I was out and about today and I happened to notice some reflections in the water.  Is it just me or is water better at conveying the  lightness/darkness of the light that's reflecting off of it, but for color... not so much.

Dunno - seems to reflect coloured neon signs in puddles well enough at night.

Water reflects all colors equally and does so according to the Fresnel equations set for IOR of 1.33. That means it doesn't reflect very much when you look straight down at it.

When you look across at water far from you, it reflects very strongly.

Okay, I was looking not quite straight down, so maybe that has something to do with it.  Still it's kinda weird how much you start trying to notice things after playing with the poser mat room long enough. 

It is strange. I can hardly look at anything at all anymore without studying it. On the other hand, it has made my visual experience of the world around me much more engaging. Even a simple canister of tea can hold my attention for minutes now, if the finish is interesting.

Yeah I know what you mean.  The more I read about the craft of fiction writing, at times the less I can enjoy it the traditional way (when I'm paying attention, still haven't gotten to the point where I do this regularly), let's see, the hook is here, the first plot point is here, etc. but at other times I get a deeper understanding of it.  Particularly when the movie or book is over and I have time to sit and reflect on it.

I was watching star wars last night.  In the middle of it, I wondered how I would try to do the material of the stormtrooper's armor.  At the death star trench scene, I can't stand it anymore because even if it is done for tension, it's beyond amaturish to the point of stupid military tactics and it doesn't hold up very well in the modern battlefield, much less a future one.

Quote - ... I was watching star wars last night.  In the middle of it, I wondered how I would try to do the material of the stormtrooper's armor.  At the death star trench scene, I can't stand it anymore because even if it is done for tension, it's beyond amaturish to the point of stupid military tactics and it doesn't hold up very well in the modern battlefield, much less a future one.

I know what you mean.  You should have heard me scream when Hollywood decided to leave out what Tolkien himself saw as the single most important chapter in the entire trillogy.  

Quote - I was watching star wars last night.  In the middle of it, I wondered how I would try to do the material of the stormtrooper's armor.  At the death star trench scene, I can't stand it anymore because even if it is done for tension, it's beyond amaturish to the point of stupid military tactics and it doesn't hold up very well in the modern battlefield, much less a future one.

snerk. When I was younger I was a military officer in training. I've been a firefighter for 25 years. Professionally I'm a geologist.

My wife has threatened that if I'm being really uncooperative she'll force me to sit down and watch back-to-back-to-back showings of "Starship Troopers", "Backdraft", and "Volcano".

Quote - I was watching star wars last night.  In the middle of it, I wondered how I would try to do the material of the stormtrooper's armor.  At the death star trench scene, I can't stand it anymore because even if it is done for tension, it's beyond amaturish to the point of stupid military tactics and it doesn't hold up very well in the modern battlefield, much less a future one.

It was an accepted tactic in WW2- just watch 633 Squadron and you'll see exactly the same approach :)

Waddaya mean it's only fiction?

According to the wiki-

1.  633 was fictional

2.  They were flying mosquitos, which where bombers capible of outrunning some fighters.

3.  Flying cover for bombers and not being in position to cover them is stupid. 

Furthermore, after the Y-wings were taken out, the "escort" X-wings should have been following the main one out of the trench and just behind to protect it.  The whole scene was crafted because Lucas was a race fan, he wanted it that only Luke could blow up the death star (IE the didn't go in part), and he wanted han to be the hero (the only one in position to attack the Tie Fighters in the trench).

Quote - > Quote - I was watching star wars last night.  In the middle of it, I wondered how I would try to do the material of the stormtrooper's armor.  At the death star trench scene, I can't stand it anymore because even if it is done for tension, it's beyond amaturish to the point of stupid military tactics and it doesn't hold up very well in the modern battlefield, much less a future one.

snerk. When I was younger I was a military officer in training. I've been a firefighter for 25 years. Professionally I'm a geologist.

My wife has threatened that if I'm being really uncooperative she'll force me to sit down and watch back-to-back-to-back showings of "Starship Troopers", "Backdraft", and "Volcano".

Back-to-back-to-back.  But I thought the Constitution bans cruel and unusual punishment.  Forcing anyone to watch those three in succession definitely comes under the heading of cruel and unusual.

ha-ha-ha-

When I first started modeling for poser, i always looked at everything in a mesh from.
How would I do this? How would I make that;

I could not look at a person without thinking what dials to use... :-)

Hey, where is my body weight dial????
Where is my muscle dial?

As an artist I see everything in basic shapes/forms, circle, triangle, box, etc. and my photography side looks for composition of anything I see. My martial arts side looks for weak points on a persons body plus finding objects to use for self defense and my musical background pops up and I realize I'm counting the beats in the tempo instead of singing the song lyrics.

No day is ever boring for me. :p