Ben T. Scheele wrote:

> Hey Bill,
>     I love the idea you are presenting in this image.  I remember a movie
> from when I was a kid called "The Flight of the Navigator"  where there
> was a cool intelligent reflective metal ship.

A formative experience from my youth also :-)

>     I like the palm trees, the grass, and the sky, but the dirt and rocks
> need some work.  I'd recommend covering the dirt with more grass, or
> changing its color so that it is different from that of the grass that is
> growing out of it.

I dunno, it's supposed to be sand and grass (marram grass?), sparse
clumps are deliberate, I was thinking about later trying some sort
of media on the background dunes to simulate sand blowing low over
them, maybe.

btw is my monitor calibration out? Looks exactly the right
colour for sand to me.

>                     Definitely try to work with resolutions to make a
> sketchier grass to fill the places further out.  That seems to be working
> for you so far.

Possibly, the render time increases horrendously as the grass
spreads though :-)

>                  The rocks look too much like they were placed on the
> surface.  They are very smooth, showing that they had been there for a
> while.  Did a glacier drop them?  If that was the case, I think the
> landscape would be much different.  I think you should play more with
> isosurfaces to make more interesting rougher rocks if you plan to leave
> them on the surface, or you should bury 'em a bit, and maybe make them
> bigger and
> fewer.

Agreed, they're still too uniform. I can play with the parameters
of the isosurfaces, I think I'm currently just adding noise at 2
different scales to spheres. I like the idea of burying them a bit
more too. I also want to see if I can get the sand to build up around
them (I saw that excellent example and tutorial recently, but in my
case I'd be adding to an existing height field, so only slightly more
tricky).

>        It might be cool to arrange them into a fence like in the pastures
> of Ireland.  That guy kind of strikes me as being a shepherd.  The land
> seems good for that.

QED the figure is "naff" He's supposed to be a hominid. However I've
Finally got to grips with a wireframe modeller and made him a much
more appropriate head, modelled on Australopithecus afarensis (who's
body is almost human anyway), which means I can light the head a bit
more, which makes the whole point more clearly. Will re-post when I've
made significant progress elsewhere.

>                       By the way, where does that term, "naff" come from?
> It sounds a bit British.  Does it just mean bad?  He doesn't look so bad.
> At least in the way you have placed him.  He does seem distorted, but I'm
> sure that's due to the spherical nature of the mirror.

Just a bit British :-)
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=naff
(first definition, but generally just "not very good").

he is also bending his knees, I think I can risk straightening him out
now I have a better head to make the point.

> 
> -Ben Scheele

Thanks for the encouragement and helpful comments.

> 
> "Bill Hails" <bil### [at] europeyahoo-inccom> wrote in message
> news:3e7267a0@news.povray.org...
>> [...]
-- 
I would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those pesky kids!

Post a reply to this message