Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/contest.ez?contest_id=12

Hi all, This time, it was really hard to pick a winner for our Carrara contest ! Two images were very close, so we called Superman (my mom !) to help the judges . The votes are now closed so i'm proud to announce that the winner of our Backyard contest is JWB . What the judges say : - MarkBremmer : "Great ambiance and excellent attention to individual lighting characteristics. Nice subtle touches on the modeling. The ambiance actually becomes the subject instead of the elements in the image. It makes me want to lean back on the grass and watch the stars." - WillF : "literally what I see out my back door." Good variety in the use of textures and contrasts between materials & lighting (glass, rock, wood & fantastic grass). Overall a good composition with nice, fluid movement (if you take off about 20% off the bottom, hard to do when you spend so much time to make it in the first place!). I like the way the light on the fence flows from side to side to bring your eye through the scene. Congratulations JWB, you will receive a copy of MBGroove by Mark Bremmer . Thanks to everyone who entered the contest and to MarkBremmer and WillF for being such great judges . Our next contest will begin in early december, so stay tuned ! Happy Holidays, litst contest manager

Thanks to all who participated. Here are my thoughts on the entries. I've always enjoyed knowing what was going through the judges mind, even if I they were insane. I hope you find them helpful, but then again, I might be insane. They are shown in the order that they were posted on the contest page. Mark Bremmer 1. vhigh - Good use of DEM data in Carrara and acknowledgment for attempting clouds ( I've never successfully produced puffy clouds). I like the lonesome and wintery feel of the image. Opportunities for improvement: Consistent display of reality across models; the mountains look quite real but the clouds have a stylized appearance that visually fights with the mountains. 2. JWB - Great ambiance and excellent attention to individual lighting characteristics. Nice subtle touches on the modeling. The ambiance actually becomes the subject instead of the elements in the image. It makes me want to lean back on the grass and watch the stars. Opportunities for improvement: Disguise the 3d "fingerprints" in the image by using procedural textures or colors to blend the tiling of the grass texture map, duplicating and scaling the background tree to hide the regularity of the leaves on the branches would be good. 3. dexabu - Very nice elevated perspective and good reflected light. Nice color similarities between the background clouds foreground. Fun elements to explore within the foreground. Opportunities for improvement: The roof texture is very realistic and begs some additional detail modeling to the actual roof vs. just texture mapping to a plane. I'm always entranced by the expert raking paths in the oriental gardens; If the the bump in the gardens was scaled down more it would add some richness to the image. 4. majister - Very nice composition and depth to the image especially as a first time user. Good use of light and dark areas to lead the viewers eye through the image. Opportunities for improvement: textures with greater variations and complexity will really push images like this much further. 5. sakauble - Wonderful soft light in the image and good color harmonies. I enjoy the mix of the Anime character in the more realistic looking house. Opportunities for improvement: Refinement in the texture map usage will help quite a bit. When the bricks mismatch and the grass is too large, it steals viewer attention from the focus inside the building. The size of the fence as it recedes to the right seems reversed. 6. gdouble - Nice outdoor lighting and fun composition. I adore the wall texture. Textures overall are rich and engaging. good integration of the grass to the side of the building. Nice use of lattice/terrain creation for background trees. Opportunities for improvement: Consistent scaling of objects like the wagon as compared to the barrels; Either it's a tiny wagon or the barrels are tanker trucks on end without wheels ! ;) 7. ppowellaa - Carrara has a CD full of models and I say, "Use them". Very believable scaling and placement of objects. I like the way many of the objects are not completely shown and the asymmetrical composition; it makes me want to go exploring and see what else is there. Opportunities for improvement: Using a texture map for the background (not a backdrop) will add reflections to the shiny objects and quickly add some visual complexity to the image. Also, allowing shadows at about 85% will anchor the outdoor objects to the ground. Right now everything is firmly resting on the ground but seems awkward due to lack of shadows. 8. Kixum - Very nice hard lines in this image gives it wonderful graphic appeal. Good composition and use of reflections. As in Eschers work, I like the barely visible fish. Opportunities for improvement: The reflections and transparency can be pushed even further in this image without sacrificing the design quality of it by possibly adding a background texture map that will reflect in the water. Slightly varying the transparency of the water by multiplying in a Cellular shader to transparency channel could be outstanding. 9. mdesmarais - Very nice modeling and good effort on the compound curves of a hot tub. Good soft candle light and warm feeling. Nice touch with the trees. Opportunities for improvement: Background clouds are too close in color to the foreground items and possibly a little too strong. Cooling down the cloud colors a little (cool colors visually recede, warm colors visually advance) would help cement the foreground as the foreground. Currently, the clouds are fighting for the same attention as the bottle and candle. Maybe a little rising steam in from the water? 10. tkane18 - Love the humor in this one; completely unexpected. Angled composition works well. Good use of simple modeling. Opportunities for improvement: While duplicating objects saves time, the objects also stick out as duplicates. Slight variations in second bug would be welcome. The plane the bugs are sitting on ends abruptly, maybe an infinite plane instead? I'd love to see a few more elements around the insects: drinks, a magazine or two, surely they are not just sitting there. :)

Congrats...Nice work. Clint

Congratulations!!! Great job!

Congratulations to JWB and a tip of the hat to all the entrants. I'm glad I wasn't judging this one. Regardless of the experience level of the individual artists, each entry had its own outstanding points. Even Judge Mark Bremmer gets a round of polite applause for his critiques(take his advice artists, Mr. Bremmer who knows whereof he speaks). Psssst, JWB... just between you and me, how about a hint on how you produced that super-realistic lawn? Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

Indeed a job well done JWB, congrats. This was a difficult competition to judge as there were so many oustanding aspects to all entries. I agree with Julian Boolean, Mark has gone the extra mile on this. Not only with the "prize" but also by providing several hours of professional critique. Thanks again willf

Congrats JWB! Thanks very much for the comments Mark. I wanted to do some mist off the tub, just ran out of hours, as you can tell by my posting time. ;-) The clouds really have that color- dang sodium vapor parking lot lights!! thanks again Markd

Thanks to all the judges and other artists for making this a really enjoyable experience. I am, as they say, gobsmacked to have won. The judges' and other's comments were really helpful and most appreciated. I look forward to see the contributions for December and kudos to litst for keeping this great idea going! JWB