BellaDark opened this issue on Jul 18, 2000 ยท 4 posts
BellaDark posted Tue, 18 July 2000 at 7:59 PM
bushi posted Fri, 21 July 2000 at 5:08 AM
Ain't it a bitch when you put stuff out there for comment and you get zip? You'd think that the folks here would at least help you along a bit (any of the good artists listening here? SHAME!). sigh OK, even though my composition skills aren't the best at least I'll try. One thing you have to remember when you're working on this stuff is to try to get into your character. My recollection of the Godiva story was that she was forced into this by circumstance. The key word here is forced. She most likely wouldn't have been so happy with this situation (think crying). A more humble pose would work much better. The classic look of this scene from the story was to have her very long head hair draped over her body. Hey, she really didn't WANT to be doing this. You may also want to place this in the same location as the story. She was paraded down the main street of the town so that everyone could see her naked. She wasn't some tart out for a joy ride on a horse. It would probably a good idea for you to go and read the story. That way you'll have a better idea of the mood for your image. NEVER use the current cultural idea of an old story. Most of the time the story has been bent in loops and is nothing like the original. As to the image itself, well as I said composition isn't my strong suit. Now I see that you have tried to frame the main character and that's good. It might work better if you worked some with the placement of the camera. Since she is suppose to be humbled, a camera view from above looking down would probably work better. Not totally vertical you understand but a view a little above her. I already covered her pose. The horse looks good and works OK. I'm not very sure about the foliage. The background works but foreground doesn't. Sorry. My intention was to give you some ideas, not to bruise you. For a first time at moving Poser stuff to Bryce it was a good attempt. Keep working at it. This stuff isn't easily learned.
CharlieBrown posted Fri, 21 July 2000 at 8:40 AM
The version of the story I heard had her doing this as a protest, not as a punishment - given the situation at the time, either is equally likely, and I only have second-hand versions of the story to go by, never having seen the original account. In either case, she probably would NOT be enjoying the situation (either she was TRULY forced to do this, or she FELT she was forced to do it; neither is likely to result in a happy woman...) I didn't reply to this because I figured someone who knew more about Poser/Bryce conversions would, and then it got burried. I guess I was wrong... It looks like the figure suffers from the standard Bryce-Poser color washout. You need to tweak the lighting and ambience to get a really "good" result, color-wise, especially, it seems with flesh-tones. I don't play with Bryce often enough to suggest exactly what changes should be made. IIRC, the story had her riding through a city, but I could be mistaken on that, and cities (especially from her time - the 17th Century, I think) are not that easy to model in Bryce, from my (limited) experience, so I can understand the background choice, though I think it could use a bump or something (it looks more like painted rocks than foliage for the most part, at least to me).
BellaDark posted Fri, 21 July 2000 at 9:41 AM
Thank you both for your replies to my picture. As for the myth, yes, she did parade through the town, but I took "artistic freedom" in placing her in the forest... The myth is that she had been campaigning for lower taxes (her husband had the power to do this), and he agreed to lower the taxes on the condition that she ride naked through the town... She made sure to clarify that it was indeed ok with him that she do this, he said yes, so she did. There are various little details that change about this myth, depending on where you get your information. In one version, she had two handmaidens riding their own horses next to her, and her hair was actually in braids. My interpretation is only one of many. But in any version I've read, she proudly completed this task, fully believing that the cause for which she was doing it was a noble one, and it's likely she could have garnered some pride from the fact that her husband probably did not expect her to actually go through with it. At any rate, her frame of mind in riding is really a matter of interpretation.... She could have felt "forced," I suppose, but she could also have felt empowered, and so the smile on her face is not necessarily an impossibility. If you're interested in the web links to various accounts of the myth that I've found, just email me and I'll send them away!!! As for your comments about the "textures" etc. in my picture, I've taken those to heart and will definitely keep them in mind when I rework the picture. Thanks again for taking the time to reply. I REALLY appreciate it.