Monument directory (Large picture warning)

[Alphaea]

I'm trying to put together an image directory of monuments and points of interest for the new site (when we get it). Both projects look like they're going to take a while, so I'm in no rush.

I've got lots of screenies of most of the monuments I want to include and have started messing with enhancing the images, any critiques and suggestions are welcome.

I'll start with the Hypercube study. Used Aquatium's realistic technique to start.

First, the original screenie - Resized to 800x600:



Applying Aquatium's techniques:



Applying some of Pyraci's techniques:



What technique do you guys like? I'm still going to mess around with what Pyraci shows because I'm not happy with what I came up with initially. Check back again for updates I suppose.

[QuiDormit]

So far, I dig the middle one the best. Unfortunately, I have a crappy machine and can't take any good screens. If you want help with the post-processing, though, I'd be happy to see what I can do.

[Covenant]

Those images are very detailed and realistic -- I never noticed the rivets in the Hypercube Monument before! Nice work.

I agree with quidormit. Looks like the middle one has some rays of light, which are very cool.

[Emned]

I think the middle one looks the best.

[Fenny]

Hypersphere, noobs.

I like the middle one best, as well. What you could also do is create some heat ripples above and around the fire, to add to the realism.

[Covenant]

Apr 29, 2008 15:32:31 GMT -5 Fenny said:

Hypersphere, noobs.

\smackforehead

SPHERE! The cube around the sphere always throws me off.

[Iviera]

Like the others, I agree that the middle is the best.

The sunbeams are a bit excessive though. Hurts my eyes to look at it... damn LCD monitor...

[Lovable]

They're both good, but I'm a bit more biased toward's Pyraci's work. For that particular shot, since there's a good amount of sunlight I'm leaning more toward the middle one myself.

However my only complaint is that the added lighting drowns out the smoke from the bonfire, and to me that lessens the effect. But I guess it depends on the shot as well.

[zdn1]

At least from what I've seen, Pyraci seems to do better making people look real, while Aqua is better with environments.