Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=450891

Contrary to what I usually do, this time I'll ask you, if you like, to please visit the gallery posting [here's the link]... I say "please" because the posting resolution for the challenge is ridicolously small and washed out lots of details. The gallery version is in full res, at 1280x1024, and I assure you it's way better than this one.

Next messages will have DTE materials screenshots & explanation to match the challenge rules and the True Story of my first visit to the Arcade Arena. :)

One last thing: this picture is a tribute to this Forum and all the wonderful people that helped me or inspired me in these months. Thank you all, and specially to Rochr: this picture and the short story that goes along with it are dedicated to him. I used his suggestion for making the cables up above near the ceiling, and just looking at his pics is like reading a tutorial on Bryce's possibilities.

Don't forget to read the Full Story below... the truth is out there! ;-)

LOL

Stefano

The renders of the mats are: upper sphere with AA normal, lower sphere without AA (to better show the details that the AA pass often washes out). Rendertimes are referred to 550x440 with default settings. They don't mean too much, but are useful to compare the relative render cost of the single mats.

Material #1: Worn metal, used for the pillars of the Arena and the scaffolding of the rightmost octagonal building. RT 26 seconds.

Material #2: Concrete (sort of). Used for the rightmost wall of the Arena. RT 14 seconds.

Material #3: Another worn metal with channel-driven reflection. Used for the structure that holds the Tetris pieces. RT 18 seconds.

Material #4: Rusty metal. Used for the talons gripping the Pieces up above. RT 24 seconds.

Material #5: Opaque metal. Used almost everywhere with color variations: from the HiScore panel to the Tetris pieces, the chains and the balconies, the tripods and the laser cannons etc. RT 15 seconds.

I used Adamite's iridescent mats on the cables near the ceiling and the disintegrating first row of Tetris pieces.

Some details: rendered at 1280x1024 with SuperFine at 16rpp, rendertime 12 hours. Postwork (lightrays, color enhancement, motion blur on the falling piece, glow of the disintegrating pieces) in Photoshop. I used the mask render option for the blur and the glow on specific areas without affecting the rest of the pic. Bright blue sparkles and some light enhancement in Universe Image Creator. "Bryce Forum Arcade Arena" lettering in Elefont.

Disabled sunlight, atmosphere off, 95 lightgrey ranged spotlights placed one by one to achieve the "closed theater" feel (if you're interested, below you'll find a light placement screenshot).

The crowds on the balconies are rendered separately and then put in the final image as 2D planes: the filesize was already over 300 Megs, so I didn't have a choice. For the curious, there are 476 individuals on the balconies. The 7 "free runners" are 3D low-res Poser models.

"What a funny bunch we all are" - or - "The fellas invited me to play": The True Story!

It had been a dreadful day in Milan, Italy, with the temp going steadily over 50 (and I'm speakin Celsius here, mind me) for most of the global overheated afternoon. I was ragdolled on my sofa when good ole Rudy from Sweden virtualphoned me and said: "Hey, you might want to come along tonite. We're meeting in the BFAA."

"What's the BFAA?" I asked, not much thrilled by the idea of leaving my warm wormhole.

"How can you possibly not know it?" came Rudy's rude voice from Scandinavia. "It's the Bryce Forum Arcade Arena, and tonite I'm gonna try to break down that darn record."

"What record?"

"You'll see."

Whoa, I thought, this sounds cool. The word cool was the key.

"Count me in", I said, and took off in a blink. During the brief dimensional jump, I wondered what marvels of technology I would be confronted with, so you can surely imagine my disappointment when I reached the famed BFAA and, over the entrance, I saw the poster, all glittering with thousandies of little lampies, reading: TONITE TETRIS GALORE.

Oh mein Gatt, I deutsched silently. Tetris!

Now, in the era of such amazing VR games such as Enter Once Again the Plurimatrix and Tomb Raider 56 The Very Very Very Last Revelation and the wondrous (We swear this time it's really the) Final Fantasy, how come some techie fellas like my fella Bryce Forumers still play that (aaaancient!) fallingblock nightmare? They're all into multiproc machines and render algorhythms...

But, when I entered the gigantic dome, my heart jumped and the wind escaped my throat like when I get punched in the guts (it happens quite often, alas). It was huuuuuge! Fascinated, I took my seat in the first row, right behind the excited challenger. "Hey, R-och-R", I said. "How come no one ever told me about this?"

He turned and smiled brightly. Under the metaballed head, that is, but I swear it was a smile. Ok, sort of. "Glad you're here", he said, avoiding swiftly the answer and trying to shake my hand. When I saw the taloned tentacle, I pretended to scratch an itch behind my left ear and looked at the ceiling. You don't want to mess with those talons of his, that's for sure.

Then the whole thing started. It was, as Roger Waters would've said, Fun Like Hell... ok, more or less. With the accompaniment of some freakin' whunz-whunz techno oldies by FatBoy Slim, the whole apparatus started to move, clanging and booming while the big gears came to life up there near the immense ceiling. Rudy's talon grabbed the control and the game begun, just as a bunch of gigantic spotlights pierced the murky darkness of the place to reveal a huge crowd of fella Brycers perched on the metal balconies.

I went all "whoas" and "omygods", while in the row beside me the retainers of the present highscores started to boo and hiss to try and distract the challenger. Alvin was making little balls of his works' screenshots and shooting them at Rudy using a Wacom DardLet; Sbleci took the neon sign from his Traversi Travel agency and used it as a bat to try to dismember Rudy's talon junction; Woody Jordan continously hissed "POV-Hurst! POV, POV, POV-Hurst!" in the challenger's ear, while Willem&Madeleine tried to sinuously and elegantly carve his head off using a strange egg-shaped plasmachisel.

To no avail, I must say.

When Rudy completed the first of the many rows he would disintegrate during that long and unforgettable night, I noticed some movements under the BFAA dome and recognized a bunch of very active fellas doin' their obscure but precious jobs to let us have the usual fun.

Almost right in front of me, Thomas aka Wahnfried1959 was fast-climbing one of the many rickety ladders that ringed the Arena. "He doesn't know if it's horizontal or vertical", explained Dash101 from behind my back. Dash was somewhat focus-blurred, but we giggled anyway like two old spinsters. How mean can we get when we feel like it!

SusanEelie was seated in the middle of the ladder just above, watching the proceedings while devouring a can of SPAM she strangely didn't send to Italy.

On the far right, just under the big octagonal pieces-forging structure, TheBryster and Tjohn, with their usual pungent attitude, were manning the servo-driven Adamite's Iridescent LaserCannon to get rid of Rudy's first completed Tetris row.

Halfway to the top, I recognized Jimbo Lemon overlooking the whole madness, surely taking mental notes on how to develop some geometrically correct tri-cubic-pano study about the pros and cons of rendering Escherian sand castles.

And, on the summit of the TetrisForge, OfficerSmith was directing the next piece on the dropping line (it was the long-awaited Vertical, at last: the piece all Tetris players crave, y'all know that, don't you?), while Clay the H supervised the animation process with a look of icy-pure volumetric fire.

"Hey, this is fun!" I exclaimed while Rudy happily kept on demolishing row after row of gigantic blocks. I looked again at the crowd and saw the fellas: Tres, MadDog, Swade, Eyecon, Eres, Zhann, Pakled, Drac, Calum, Elsina, Sharen and all the others... everyone was there hollering and cheering and having lots of fun.

"Where's Flak?" I asked Ang25 while, in a very Dylanian way, everything seemed to go a-quakin' and the times seemed like they were a-clanging.

"Flak? Oh, he's on the Dome top trying to multiple-render the whole crowd", she answered. "Ornlu too is up there, searchin' the 19,001st metaball. It escaped one of his renders some weeks ago, and nobody has been able to raytr... er, retrace it ever since."

"Oh, I understand", I said and, while beside me Doug was successfully trying to immobilize his fabled Wandering Cup, I pointed to the crowd and asked Catlin, "Cat, why are they all naked up there?"

She giggled. "That's because here in the B-Forum we're all naked, dork! We're dressed only with our 3-Dreams."

"This is very poetic", I whispered, deeply moved.

Suddenly she laughed. "Or maybe the Brycer In Question wasn't able to render such a crowd with their clothes on", she winked wickedly.

Gosh, I guess she was right.

You are a bryce god =P. Exceptional work. I especially like the lazer beam vaporizing the bottom row. Very creative piece.

Man, that's frickin awesome tetris. I'd play, yo.

You got me in stiches, this is great!

Absolutely Superb and a brilliant idea! Pat yourself on the back for this one! ;-) Regards, Paul

Amazing work and the story really made me laugh :-) Thumbs up! Elsina

I'll second Ornlu... you are a bryce god Stefano.... This is a very original, creative work that was composed to perfection. Great job done. I love it. You got my vote on this one... how could you not? It is a brilliant piece of work 8) ~ Swade ~

Man, you are REALLY puttin' a lot of work into this work of yours! This was truly entertaining, lol. You should consider visiting the writers forum also. Great everything on your finished render, I like it all, modeling, mats, effects, etc. You are truly advancing. AgentSmith

WOW.......... I don't know what to say about that little (little???) story of yours... lets just say that I enjoyed your image alot,,, then I read the story and the image took on a whole new demension!!!!! Excuse me while I bow while in your presence!!!! lol.. Great work!! and i mean it. I love those mats, and you are a constant reminder of what I'm striving for here in this forum!!! happy rendering!! brholte (Benjamin Ross Holte)

Stunning, just amazingly stunning! The hazy, smoky atmosphere is incredible, the rays from the spotlights really work. I really like that the vertical is purple :P Tres

Excellent stuff, the story and the pic....but since when did I have a 'pungent' attitude? LOL Love it.....! Well done.

So much invention in this. You never cease to impress, Stefano. Bung it in the gallery, my voting fingers poised.

Whoa! Thanx a lot to you all, what a response! :) I'm really glad you liked the story, I have to thank Tresamie bigtime for having proof-read it. @Vile: you're right, a bump on the crowd planes could've enhanced the quality. It's the first time I use crowds like this and I'll surely do better next time. Thanx for the suggestion. @AgentS: You're washed in light up there, and it's not a coincidence, LOL @Bryster: pungent? Did I really say pungent? :) Nooooo... S.

Fantastic piece, and an unbelievable story to go with it! With an imagination like this, i can see how youre able to throw out all these fantastic renders. Couldnt be better! :) Muchos gracias pal, im truly honored! :)) BTW, Did i win the game...?

Wow, absolutely wow! Have you started thinking about the challenge them for August yet... Great work.

Don't remember it, Rochr, I was drunk before you finished, so I think you disintegrated a whole bunch of rows, LOL :) And I don't remember if I've thanked you officially for the tip about the cylinder tubes, as you can see I've used it. S.

This is unbelievable! A true story to at that. Love it all. I can swear I see Rochr and his tentacles in the balcony on the left. Simply wonderful. I love the story too. And I got a speaking role, I'm honored. Bryster - Don't worry about your pungent attitude, Catlin made up for it by calling Stefano a Dork in the story, LMAO. Angela :-D

This is just amazing, and the story got me crawling on the floor clutching my sides with laughter :-) Josselin

WOW! This is brathtaking. I love it!!!

Thanx a lot, DWarrior! :) Josselin: that was the purpose of the story, LOL. I'm so glad you all liked it so much! And thanx a bigger lot for all the comments!!! S.

Bravo Stefano! You definately have a World-Class imagination and talent!! This is a brilliantly imaginative concept piece and the way you incorporated your storyline into it is just fantastic! What's even more cool is that we were all there to see it! Kudos!!