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.