Hello,

What do you all think? :-)

The dinosaur-thing's head is an isosurface; its body is a blob form. The
curtains on the cupola were done with cloth-ray (waaay overkill...), and
the person was created with POV-Person.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

William

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Attachments:
Download 'aliendesert.jpg' (91 KB)

Preview of image 'aliendesert.jpg'

Come on, surely someone can find *something* to nitpick. ;-)

William

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"Afishionado" <afi### [at] gmailcom> schreef in bericht
news:web.43caa42c605a0f6bbca179f50@news.povray.org...
> Come on, surely someone can find *something* to nitpick. ;-)
>
> William
>

OK, you asked for it! Don't come complaining afterwards!  ;-)
First of all, photographs are not allowed here! :-)

Now, seriously, not in any particular order:
- The insects flying in the sky should show much more variation in their
individual attitude and perhaps size. Using RRand() to control this is a
very easy way.
- The landscape could need more variation. You may keep it fairly flat, and
I think that is your intention, but there are few really flat landscapes.
There are always some low hills or shallow depressions somewhere. It would
make the scene more interesting. Also the texture needs more variation.
- The crystal clumps could use a little variation in size (see RRand()
again) and some clumping together. Make it more fascinating!
- The "dinosaur" certainly needs some more work.
- The tracks look like chains. If you consider the sizeof the animal, I
think the tracks would not overlap like they do now. Also, introduce a tiny
bit of randomness.
- Lighting: I believe that for the horizon really to make shadows, you
should show some kind of light source, i.e. a brighter spot or part of a
(red) sun.

Satisfied?

Thomas

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Afishionado wrote:
> Come on, surely someone can find *something* to nitpick. ;-)
> 
> William
> 
It is an interesting concept but the image itself is not very 
interesting to look at as is.  The lowtoned saturated colors look murky 
and deny us details of the landscape.  The intention is evidently to 
increase the sense of the glowing enclosed saddle and shift focus to it 
but there isn't enough to really hold our interest there either.

The suggestion that the setting is alien gives a lot of license to 
change the look of things but like Thomas notes some of your elements 
are just too unlikely.  The planet apparently has atmosphere and 
vegetation yet the surface is absolutely tabletop flat and uniformly 
featureless?  Not likely.  Especially since the material receives 
footprints.

The whole interest in depicting an alien setting is to gives details of 
its strangeness.  If it is a barren landscape dotted with curious plants 
we probably want a better look at those plants.  Same with the surface. 
   The usual appeal of a low raking light is that it will dramatize the 
surface texture.  So the texture of the surface will play a huge role in 
the picture.

I took your image, reduced its size, increased the contrast and increase 
the intensity of the red channel a bit.

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Attachments:
Download 'aliendesert3.jpg' (86 KB)

Preview of image 'aliendesert3.jpg'

Thanks. :-)

Now, to see what time I have to work on fixing stuff...

William

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I would also go nearer with the camera, or crop the image like this. Not
much is happening at the top and left of your image, and besides, it's not
good practice to divide the image in two equal parts with the horizon as
you have done. Often it is best to place the object(s) of interest on the
golden section of the format, or the thirds as photographers do.

H

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Attachments:
Download 'aliendesert-crop.jpg' (12 KB)

Preview of image 'aliendesert-crop.jpg'

Thomas de Groot wrote:
> "Afishionado" <afi### [at] gmailcom> schreef in bericht
> news:web.43caa42c605a0f6bbca179f50@news.povray.org...
> 
>>Come on, surely someone can find *something* to nitpick. ;-)
>>
>>William
>>
> 
> 
> OK, you asked for it! Don't come complaining afterwards!  ;-)
> First of all, photographs are not allowed here! :-)
> 
> Now, seriously, not in any particular order:
> - The insects flying in the sky should show much more variation in their
> individual attitude and perhaps size. Using RRand() to control this is a
> very easy way.
> - The landscape could need more variation. You may keep it fairly flat, and
> I think that is your intention, but there are few really flat landscapes.
ever visited the netherlands? ;)
> There are always some low hills or shallow depressions somewhere. It would
> make the scene more interesting. Also the texture needs more variation.
> - The crystal clumps could use a little variation in size (see RRand()
> again) and some clumping together. Make it more fascinating!
> - The "dinosaur" certainly needs some more work.
what dinosaur? you mean the elephant?
> - The tracks look like chains. If you consider the sizeof the animal, I
> think the tracks would not overlap like they do now. Also, introduce a tiny
> bit of randomness.
> - Lighting: I believe that for the horizon really to make shadows, you
> should show some kind of light source, i.e. a brighter spot or part of a
> (red) sun.
> 
> Satisfied?
> 
> Thomas
> 
>

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> ever visited the netherlands? ;)

Ooh, somebody's taking my side! ;-)

I'm actually a little conflicted between what I invisioned and what's more
realistic on this count. :-P We'll see.

> what dinosaur? you mean the elephant?

It's an alien-creature thing. (It looks more like a dinosaur from the
front.)

Well, school starts tomorrow, so there may or may not be any progress on the
image  in the near future. :-P

William

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"Afishionado" <afi### [at] gmailcom> schreef in bericht
news:web.43cc5ec4605a0f6ba04f8fa10@news.povray.org...
> > ever visited the netherlands? ;)
>

Where is that?  :-)
Ever tried to climb a steep dike road on bicycle??
But seriously: even there, the landscape is not geometrically flat...

Thomas

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