[Hereford Eye]

It's the makeup.

[Radthorne]

The 'brightness' of the eyes is always a problem, one which I have not been able to solve from within the 3D package, only via postwork in Photoshop. The eye portions of the human models are actually fairly complex, with separate components for the pupil, iris, cornea, and eye socket; but even so the results are often mixed.

The biggest effect, as KatG alluded to, is the overall lighting on the scene. Mastery of effective lighting is key to getting a good image, and I'm by no means an expert in that area yet. Aside from the obvious thing that it's easier to place an 'object' in the scene compared to seeing the effect of light rays, there are a lot of variables involved. One is the total number of lights, and here the software has a limitiation, as in the pre-render 'viewport' you can only 'see' eight lights at a time; any more than that, and you have to render the whole scene to see the integrated effect. As a complex scene might have 15 or 20 lights, you can see that it could be time consuming.

In addition are each light's settings, particularly the color, with subtle gradations in tone making pretty big differences in how the scene looks. Whether the light casts shadows or not is also important. And finally, all of the surfaces of the objects have to be considered, since everything has settings for glossiness, specularity, etc., all of which affect how the light interacts with the object.

So I will agree with Kat regarding the meadow picture - the lighting there is only fair, since it is not consistent all the way across the image with how it is interacting with everything in the scene. (Price one pays for doing quickies ;) ). Here is the image that she liked, of the woman in the airlock. I spent more time here on the lighting, both on her and behind her in the airlock, that contribute to the effect of the overall scene.

http://www.sff.net/people/radthorne/Graphics/Dark Star Picture 2.jpg

[Dazzlinkat]

Wow, very nice! OOoo I beat HE ... TWICE !!!

[Radthorne]

Well, you know, sometimes he's just not as quick as he used to be... ;)

And thank you, by the way. :)

[Hereford Eye]

People with three hour time zone advantages have no basis for endzone celebrations.
While the lighting is spiffy, why do you not express some compassion for the poor girl whose left leg is so badly deformed. Her foot is resting at 90 degrees to her leg which is stretched to such an extent the knee disappears and the rectus femoris muscle seems to be flexed for no apparent reason. Perhaps that explains her expression; it's pain.

[Radthorne]

And, as you see, he's back. ;)

[Dazzlinkat]

LOL and, as usual, he spotted something. (Leg cramp!) Probably took a shock-gun hit to that leg :rolleyes:

[Radthorne]

And as usual, I have a come-back: in the future, via the wonders of evolution, people are much more flexible than we are today. :D

[Radthorne]

I finished my Boris picture but decided it just wasn't up to snuff, so I'm going to start over on that project (sorry, Dazz, you'll have to wait a bit longer...).

So now you get something else. This picture just cried out to be done at a larger size, so I hope you will forgive the bandwidth hit. If anyone finds this to be just too big to load easily, or to view comfortably (as you'll have to scroll), let me know and I'll keep 'em smaller. But the larger I can post 'em, the more detail you can see...

https://home.comcast.net/~radthorne/Data/Pictures/Chopper.jpg

[Hereford Eye]

Inquiring minds want to know:
(1) Since the very nice lady does not seem to be wearing a bra, why does one side hang differently than the other?
(2) Those of us mechanically challenged look at the bike and wonder at the stress points on the rear wheel and just below the handle bars. We find ourselves hoping she doesn't find a typical country road to travel as the first good bounce might well over-stress those joints.
(3) Is that a door behind the front tire? This modern architecture is so confusing, don't you think?
(4) Is that a pack of what I think it is a pack of in her fanny pack? This lady travels prepared!
I like the lady though she has too much foo-foo on her outfit for my taste and she has almost as much stuff about her neck as Mr. T. Face and hair are well done.