Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1191846

They were the greatest magicians of their age. Nothing was beyond their power. They could call down the rain, or induce crop-withering droughts... bright sunshine or eternal darkness... prosperity or death. Confident in their own powers, they endeavored to summon the mightiest of demons, capture it, turn it to their will. Long nights of meditation ensued, and the required signs and shapes of protection were traced upon the floor. Unfortunately, though their knowledge of magic was unsurpassed in their time, their knowledge of geometry was sorely lacking. Perhaps someone should have told them that a pentagram has FIVE points.... not four.

I really like the 'clean-ness' of the first image (at the link above), and I think I'll keep it as my entry this month, but this picture (and story) have been trying to come out since I first started. What do you think?

One render, no post or plops... almost every object is a sym-lat taken directly from the thingy.. with a few terrains and torii thrown in for good measure... 4 radials in the fire, randomly positioned to try to simulate 'flickering' shadows on the floor. Wall 'shadows' are created by negative square spots with gels.

Looks sweet...

FWT, Now that's just downright silly - I knew there was something I liked about you. Good use of the thingy and an exellent render! - TJ

Oh, man....awesome entry! Their ashes on the ground are REALLY real looking, and the shadows on the wall make it perfect. Great work! AS

Fantastic Render, how the hell did you get their shadows on the stone? That's Hot!!

Oh please make this one your entry. Yes the other one is clean but this one has so much more story and depth to it, I love it. Those shadows on the walls are friggin awesome. A little more explanation as to how you did them would be appreciated. Simply saying <"Wall 'shadows' are created by negative square spots with gels"> isn't enough! Thanks :-D

I missed the shadows the first time - must be gettin' old. That is a nice effect now that I see it in action. It looks like you might have used a picture texture for the shadows? Exellent!

Very original idea and story.........very nicely 'executed'..... The Bryster

Absolutely amazing work FW, this one is totally awesome. I agree that this is the one you should enter in the challenge it has much more depth and is downright scarey. Great work...........applauds. 8) Catlin

Yeah....spooky, this one is great.

Brilliant stuff!!!! I LOVE this.

for those wondering... for the shadows on the wall, I created simple square renders in Poser with a solid background... then used the magic wand and fill bucket tools in Painter to change the background to black and the figure to white. These images were used as gels on square spotlights with an intensity of around -25. rayraz suggested something like this when I asked a while back... and Pinhead over at 3Dcommune came up with a similar solution, so I've gotta thank them for the help in coming up with the means to put those 'shadows' in there.

Beautiful technique! Beats my edge-on 2d face suggestion hands down. Thanks for the tip!! BTW this is a cool image. Additionally my demon denies having any part in this! Says he was down at the pub at the time.)

Hehehe... 8D Great work and good use of the thingy. ...Enjoying your imagination and humor.