@solo said:

Okay, so my Spanakopita and Dolmas breakfast in support for Greece was in vain

Was probably the dogsandwich I had that shifted the balance in Korea's favor

Cool tool for keeping track btw...

Very cool Enix! The DOF on the interiors makes it look almost like a miniature

So did you model the grass and all, or is that postpro?

The shadow the tree casts on the ground suggests that the light is coming from behind-camera-left while the shading on the trunk is more in line with the sun being at camera-right. Also, the color of the clouds is comparable to late afternoon, right before dusk, but there's no long shadow from the tree, nor does the tall grass cast any.
I'm doubtful as well. But cool image nonetheless

Have you tried the Buildings->High Rise section of http://www.cgtextures.com yet?

Cool, good job man! Planning on rendering it as well?

Well you're off to a great start Rick! Looks very compelling.
To me it feels a little 'isolated', could do with a sketchy background. Maybe something like this for inspiration?

As said earlier, keep an eye on Sang, he likes to hide in the strangest of places

@dale said:

but isn't it a Photoshop Plugin?

The 'Pro Plus Bundle' comes with a plugin indeed.
Oddly enough they state 'Photoshop CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5' but when you click on requirements it says 'i.e. versions other than Photoshop CS2 or higher will not work with HDR images.'

Link...

@Solo

Saw this one the other day, thought of it when you mentioned Glenn Beck

Gotta go with Khai and Chris on this one...

Solo, thanks for confirming that Bill O'Reilly is considered a comedian over there as well

Yeah those panoramic heads are pretty sweet. That link from notareal looks like it's gonne serve you well.

I built one myself a few years back, a fun project for a rainy sunday. There's loads of blueprints and explanation to be found on the web by searching for 'DIY panoramic' or similar. Only costs a couple of bucks to make one but it does take some trial and error to get the measurements right (mainly the distance from the rig's pivot to your sensor) and even then works for one lens only. Wouldn't recommend it unless you enjoy pointless stuff like that as much as I do

Keep us posted on this, will ya?

Oh BTW, forgot to mention this. For tonemapping the HDRI's (the process of making them look like a proper image instead of a camerafailure) try Photomatix Pro as well as Photoshop's built-in tool. I've found Photomatix to give slightly better control over the details.

I don't know about the 360 panoramic images although I have seen a tutorial on it somewhere in the last months. If it wasn't here it might have been on the Twilight forums...

Like Chris said, pretty much any dSLR should serve you well. I've done HDRI's with a 350D (digital rebel XT), 5D and 1DSmkIII, and they all give satisfying results. Bracketing is a nice option and that's where a fast fps-rate really works towards preventing ghosting of clouds, foliage etc. Few tips: use a sturdy tripod, preferably weighed down with your camerabag or sandbags. Don't set the camera to spotmetering for establishing your 'middle' exposure. Shoot in Manual mode and not in Av or Tv. Avoid any alteration done by the camera's software (such as image styles or 'intelligent' exposure balancing). Shoot testimages and check your histogram, there should be no clipping on the dark side in your overexposed images, nor on the light side in your underexposed ones.

You mentioned a budget of $1K, I'm positive you will find a very decent consumermodel Nikon or Canon that will serve you just fine.

My $0.02

@unknownuser said:

Hij had zelfs die typische ballenlook: gestreept hemd, achteruitgekamd haar.

You got me wondering now... I know two guys in this industry who look like that but their offices don't look the way you described.

From the sound of it you should be glad it didn't work out. And hey, at least you can add a good story to your repertoire

About Artlantis, I used it for a short while to see if I would be willing to spend money on it and the answer was no. I guess the 'swatches' approach to materialsettings is a nice feature, but in the end it doesn't really give me a real benefit in terms of speed and ends up working slightly limiting. I think one of the upsides of working with Artlantis is in an office environment where you work together on a single project cos it´s relatively easy to share materialsettings. Outputquality wasn´t amazing to me, but not rubbish either.

Cool, very nice and rough style! Don't see too many Piranesi creations over here, always a pleasure.

Anyone seen this yet? Looks cool and promising. I'm gonna give it a got tomorrow...

Sorry, can't work out how to embed youtubemovies here...

Not a bad price... I love the 'unmarked bills, come alone' part

I like this one even better. It's a more subtle effect than the first one

Great composition on both images btw!

I do, but only for the protractor and follow me tool... Come to think of it, I'm gonna map those to hotkeys and open up some space

Wew that looks cool man! Looking forward to seeing it progress.

Did you actually model the unevenness on the plaster or is it time to clean my monitors?

BTW, the porchroof could do with a little more thickness, or would that be historically inaccurate?