Missed the comment window, and even the proposed two-week window for 
commenting would long since have passed by now, but I noticed today on 
the site that there was NO feedback at all on the images, so, in the 
interest of supporting Steve's endeavor, I am going to provide some here.

--------------------------------------------------
"Queen's Harem" by lequenne:
Anton Lavey once published a five-point outline of "Pentagonal 
Revisionism" towards which his adherents should work. Points four and 
five are:

  4. "Development and production of artificial companions ...Polite, 
sophisticated, technologically feasible slavery."
  5. "The opportunity for anyone to live within a total environment of 
his or her choice, with mandatory adherence to the aesthetic and 
behavioral standards of same"

Your image brought these points to mind, along with "Ughh! Not ANOTHER 
naked poser girl!" My understanding of the female mind is that a female 
would prefer her harem continually battling each other for her affection 
rather than locked away waiting in drawers - especially if, as the 
"Mother" concept suggests, she is keeping this harem for the purpose of 
procreation. Perhaps this is a barren queen who, refusing to admit her 
procreational inviability, is searching desperately for a serviceable 
mate. There are lots of places you could have gone beyond cyber-titillation.

--------------------------------------------------
"Concerned Hive" by Nudel:
A clean-looking scene even with the blotchiness. Nice bees. Can't say I 
laughed at your humor, but the concept of _MotherING Hive_ has enough 
interest to carry this simple entry.

--------------------------------------------------
"Swarm" by Afishionad:
The image is a compliment to your story, but doesn't "do" much on its 
own. Some indication that this was the first (Mother) hive of the 
invasion would  have made this more interesting. Where did they 
choose/happen to land? What were the immediate consequences? Why might 
the problem have been ignored for some amount of time? What remains of 
the measures man has taken against this particular hive? Did man perhaps 
unwittingly contribute to the spread of these hives? Conflict (the 
destruction of the planet) only propels a story, it doesn't create one.

--------------------------------------------------
"Lot 271828 - Silver and Gold" by stephen:
A blunt pictorial account of a magical ceremony. How the clan expect to 
benefit from this ceremony is unclear. Some magic to keep the women 
young is how this usually works, I guess. With a VERY, VERY, VERY deep 
understanding of the history of your fictional world, the knowledge that 
such a clan committed human sacrifice might indeed be shocking. Looking 
at the picture alone, it is not clear to me that a human sacrifice is 
taking place at all.

--------------------------------------------------
"The Mother Hive" by ThomdeG:
I appreciate the work of all those who are prolific and resolute enough 
to keep this challenge going through the early stages. With an 
experienced artist like yourself, many "whys" come to mind when a new 
work is presented. I believe, however, given the pace you have been 
keeping, that the answer to most of these "whys" would be the same: 
expedience. Pods on stilts, eh? Perhaps the mothers should have built it 
stronger; These totalitarian utopias never seem to last long before the 
"barbarism" of the subjugated returns to the surface.

--------------------------------------------------
"The Homecoming" by Steve:
Robotic flying ants with high-collared humanoid heads? MUST be 25ct. You 
do things that no other person in this community would. Of course the 
ants are dusty -they've been working all day-, but I wouldn't have 
thought of it (and I'm a worker). These tiny hints of 
anthropomorphisation and "cybermorphisation" give this image a nice 
WTF-ness. Glad to see your skewed perspective coming out in your 
challenge entries.

  -Shay

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Hi Shay!

I had been wondering about the absence of your incisive, right to the point 
comments, and here they are! Thank you indeed. Much appreciated.
In my personal case, I don't know if expedience really guides my efforts. 
Besides wanting to help Steve's challenge to become what I sincerely hope it 
will become, I am mainly driven by the image that imposes itself on me once 
the topic is revealed. I confess that I have not been able to resist till 
now :-) Well... that may be called expedience too, after all... <grin>

As far as the stilted pods are concerned, I agree with you. I believe the 
civilization shown did not last long (despite their titanium steel housing). 
Beyond a certain threshold of expansion, the hive breaks down into 
individual components which are much more vulnerable to ouside forces and 
they go the way most utopias go.

Thomas

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has. You have been very discreet. :)
There were comments by some at the end of the competition. I commented an all of
the entries as did some of the earliest entrants. (Steve I think we have a bug)
If anyone else comments I will add my own.
As for Lot 271828, it is part of a series that I will post links to when I am
finished the one that I am working on now.  You are right about the human
sacrifice, though.


Stephen

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Thomas de Groot wrote:

 > In my personal case, I don't know if expedience really guides my
 > efforts.  Besides wanting to help Steve's challenge to become
 > what I sincerely hope it will become, I am mainly driven by the
 > image that imposes itself on me once the topic is revealed. I
 > confess that I have not been able to resist till now :-) Well...
 > that may be called expedience too, after all... <grin>

What did you have to resist? Sounds interesting.

I'm not suggesting that expedience guides your creative efforts. The 
questions I had in mind were more like: "Why isn't this as nicely 
sun-lit at 'Eavesdropping'"? "The Mother Hive" does not appear to me to 
be as visually mature an image as "Eavesdropping." I am guessing this is 
due to insufficient time for radiosity, media, blur, modeling-detail, 
etc. experimentation. Perhaps not. I can only relate to what I see of my 
own intentions in others, and not every area overlaps.

  -Shay

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Stephen wrote:
 > There were comments by some at the end of the competition. I
 > commented an all of the entries as did some of the earliest
 > entrants. (Steve I think we have a bug) If anyone else comments I
 > will add my own.

Add them now. I'm sure the others would appreciate it. I have heard many 
say that feedback is among the most important rewards for their 
participation in the IRTC/TC-RTC.

 > As for Lot 271828, it is part of a series that I will post links
 > to when I am finished the one that I am working on now.  You are
 > right about the human sacrifice, though.

Planning a novel? So far (I've only seen the one image/description) 
you've got an appropriate back-story for an ancient relic, secret 
society, or time-travel tale.

  -Shay

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"Shay" <Sha### [at] cccc> schreef in bericht news:474c4653$1@news.povray.org...
>
> What did you have to resist? Sounds interesting.

Well, it is mainly different urges colliding with each other. Shall I work 
now on this scene that has been planned and/or built for a long while? Or 
shall I jump in on this new idea that imposes itself on me? Often the latter 
wins I must say, as those 'visions' are rather compulsive. On the other 
hand, the other scenes are slowly growing in spurts, at the inspiration of 
the moment and time permitting. However, one trait they have in common is 
that the initial "vision" so to speak, remains intact, only differing in 
small details like additions, omissions or transformations of particular 
elements. In the end, there are several pieces of work that probably never 
will see completion, but that is probably allright. Unconscious selection.

>
> I'm not suggesting that expedience guides your creative efforts. The 
> questions I had in mind were more like: "Why isn't this as nicely sun-lit 
> at 'Eavesdropping'"? "The Mother Hive" does not appear to me to be as 
> visually mature an image as "Eavesdropping." I am guessing this is due to 
> insufficient time for radiosity, media, blur, modeling-detail, etc. 
> experimentation. Perhaps not. I can only relate to what I see of my own 
> intentions in others, and not every area overlaps.
>
Yes, I agree with that. In such cases as "The Mother Hive", I would have 
preferred some more quiet time to experiment further with the lighting 
indeed. I don't know. For one or another reason, I have problems with some 
of the uses of fog in combination with LightSys and/or Zeger Knaepen's cloud 
macro. "Eavesdropping" was much better in that respect. I suspect that 
adding a plane of textured clouds dims the general output of the sun without 
really creating clear patches in between clouds. I shall have to investigate 
this further at leisure. I remember that I got this same effect with a cloud 
macro I wrote myself many years ago. So, in the end, I left "The Mother 
Hive" at that stage, with a note to myself to take the matter up again, 
maybe from a different angle.

Thomas

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Shay <Sha### [at] cccc> wrote:
> Stephen wrote:
>  > There were comments by some at the end of the competition. I
>  > commented an all of the entries as did some of the earliest
>  > entrants. (Steve I think we have a bug) If anyone else comments I
>  > will add my own.
>
> Add them now. I'm sure the others would appreciate it. I have heard many
> say that feedback is among the most important rewards for their
> participation in the IRTC/TC-RTC.

Well that is true but when I put down my thoughts on the images I sounded quite
critical, especially concerning shadows. Also as someone was very critical

seem petty. Well the rough with the smooth, it should not be a mutual
appreciation society.

>
>  > As for Lot 271828, it is part of a series that I will post links
>  > to when I am finished the one that I am working on now.  You are
>  > right about the human sacrifice, though.
>
> Planning a novel? So far (I've only seen the one image/description)
> you've got an appropriate back-story for an ancient relic, secret
> society, or time-travel tale.
>
>   -Shay

A novel? No. About a year ago I had a short conversation with Sabrina concerning
the differences between Top down or bottom up methods of building a scene. I
generally do bottom up and as I was just starting a new scene I have taken note
of how it has developed from one idea to another. Going from an idea that Gail
Shaw had to what I am working on just now.

As a teaser here was my reply to the criticism. I missed the comp deadline by a
day :)
BTW RUDE WARNING this image may offend. As I am an ex oil worker I am sure that
you will be OK.
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/McAvoyS/images/Room04B1b_0000.jpg



Stephen

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Shay, what I forgot to mention about "The Mother Hive", is that the 
radiosity version will be much better. It is under way, in small batches 
because it takes awfully long to render.

Thomas

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