tc-rtc.co.uk : Picture rating system

Member : ThomdeG

Title	:	N
Name	:	Thomas de Groot
Country	:	Netherlands
Email	:	######################
Webpage	:
Topic	:	20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (September)
Copyright	:	Agreed - 2008-09-30 13:40:28
JPG file	:	pw-1222778302-N.jpg
Renderer Used	:	MegaPOV 1.2.1
Tools used	:	POV-Ray; Silo2; Moray; Poser7; PlantStudio
Render Time	:	ca. 4.5 hours
Hardware Used	:	HP Pavillion Media Center m7490.nl-a; Pentium D 2x3GHz

Image description

This is my most autobiographical scene till now. I grew up with Jules Verne. I was weaned on 20k Leagues. My first ever film was 20k Leagues with James Mason and Kirk Douglas. At school, one of my friends also had seen the film so - over the next several weeks - we decided to replay the story in the school yard during breaks, using those other morons who had not seen the film as stand-ins and props. My friend played Ned Land, I was – of course – Captain Nemo.

This scene recreates the mood of our play but in the setting of a memorial monument dedicated to the lost crew of a fishing ship.

More than the film, I have always been attracted to the original illustrations of Verne’s books. They were the inspiration for several elements of the scene. You are invited to find them, using the following site: http://jv.gilead.org.il/rpaul/Vingt%20mille%20lieues%20sous%20les%20mers/ Just to set you on your way, look for flag, ship wheel, harpoon.

The Memorial Plaque stays in the literary mood. The ship’s name, Cathy E, refers not only to my alter ego Cathy, but also to Cathy Earnshaw, the heroine of Wuthering Heights; Westward Ho! has never been a fishing town, but it is one of those rare places that got their names from a novel; and finally, the date is the first publishing date of 20k Leagues.

Description of how this image was created

The shown objects have been modelled in Silo2 (the memorial monument including the ship wheel) or Moray (the memorial plaque).

The human figures have been modelled in Poser7. Captain Nemo’s flag has been animated in Poser7.

The grassy knoll has been jointly covered by Rune’s grasstex macro and plants from Poser7 and PlantStudio.

The sky and Sun are controlled by LightsysIV (Jaime Vives Piqueres et al.) while the high clouds are generated by Zeger Knaepen’s FastCloud macro. The big (thunder) cloud is generated by Gilles Tran’s MakeCloud macro. The cloud generated artefacts in the transparency of Cathy’s hair which I had to post process as well as I could.

No radiosity was used here. Instead, two fill-in lights smooth the shadows. The huge media cloud and detailed settings needed for the figures’ skin would have asked for very long render times.

This is Cathy’s World #6.

General statistics
No of ratings	:	13
Min. overall rating	:	30 (10 / 10 / 10)
Max. overall rating	:	55 (17 / 19 / 19)
Sum of rating	:	565 / 780
Date uploaded	:	2008-09-30 13:38:22

Specific details

Note: The maximum value below is misleading as the voting system has changed.
If the member votes for all the entries and has created one him/herself, there is an
automatic 20/20/20 score added to the value (This encourages all members who enter to vote).

Rating type

Min

Max

Sum

Out of

Artistic

193

260

Concept

190

260

Technical

182

260

Overall

565

780

Comments by members when rating this image

1.	23-10-2008	Sounds like you used a lot of tools to make this image. Nice work. Once glaring mistake. The bricks don't match up. The plaque is a little hard to read. Love the sky though.
2.	20-10-2008	Nice idea, and as ever you have managed to use figures to great effect. Some little things that I would note are that it is pretty hard to read the plaque, and also the bricks loose something because of there cleanliness.
3.	15-10-2008	Outstanding shot. Will be the winner for sure. Artistic and concept are killers, but technical looks average at most to me. There are many flaws in shading, texturing, and even modeling. However the picture is so great that nobody would notice them :-)
4.	01-10-2008	Boy, this really hits the mark! Interestingly enough, "Westward ho!" happened to be the first thougt that crossed my mind when I saw this... One point off for concept because I'm not sure whether the plaque is actually needed. One point off for artistic because I think the black-haired girl should look at whatever the blonde girl points at, which by the way should be a bit higher: "Westward ho - to the horizon and beyond!" -style. Looks like she's pointing to something on the beach right now. And the boy is holding the harpoon wrong, but he may not know better so it's perfectly ok. A lot more points off for technical: Skin too dull, clothes too flat, hair doesn't blow in the wind, steering wheel & plaque texture too noisy, bricks too flat and don't mix convincingly with the grass. Nothing that really kills the atmosphere, but - man, wouldn't you like to do some more work on this and publish it somewhere? I'd really love to see this one being pushed to perfection!