I'm really impressed with how good this image is getting. Every new post
is an improvement, and it's starting to look really good--don't give up
you're almost home.

~Adam

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Ken wrote:
> 
> Scott - you did not mention where your stand still is in the
> project. Still the fog-sky-camera problem ?

yeah.  with no fog, it looks like
http://www.urbandragons.com/new/nofog.jpg

which i don't think captures the mood at all.  (and the sky is too dark
;)

with ground fog i get the pic as it looks now, which is almost right.

I can't figure focal blur out - i tried a few different things and just
couldn't get it to work at all - either everything was blurry or nothing
was.   I want the rocket and the mountains to be a little more
indistinct than they are right now.

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Scott, all I can say is "wow" you've done it. Even I, as nitpicky as I've
been of this image, can't make another suggestion. I still want to see the
masthead for a pulp magazine over it, tho.

It's amazing what the fog does for the colors. The version without fog
looks odd, possibly becauseof the different camera position, the depth of
that image doesn't work, but it does with the fog...

btw, I'm not sure that a lot of magazine covers used focal blurs...


Scott McDonald wrote:

> http://www.urbandragons.com/new/homewardbound2.jpg
>
> i'm at a standstill now, a few things to do yet, and some things that i
> just don't know how to do.

--
Josh English
eng### [at] spiritonecom
www.spiritone.com/~english

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Josh English wrote:
> 
> Scott, all I can say is "wow" you've done it. Even I, as nitpicky as I've
> been of this image, can't make another suggestion. I still want to see the
> masthead for a pulp magazine over it, tho.

that idea i'm still playing with.  i can do it easily post production,
and have a few ideas how to do it effectively with POV but may wait for
that - getting the camera set up to get the composition i wanted in the
first place was fun enough ;)  i may have to redo the scene from near
scratch to get the perspective to make it a magazine cover...
 
> It's amazing what the fog does for the colors. The version without fog
> looks odd, possibly becauseof the different camera position, the depth of
> that image doesn't work, but it does with the fog...

yep.  fog is an amazingly wonderful thing isn't it?  :)  now if i could
just figure out media....  
 
> btw, I'm not sure that a lot of magazine covers used focal blurs...

i don't think they sent photographers out to other planets either ;) 

-- 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Colin Scott McDonald                                  Metro Link, Inc.|
|                     veni, vici, in dominum redirre                   |
|sco### [at] metrolinkcom                                  www.metrolink.com|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Marc Schimmler schrieb in Nachricht
<36B9988B.F1ED49EC@ica.uni-stuttgart.de>...
>Rudy Velthuis wrote:

>> I've been trying this url since your e-mail, but I always get a read time
>> out. Tracert also shows multiple time out after rtmetro1.gate.net (which
was
>> #17 in my route).
>>
>It works fine for me from Germany.
>
>Before and after your post!!!
>Maybe your ISP?


I'm in Germany too. Could be my ISP (Cityweb, but I want to change), but
why? I can tracert until rtmetro1.gate.net. After that I always get a time
out (I just tried again a few times).

Now I just tried another ISP (Arcor by call) and I got it in a few seconds.
Makes you think, doesn't it? I really should change ISP - preferrably to one
which doesn't charge by the minute anyway.

Really is a great picture! The rocket looks like the one from the Tintin
books. And it really looks like a sequel to Simon de Vet's astronaut. Nice
idea and a terrific skull.

--
Rudy Velthuis

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Excellent scene.
How did you do the skull? And can I get a copy?  I'm working on a scene
that is going to need one :-)

Jason Scheuerman
mt### [at] nullnet

Scott McDonald wrote:

> http://www.urbandragons.com/new/homewardbound2.jpg
>
> i'm at a standstill now, a few things to do yet, and some things that i
> just don't know how to do.

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> Really is a great picture! The rocket looks like the one from the Tintin
> books. And it really looks like a sequel to Simon de Vet's astronaut. Nice
> idea and a terrific skull.

<sigh> :) - the skull isn't mine.  it's a wavefront obj. file I got from
3dcafe's free models (www.3dcafe.com).  thanks though ;)

scott who can't quite put his finger on what is still missing.
http://www.urbandragons.com/gallery.html

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Jason Scheuerman wrote:
> 
> Excellent scene.
> How did you do the skull? And can I get a copy?  I'm working on a scene
> that is going to need one :-)

www.3dcafe.com, look for free models, under anatomy, helskull.zip - it's
a Wavefront OBJ file so you'll need a conversion utility - I used Thomas
Baier's 3dwin program, which you can get on his homepage -
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/thbaier/tools.htm

great program, can't endorse it enough.  It converts to POV & Moray
directly, as well as several other formats.   

<sigh> :) everyone likes the item i had no input on <g>

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Focal blur is tricky alright. Plus, there is allegedly an error in the
code that extends the rendering time a little.
  I like to use an aperture between .017 and .035, but that is something
that depends heavily (if I recall corectly) on the depth of the scene. Blur
samples are important too, but I've seldom had to go over 35, or so.
  One thing I've noticed, and contrary to a lot of suggestions in other
threads, is the use of standard aliasing. With focal blur your aliasing
settings are ignored, but in an animation focal blur will help keep the
jitters down (aliasing artifacts between frames). I almost never do an
animation without it.

Well, my .02 and only worth the bandwidth it's on at that.

Keep up the good work.

GrimDude
vos### [at] arkansasnet

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Scott McDonald wrote in message <36B9496E.27209320@metrolink.com>...
>http://www.urbandragons.com/new/homewardbound2.jpg
>
>i'm at a standstill now, a few things to do yet, and some things that i
>just don't know how to do.

Being so poor at this myself, I hate criticizing others.. but...
judging from the fact that the person (assuming he was human when he
started... I'm sure even Canada wouldn't send up an already dead astronaut
<G>) has been reduced to a skeleton, I'm guessing he's been there a while.
But the rocket and the ladder leading up to it look brand new.  I'd imagine
just the trip through space alone would have put some wear on the rocket.
Just my humble opinion.  I really do like it though.  Better than anything
I've come up with so far anyway.

Ciao!

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