Artisitc Merits

the multilayered planet is very nice (though is the sky tangled up a bit in them?). This is one of your most pleasing compositions.

The scientist in me recoils at the thought of the tidal forces so near a much larger planet, but I'm sure the local denizens are used to it.

{{ Thanks Eldo.

Halfy- no planets are suitably distant- confusion might stem from fact the big world is a gas giant and the one immediately after it is a water world thats atmosphere is mainly a huge cloud layer- so it sort of blends in with the sky clouds a bit.

As to tidal forces- obviously they are kept in check by using a patented planetary stabilizing gyroscopic adjuster with a flange valve- how can you not see that! }}}

Is that the patented planetary stabilizing gyroscopic adjuster with a flange valve & self locking nuts ?
Love the 2nd pic Petty

{{ Self-locking nuts? I'm not made of money you know!! They can lock their own bloody nuts for free! }}

of the 3 floating island ones, I like the first best.

{{That one seems to be quite popular Figg- which shows what I know as its not my favourite! }}

Very nice. Looks somewhat Eriador-ish to me, especially the second one.

Nice!
{{ I'm afraid to ask how long those took. }}

Those are looking frighteningly real. did you have to hose down the hard disk afterwards?

{{Pretty much Halfy- good thing is when it comes to creating them, setting up the image I want I can tinker at that whenever I get a spare ten minutes here and there- all in probably takes between 2 and 4 hours to set up the picture- render times vary depending on the complexity and the settings, water, complicated surfaces, and especially light sources increase that, as does the quality levels, sample levels for atmospheres and cloud layers and anti-aliasing levels are also render increases- longest one recently was the desert one- that took somewhere between 10-12 hours to render out.

Heres my latest two- }}

the first one works really well. If I didn't happen to know lily pads and those grass like plants didn't go together I'd be scratching my head over whether it was real or not.

{{ I had problems getting a suitable grass type for it- in the end I couldnt find one I liked (I need to find some reed obj files!) those are actually a type of wheat- was hoping as they are largely silhouetted by the light and water I'd get away with it- guess not!!

The second one is experimental- was mucking about with fake stone shaders and displacement shaders and liked the detail on the cliff wall, then decided to half spin the whole thing so the wall was the floor - just 'cause you could see more cliff detail that way. The TARDIS I just chucked in at the end as it lacked otherwise any focal point, but it was all about the cliff that one for me. }}}

love all those. lily ponds probably my fav.

{{Thanks Figg- did come out quite nice that one- though looking at again might make a few changes and render it again- nothing major just some small things I might try to change. }}

{{Made some tweaks- changed the position of some things, added some more birds and made the water still and mirror like- now Im not sure! }}

{{Just as a curiosity rendered it again under the glare of a noon sun and with less cloud- rather shows up some of the errors I was hiding in the lower light! See if you can spot them! }}

I like this one the best.

So do I

{{Oh now thats just bloody typical! I spend hours tweaking and refining to get the lighting just right and the perfect shade of golden- and you lot like the one where I just dragged the sun up randomly somewhere high and deleted a cloud layer without any thought }}

the best art is spontaneous.

{{ }}

That actually looks like a photo.