Penguin Isle

Keep the babe The focus is cute. Very caring, that adult. The mountains appear 3D to me. If there's anything I would complain about, its the size. In my opinion, the size does not match the material used. But that's my impression. I do not retouche 2D elements into my Brycescapes. Of course, I hide behind my purist's stance my inablility to do it so cleverly as you do.

I stand corrected Just thought the mountains looked a little alien to this scene - maybe it's the post production fooling me or the lack of reflection on the water? Who knows. To me, they look a bit cut-out other are welcome to dissagree. And I wouldn't say the birds were 2D as such, maybe 2.5D... but if you wan't that table you'll have to model one, a nice cup of tea wouldn't go amiss either, milk no sugar thanks :0)

Im confused Im not quite sure what your saying. I mean about the mountains. All my scenery I have ever done is simply Bryce terrains and presets. Nothing special beside lens flare ,shading, and picture splicing. I have you to thank for the lighting David, this is after all your sky from your website. Back to the main point, the mountains are completely 3d redered in Bryce, Im not sure that they look flat. eeeh well.. The only thing 2d is the penguins, but I spent a while matching the shadows and reflections in PS 7 with the Bryce Scene. The most noticable is the adult penguin's head. It's shading is perfectly aligned with the sun in Bryce; I triple checked it. The baby was kinda hard I think I should take him out all together. Thanks for comments. I love this site. Now we just need a table we can all sit around and have a cup of joe.

2D/3D You hardly have to appologise when it comes down to questions of taste - I'm not sure that I like windows logos that much, it was just a challange. Speaking of which, mixing 2D elements with 3D elements is a very difficult one, mainly I think because we obtain so many tiny clues about the three dimensional structure of things from the way they are lit that it is next to impossible to get it right. Here the mountains and the birds look flat while the rest of the scene looks 3D. The light is good, and on a small scale the whole thing holds together just fine, however I don't think that on the whole it hangs together under closer scruteny. One possible route to go down is to create bird shaped terrains for the birds to be skinned onto, at a distance you can sometimes get away with this as the shape of the terrain helps the object's appled bitmap respond somewhat to the prevailing lighting conditions. I see no reason not to use terrains for the mountains, but then again if you don't try different things you end up getting stuck in a rut, so I say, go ahead and experiment. Good work.

Light Nice light on the sea. I always try to avoid burned-out scenes, but they can look good, I realize. The penguins are not Bryce I take it. I prefer penguins somewhat over Windows logos (sorry David).