St. wrote:
> 
>    Well, it is.  :)
> 

That's nice :)

>> http://wip.anthrosphinx.de/episode010/20070727_000401_snap.jpg
> 
>    Oooo, she's a mean-lookin' Ladysphinx! 

Within the story context, no. The "Sphinx" species is the other one.
I guess i need to draw some "stat sheets" like in RPGs someday to 
clarify that muddled universe i've been building over the last decade. 
:) Maybe even get that old website of mine working again...

As for mean-lookin', try this :)
http://wip.anthrosphinx.de/episode010/20070723_001904_snap_1143.jpg
(found the picture of a growling cat online, and noticed the definite 
lack of teeth in my old design - didn't know that there are at least 
three canines on either side, two in the uppper, one in the lower jaw)
I've since switched off the reflection attribute that never mattered 
much in the dark spaceship locations but broke in "sky dome" 
environments and instead added a Fresnel shader in the luminance 
component to make the edges "glow" a bit. No sample of that yet. Saves 
some render time, too, because oversampling and the to/fro running rays 
caused the render to really slow down there.

Same thing (the fresnel effect) was added to the main skin texture, 
providing a 20% illuminated edge at all times, no matter the lighting:
http://wip.anthrosphinx.de/episode010/20070726_221333_snap_80013.jpg
Improves shadow contour visibility in the dark and doesn't get in the 
way in the light, without render hogs like ambient occlusion.

 > I like that bling too...

Well, needed some polygon surfaces to hang the chain mail on, and 
extending the cloth sim around the neck was too unpredictable with 
motion (Janet Jackson, anyone? ;) I already messed up the connection of 
cloth<->anchors on the left side - there's a gap, but if i set the 
"attachment distance" any smaller, the cloth simulation goes "boink"... 
:( and once a cloth sim is attached to an object, you can't tweak the 
original poly points without needing to DELETE the sim container and 
re-configure a new one. Or i just can't find the right buttons in 
Cinema. The printed manual has been scrapped in favour of a few thousand 
HTML pages and "inline help". Gah.

>      The teeth work for me.

I'm not going to respond to that line, no way ;)

>> Oh, regarding TC-RTC website: is it intentional that members can 
>> (pre-)view uploaded entries during the timeframe?
> 
>     For the life of me, I can't remember how the IRTC did it, (it's been so 
> long), but for now, I don't see any harm in it, unless others can point out 
> possible pitfalls?

The IRTC had the upload open, but had the files set to "no access" until 
the voting started. Possibly to avoid giving ideas away early, so we 
don't end up with lots of similar pictures because someone thought 
"great idea, but i can one-up the execution of XYZ's picture".

Just a thought. Not that i'd suspect that to happen often, or at all. At 
least it shouldn't, due to things like artistic integrity and stuff...

-M

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