Leaf Qigong...

[Carbonflux]

bidir + mtl

This is using dougal2's Crystal Park 2 environment map: http://hdri.uk.to/ thank you!

[Poncho]

I do not understand the scene or was that the purpose, that I question?

I got a little crits. The water glass does not look that good/real (the edges I think). The background is also a bit blurry.

[Carbonflux]

Based on this book: http://www.amazon.com/Root-Chinese-Kung ... 0940871076
Here is the root cluster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong

Everything is a message, I studied this one for hours, there are no mistakes

Tree, Sun, Sky, Light, Balance, Water, Wood, Earth...

The solar energy joins heaven and earth via the tree.

"You are a tree, your mind is a mirror."

The monk is more still then a leaf falling yet on the edge of chaos.

Thanks for looking

[psychotron]

good picture, I looking at it for some time (in your current renders on web too heh) and wondering what's that green thing.. oh and it's a leaf
your skin shader turn out really nice in this lighting conditions and monk seems like he's belong to that Crystal park (his pose is nice too)
some cc - rock is flat like a table and it hitting whole picture down for me (rock material is weak too) + move monk a little so he don't touch rock with his feet (it seems like he is standing on it at first glance)... and I like to see drapery motion blured too (if monk can levitate and set still, drapery can't imho)

[Poncho]

hihi, so it's rock. I thought it was a table with a white blanket over it. lol

[dougal2]

I think the HDRI map is back to front. This is probably my fault, not yours.

I like the way it's tinted the monk's skin tone.

[Carbonflux]

When I found that spot in your map dougal2 I knew I had to use it, the tree and sun are important elements in this practice, the flares are in-fact behind the glass and lighting it in a interesting and surreal way, the flaring tree itself behind the "rock" becomes a symbol that anyone who Really has practised Qigong might understand, but is very hard to describe in words, yet I found it in the light map, how is that possible? That's the magic part imo, no mistakes, hypershapes rotating outside our dimensional frame of reference appear to be unrelated events yet are not.

The "rock" is another example, I decided to go for a painted rock like you might find in a city park, white with gold Chinese characters tho at first they were spray painted on; so a mixed texture between a glossy with a low exponent and a matte with Oren-Nayar .1, I got about 1/2 way there and again decided I liked what it said, orange gaussian texture with more cracks as you reach the bottom of the "rock." I think of it not as a rock any more but as a word.

The Monk is floating slightly but I moved the Camera angle from the original position and lost the tension of that, if you zoom in there is still a tiny gap, also it was meant to be fairly subtle, the center moment between, balance - falling - completion of motion.

The core point is the real "power" is the perception of Time.

I did not expect a good reception for this image but have decided to not bother with credibility any more as I am not a dev and don't need to put on a mask of sanity to maintain that postion, the language of the picture itself is what I am trying to get at now.

For example in painting I might paint the cloth still and wonder why I did it? because it creates a paradox, the spining leaf is very important to me personally as a symbol for how I like to practice Qigong, but in CG the relative stillness of the elements will not be parsed as language but as a "mistake."

I have been having a very hard time finishing work the past few weeks and I think the reason is I keep correcting these "mistakes" and restarting but my subconscious keeps making new ones because they are in fact Not mistakes but messages from a deep part of the self, so I am going to stop "correcting" them and try to understand them. Which is the old way of doing art, not making cool looking images so much as channeling the inner dialogue and externalizing it so one can see it; you will teach yourself things you did not know you knew.

Why is the cloth still and the leaf in motion? That is not a error, its a question

One of the greatest things about painting is the discovery of yourself, "why did I do that?"

Anyway, thanks for not tearing my head off over this one

Heh, I was wondering if anyone was looking at the Current Render, I try and keep it up to date. ( back to the egg chair now, but with the snake inside the egg, humm....baahahahahah! )

Best Regards