Firstly, let me apologise for taking so long to add some comments on the
entries this round.  RL got in the way a bit.

All the entries are very good.  I'm embarassed that my comments sound
negative; please take them in the right spirit - you can tell from my own
effort that I'm no expert.

I thought that one of the difficulties with this topic was showing both
before and after in the same image, and making it clear what the event was
that the two parts were before/after.  It's easy to do a kind of "old &
new", like a powerboat cruising past a canoe, but ideally the image should
make it obvious what the event is that one is before and the other is
after.  Like a candle under a piece of string that's holding up a heavy
weight, before the string burns through and the weight falls.


"Just a splash" - Bill Pragnell
Nice work.  I think the full/empty wineglass makes this a clear
time-sequence, as well as the change from full daylight outside to electric
light indoors.  The walls are great, nicely textured and with uneven edges.

I was left wondering what this building is, made of huge stone blocks yet
with electric lighting, and also why the heroine would sit naked on a
window-ledge while still sober, but an interesting image ought to make the
viewer wonder & think.

On a nit-picking level, the absence of any room indoors seems odd, although
I guess there must be a wall in there, because I can see the light
reflecting off some surface, but more texture to it would make it a bit
more in keeping with the rest of the image.



"The Passing Away" - Malcolm Findlay
Before & after the demise of I.R.T.C., with the "before" part represented by
the photograph, which works as a way of telling the story.  So many internal
references and puns at once that I even missed the big one on first look.
And perhaps we should believe that IRTC is not gone, but has been reborn in
a new body.

The styling of all of the objects in the scene is nicely in harmony.  I
think the image might be improved by making the sky a horizontal plane, so
that the clouds become smaller in the distance (the perspective looks odd),
and possibly adding a fog near the horizon to hold the interest into the
foreground.  And that's just nit-picking.  Nice job.


"A Type of Typewriter" - Shay
Stunning. A truly spectacular image that really sets the viewer to think
deeply.  And a surprising use of POV in a way that isn't 3D CSG as we
recognise it.  I guess you could also call it a fractal image, in the sense
that it is self-similar (a bunch of letters) at more than one scale.  Great
choice of bold, vibrant, contrasting colours too.

And the theme?  I didn't get it.  I didn't see how this conveys the state of
things before & after any event or change.  Maybe I've just missed the
point.


"Yet Another Reflective Sphere on a Checkered Plane" - Tekno Frannansa
As someone who reads top-to-bottom, I see that "before" you had this photo
of a ball bearing on a chess-board, and "after" you drew a cartoon of it
:-)  But I've read the text file and know that's not what you meant.  I'm
just not sure that the image tells the story clearly without the supporting
text.

The "photo" really is very good indeed.  I can't think how to suggest
improving it.  Oh wait - there's no reflection of the photographer on the
sphere!  It's so realistic that I can worry about things like that :-)


"Aging" - William Tracy
Very simple, and effective for it.  Can't fault the technical setup or
presentation for such a straightforward pairing.

Like another of the comments here, I mistook the glasses for Dame Edna
Everage, which weakened the initial impact - perhaps a pair of roller
skates would make a better kid's alternative to the walking stick?  or one
of those carts with alphabet bricks in them?


"1st Cup of the Morning" - Michael Chelmecki
I love the contrast of before & after that first cup.  All the fog is
transferred from inside my head to filling the kitchen.  This is a great
interpretation of the subject.

All the objects do their job well.  The "after" pic is not quite
photographic (is that the lighting?) but this is effectiely a cartoon, so
that's not a fair criticism.


"Reganomics" - Brian A. Price
I like the sharp division down the middle of what is clearly a single image
as a way of showing both ends of the story.  The picture could read as "the
other side of the street", except that the change in the sky shows that the
two sides are separated by something more.

I don't think the image itself tells the story of what the event is, and you
have to look at the text to understand what caused the change in the
neighbourhood.

The models are fine.  The textures make them look a bit flat - the lighting
is low, so maybe some normal mapping would add shadows and make them look
less perfectly flat.


"A Time of Change" - Thomas de Groot
Great people, lovely models (and such a lot of them), and very impressive
images.  There's so much going on in this pair.  I liked the crate full of
dangerous POVWare :-)

The lighting strikes me as too flat.  There's a lot of ambient light in the
shadows, like the guy shouting on the left of the gallery standing in
shadow, but still very visible.

I think it's also really interesting to look at these two the other way
round.  Once there was an art gallery, and now the square is derelict. In a
way, it's just as clear a story (although a tale of bad news, rather than
good).



"This to That" - Steve Paget
The story is very clear, a change from raw materials to a finished piece of
work.   I like that.  The models are very good.  As you say, the textures
make them all look brand new, but I'm sure you take great care of your
tools :-)

The background is a bit of a distraction.  The more I look at it, the more
plausible the perspective looks, but it's just too bright and interesting
to fade out and leave my attention on the foreground alone.


Overall, a great set of images.  I hope there's as much interest in future
rounds.

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