Fantastic work man !!! Great lighting and reflections and...and...well, everything :) Krasa. Realistika ako ma byt.

Yep.. no doubt about it.. could be mistaken for an "artsy" photograph... well done, very well done.

This is absolutely stunning. The lights, textures and reflections are really amazing. Excellent work!

Are you sure you just didn't take a picture of a chessboard? :P good work.

Chess couldn't look this good if a picture was taken of it. Although amazingly real, it's so excellently lit and clean, a real picture would be less than this. You must tell me how you lit this. Would love to know. Great Job!

Bravo Marty one of your best my friend and I have just come back from a Chess Tournament!!

very cool and realistic image! you've created a great atmosphere in this image!

wow, I gotta post another comment!!! lol

Whoa, Martin, your ligthing never cease to amaze me! This close-up is so realistic and well lighted that I'm speechless.

Pretty nice Martin. Extraordinary, actually.

One thing I find similar in all of your images is that they are almost touchable (but on this image it is not just almost). this cant be photorealism... It is reality, Ive never seen a photograph look so real! ;). Very 3d -like virtual reality hehe. By the way I am sure we would all love to know some of your secrets in lightings ;).

Martin, this looks awesome! I think your all hours is passing to make such perfect textures and scenes, so we couldn't see any new model from you until you think like us: "this boy is a master of photorealism."

As I said,I would never expect such an wonderful feedback,thank you VERY MUCH again,you are great! :-) I hope my next image will be at least as successful as this one is!Have a wonderful time..

It's almost perfect: the reflections of the figures in the background is sharp, unlike the nicely blurred figures. This is a known problem of the C4D DOF postprocessing filter. See: http://www.peranders.com/c4d8/tute/tutdof1.html

Please post photos in the "Photography Gallery". :) Stunning work!!

I just the picture and i got the link from Cinema 4D Spotlight at Maxon. That is an incredible rendering. The modeling and the texturing (or shaders) are so real like. Does the piece stand on a glass or directly on the marble? To me its like there is a glass before? (could be my eyes).

Ranking = Ultra Excellent!!!

Excellent texturing and post prod dramatic view, but nobody ask you why shadows are not in prolongation of the pieces highlights ?... I think they must be turned 45 right, it's a detail but important one for the realism - it's my obsention :-))

hehe looks familer :-P pluged on the maxon web site aswell, very cool. Mike.

Hey,great man!Congrats for beeing mentioned at Maxon website spotlights (i came out here following the link):-))

stuning light and materials... Breathtaking work!

Haah! He made it into the spotlight! This showcases all the new features of cinema 8 and 8.1 very well and besides that....it's true art :)

One part that migth perhaps be improved is the blurring of the frontmost figure. I think i looks strangely flat and that the "sharp edges" are a bit unreallistic. I often have the same results with C4D DOF and sometimes being being abit modest with the blurring helps (use the gradients). I've seen pictures where Cinema renders where DOF blurred using After Effects that don't show this behaviour. Also agree with Jean-Claude (but didn't notice it on my own about the shadows (witch could also be a bit lighter (lower the density) and perhaps area shadows would look good? One of the great things with this pic. is that its extreme qualities overshadows it's (relatively miniscule) flaws so well (time is money?). Sure gets my vote!

Fantastic work! Vote

Astounding! As has been mentioned before, the depth of field is truely a great effect in this image. If I could produce anything like this in my native MAX, I would consider myself a 3D artist.

Perfect composition !!! Amazing textures and excellent camera view ! Work very professional ! I very like play chess. Congratulations !

I am a texturing freak and this certainly catches my eye! Unbelievable on the playing board and the pieces themselves. I like the lighting too, something about it really draws me in deep. Excellent work my friend!

Congrats on the artist of the month! And what an image! We should play tennis some time ;-) Greeting from a fellow 17 yr old in California, and I'm now going to look at the rest of your images!

really great stuff !!

Excellent piece of work Linkin!...All around a fantastic example of the skill and love you put into your art. Looking forward to more of your work :)