Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that using Poser was a bad idea.  In fact, I
think just the opposite.  If you really need a realistic person in a scene,
Poser is the way to go.  For some plants, X-frog.  There is no sense
re-inventing the wheel.  Sometimes, however, people use them too much, and
there is very little original work in the scene.  Even so, 100 pre-made
models perfectly placed in a scene can be great (i.e. "The Wet Bird").  I
guess my point was that POV-Ray alone can create impressive things.

I made heavy use of Gilles Tran's grass macros for the grass, corn, and
taller weeds.  In this case, I actually built upon someone else's work,
which is always a positive development.  The corn needs more work, but
looked ok at this resolution.  At one time the grass was actually glossier,
but I felt I had overdone it.  Oh, well.  I'm still on a steep learning
curve.  I worked with what I knew at the time.  Maybe a WIP in p.b.i. would
have helped, or maybe not...

--
Slash

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Slashdolt wrote:

> I've had mixed feelings about the farm myself.  

Don't, its importance to this image cannot be overestimated.  I also 
grew up in a rural area and you have captured the feel very accurately, 
especially a certain claustrophobia that standing corn can create.
> 
> 
> I spent countless hours working on the textures and finishes. 

It shows.


  but I believe the
> wood texture was a granite and bozo texture stretched out to look like a
> wood grain.  Then I overlayed a stretched agate pattern on top of that, for
> the color variation.  I tried using the woods.inc, but eventually abandoned
> it, and made my own.  Some of them also had turbulence added.  Then I used,
> "warp {repeat 2*x flip <1,0,0> " to flip-flop the textures to look like wood
> veneer.
> 

Interesting read how you did it, simple, but sophisticated.


A comment I disagree with is the one criticizing the prominence of the 
fence against the sky.  On the contrary I think it is one of the great 
contributing details of the scene.  Ultimately, one of the ways that the 
juxtaposition of radios and gravestones works is as a kind of vanitas, 
and the gothic points of that fence, undulating across the sky, form an 
intermediate horizon, and a warning to the vain.  It frames the meaning 
perfectly.

Speaking of gothic, one of the things I enjoyed most in this round was 
the way in which the stylistic handling of the images might allude to 
the period of the technology depicted.  It is exciting because it hints 
at a maturation of cg beyond the imprisoning poles of mathematics at one 
end and photography at the other.  This image plays on american gothic 
traditions, underlaid by surrealism, which are rooted in the decades 
just before and during the golden age of radio.  The synthesized 
strangeness of the image: old radios looking like new, popping up as if 
grave markers in a midwestern landscape, is intensified by the realism 
and consistency of detail throughout.  The accurate description of 
distant farm buildings ( suggesting the world of the present ) resonates 
with the poignant, foreground detailing of radio cabinets past.

Another interesting theme that frequented the images of this round, was 
the portrayal of technology whose medium was sound. Necessarily they are 
rendered silent, not only by time, but by the fact that they can only be 
pictured. This image heightens that reference beautifully with the 
allusion to the selence of the cemetary.

In these ways this picture made use of expressive means that the topic 
brought out in competing artists also, but its startling concept takes 
it to another level.

-Jim

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Renderdog wrote:
>Slashdolt wrote:
>>I've posted Radio Graves after being modified with HCREdit, in p.b.i.
>
>I like it even better. What do you think about it?
>


Hmm, seems like a trade-off...  some things, particularly the grass looks
better lighter, but I like the radios darker, and overall I think the
brighter version needs more contrast.

RG

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Jim, Great review. I am finding these detailed comments from others very
enlightening. :-) Bill

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William F. Pokorny wrote:
> Jim, Great review. 

Thanks, it took some effort to for me to try and write down really what 
I thought about the picture, but I think it deserves the attention and 
it was helpful for me to try some writing

I am finding these detailed comments from others very
> enlightening. :-) Bill

Same here, I think this idea is really something that has been missing. 
   I also think that the quality of the work will consistently support 
such discussion.

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"Renderdog" <slo### [at] hiwaaynet> wrote in message
news:web.3e82d9941d77a4af532d6cfc0@news.povray.org...
| To kick things off (see Old Technology...discussions), I'll start
| with the winning image...
|

Excellent render. The idea for the scene is good if for no other reason
than I haven't seen it before. Rather than poignant, I think that a
themelike this is more cleverly surrealist. There is wit behind showing
something in a deceptively obvious, yet not yet expressed way. Many of
Gilles pictures have this same quality, and I would certainly prefer it
over trite sentimentality any day.

One suggestion which I would give for improving the picture would be to
tone down the realism of the grass. With the exception of the near
photo-real grass, the scene has a very nice magazine cover art look to
it.

 -Shay

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