This scene must be nearing completion; every time I try to add something I get
about a dozen versions that look worse!

I spent a couple of hours moving the camera to get this view right now it's at
poster proportions (including playing with a vertically oriented poster),
eventually I decided this was best. Then I spent a while trying different things
to occupy the big empty space on the right of the picture: a big splash of water
(which was going to have a dolphin jumping out of it)? after about an hour
experimenting I concluded it was going to shift the focus too much, a sharks
fin? well that drew the eye, and looks silly.

After all of that I decided I needed a seagull, which took a whole evening to
build (it's made from blobs). It looks pretty good but I'm not sure about the
angle we're viewing it from, is it too hard to tell what it is?

Anyway, I personally think this is an improvement over v3, but only slightly.
I'm starting to think it's nearly finished (or as finished as it's going to
get), so I'll add a few more little details and then call it finished. I'm
thinking I'll add a distant flock of birds, and some fish swimming in the shadow
of the fractal.

But of course I'm open to suggestions for what to add, and any criticism of
what's already there. What do you think?

(BTW, apologies to those of you with low res monitors, but I really wanted to
keep the detail in this image!)
--
Tek
http://www.evilsuperbrain.com

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Attachments:
Download 'grassy.jpg' (210 KB)

Preview of image 'grassy.jpg'

"Tek" <tek### [at] evilsuperbraincom> wrote in message
news:3ef9e8a9@news.povray.org...

I like the mountains. I like the seagull. I hate that you have the
fractal stuck off to one side of the picture. It loses it's monolithic
quality when positioned that way. The sky looks cheesy to me too, but
perhaps it's just that too much of it is showing for my tastes. The
strongest point of interest for me is where the fractal meets the water.

 -Shay

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Here's a close-up of the bird, now I see it at this scale I quite like the angle
:)

--
Tek
http://www.evilsuperbrain.com

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Attachments:
Download 'grassy_bird.jpg' (47 KB)

Preview of image 'grassy_bird.jpg'

I never really intended it to have a monolithic quality, but you have a point.
I'll try it in a more prominent position. I put it to one side to make a more
interesting large-scale picture, so different bits of the image show different
details.

The clouds... well I like them but that's mostly a technical thing (since
they're just 2D), but I have seen better so I may play with Gilles' makecloud
macros.

The point where the fractal meets the water has become much more significant as
I've moved the camera futher back. The darkness of it's reflection makes the
water appear very transparent, which is why I'm thinking of putting some fish in
there. Probably subtle orange/yellow fish to balance against the other colours
in the scene.

Thanks for your suggestions :)

--
Tek
http://www.evilsuperbrain.com

"Shay" <sah### [at] simcopartscom> wrote in message news:3ef9ec89@news.povray.org...
>
> "Tek" <tek### [at] evilsuperbraincom> wrote in message
> news:3ef9e8a9@news.povray.org...
>
> I like the mountains. I like the seagull. I hate that you have the
> fractal stuck off to one side of the picture. It loses it's monolithic
> quality when positioned that way. The sky looks cheesy to me too, but
> perhaps it's just that too much of it is showing for my tastes. The
> strongest point of interest for me is where the fractal meets the water.
>
>  -Shay
>
>
>

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I think I like the very first version the best. Adding anything that sets a
definitive scale on the island doesn't work with me, anyway. I always
figured the fractal to be huge, and overgrown with long grass, but the bird
makes the fractal look small and insignificant. same with the chair you had
on it.



Shay <sah### [at] simcopartscom> wrote in message news:3ef9ec89@news.povray.org...
>
> "Tek" <tek### [at] evilsuperbraincom> wrote in message
> news:3ef9e8a9@news.povray.org...
>
> I like the mountains. I like the seagull. I hate that you have the
> fractal stuck off to one side of the picture. It loses it's monolithic
> quality when positioned that way. The sky looks cheesy to me too, but
> perhaps it's just that too much of it is showing for my tastes. The
> strongest point of interest for me is where the fractal meets the water.
>
>  -Shay
>
>
>

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"Ross Litscher" <lit### [at] osuedu> wrote in message
news:3ef9f63c@news.povray.org...
> I think I like the very first version the best. Adding anything that sets a
> definitive scale on the island doesn't work with me, anyway. I always
> figured the fractal to be huge, and overgrown with long grass, but the bird
> makes the fractal look small and insignificant. same with the chair you had
> on it.

But surely the grass gave it a sense of scale?
To me it's always been about the same size, though actually I made the grass a
bit smaller in the later versions, to make the fractal seem slightly bigger.

Having said that, I do think the seagull is a little too big, but only slightly.

--
Tek
http://www.evilsuperbrain.com

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Tek <tek### [at] evilsuperbraincom> wrote in message
news:3ef9f796$1@news.povray.org...
>
> But surely the grass gave it a sense of scale?

snip

> Tek
> http://www.evilsuperbrain.com
>


some, but we sure have tall grass here in kansas! :p

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At first and second glance, I thought the flowers were leafs flying around.
They look like they're floating. Otherwise nice.

Regards,
Hugo

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Very nice indeed. As you request for comments, here are mine:
- You should definitely think about more realistic clouds, with a real 
volume and a dark bottom, like real clouds.

- I don't like the grainy aspect of the sea near the horizon, in real 
world you would have a heat fog hiding that, maybe you can try softening 
it with a thin ground fog so that the first plan sea remains clear.

- I like the distant flock of birds and fish in the shadow ideas

- The butterflies seem to be all in the same position with wings open at 

(I'm not quite sure about this remark though, because the resolution is 
not high enough, maybe we need a closeup)

JC

Tek wrote:
> This scene must be nearing completion; every time I try to add something I get
> about a dozen versions that look worse!
> 
> I spent a couple of hours moving the camera to get this view right now it's at
> poster proportions (including playing with a vertically oriented poster),
> eventually I decided this was best. Then I spent a while trying different things
> to occupy the big empty space on the right of the picture: a big splash of water
> (which was going to have a dolphin jumping out of it)? after about an hour
> experimenting I concluded it was going to shift the focus too much, a sharks
> fin? well that drew the eye, and looks silly.
> 
> After all of that I decided I needed a seagull, which took a whole evening to
> build (it's made from blobs). It looks pretty good but I'm not sure about the
> angle we're viewing it from, is it too hard to tell what it is?
> 
> Anyway, I personally think this is an improvement over v3, but only slightly.
> I'm starting to think it's nearly finished (or as finished as it's going to
> get), so I'll add a few more little details and then call it finished. I'm
> thinking I'll add a distant flock of birds, and some fish swimming in the shadow
> of the fractal.
> 
> But of course I'm open to suggestions for what to add, and any criticism of
> what's already there. What do you think?
> 
> (BTW, apologies to those of you with low res monitors, but I really wanted to
> keep the detail in this image!)
> --
> Tek
> http://www.evilsuperbrain.com
> 
> 
>

Post a reply to this message

"JC (Exether)" <no### [at] spamfr> wrote in message
news:3EF### [at] spamfr...
> Very nice indeed. As you request for comments, here are mine:
> - You should definitely think about more realistic clouds, with a real
> volume and a dark bottom, like real clouds.

Still thinking about them...

> - I don't like the grainy aspect of the sea near the horizon, in real
> world you would have a heat fog hiding that, maybe you can try softening
> it with a thin ground fog so that the first plan sea remains clear.

I tried using some fog but couldn't get it to look right. I think the
graininess mostly comes from low quality blur settings (only 6 blur
samples).

> - I like the distant flock of birds and fish in the shadow ideas

Cool.

> - The butterflies seem to be all in the same position with wings open at

> (I'm not quite sure about this remark though, because the resolution is
> not high enough, maybe we need a closeup)

They are all at different angles, but like you say on this resolution that's
kinda hard to see.

Thanks for your comments.

--
Tek
http://www.evilsuperbrain.com

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