A great entry, this image shows a lot of hard work. I wish the image was
larger to show more of the details and hand painted textures.

The car is excellent, well modelled and textured. The hydrant and pumps look
a little like plastic, but that might be the look of paint in low light.
The lighting is excellent; even the lightbulbs have detail in them, but
they probably should glow more? A lot of nice touches on the ground.

I looked for a gradient in the sky, but maybe those are overused. I also
would have liked to see the road and powerlines go to the horizon, instead
of blocked by a wall.

Cinema 4D has a lot of great anti-aliasing and sharpening tools; a lot of
Cinema 4D images have this crisp, sharp look. I don't think POV-Ray would
have done as well on the powerlines; but maybe the credit should go to the
artist and not the tool!

The guy behind the wheel is a bit comical, with his bright eyes and big
smile. Very well done.

Why is it "Lexxaco" and not "Texaco?"

Post a reply to this message

hi and first of all thank you for your votes.
I also had a version on which you see the street at the horizont with
mountains and trees, but to finish this pic at the deadline I decided to
put a wall to block the view, cause a lot details wouldn't be there. But
this gas station will be part of my village which I will create some day ;)
but right now the environment contains only trees.
I called it Lexxaco, cause my pseudo name is Lexx. So I created the texxaco
Logo using my name on it.
As I said I put the antialiasing on best, and the sharpening tool works like
a Sharpen-Filter, which brings a better look to the pic, but kills a bit of
the anti-aliasing. You're right the resolution could have been a bit
higher, but otherwise more details must have been on this pic, cause
there's still some work to do. But for now it's finished.
It was a hard decision to put that scene at night and you're right, there
must be a gradient at the sky . let me say, I just forgot it.
It's always good to hear critics by people who know 3D, cause after a while
working on the pic I sometimes don't know what to change. It's such a hard
but fun hobby.
I will post a better resolution image on my homepage, and post the link
here.

Thank you and peace
Stefan Schoeneberg

Post a reply to this message

I have some comments on the lighting here too (and again no one seems to
have commented on this during voting period).  Night scenes are of course
at least as difficult concerning lighting as sunlight scenes.  I mainly
wonder where all the light comes from.  The light bulbs at the ceiling are
that dim that they could no way illuminate the scenery...

Concerning the sharpening filter - like all postprocessing filters it
gives images a more 2D painting-like appearance.  This is not necessarily
bad but it should be considered carefully.  Apart from that in a
competition like the IRTC you always are in danger this is understood as a
method trying to cache insufficiencies in the modelling or texturing of
the scene.

Christoph

-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, include files, Sim-POV,
HCR-Edit and more: http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0013390/
Last updated 28 Feb. 2003 _____./\/^>_*_<^\/\.______

Post a reply to this message

lexx wrote:

> As I said I put the antialiasing on best, and the sharpening tool works like
> a Sharpen-Filter, which brings a better look to the pic, 

This was one of the subtleties that I liked so much about the pic.  The 
crispness imparted gave the look a slightly dated feel, like a magazine 
illustration from the period depicted.  It is interesting to read how 
you achieved it.


> It was a hard decision to put that scene at night 

And I appreciated the difficulty of that decision when I was voting.


This pictured "wowed" me when I first opened it.  It is notable for the 
accuracy and detail of the modelling alone.  Then the gradual 
appreciation of the other aspects of the image, moody lighting, 
texturing, completeness, only made it richer.

Probably the lighting caused the only doubts as others have mentioned. 
It did not suggest a particular time of day with absolute verity.

Post a reply to this message

The modelling in this was incredible, imho, as was much of the attention to
detail.  The fact that there are actually products on the shelves inside the
gas station really increases the sense of realism.  Art may not be my strong
point, but this really makes me feel like there is more happening than I can
actually see in the picture, which makes me want to gaze at it all the more.

You've done quite a bit to create cracks and intricate textures almost
everywhere, except on the back wall.  But I see you've mentioned that the
back wall is there due to time constraints.  Too bad.  I would have liked to
see a great background, too.

I can't explain it, but somehow this image almost has a feeling of being an
old photograph, that was perhaps even colorized.  Not that you really
colorized anything, it just somehow conveys that feeling to me, like I'd
expect to see it hanging on a gas-station wall.  Maybe it's all the bright
reds with the rest of the colors being relatively dull.  I really like that.

The fellow in the car seems oddly 2D to me, however.  Maybe just because
he's behind the glass.

--
Slash

Post a reply to this message

lexx wrote:
>hi and first of all thank you for your votes.
Thank you! Great image!


>It was a hard decision to put that scene at night and you're right, there
>must be a gradient at the sky . let me say, I just forgot it.

I liked the sky, and the fact that I could make out the constellations. To
me that kind of detail in the background really gave it depth.  A gradient
would add some realism to the coloring but could also hide some of that
detail.

Decisions, decisions, decisions... go for photorealistic perfection, or for
a certain artistic look or feel...

RG

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 11:45:23 -0500, "Slashdolt"
<jer### [at] questsoftwarecom> said:


>I can't explain it, but somehow this image almost has a feeling of being an
>old photograph, that was perhaps even colorized.  Not that you really
>colorized anything, it just somehow conveys that feeling to me, like I'd
>expect to see it hanging on a gas-station wall.  Maybe it's all the bright
>reds with the rest of the colors being relatively dull.  I really like that.

I got that feeling, too.  This image reminds me of some lithograph
prints my Dad had on the wall in the garage when I was a kid.  I like
the look, it's part of the reason why this pic was my favorite of the
round.

---
Jet Jaguar
I have a spam blocking address.  Replying to me is like pulling teeth.
Visit my crappy home page at http://home.att.net/~chmilnir/
MSTie #54297

Post a reply to this message

Great idea for the discussion.  I'm still kind of a newbie, so I probably
can't too much to the discussion, though I'm learning alot from it.  I
loved the image - has sort of a sad nostalgic feel to it. It sort of
reminds me of an album cover, now if I can just remember which album.

Post a reply to this message

thank you - I'm glad that there's some mood in the picture. Because of all
the light in this pic. I tell you where it's from. I thought I could
imitate an photography with a small blend and long lightning. (like maybe
15 sec. So I had to light up the scene. For shure normally there just 3
lights in that scene plus moonlight. But it wasn't enough and the pic was
too dark, so I used some lights around the gas-station. I didn't use any
lights for that fellow in the car, so that's maybe the reason for why he's
looking more 2D than 3D. And the fact that there's glas before him makes
him more 2D than 3D. So you might be right.
For me, lightning is always the hardest part of a scene, but the good thing
about all that 3D is that you can put lights whereever you want them. Drop
Shadows or not or create highlights.
The Sharpen Filter was also a hard decision, cause I read that there's no
postprocessing allowed. But it also said in extern graphic software like
PS. So I just looked for some old pics in older competiotions which used
render post processes. In my eyes that's ok, because it's part of the
rendering, only if I would use some Filters which need more time to process
that wouldn't be too good. But it has to come straight of of the renderer,
not loosing any more seconds for post processing pics.
But that's the tool I'm working with. For example it doesn't have any grain
or noise filters, which in some cases wouldn't be bad - you have to do that
with lightning which costs time.
Of course the sharpen filter isn't too good for the anti-aliasing, so just
don't use it too much, cause AA makes the render time higher.

Thanks Stefan

Post a reply to this message

lexx wrote:
> 
> thank you - I'm glad that there's some mood in the picture. Because of all
> the light in this pic. I tell you where it's from. I thought I could
> imitate an photography with a small blend and long lightning. (like maybe
> 15 sec. So I had to light up the scene. For shure normally there just 3
> lights in that scene plus moonlight. But it wasn't enough and the pic was
> too dark, so I used some lights around the gas-station.

I did not say the image is too bright, it's just the majority of the light
technically seems to come from the light bulbs at the ceiling.  But those
themselves would have to be much brighter in that case.  Just imagine
taking a photo of such a scenery at night - the light bulbs would have to
be strongly overexposed if you don't want the rest to be completely black.

Christoph

-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, include files, Sim-POV,
HCR-Edit and more: http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0013390/
Last updated 28 Feb. 2003 _____./\/^>_*_<^\/\.______

Post a reply to this message