They actually call it the 720? has anyone got a flake of originality in that company? 720! so obvious! I knew something was on its way because of the current title releases. Too many sequels, no original new games. Last few releases have just felt like complete money spinners, and this season-pass trend is just sickening. The developers have just copied from one another! Each game just feels like a clone of another. Maybe i'm getting old.

Thanks guys, i was just having a play, the structure and scene are just imaginary. Shura, funny thing you commented. You know I had your image in my mind when I was making this...remember your twilight renders of a latticed structure? That was very inspiring to me http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1664

Thanks Oli. I will definitely check it out. Your initial tree lines certainly have helped me in a few projects!

@hepf said: Nice. Hill crest too sharp though, a retouch in photoshop to soften will do the trick. Thanks for your comments on Rome. Trying to put toghether a short animation, will post it when done... Thanks and the Rome project looks fabulous. To be honest it's nice having a background that is VERY sharp! In my package there are both hdr (4000x2000) and jpeg (8000x4000) if you need a very crisp background. In thea and other render engines you can use the hdr to illuminate the scene and a different image as background if required. That's a cracker Pilou!

[off:2163l3kf]I stopped speaking french years ago but funny how i can still understand you. Il y a sept ans depuis je parle en francais, mais je vous comprends! Is that correct? I can't remember hardly any german or latin though, strange how some languages suit your brain better.[/off:2163l3kf]

@olishea said: Can shadow catchers receive caustics yet? tried this a year ago but no success. No caustics with shadow catcher at the moment, is just a simple way to embed objects to the environment. With frontal projection and camera mapping you can have all features. You will map actual models or simplified models, so you have all material features, including reflections. They sort of relative to SU photo match and projected textures (naturally without modelling).

It can be used for both dx and the full frame cameras. ~15mm?? I honestly don't know! The fisheye is simply fantastic!! Really impressed with all the kit. I also have the 18-105mm lens and also a Sigma macro lens which is from my old analogue Nikon.

@shura said: It's so good to see you (and all of you) back again. Welcome back....you've a little bit of reading to do

Thanks jpalm, I wish I had more time to keep making models like this. It wasn't very large at all, most of the file size came from the texture. It was very fluid and easy to navigate. I forgot to mention I used sketchup's native "from contours" tool (sandbox) to link up the tops and bottoms of the "columns"...this was then subdivided a few times. The morning Thea render had no direct light; only physical sky was used to give a general glow. I love Thea's physical sky. For the afternoon shots I used direct sunlight and physical sky combined. For the misty afternoon shot I added the volumetric fog in photoshop, bit of a cheat really but I never got my head round volumetric materials especially as my dual core computer was rendering them soooooo slooooooow! 41MB in total 477,526 edges 314,374 faces If anyone wants me to upload this model for playing/rendering let me know and I'll make a download link.

I would LOVE to hang out in that garden. Well done.

@unknownuser said: So what have I missed? You missed to open your mails. Happy and creative new year oli.

Check your email Oli Tom

great project/great images to explain it, Oli! It's so nice for school these days to have Photo-realistic rendering to help explain an idea, some times I think several projects I had in school would have critted much better if I had renderings like these to explain what I was going for. anyway - It's great to hear that crits are tough in school... I have been on many critique panels at different schools and these past few years have found they are getting so watered down that you can't even critique a student any more. any comment perceived as negative, and the other students jump all over you, or I had a friend (excellent designer with more than 20yrs experience and many award-winning designs) who was asked not to return because he had 'offended' a student. I mainly posted to say it's good to hear the crits are tough... trust me (as a once teacher and student with tough crits) - it's a good thing... and today with laser cutters and photo-real renderings at the touch of a button, you really get to concentrate on design.

Hi Ross, Thanks for the note. What I meant is that for example the floor plan of the Roman Villa Jovis and the water lines are not placed correctly. [image: x1gJ_Unbenannt.JPG] [image: ELww_jovis3.jpg]

Cool render, Oliver. a few suggestions: You might want to fix the shadows. The shadows of the people on the left don't quite match the ones on the right. Looks like you have two , one on the left and one on the right. Also, play with the colors and saturation to make the people merge better with the scene. One more thing: the shadow of the tree on the building on the left side seems a little bit too dark. Try to make it a tad lighter and maybe softer. Best, _KN

Thank god though mate yours was a write off! I've since had a speedo reading 90 km/h whilst I'm sitting still and the taco says it idling at 4500 revs and they cant work out whats wrong. Now I have no idea how fast I'm going! Take it easy in the new wheels mate, even 4wd can come unstuck!

Oli Must be frustrating to know your car would still be fine if you'd only saw James' tutorial sooner (Sorry couldn't resist. My apologies if I hurt your feelings. But must say I'm glad you got out OK) Flapsy

Know what you mean They confuse me too - and I made them The Extrusion Tools just grew like Topsy and 'EEbyXXX' originally seemed a 'sensible' naming convention until it gets too complicated...

full frontal if you really want?