A good concept, with multiple old technologies represented. The cassettes
and player are a somewhat boring subject; I see them more as background
elements. The pencil drawing on the pad drew my eye, and the spiral pad and
paper look great.

Excellent modeling for the cassettes and tape player, but some of the other
objects look a little too clean. The table's wood texture is excellent. The
shadow of the loose tape on the table looks odd (aliasing?). The partially
transparent cassette shadows look great, but in other places objects appear
washed out or lack depth.

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Thanks for the comments, I still have much to learn and I really appreciate
all the feedback I can get.  I haven't added much to the discussions as I'm
a pretty lousy communicator, but I've learned alot from reading them.

I agree it's a pretty boring image.  I had a really hard time trying to
decide on a subject for this round.  I wanted to do something that was
becoming "old" in our lifetimes so that hopefully the viewer would find a
connection with the image, but I think I failed miserably.  I really
enjoyed modelling the cassettes, but as the picture progressed, it seemed
to get colder and more mechanical than thoughtful.

I decided to add the pencil drawing to take the focus off the cassettes, so
that the image would represent the memory of past times more than just one
particular technology.

I had hoped the loose tape and rather pathetic drawing would provoke
thoughts as to why they had become old technology - I guess I should have
explained a little better in the description.  I'm not quite sure why the
shadow of the tape came out like it did - I suspect it's an error somewhere
in the macro used to make the mesh as my math skills are pretty rusty, not
to mention basic.  :)

I chose the pictures in the background because they were my first attempts
at raytracing more than because of the subject of them - sort of a personal
inside joke I guess.

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James Moore <jtm### [at] bellsouthnet> wrote in message
news:web.3eaabcdfc9565bf905d3b00@news.povray.org...
> Thanks for the comments, I still have much to learn and I really
appreciate
> all the feedback I can get.  I haven't added much to the discussions as
I'm
> a pretty lousy communicator, but I've learned alot from reading them.

Learning is communication, and lousy communication is better than none...
Thanks for joining in!

> I wanted to do something that was
> becoming "old" in our lifetimes so that hopefully the viewer would find a
> connection with the image, but I think I failed miserably.

Not at all!  I have a large box full of cassettes, some that the machine has
eaten, but all no longer used, so I instantly identified with your topic.

 I really
> enjoyed modelling the cassettes, but as the picture progressed, it seemed
> to get colder and more mechanical than thoughtful.
(snip)
> I decided to add the pencil drawing to take the focus off the cassettes
(snip)

Which it did...  although IMO  the main subject here is the cassettes and I
generally don't think its a good idea to draw attention away from the
subject.

I think the only weaknesses to the image are lighting and composition,
because both also draw the eye away from the subject.  The pad, being white
and right under the light, becomes the focal point for the scene, while the
tapes and tape player are shadowed and dark, and the eye keeps wandering
away from them and back to the light.

My mentor when I was learning photography used to always say to think of
shadows, subject geometry, etc, as little guide arrows directing your eye
around the frame, and that good composition was achieved when the arrows
moved over the whole image but always led back to the subject.  Here, the
arrows lead to the notepad.

Hmmm, looking at it, I think that just moving the camera a bit up and to the
right would help both the lighting and composition.  It would remove the
direct line between the light, the pad and the camera, thereby toning down
the brightness of the pad, and conversly make a more direct line between the
cassettes and the deck and the light which would give them more specular
highlights that would provide visual interest to them without making them
actually brighter.  Just a thought...

Modelling and texturing are excellent.

RG

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James Moore wrote:
   I haven't added much to the discussions as I'm
> a pretty lousy communicator, but I've learned alot from reading them.
>
It's simply an exchange of ideas, not a contest.  There is something to 
be learned from trying to verbalize one's ideas.  It is difficult for 
all of us I would imagine. I am self-conscious about the language I use 
too. It probably seems pretentious but the important thing is to try and 
identify one's thinking.  Hope to hear more of your thoughts.



  I had a really hard time trying to
> decide on a subject for this round.  
Been there!

I wanted to do something that was
> becoming "old" in our lifetimes so that hopefully the viewer would find a
> connection with the image, but I think I failed miserably.  I really
> enjoyed modelling the cassettes, but as the picture progressed, it seemed
> to get colder and more mechanical than thoughtful.
> 
> I decided to add the pencil drawing to take the focus off the cassettes, so
> that the image would represent the memory of past times more than just one
> particular technology.

So there really was a lot of thinking that went into the picture.

-Jim

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James Moore wrote:
>Thanks for the comments, I still have much to learn and I really appreciate
>all the feedback I can get.  I haven't added much to the discussions as I'm
>a pretty lousy communicator, but I've learned alot from reading them.

I'm happy to hear others got something from these discussions. I'm sure I
came off as a know-it-all to some for starting so many discussions where I
expressed my opinion, but once I committed to doing them I felt I should
finish even though the participation fell off.

>I agree it's a pretty boring image.  I had a really hard time trying to
>decide on a subject for this round.  I wanted to do something that was
>becoming "old" in our lifetimes so that hopefully the viewer would find a
>connection with the image, but I think I failed miserably.  I really
>enjoyed modelling the cassettes, but as the picture progressed, it seemed
>to get colder and more mechanical than thoughtful.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply the image as a whole was boring, only that I
thought the cassettes and player were background elements, something you'd
see every day. I guess, for me, cassettes are still around and don't bring
any feelings of nostagia or fond memories.

>I decided to add the pencil drawing to take the focus off the cassettes, so
>that the image would represent the memory of past times more than just one
>particular technology.

I got that feeling from the pencil drawing; using perspective lines to draw
placed the image before computers were used to draw. The old technology was
the process of drawing without computers, something everyone here would
appreciate; it certainly worked for me.

>I had hoped the loose tape and rather pathetic drawing would provoke
>thoughts as to why they had become old technology - I guess I should have
>explained a little better in the description.  I'm not quite sure why the
>shadow of the tape came out like it did - I suspect it's an error somewhere
>in the macro used to make the mesh as my math skills are pretty rusty, not
>to mention basic.  :)

I didn't connect the tape-eating player with why it became old technology;
nice touch. I didn't notice the tape shadow problem on my initial viewing;
it's not a distraction.

>I chose the pictures in the background because they were my first attempts
>at raytracing more than because of the subject of them - sort of a personal
>inside joke I guess.

And both images could've qualified as old technology entries as well. Also,
I don't think you can say you're a lousy communicator!

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