gschumsky

That would be great! Now of we could get v11 hair on Mac...

Good call Yves. I was just going down the thread and thinking the same thing. This was a problem I had a long time back as well and Steve S. gave me this tip. Suprised Sutton didn't catch that too!

Oh, just thought of another source. Go check out your local hobby shop, or if you have a train shop, even better. That way you could buy an inexpensive train engine (they are pretty detailed) for reference. Greg

You know, you should get a hold of Will (or is it Noel??) at Hash. Anyway, one of the guys there is a huge train freak..uh I mean fan... Anyway, I'm sure he (Will, Noel??) has lots of good images, and maybe places on line to see trains in action. I'm personally more interested in building a Zephyr.Now that's one cool train. Greg

No. I use needle-nose pliers and grab it by the tail. Then remove the stinger with scissors or wire cutters. Or, most of the time just flush it down the toilet (kill it first so it won't come back up through the shower or tub). Unfortunately, haven't seen any tarantulas around lately, and thet tend to take care of scorpions before they come in the house.

I've seen it once, only ONCE (phew!) mind you where one did come down on a thread from the top of a stair landing and pretty close to my wife. Fortunately I saw it, notified her of the impending situation, and...she ran screaming.

Crimini (pronounced cry-mi-nee)! That is one mean looking mama (?). Dig the movement of the tentacles/whips, and the weight shift is very nice. Vern: Not to worry. To me it looks like it's only a few inches tall (alhtough when we find a scorpion in the house once in a while, that's pretty scary at first). In thatcase, either : hit it with a shoe...over and over until it's well embedded in the carpet, or b: grab it with a pair of pliers and squish it (fun!). I'm thinking with this guy the shoe trick would do well.

Thanks for the comments. I had planned on doing that as well, but only had about 30 minutes to set it up and render the pic (already had the robot model). Still had to make the wine glasses (love the new refraction), cheese, and toothpicks, then make the card for approval. Plus this was kind of a freebie project as a favor to them.

The local Futures Foundation asked me to come up with artwork for their fundraiser "Taste of Technology"— a silent auction and wine tasting event. This would be used on postcards, posters, and a huge banner. So this is what I gave them. And, it was a pretty big hit as well.

The local Futures Foundation asked me to come up with artwork for their fundraiser "Taste of Technology"— a silent auction and wine tasting event. This would be used on postcards, posters, and a huge banner. So this is what I gave them. And, it was a pretty big hit as well.

Having only used the skylight rigs (which are great for product photos, btw thanks for those so many years ago. They have proven invaluable), how does one use a skydome with a mapped image as a color filter (I get the idea, but it can't be as simple as putting the skylight rig above the dome, setting the dome to 50% transparent or something similar, and the rest is magic as they say)?

I can attest to Rodger's rivet. I've used it on a number of odds and ends (a robot and a rocket if memory serves). It's small, and you can add hundreds if need be without adding too much overhead to your model, and they look great no matter how far or close you get to the model. Now to have the patience to add hundreds of them to a scene by hand, ala Brian Prince and his pebbles.

Anywhere those of us late to the party can check this out? I went to the site and got the 3D Farmington, MI slide show (now where are my 3D glasses when I need them?). Also, can you post the project?

Anywhere those of us late to the party can check this out? I went to the site and got the 3D Farmington, MI slide show (now where are my 3D glasses when I need them?). Also, can you post the project?

I have to disagree with this (or agree to disagree??). I think the lighting is spot on, as in feels not like it's outside but actually inside a museum (or shot in a controlled studio). I think the light and color bring them out and they seem pretty darn realistic. This is an awesome piece of work (and prbably extremely time consuming as well), and the composition and lighting feel very much like this was shot professionaly in a studio with soft boxes galore. Something like this in the real world, if it could fit in a studio, unless it was to scale, would take quite some time just to light evenly and get it "just right". Nice depth, soft shadows, etc. Good job, and as Martin said "Wow!" Maybe the next image contest should be mythology...

Well, now that we know that, we'll make sure no one calls you THAT anymore...Goofy

Hey Frank. Just read your post and hope everything goes well (surgery wise). Tak it easy. Greg

Impressive, as usual. Always amazing the stuuf you guys do with a "non-professional" software. Keep up the good work, and the dancing too!

That's pretty slick! I haven't had time to check out your tute, but are you painting the bumps by hand in PS or something like that with a tablet? They are incredibly detailed.

No luck getting there. The page supposedly is missing, so I tried to find in on the site...still no luck. Anywhere else we can catch it (no pun intended)?

Interesting. Scary, but interesting. We have a lot of those around the house. Yech. The one comment is when it drops the second time, they really don't "catch air" like that. It is the same kind of drop, head first. Also, have the back legs hold onto the web as it repels (they tend to hold on as the webbing comes out of the spinnerettes). As far as the abdomen, that looks okay. I've seen them much bigger as well. Sprayed one and when it it the ground it made a small thud. Really. Nice work.

Pretty impressive. I agree with Jim...something to break up the background. More work, but maybe a nice old, dilapidated barn (and I mean really old), just the upper area and roof peaking above the grass, walls tilted/roof shifted. Or maybe an old rusty farm tractor. Also, I'd use the sky plugin that comes with AM and a dome (or mapped sky onto dome). Otherwise, excellent piece! Did you place the riverstones by hand, or use something like hair (or flocking)?

Yes, and "Alien Song" was just a little film... You're illustration skills are very impressive (well, at least I'M impressed!). If you're drawing skills are that good, it shouldn't be too hard to make the leap to 3D. If you've ever sculpted, AM kinda works the same way. I'm looking forward to seeing this come along.

Actually, I've never seen a tree that isn't somewhat bumpy. Even the really smooth ones have parts where branches get fatter/thinner. And the cool thing is with these extra rings, we can tweak by hand which way the bump goes by pulling on it. This would make the trees generated even more realistic. What would be cool is to add some sort of random generator (seed--no pun intended) to make those ring splines fall out of line just a bit to simulate nature more closely. This is getting more exciting every time I come to check it out. Thanks for the great work Zpider!

Actually, I just read somewhere that PS Elements 2 could do alpha channels...