Hello friends. Here are my comments for the "before & after" entries.

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"But which came first?", by David Lewis.
concept: Funny and original idea to match the topic with the egg-hen
dilemna! I have no answer to the question of which came first, but I have
one for the end of the story: my plate!

artistic: The first thing I saw was the wall and its very realistic aspect,
and then came the hen and the rest of the scene. These elements, mainly the
hen, constrast in realisticness with the background wooden wall, and I was a
bit puzzled by this little mis-harmony. However the scene consists of a few
elements, and illustrates perfectly the concept. More objects would have
overloaded the picture.

technical: As David said in the text file, the main work of this scene was
to model the hen. Not easy! But the purpose here was not to be that much
realistic, but rather ... humoristic. Mission completed! Nice texture for
the hen.
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"Mild nudity", by Bill Pragnell.
concept: The purpose of this topic was to answer the question: before and
after what? Most of entrants anwered by an external event: birth (egg-hen),
death (grave), particular time (morning coffee), period of time(street
evolution, courtyard, POV technicity improvement), human intervention
(jewels, courtyard), etc ... Here, it sems something happened in her head,
perhaps helped by the wine. My favorite for concept.

artistic: For me the trick resides in the carafe and the glass! Without
them, the scene would have less 'movement'. The second is the attidute of
the girl. Bill met his aim: flat and pale 'before' picture with an attitude
that says nothing, and much relief and expression in the 'after', because
she lets herself go.

technical: Quite advanced technicity for all aspects of these renders,
especially lighting. I guess Bill spent some time tweaking the girl's
attitudes.
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"The Passing Away", by Malcolm Findlay.
concept: Life with the flowers and death with the grave ... and humour with
this poor Ian R. T. Chep. Rest In Peace. Is death the very end of all, or
is it the beginning of something else? Buddhists say that you don't really
die but change bardo, a different state of consciousness. For them, life
(large sense) is a succesion of bardos, and they do not speak about
reincarnation but rather about a continuation of the flow of consciousness,
directed by your choices (karma). IRTC has changed its state and its new
incarnation is a continuation of the spirit that inhabits it.

artistic: The flowers break the symmetry and the relative monotony of the
scene. They 'spring discretely', and their presence is the little light of
the scene.

technical: Reading Malcolm's explanations on the makinf-of, it was not as
simple as it might look at first sight. He used ticks of his own to acheive
what he intended. The grass is OK (based on Gilles' macro). The clouds could
have been made less turbulenced.
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"A Type of Typewriter", by Shay.
concept: Originality: Nothing to do with reality. Pure imagination and far
away from traditional raytraced images. Well done! A typewriter drawing a
typewriter with its typed characters ... A conceptual loop that deserves a
special mention.

artistic: Could be a modern painting, not trying to imitate nature at all
and not trying to take advantage of nature's natural art. On the contrary,
it is only art, from scratch.

technical: The making-of would be interresting.
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"Yet Another Reflective Sphere on a Checkered Plane", by Tek.
concept: When you start POVing: simple shapes, poor lighting, basic
textures. After xxxx years of practice, and pow(10, yyyy) sleepless nights,
you sometime approach perfection. Here, the equation is: Before & after =
rookie & guru. Tek is becoming a guru.

artistic: Impressive realisticness.

technical: I did not follow much of the discussion thread about this entry.
But some of Tek's images let me speechless. I was quite proud of my povlab,
but I can see it is a pooooor result compared to this ... My favorite for
technical
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"Aging", by William Tracy.
concept: Here the equation is: before = young child = funny pink glasses,
after = old person = cane. Though this interpretation could be considered
as somewhat obvious, it was worth a go with the way it was proposed by
William. The result is very satisfactory in all 3 domains (concept,
artistic, technical).

artistic: Such a simple layout! Only 2 objects and that's it! How to say
much with little stuff ...

technical: Good modeling for the glasses, which also show the young age of
the owner. Simple cane with (I guess) a simple texture. William did not
forget the rubber end.
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"1st Cup of the Morning", by Michael Chelmecki.
concept: So are many people in the morning: still in the night's fog until
first coffee. In France, we have an advert that uses this idea. The problem
with me: even after a coffee, I am still like the left image ...

artistic: nothing special.

technical: Michael says his scene does not desserve a technical award, it
seems to me not that simple! I wish I could do the same ...
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"Reganomics", by Brian Price.
concept: I dont know why, but it is the same very often and everyhere: the
future does not look as good as the good ol'past. I think current time is
(socially and economically) paroxistic, and I am afraid brutal changes will
occur, together with suffering, before we are (at last) aware of real human
values and stand up to take another route ... It is up to us to make a
better world. Raytracing can help us invent more beauty and make it real.

artistic: For me, these 2 images are a reminder: take care of what you
beleive in and follow your line, otherwise some (ugly) other will spoil
your mind, and diversity might be inapropriately ruled.

technical: For a first 'real scene', it is a good success!! Quite a lot of
modeling. Nice cars (how did you do them?).
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"A Time of Change (before & after)", 2 images, by Thomas de Groot.
concept: Things change with time, to better or to worse. Is modernity really
better? I like the idea of 'POVware' for the incoming statue of TINA (or
whatever is in the box: Thomas' explanations say that TINA is the girl
talking with the journalist, but when I first saw the image it was obvious
'she' was in the box in order to be at last exposed - cf the guy with
checkered clothing). For me, this entry is the best balance between
concept, art and technical.

artistic: The first image is not aimed at being artistic, but intends to be
a snapshot to the old time, and thus required much work to make things look
old and realistic (the most difficult with synthetic images). The second
image carries a lot of art:
    -) the geometry of the renovated and modernized courtyard with its dome
gives a lot of volume,
    -) it is now some kind of museum where fine art pieces are exposed, I
like the grey statues
    -) expressivenes of the characters

technical: A lot of work on these, especially on the 'before' one! How many
nights, even with reuse? I recognise the use of the ivy generator, and the
attitude of the walking characters. On the 'before', the rooves could have
a layer of dirt, as well as the floor. The wall stucco is good. Good
lighting on the 'after' image and good layout. Thomas is also a POV master
and will be another renouned guru.
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"This to That", by Steve Paget.
concept: The result of human work can sometime make a beautiful diamond and
jewels out of rough matter.

artistic: This scene is my favourite for artistic. The textues are a bit too
shiny and too 'clean', and could be reworked to make them look older. It
would enhance the contrast with the gems. For this round, I thought of
reusing my diamond (cut angles after gemologists websites) and enter the
round with a simple scene with only 2 objects and a dark background: the
rough stone and the diamond made out of it. I also had the idea of an old
house between modern buildings

technical: Much details! The fact that the scene is quite populated with
objects helps the purpose. These kind of scenes are my overall favorites,
with realistic landscapes.
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     Congrats to entrants

         Bruno

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