me even moreore. Maybe the people
are out of proportion as was mentioned in the comments, but other than
that, and the fact that the artist did not follow the rules of the
competition, this picture is perfect.

The composition of this picture is obviously very structured and
architectural in nature. What is amazing to me is how perfectly the
structure of the picture reflects the style of the building's structure.
The picture, like the building, minimises the vertical lines and
contributes to the feeling that each door and window represent a very
distinct area of the building. It is easy to imagine when looking at a
building/picture like this that several unique worlds could exist within
it, each never having significant contact with the others. Each group
whispering among themselves rumors about the loud noises which are heard
from the third floor, or extremely well dressed gentlemen seen taking
the elevator from the second. This to me is the essence of everything
that is good about living in a city: small communities, like minded
people finding each other and sharing their lives, a wide variety of
interests and lifestyles, the viability of sharing even the most obscure
interests with other human beings.


Simplicity

Veijo, I can sense that there is something very purposeful and strong
which you have worked hard to convey here and in some of your other
scenes. Unfortunately, I have no idea what that is. I believe it is
something that I have not experienced. It is always, however, refreshing
to see your work. Even though I can't say I "get" it, your work improves
my mood when I am painfully bored by other pictures.

 -Shay

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Shay wrote:
> "Jim Charter" <jrc### [at] aolcom> wrote in message
> news:3ee932e5@news.povray.org...
> 
> Mr
> 
> The composition of this picture is obviously very structured and
> architectural in nature. What is amazing to me is how perfectly the
> structure of the picture reflects the style of the building's structure.
> The picture, like the building, minimises the vertical lines and
> contributes to the feeling that each door and window represent a very
> distinct area of the building. 

Is there anyone who can classify the architectural style of the 
building(s) in Mr.  I am wondering if it is the style known as
"ultra-moderne" that sculptors such as Smithson and Morris would
sometimes write about?

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