> I enjoy thinking up clever names for my pictures, but so far one hasn't come 
> to me.  Anyway, here is my latest picture.

You might want to work on that...When I first saw the subject line, I 
instantly thought of the bonsai kitten hoax. :-P

That aside...

This picture is absolutely fantastic. I love the lighting in it. :-) You 
might need a touch of tweaking on the textures on the tree's bark to 
make it look more alive and less like a plastic plant. Moss also tends 
to grow a tad more bumpy than that.

That said, the image is pretty darn photo-realistic. :-)

 > Ivy courtesy of the Ivy Generator.
 > Grass via Gilles make grass (modified a bit).
 > Bonsai created with POV-Tree.
 > Girl and Horse from DAZ.

The first time I saw the image, I honestly thought that you had cut the 
girl and horse out of a photograph and pasted them into the render. 
Fantastic work.

William

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I love it!
This is very well done and the dark background gives a special touch. The 
illumination of the scene is excellent too.
Just one thing maybe. I had trouble to see the horse correctly, mainly 
because of the color contrast between the body and the rest of the animal, 
especially the manes. I even thought there were two horses for a split 
second! So, maybe you could do something about that....

Thomas

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Beautiful picture, Jeremy.  The command of texture is remarkable. Its 
understated use here compliments a greater sense of beauty through 
simplicity. Conceptually the picture is a sophisticated play on 
miniature, fantasy, and depiction itself.  The introduction of the ivy 
on the bonsai has me puzzled, but that aside, I see a wealth of 
possibilities here.

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"William Tracy" <wtr### [at] calpolyedu> wrote in message 
news:46132a4a$1@news.povray.org...
>> I enjoy thinking up clever names for my pictures, but so far one hasn't 
>> come to me.  Anyway, here is my latest picture.
>
> You might want to work on that...When I first saw the subject line, I 
> instantly thought of the bonsai kitten hoax. :-P

Hopefully, if I create a series, what may seem like a strange title now 
might make more sense later.  I have a few thoughts around those lines.

>
> That aside...
>
> This picture is absolutely fantastic. I love the lighting in it. :-) You 
> might need a touch of tweaking on the textures on the tree's bark to make 
> it look more alive and less like a plastic plant. Moss also tends to grow 
> a tad more bumpy than that.

Tree bark: I had a difficult time with it.  I might play around with it a 
little more, but it's a major improvement from what I had.
Moss or Grass?  At first, I wanted it to look more like moss, but later, I 
changed my mind, and thought it would be kind of fun to actually have it be 
a grassy set of hills...

>
> That said, the image is pretty darn photo-realistic. :-)
>
> > Ivy courtesy of the Ivy Generator.
> > Grass via Gilles make grass (modified a bit).
> > Bonsai created with POV-Tree.
> > Girl and Horse from DAZ.
>
> The first time I saw the image, I honestly thought that you had cut the 
> girl and horse out of a photograph and pasted them into the render. 
> Fantastic work.
>

Thank you!  :-)

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"Thomas de Groot" <t.d### [at] internlDOTnet> wrote in message 
news:46134c42$1@news.povray.org...
>I love it!
> This is very well done and the dark background gives a special touch. The 
> illumination of the scene is excellent too.

Thanks! :-)

> Just one thing maybe. I had trouble to see the horse correctly, mainly 
> because of the color contrast between the body and the rest of the animal, 
> especially the manes. I even thought there were two horses for a split 
> second! So, maybe you could do something about that....
>

I've had a few people mention that the horse looks odd, for various reasons. 
It may just be that I need to lower the "diffuse" value of the 
lighter/whiter textures.

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fantastic grass. *drool*

Not having examined a bonsai tree really close ever before, I do question
the texture. it looks a little too grey and shiney. I'd expect them to be
more brown and without highlights. I could be so wrong though.

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"Jim Charter" <jrc### [at] msncom> wrote in message 
news:4613d09a$1@news.povray.org...
> Beautiful picture, Jeremy.  The command of texture is remarkable. Its 
> understated use here compliments a greater sense of beauty through 
> simplicity. Conceptually the picture is a sophisticated play on miniature, 
> fantasy, and depiction itself.  The introduction of the ivy on the bonsai 
> has me puzzled, but that aside, I see a wealth of possibilities here.

Thank you!  :-)  For me, it simply represents a lot of 
fantasy/feelings/interests that I have.  If I tap into my own emotions, I 
just have to hope that it works for someone else as well.  What is the girl 
looking at?  It's a simple answer, but it means a lot of work for me.  I 
hope I can pull it off.  No, I'm not telling what it is.  ;-)

Ivy...  Hmmm...  What do you do when you have a part of your picture that 
you want to cover up?  :-)  Like I said in another post, the tree-bark was 
causing me grief.  I finally got it to look pretty good, but I still had 
this large trunk that just seemed too bare.  For real bonsai, I think that's 
often the look that they strive for (bare trunks), but they have real bark, 
and real trees, not TomTree's.  I tried various tree rotations, ways of 
lighting, etc.  Regardless, I decided I liked the ivy, because, at least in 
my mind, it adds a touch of age-old gothic mystery to the tree*, as well as 
adding some shadows to otherwise bland places.  But I have considered 
re-growing it with different parameters, as it really gets bunched-up in the 
middle of the tree.

I'm still considering it a WIP, but I'm also planning to move on to the next 
in the series.  I've often thought of doing a series, but I never had a 
decent concept.  But now, I have at least 3 other images in mind already. 
Wish me luck.

*I may expand on that concept in a subsequent image.

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"Ross" <rli### [at] speakeasynet> wrote in message 
news:4613e265$1@news.povray.org...
> fantastic grass. *drool*

Thanks!  I basically took clumps of Gilles' makegrass grass and used "trace" 
to place them on an isosurface.  Then added some random rotation, etc. 
Before the bonsai idea struck me, I was actually planning on making some 
sort of scene with grassy rolling hills.

> Not having examined a bonsai tree really close ever before, I do question
> the texture. it looks a little too grey and shiney. I'd expect them to be
> more brown and without highlights. I could be so wrong though.

Well, any type of tree can be a bonsai.  I have no idea what type of tree 
this would be, but I was thinking of something resembling a fig (ficus). 
http://www.ncarboretum.org/Horticulture/Bonsai/October_2004_pics/lores_4684.jpg

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Beautiful. I shall keep coming back to this picture I think.

One thing I notice is that the brightness looks fine on an LCD screen but is
a little too dark on a CRT... when I fired up my laptop for another look
there was so much more visible! Good work indeed. I look forward to the
next in the series!

Bill

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Ross wrote:
> fantastic grass. *drool*
> 
> Not having examined a bonsai tree really close ever before, I do question
> the texture. it looks a little too grey and shiney. I'd expect them to be
> more brown and without highlights. I could be so wrong though.
> 
> 
Not surprisingly, it seems to vary from tree to tree:
http://tinyurl.com/yqam3m
http://tinyurl.com/2f5u9n
http://tinyurl.com/yskbj5

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