Hey x3!...what a beautiful garden! Nice change of view compare to the previous one. Not to be dishonest and misleading, my '-ve' comment is that the terrain behind need more work. Two things here: 1) The texture sorta makes it looks like fresh moss on a mount. 2) From Statue to the 'fence' to the mount, there is no depth of field definition. Btw, what is that light brownish with caustix pattern on it of the right side behind the 'fence'? Hope my comments are constructive. There is always this fear of making others 'unhappy' :) Bill

Bill, your opinions are always constructive and don't worry about making me unhappy. I post here first because I need to see it through someone else's eyes. The light brownish/greenish thing is a hill of some sort. I think maybe I need to scale it down a bit and retexture it. Or maybe elongate it. I'm not sure how to do the depth of field stuff yet. What makes it difficult is that the garden is sitting on a small hill and there's a little bit of a valley between it and the mountain. I was trying for a granite with greenery effect. Maybe a couple of small trees here and there would help? Or should I add a stronger bump to the green part of the texture, too? Thanks for the comments and for pointing out the problem areas. Kate

Thanks for accepting such comments. People like yourself will make good artist Your imaginary, location wise..."garden is sitting on a small hill and there's a little bit of a valley between it and the mountain" is a tough one indeed! May be you should pull the mountain way back and make it big (as the manual recomended for large distance object as background). Yes, be agressive and give it more roughness and bumps (I always love to do that). As for the "little valley between", I suggest you create another terrain between the large distance mountain and the 'fence' but closer to the fence. Let 1/3 of the "valley" mount shows above the 'fence'. I am just visualizing it in my mind, but I hope it looks look when its done. Have a good one Kate! Bill

Thanks Bill! I'll give it a little more work and see what I can manage. I love it when people give helpful critique. It helps me to learn and to refine my images. Kate

Hi Kate, as Bill has given the most of the hints I could imagine of...only one more: to make that hard border between the fence and the lawn a little more 'soft'...why not put some small grass objects there? Just a suggestion :o). BTW: Nice composition...and I love cats ;o) Henrik

The statue is impressive! I also like the cat. (Couldn't find a bunny, huh?) But what texture are you using for the ground? Try using the "Grass" texture under Landscapes. "Grass on Rock" might work if the surface is flat, but it makes the underlying soil grayish. I agree with Henrik, tho. The back wall of the fence needs some tall grass or small weeds to break up the straight margin between wall & lawn. Oh, and how about a scattering of trees on the backg'nd hill?

Ok, here it is with the latest improvements. I changed the texture on that little hill to the right, moved the camera angle just a bit, sent the mountain further back and widened it and threw in some plantlife along the back fence. I tell you, this file is getting HUGE, guys! grin Kate

NOW!!!...isn't that fantastic! Distance mountain is so convincing now and the small mount on the right between the fence and mountain is just perfect. One thing missing though!!!...a tweetdy bird on the statute head...that's what the cat is after, right?...just kidding. Well done Kate! Go ahead and post, I give it a five :) Bill

I thought about a bird, or even a butterfly, but I finally decided on an ant. It's soooo small you can't see it. I had a cat once that would spend hours chasing ants in the garden. Of course, this cat was just weird enough that he thought sitting on the dividing line in the street to watch the cars pass was great fun too. Kate (who thinks it was a stroke of genius when she named that silly cat "Maynard")

Meeooooooowww.................. :) Bill

The image in the #8 post is much better. The distance between the hills is much more convincing now. It gives the image much more depth. Great Job! -Rob

Hi Kate. That looks just wonderful! I might only suggest one more thing, add a few flattened spheres with a nice color and texture for the daisy centers. I did that with my dandelion, I thought it helped. I just registered Plant Studio, and also just got Painter 3D! So now I have tons of stuff to play with! Let it snow! Gail

I think you're right about the flowers, Gail. I'll have to experiment a bit and see what looks best on the model. LOL...I know what you mean about playing with stuff. My TrueSpace 3 arrived in yesterday's mail and I'm still waiting for Monday so I can spend all day playing around with it uninterrupted. Kate

Kate, I love this latest version! Only one small suggestion at this point. The art world has sort of adapted a 4 by 5 ratio as its most common format for pictures. Your picture has a ratio of 3.75 by 5. While there is nothing that says you have to be 4 by 5, I think you'll find It much easier to mat and frame if you add a little bit more to the top. That way you'll be able to use standard 8" by 10" (inside) mats or even 16 by 20 if you have a printer that will do it. The two other common ratios are 5 by 7 and 10.5 by 13.5 (what is commonly called "11 by 14")

BTW: feel free to fire away with any TS3 questions you might have.

Kate, what happened to the blue flower centers? They're present in Pic1 but gone in the 2nd Pic! (Virtual Aphids maybe?) Great job of framing the background tree in the arch of the fence. Still think the statue is beautiful! BTW, Bill... perhaps the cat thinks the statue is holding some sort of food. I know that always gets my cat's attention!

heyas; version 2 looks great! those mountains sure make a big difference. 'cept i like the framing in version 1, better. we are closer to the 'action.' also in version 2, the orange flowers in the lower left are a bit too strong, and the leaves poking in at the upper left should be cut out. yep, i thought it was the statue of the goddess of the cat food can opener...! :) (an ant!? you're joking, right...?) :)

Ok, confession time. I like the framing in version one better myself, but like the nitwit that I am, I didn't make a note of the camera settings regarding placement, etc. so can't immediately duplicate the framing. Also, putting the camera back that close to the action eliminates the little bitty hills on the edges that indicate the distance between the garden and the mountain. And yes, I was kidding about the ant. He's really "talking" to the statue (you know how cats are...they talk to all sorts of things...furniture, walls, air... grin). The scary part is I think she might be talking back to him. Kate (who is a little weird herself at times)

The cat's gonna be disappointed that it's NOT a mound of tuna & chicken in her hand!

Hi Kate, Very nice image, it is so quiet, i almost can smell the fresh cut grass... Pascal

heya; yes, those hills are nice... you could grab the statue, cat and nonexistant ant, and scoot them towards the camera, maybe? or perhaps drag the camera back in (drag it in top view and watch the main window til the framing looks like the other), and widen the camera's um... thingy. that is, make it less millimeters? or maybe do a wider image format.