Perhaps I should apologize to Agent Smith for trolling. I was not aware that two years of active membership in this community amounts to trolling when you open your mouth. Regardless of that, there is still something I would like to say, and it does follow along the general line of an apology. I do apologize for not being specific enough in my criticisms. I do not place my art above another's, but I do have a pretty good idea of what digital art is. And it certainly isn't a simplistic Bryce picture put together in 5 minutes. I enjoy being a member here, I have taken some of your criticism on my work as valid and to the point, but only when those of you who have decided to do so have proven to be able to create better things. I come from Romania, an ex-communist nation where individualism wasn't exactly the order of the day. Perhaps, after having found my new life in the West, I have over-exercised this right. I doubt it though. We can be all positive-thinking clones, or we can simply say what is wrong and what is right with something. That's my view of life, after 20 short years of experiencing it. I stand corrected if any one of you with more experience is ready to empart more knowledge on life than I have. But that's just it, isn't it? You're not going to accept critique from a 12 year old if you're 30. 'You smell, mr!' isn't exactly top-notch observation, but in its simplicity, it leads to something more elevated. So is that the point of critique on the Renderosity forums? To accept even the simplest critique hoping that it has a nugget of truth? Fine. Like I said, I don't put my art above anyone else's. But I place its quality in its rightful spot. Freedom to create is open to anyone. Actual art is derived from talent. Airflamesred -your submission is good overall, but besides the lack of contrast on the picture, the entire feel of it seems to be a bit too... imported, and more importantly, the whole feel of the piece seems to be of something hastily put together. Aldaron -your creation does have the marks of a true great. However I disagree with the idea of bipeds with lion's heads and spock ears to be taken as sci-fi. While the humanoid models and the visible spaceship are great, your placement into the obvious Bryce background is mediocre. The attempt to create tentacles out of what obviously are metaballs lacks drawing finesse. The sky is almost non-existant, and the placement of the clouds and the planets is somewhat unfortunate in terms of the colors and their blending. That and I would see or feel a 5 ton squid right in front of me no matter how much I looked at the horizon. Alleycat169 -the starfield and the cosmic gas are great, but the quality only seems to go down from there. there is no sense of scene depth. the mountains somewhat distract the view because of their reddish color, and with the ground plane, together lack in details of distance. the flying thingie is nice, but the light seems to be coming out of nowhere, despite having cameras as details. Anruth -your creation lacks a lot. from the ever-present haze which ultimately makes the eye look for the inexistant details (instead of hiding them), to the ships found in the freebie section, the submission needs a lot of work in my opinion. the purple-pink creatures are interesting, but they lack organic 'flow'. Apache2K -I'm not sure exactly what you seem to be advertising with that apache design logo, but your submission is in my opinion somewhat acceptable, given the motion blur of the ground plane and its objects. Unfortunately, that should have been the main focus of the picture, as the ship's dash-board, a somewhat cruel rendition of a fighter-jet's cockpit. anti-alias! then again you have proven an eye for general detail, in that most of the instrument panel is darkened due to the outside light. whether that was done to hide the lack of details, i don't know, but overall it seems to be acceptable in my mind. Archimagus -i'm not sure if it was rendered in Bryce or Poser, it's probably Bryce seeing the ground texture. pretty correct usage of light, although the actual models lack textural detail. the landing spears of the ship look awful. Battleangel21 -Bryce. The ship is interesting in shape and colors, although the entire composition lacks detail, proper lighting, and just shows a begginer's knowledge of bryce. Big Hoovie -interesting! the melodrama of the picture and the novell use of water (and the level of the camera) takes a lot away from the ground and the pretty shotty work done there in terms of detail and texture. the metaballs seem to be better created than the previous submission of tentacles. the ship is pretty simplistic and the way the ligh falls is a little bit off, but aside from that, overall it's a decent piece of work. Bikermouse -too many freebies in my opinion, especially since. the ground plane and the 'river' are just awful, i'm sorry. no depth whatsoever. the sun, the sky and the mountains in the distance create some sort of respectability though. Catlin_mc -a lot of simple objects put together in default textures, although the fumes and the fire in the reactor seem very well done. Colette1 -while the city in the distance looks mildly interesting, the naked alien chicks with dinosaur scales thing is just... yeah... pass Maybe that's not the exact idea, but... it's just horrible. the planets, the sky, the ground, and NAKED CHICKS!!! that's a winner, if the thousands of sex-deprived computer geeks have anything to say about it!! Czii -interesting, but i don't really see how it fits with landing on planet x, other than someone being thrown out of a jail ship upon a planet. Dan Whiteside -interesting. this submission had the potential to be a great piece of art if not for small problems like the simplistic star field, the city/mushroom, and the lack of distance to the planet. Darkginger -one of the better Bryce pictures, unfortunately lacking in the choice for textures as well as that eclipse which seems to keep lighting the scene despite the lack of light. Draculaz -lack of details, made up by the lack of light. mediocre, if not for the semi-realistic starscape. Electroglyph -the cartoony feel takes a huge lot away from the lack of successful texturing. but regardless, a close second to the best image. EricofSD -default textures, but interesting concept.

FWTempest -a very good submission. applause for the use of cloud planes. perhaps the ships could have been a bit more visible in the scene, but otherwise great. Gregsin -simplistic, but interesting cockpit view and sky. Humorix -the contrast needs a little work, but i have to say that i missed this one when i looked over the submissions. intelligent use of imagination for the ants and the other creatures. Hyperborea -artsy, and that's about it. seems to be missing depth and motion. ICMGraphics -an extremely good work, perhaps with just a slight problem. the smoke coming from the planet landing is incredibly well done, as are the clouds and everything else.. except the smoke that seems to be around the creature, which i can't really find a reason to. there doesn't seem to be any smoke b/w the ship's landing space and the creature, so what's the point of having it there? regardless, a great one. John Penn -tail lights don't give off that much light, but aside from that a decent submission in my opinion.. at least in the idea. Isstrout -simplistic. while you worked out the texture in almost fooling the eye into looking at it from a continental perspective, the two ships simply don't seem to fit in the picture. Madmax_Br5 -interesting concept and good work on the realism of it. Mboncher -very good land texture and very interesting perspective, but it seems to texture on the ship is pretty bad in terms of mapping. Mindvision-GDS -somewhat interesting model for the ship, but bad terrain editing. what is that? rounded dunes? pretty simplistic in terms of that. Nukeboy -that moon looks more like a 2d disk than a planet, and the running alien seems to be running from a burning toy of a city due to bad scene placing and lack of detail. as for the sky and ground textures, i won't comment. Nuski -pretty good submission, the reflection off the facemask is pretty interesting. but the suit seems to lack any texture. all-metal non-poseable suits? Phantast -at least she doesn't have dinosaur scales, but otherwise it could be sold as barbie on mars. default textures and shotty idea overall. Pidjy -great concept, and innovative use of metaballs (or at least i'm guessing that the plants were made out of them). the ship seems to be lacking some detail, but you seem to have put a lot of work into it. perhaps the ground texture could have had a greener color and some sort of grass could have grown there? Pmoores -as good as pidjy's, but somewhat lacking in finishing touches in my opinion. the sky seems a tad unreal, but pretty damn good job otherwise. Rayraz -interesting kaleidoscope of colors, it looks more like it's made out of lego's for some reason :) Rj001 -i saw this and i thought it was pretty good, but again, needs some work with contrast as well as those shapes which i can't understand whether they're clouds or mountains?? interesting idea, and pretty good work. Roch222 -to be honest, i liked this at first, i thought it was a great idea, but the human lacks the force it's attempting to convey. as a sole standing piece of work, it is a wonderful idea, but again, the human needs a bit more work and perhaps the camera could have been directioned more towards at the hand. Rochr -king of the kings in my opinion. rochr's work looks amazing on all counts... from the humanoid life forms (not forgetting my original thought on bipeds living on other planets), to the fog, the haze, the seamless costume, everything is calculated and applied. the colors are grandiose also. simply the best! Shadowdragonlord -i have to give credit for the forest. i've never attempted to make one simply because i realized the futility of making something of that scale in bryce. just for that i give this guy a thumbs up, forgetting about the bad texturing job on the ships and the horrendous sky. Stephen Ray -nice lighting and volumetrics, bad texturing job on the land and ship. Stuie -interesting texture on the ship, but simplistic concept on the 'final'. Tjohn -the ship is horrible :D. but the kfc reminder seems to spark up the atmosphere. could those clothes be tighter?? as for the land and moutains... the textures are just not proper. Ttops -i thought this was a pretty good one. the reflection map is a great concept, but the neo-nazi seems to stand out and destroy a pretty good spacesuit. Tuttle -the flower is just too good, and it has an artsy feel to it. pretty damn good! Vasquez -cartoonish and interesting. Vile -almost perfect ground textures and scene. too bad for the alien, who looks kinda plasticky. interesting work on the eyes though Zhan -simplistic, and lacking a message, in my opinion. --------------- there you have it. rochr rocks, and roc222, Rj001, Pmoores and ICMGraphics in particular came close, either through the bounds of their imagination or just plain skill at mastering the program. again, these are my opinions alone, and i wanted to explain why i originally said the most of the others were shotty and mediocre. i hope you take this -more or less- as a peace offering. i also hope that i've proven to have at least an acceptable taste in choosing them. all the best, Mihnea Dumitru (draculaz) 8400444 mihnea@freewriters.ca http://www.freewriters.ca

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Thanks for your comments.Yes there are imported objects - I have taken time to figure out another program, that for me, has tools I would prefer Bryce had but doesn't.I see nothing wrong with this.I will admit there is'nt much contrast - its not my strong point.Though I did like the idea of moving between 2D and 3D.It wasn't the best angle but that was resticted by the comic.

And I don't see the problem with stock textures and freebie items, granted they are not original, but sometimes they just fit. I guess.

no, you're absolutely right, there's nothing wrong with imports... it's just their quality. there are so many overused models on the net, it's not even funny. but hey, if it fits it fits :)

I do have a problem with people using the free section - it just makes one lazy and certainly alters my voting

it never really works that way though. when you see a great model in a really sheitty background, you kinda know, y'know? :)

Thanks for the comments, I agree with you along with tuttles observations on my piece.

"Simplistic and lacking a message", you were referring to mine and not your own image, correct?...

I'm happy to take criticism on my entry - as I mentioned when I posted it, I was busy this month with another contest that took all my time, but this was such a nice challenge theme that I wanted to put something in at least. So this was a rather jokey entry not to be taken too seriously, and definitely put together rather quickly. BUT - it actually has no default textures in it! (Except perhaps the matt black used on the rocket's entry, and the glass helmet is probably a standard glass.) In addition to "time spent = quality" being a myth, it is also a myth that the only people qualified to offer criticism are those who can do better themselves. For example, most people can recognise a bad drawing, but not so many are good at drawing themselves. If an artist presents a bad drawing, and someone says, "Hey - that's no good, you've got the fingers all wrong," it is absolutely NOT acceptable for the artist to reply, "Well, can you do better?" It is immaterial whether the critic can do better or not. Actually, I'm surprised that draculaz picks on Rochr as so wonderful. No offense to Rochr, it's a good picture indeed, but I seriously doubt that it stands out from the rest so remarkably as draculaz evidently feels it does.

Very comprehensive critique draculaz. I must say, I tend to agree about the freestuff and 3rd party meshes. Don't get me wrong - I have nothing against people using them - people can create their images how they want, but when I see a pic with a long list of credits at the end of it, I just say "hmmm, import, import, import, render, save - not my type of art at all!" A recent pic (won't say which) illustrates what I mean - a single 3rd-party mat, a single imported mesh and boom! There it is! McDonald's Art, to go.

I'm profoundly impressed. I'm seriously, without words. AS

draculaz, In defense of the freestuff I tried to theme it in with the "Lost in Space" TV series in celebration of the fact that I was finally was able to find the elusive James Murphy's site, and the Poser 5 characters are named Don and Judy(Tewo of the characters in "Lost In Space"). I guess you would have had to read the original post to understand that and been a fan of "Lost In Space" to boot. I agree that the ground terrain could have been better. I was not really concerned about it, and I guess it showed. I thought about redoing it, but at 19 hours/render I simply didn't have time. I am glad that you thought that the background added validity - that is the only part that I really concentrated on and I guess that shows too. Also under the Lighting That I was using you couldn't read the sign that reads "Welcome To Planet Y". I sacrificed some 3d effect to make sure that you could read the sign especially the Y. They landed on the wrong planet true to the nature of the series. But I did think of something in terms of depth I hadn't thought of before due to your post, so I thank you for that. Rod Sterling said that you should never assume your audience is less intelligent than you are, but what I failed to gleen from his statement is that just because your audience is intelligent doesn't mean that they are familiar with the same things that you are. Something for me to remember in the future. (Probably others as well.) - TJ

Wow... some great crits Draculaz and to the point. I don't post much stuff because I am learning Bryce, Rhino and Poser .. yeah I'm a glutton. I am not an artist in any measure be it 2D or 3D, heck I can't even draw stick figures ..LOL .. however, I am learning. Being over 40, it isn't easy to start on a new hobby that is foreign (3D). I have a lot of great ideas but the traslation from minds eye to 3D app doesn't always come through. So I know I'll have lack of depth, textures that don't match the scene or look correct and imported freebie models (aside the ones I make in Rhino) ... but that is what critiques are for .. as long as they are constructive. To counter the "bad critiques".. the good ones don't help either if not expounded upon either. For instance just saying "nice" doesn't do much... why ? what makes it "nice" ? what did you like about it ? Saying why you liked a certain image will will help a newbie 3D artist. thanks and regards bob

Wow! I can't believe you actually did that. Thanks! I'd love to discuss all the criticisms: the points I agree on, and the ones I dont. There's so much! Regarding my entry, I agree about the tail lights, I was having trouble believing that myself. It was a trade off. If they were dimmer, they had no impact on the truck, so I just accepted the bright ground. I justified it to myself by calling Alien EM interference overloading the bulbs. =) Just out of curiosity, how much weight do you put into concept? Take for example most 20th century oil painting. It's hardly the type of work that the artist spent a lot of time on (compared to older paintings), but its concept stands on its own. Then of course, there's photography which is faster still, and ultimately computer art. I'm a big fan of realism myself, but I don't think realism is the be all end all of any art, much less digital. And I also believe that hours spent is no mark of quality. That's a question I've been meaning to throw out to the forum for a while. So there it is.

First thanks for the comments. Second the whole picture is based on an RPG game called Traveller and the lion-like man is an Aslan. The entry that's posted for the contest was not the final render that I wanted posted but it'll do, the final can be seen in my gallery. And I agree, I'm still not satisfied with the clouds and am not good with photopaint so that limits my options. As for the tentacles I guess I could have done a slightly better job but I like the bumps suggesting rippling, rolling muscles. I don't agree that the "squid" should be in your face, it's supposed to be sneaking up on the Aslan who is occupied studying something in the sky and doesn't realise the danger. You can see the "squid" under the water with it's eye looking at the Aslan, adds a bit of mystery. As for the terrains, there nothing wrong with default terrains IF they fit the scene, which these do. Now for the simpler doesn't equal art, that's BS and just your opinion. Art is in the eye of the beholder and if it gets a message across to the viewer or conveys the artist goal then it has achieved what it was supposed to. Abstract art isn't my cup of tea but I refuse to not call it art just because of my opinion. Art comes in many forms and you may not like the subject matter but it gives you no right to call someone's art crap because of that (not saying that's what you did, just giving an example). More complex and taking more time DOESN'T equal better art. Someone above already commented on the "if you can't do better, you can't critique my art" comment which states what I was going to post.

I agree with you, Aldaron, to an extent. But even your argument falls down if you push it too far. When talking about mainstream art, I think you're 100% correct. But venturing into the realms of "modern" and "concept" art I don't think your argument holds true. A guy fills his ass with paint, squirts it out onto a canvas and charges $44,000 for it. A woman stands in the corner of an empty room, facing inwards, and people pay 20 each to see her whilst exclaiming "wow, great art!" And a million and one other examples. I don't care what anyone says, this type of stuff isn't art, it's talentless sh#t (sometimes literally). So I guess in a way I'm agreeing with Draculaz, the only difference being exactly what level of talent I'm targeting. You have to draw the line somewhere. Maybe Draculaz's line is drawn low enough to encompass a hasty render of a few Bryce primitives set off against a cheesy Mills & Boon backdrop. I don't think there's a right and wrong answer, it's just a question of degrees. Everyone has to make their own judgement and I think we should all reserve the right to say what we consider to be art and what we don't.

Whoa, what happened to the enjoyment of just making something?

Draculaz you have written "Ttops -i thought this was a pretty good one. the reflection map is a great concept, but the neo-nazi seems to stand out and destroy a pretty good spacesuit. " Reply to Draculaz: There is nothing in that nature in any of my images and I would take nothing to do with that kind of stupidity. You should get your eyes tested.

tuttle, with those examples you gave I agree that's not art. but the pic that draculaz stated was simplistic in his other post, even though they were simple objects it was pleasing to the eye and the composition was rather nice. Would I say it's award winning art? Who knows. As an example (can't find the post now) somone not too long ago posted somthing about simplistic art that he did for another forum to prove a point that art doesn't have to be complex to be good. In his art was just a single figure of a man and cubes and stuff to suggest buildings without all the details and stuff. He actually had people willing to pay for prints. I'm sure those renders took only a few minutes to setup yet they spoke volumes. Each to his own. The point was more complex doesn't mean better. As for my post above I apologize, going back and reading it, it sounds a bit harsh and I didn't intend to come off that way.

"The point was more complex doesn't mean better." Quite right. OK, I'm off to grow some sideburns now like the guy in your pic. ;)

I think we need to give a nod of appreciation to Draculaz for sticking his neck out and starting this little fray. His motives were decent, but wrongly stated at first, but in the process we've all been given a chance to grow and learn that I think none of us would have gained otherwise. Thank you also for the critique on my image as well. Both aspects of the image, the height and the odd mapping though were deliberate. The use of a basic bryce landscape and material were also deliberate. I suppose that their are some things that I could do to improve the whole thing, and I probably will just for education's sake. I must stand, though, in defense of freebie models and materials being used in images. I am not an accomplished model creator. I'm not an architect or engineer, and really have no interest in becoming either. There are also a LOT of good modelers out there that have been kind enough to donate their creations to the free use of others. Sure there are many that are totally overused. I see it with many poser creations of clothing all the time. There are some models in bryce that we've all see over and over again. Does that make the compositions or models bad? I say not. They're used a lot usually because they're good. Sometimes very good. We should beware of thinking that using a free model or material gives us leave to dismiss potentially very good work because we've seen the model used somewhere else. What if we did that to all the Star Wars and Star Trek fan art, some of which is technically and artistically very adept, as garbage? Why should an artist feel pressured to attempt to create the same model that has already been created by another and offered for free, just to be taken seriously? I think we should work to avoid such snobberies towards those who use the models of others and look instead at how they are used rather than where they came from. Just my opinion for which you can take it as such, or reject it as such. IMHO

ttops, the joke was that the guy doesn't have any hair.

It's no joke calling someone a nazi. But point taken. I assumed that astronauts would have no hair in the future due to restricted amounts of water during space travel. Thanks.:)

As a newbie to Bryce, I rely alot on free stuff until such a time when I can make my own. ;-) At least by importing these objects, , I can fill out my scene while learning about placement and bettering my mat lab and DTE skills as I tweak the textures of said freebies.

If any of you care to hear from a lowly n00b, this is the main reason I have never posted a render here. I feel extremely intimidated. So instead, I choose to mostly lurk, read the posts, and view the gallery and challenges. I do learn by viewing and trying to grasp how an artist created a particular effect. But I wish there was more room here for newbies. I'm not saying that all of you turn away newbies who truly aspire to learn. There are people here who do seem to enjoy passing on their knowledge. But it is hard for those of us who are trying to get up the courage to post an image in hopes of receiving helpful feedback.

And yes, I do know some newbies post their work here and have no problem doing so. But for me, after reading some of what I have here, it makes it difficult for me to do so.

I mean no offense to anyone by what I have said. I just thought maybe someone would be interested in hearing what it's like, lurking on the outside while looking in at all the incredible images you experienced types create.

Maybe one of these days I'll give it a go. I do know I could learn by what you have to say. But it is hard to do so, when you read some of what you posted above.

~Arry

It seems freestuff has sruck a cord on the forum: Well freestuff has it's place, and because of the time limits on challenges why not here. Basically, if you will, you can think of them as placeholders in this regard - to be replaced at a later time by your own models. Where I feel that they have no place is in a gallery picture as there are no timelimits on that - you are not rushed - in gallery pictures it should %100 your work. Perhaps the same thing sould be said for actual contests when you are competing for a prize, but that depends in part on the rules of the contest, I guess. - TJ

I am an outsider to this forum, and you do not know me, nor i you, maybe that will matter to some.... But i find your discussion fasinating. Not long back in the number of years, fine art magazines showed full page spreads of brycian ray traced balls over a brycian water and where it was raytraced - this was thought to be great and fantastic art. Now no matter how new a user is, much more is done, partly because of the rendering capabilities of our machines. I have spent a month building a single model, detail upon detail, to the point where the poly counts built to a point where it was useless for anything more then just having done it... and seen some free stuft that would take me a long while to do myself - if i wished to reinvent that wheel. If i needed it for a scene i would not hesitate to use. I do art as an escape, post few things, and enjoy just the doing. I would hope that most others felt the same. And I would like to see Ariannah's works and if possible give a few pointers that she should consider with a grain of salt...

hewsan, As you say, it is the doing that matters. and if I haven't said so already, welcome. - TJ

This dispute about found materials and freestuff comes up in the Poser forum again and again, and it is pointed out each time that a painter doesn't have to make his/her own brushes and paints to be a good painter. If you tell me that Max Ernst's collages are somehow inferior as works of art because they rely on found material, then I beg to differ very strongly. Similarly, in computer art, one takes one's raw material where one finds it. The art is in the vision, the ideas, the composition. Hence a picture that relies on a simple primitive is not necessarily inferior to one that relies on a home-made model that took 20 hours to make in 3D Max.

ariannah - I think you should post ASAP! If you just hang back and convince yourself your art is somehow inferior to everyone else's then I'm afraid you'll be missing out on a lot of good tips, info, feedback and fun, not to mention to opportunity to improve. I'd never uploaded or submitted anything (not even a forum post) over the net before I came to Rendo earlier this year, so I know how you feel, but I guarantee you're making a big thing out of nothing! :)

Draculaz, Reading back on what I've posted to you, I feel uneasy with what I wrote. So here goes, you don't realy need to get your eyes tested. Didn't mean to come across like that. I value each and every comment posted here. The only way forward is through positive dialog. Peace to all, TT.

My thanks to both hewsan and tuttle for encouraging me to post a render. That really meant a great deal to me and did make me feel much more encouraged to do so!

You both get a (((hug))) for taking the time to address my fears and I'll work on mustering up my courage!

~Arry :-)

well i am a begineer and im still learning

Hmm, very interesting comment... nobody is perfect and nobody will be ever! We can try to reach the limits only by getting comments from others.! the logo?: I just like it the cockpit: thats an artistic choice the total concept:It felt right for me :) ps. First time i hear a real comment :) thanks. Apache2k

I am in full agreement with Hewsan. Why reinvent the wheel when you don't have to? If there is an excellent model out there, why, other than for masochism's sake, or if you really get into modeling, or pride (which isn't always good) would you just use the superior model as a placeholder then replace it with potentially inferior work, if you're not a great modeler. Now I can understand if the model is not what you need, that you either modify (if you can) or create your own to replace it, but come on. Some people may feel the need to excel way, and I can respect that, but I am not one of them, nor would I look down on someone who did. Sorry if I am a little rude, but I find it insulting that some people automatically assume that artists who don't make their own models are hacks and subtly snub their work. Anyway, that's my two upset cents. IMNSHO

Draculaz, Thank you for the feedback on my entry. The whole point was that the ships DIDN'T belong on the planet, and didn't belong to each other either. What I was going for (and could not achieve) was a sense of ominous waiting. What will these two alien races do to each other and this pristine planet? Despite hours of tinkering, I just couldn't get the feeling I wanted, so I posted as is, just to keep in the habit of meeting deadlines. Incidently, I have 3 other versions of this picture, all day scenes, one was the initial creation with a different land texture, the other two are the next day - one a happy, brightly lit scene, the other a dark and desctructive scene. Lin

I've been a bit busy and missed this thread when it first posted... but that is my point as well. Draculaz, in the digital environment that you most likely grew up with, it's easy to sound sage and informed. These postings to you are so much electronic noise. However, youth carries the same responsibilities as age; these are not faceless words, but the thoughts and comments of real people. How eager would you be to make these criticisms - in light of your own work - if these folks were standing before you? One point I think you have completely missed, is: this is not great art. Most of these incredibly talented people create personal works and either post them on their own sites (galleries) or actually make money off of them. The monthly contests aren't about great art (Mike L. Angelo never had to do a monthly contest to be esteemed) they're about conveying an idea or theme. It's great when one turns out to be beautiful (as many are in this contest and yours is not). Personally, my entry was not intended to win, I just found the idea interesting as I posted in the original thread. I wanted to convey a feeling of irony, not art. Perhaps as you grow older, you may appreciate irony more, because we all become its victim. On a different note, but again attributing to your age, not all of us can spend 20 hours a day in front of a computer, we have lives to live and families to support. Myself, I can't say what I do, but my nickname might give you a clue. Since 9/11/01, I have put in over 500 hours of overtime. The few minutes a day that I can get in with Bryce are actually therapy and relaxation, not attempts at art. I think every artist here is open to criticism, however, that criticism should suggest how to make their art better, and not just say where it fails. Most likely, we all know where our art fails.

"but my nickname might give you a clue. Since 9/11/01, I have put in over 500 hours of overtime" Make sure you scrub that Pu & U238 off your hands before you use the computer!

LOL...does that mean we are in danger of exposure by viewing your art? ;c)

Talk about personal energy! :)

I always think of the movie "Brazil" when I see your name. The whole Tuttle/Buttle mix-up.

That's right, AgentSmith (although I was quoting from Nukeboy!) I even posted a Tuttle picture on one of the other threads! But just by co-incidence I was thinking about your name last night! I saw the Matrix again for the first time in about a year AGENT SMITH - "I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you are not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed, and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern; a virus" Sorry. I love film quotes!

That's a great quote, great "revelation", lol. It's kinda true.

Our "modern" society, in the course of just a few hundred years has managed to do more damage to this planet than all the other peoples of earth before us.

When I saw Matrix, I was glad to hear that line in the movie as I had hoped some would pick up on it's meaning. I wonder how many really got it.