Traditionally I post 1920x1080 wallpaper versions of my TC-RTC entries here. In
this case the total rendering time was about 3 weeks but I had to suspend the
rendering times and again so it took some months for the final wallpaper
version. I know that this image is not really liked by all here than by me but
here it is: Ariadne's Garden.

Best regards,
Michael

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On 2013-11-20 16:51, MichaelJF wrote:
> Traditionally I post 1920x1080 wallpaper versions of my TC-RTC entries here. In
> this case the total rendering time was about 3 weeks but I had to suspend the
> rendering times and again so it took some months for the final wallpaper
> version. I know that this image is not really liked by all here than by me but
> here it is: Ariadne's Garden.

The stone of the statuary seems a bit too glossy/unstone-like, and I 
initially mistook Theseus' roll of twine for a wine-bottle.  Trees on 
the left seem a bit evenly-lit, as do the buildings in the background. 
Maybe play around with more local lights, if that's something of an 
option?  Maybe add small ground-spotlights to the foreground garden, too?

--
Tim Cook

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Am 20.11.2013 23:51, schrieb MichaelJF:
> Traditionally I post 1920x1080 wallpaper versions of my TC-RTC entries here. In
> this case the total rendering time was about 3 weeks but I had to suspend the
> rendering times and again so it took some months for the final wallpaper
> version. I know that this image is not really liked by all here than by me but
> here it is: Ariadne's Garden.

The biggest problem I have with the image is that the statues appear 
distorted to me, as if the scene was rendered with a wrong aspect ratio.

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Thank you both for your comments. I'm not quiet sure if I will revisit the scene
very soon, mainly due to the long rendering time. But your comments are valuable
hints for future scenes.

Indeed the lighting is a main problem here. Since it should be at night I cannot
have to much light in the scene. May be that is why Tim mistook the bronze for
stone. If I revisit the scene some day I will place some additional lanterns
behind the camera at least. In the image above there are 14 dim lanterns placed
around the green. The only other light sources are the emissive media within the
building.

As for the wine bottle, I refer to my original comment at the contest:
http://www.tc-rtc.co.uk/imagenewdisplay/stills/index446.html

And as ever Christoph is right completely. The camera was not adjusted
correctly. I ever thought there is something odd but overlooked the obvious.

Best regards,
Michael

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On 21-11-2013 11:15, MichaelJF wrote:
> Thank you both for your comments. I'm not quiet sure if I will revisit the scene
> very soon, mainly due to the long rendering time. But your comments are valuable
> hints for future scenes.

PC's get faster all the time ;-)

>
> Indeed the lighting is a main problem here. Since it should be at night I cannot
> have to much light in the scene. May be that is why Tim mistook the bronze for
> stone. If I revisit the scene some day I will place some additional lanterns
> behind the camera at least. In the image above there are 14 dim lanterns placed
> around the green. The only other light sources are the emissive media within the
> building.

I think there is a problem with the /dim/ lanterns then. The scene seems 
to be lighted by quite strong projector lights, especially from the 
right hand side, casting marked shadows across the garden. If only the 
lanterns are the exterior lighting, then the scene should be much darker 
imo. Maybe fade_distance and/or fade_power should be adjusted besides 
the strength of the lights?

> And as ever Christoph is right completely. The camera was not adjusted
> correctly. I ever thought there is something odd but overlooked the obvious.

Ah! I am relieved. I thought so too.

Thomas

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Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
>
> I think there is a problem with the /dim/ lanterns then. The scene seems
> to be lighted by quite strong projector lights, especially from the
> right hand side, casting marked shadows across the garden. If only the
> lanterns are the exterior lighting, then the scene should be much darker
> imo. Maybe fade_distance and/or fade_power should be adjusted besides
> the strength of the lights?
>
Thanks Thomas, that gave me the right idea. In fact I adjusted fade_distance and
fade_power, may be not enough. The main problem are the shadows. They stem from
cylinders around the light source. In reality the shadows are nearly invisible
since the bulbs produce no point light. I think adding no_shadow to this
cylinders will reduce the problem a lot - even though they are not visible in
the image. But a revision of this image has no high priority for me.

Best regards,
Michael

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"MichaelJF" <mi-### [at] t-onlinede> wrote:
> I know that this image is not really liked by all here than by me but
> here it is: Ariadne's Garden.

If somebody doesn't like it, that's their problem.

If the statues are supposed to be bronze, they should be a lot darker, although
darker statues would be a lot harder to fit into the composition.

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"Cousin Ricky" <rickysttATyahooDOTcom> wrote:
> "MichaelJF" <mi-### [at] t-onlinede> wrote:
> > I know that this image is not really liked by all here than by me but
> > here it is: Ariadne's Garden.
>
> If somebody doesn't like it, that's their problem.

Thank you for this comment. It is absolutely true. Due to my results within
TC-RTC I hesitated a while to publish this scene here. There is one member who
gives very low votes to images he dislikes and sometimes I'm a little bit
thin-skinned - and sometimes I get a temper. But I'm only a common member of the
(biological) family of hominidae (I learned recently that humans are now
considered part of this family and not considered a family of their own due to
genetic analysis).

> If the statues are supposed to be bronze, they should be a lot darker, although
> darker statues would be a lot harder to fit into the composition.

For your comment about bronze: Yes it can be darker, but must not. I looked at
various photographs and saw very different brightnesses. A part of this
differences may be explained by different ligthings but I assume another part is
due to the different ratio of copper and tin.

Best regards,
Michael

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On 22-11-2013 0:57, MichaelJF wrote:
> "Cousin Ricky" <rickysttATyahooDOTcom> wrote:
>> "MichaelJF" <mi-### [at] t-onlinede> wrote:
>>> I know that this image is not really liked by all here than by me but
>>> here it is: Ariadne's Garden.
>>
>> If somebody doesn't like it, that's their problem.
>
> Thank you for this comment. It is absolutely true. Due to my results within
> TC-RTC I hesitated a while to publish this scene here. There is one member who
> gives very low votes to images he dislikes and sometimes I'm a little bit
> thin-skinned - and sometimes I get a temper. But I'm only a common member of the
> (biological) family of hominidae (I learned recently that humans are now
> considered part of this family and not considered a family of their own due to
> genetic analysis).

The infamous TC-RTC voter has rather particular ideas about how the 
voting rules should be interpreted or did not understand them well. Just 
ignore ;-)

>
>> If the statues are supposed to be bronze, they should be a lot darker, although
>> darker statues would be a lot harder to fit into the composition.
>
> For your comment about bronze: Yes it can be darker, but must not. I looked at
> various photographs and saw very different brightnesses. A part of this
> differences may be explained by different ligthings but I assume another part is
> due to the different ratio of copper and tin.
>
And maybe also differences in patina. Highly polished bronze can look 
like gold for instance.

Thomas

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