"Bill Pragnell" <bil### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> "Jon Buller" <jon### [at] bullersnet> wrote:
> > I feel a little lost when I look at the image.  Am I in a plane/ship flying
> > over some part of the foreground knot, or am I standing on a portion of it
> > looking almost straight up?  I think some sort of horizon would help orient
> > the image.
>
> I tried! The 'horizon', such as it is, is what the hazy knot is peeking
> over... the blue sky was supposed to be a clue in that regard!
>
> > I think it's more dramatic and accessable
> > seeing the ring fade into the distance and climb up overhead than it is to
> > be off in some random location just looking at some chunk of it.
> Hmm... yes, I'm not completely satisfied with the hazy moon-knot. Maybe if I
> make it even bigger, as if the orange gas-plane is actually on its surface,
> as with the ringworld arch. Is that the kind of thing you meant? I shall
> play with the concept.
>
> Bill

I think what you need to do is have some piece of the knot that looks like
you could be walking on it, or flying close to it...  A ground plane for
practical purposes.  The atmosphere is nice, but not the same, that could
come from some randomly odd sun angle, or maybe a larger planet atmosphere
we are nearby.

Personal opinion: rotate the scene 90 degrees counter clockwise, and move
the camera a bit to the (new) left and a little down as well.  This gives a
big hunk of the knot as a sort of brick road that you could walk on that
goes to the right and slightly away.  A little bit of playing around could
probably make it curve up or down as well, but I think that is unnecessary.
 There is enough twist in the rest of the foreground knot to imply that you
are on it and beside, the texture is the same.  It becomes trivial to
assume that just off the right of the image the knot will curve up or down
into the the rest of the bits you can see nearby.

I actually like the hazy moon knot.  It gives the image a sort of symmetry
and contrast.  A foreground and background, distinct and obscure, in orange
and in blue, large and small, etc...  And I think that making many more or
making the hazy one bigger would just make it too cluttered without
actually adding anything to the image.

Also with the lonely feelings others mentioned, the single hazy knot makes
it look like you aren't alone, but you have no way to get there, making the
loneliness worse.

Jon

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