[michaelplogue]

This is a time for each of us to examine our fears.

We all – to some extent – fear that which is different or strange. We fear these strange things, because we don’t understand them – because they represent something foreign to our perception of what is ‘normal.’ Many times, these fears can lead to prejudice. What is important is that we recognize that we do fear, and face and examine them for what they are.

We are all very unique individuals, each with different cultures, race, religion, sexual preferences, and upbringing. This is what makes the human race so special. So instead of fearing that which is foreign to us, embrace these differences. They make us - as a species - stronger.

After all, wouldn’t life be incredibly boring if we were all exactly the same?

~~~~~ In memory of Martin Luther King ~~~~~

[sandykoufax]

Great!!

Your works are very impressive always.

[MarkM]

very nice indeed, looks very real..nice mood to it

[4 HeRo]

Brilliant

[Hervé]

very cool.... you should produce an entire line of photo posters out of it... I can imagine it framed and with a nice graphic text...

[trofaster]

Very cool - great render too...Maybe it would be graphically more impressive if all the hands had their "backs" to the leg....maybe it would just be to obvious...hmm.

But great work.

[Olivier Cugniet]

great idea

[iker]

so artistic!

[giacob]

with few selected means and a brilliant idea u have prodiuced a grat image as usuall

[aitraaz]

yup now there's some cool socially relevant rendering

[rivoli]

After all, wouldn’t life be incredibly boring if we were all exactly the same?

sure, thanks god we are not.

[-Adrian]

Wow very cool render michael, how many polys is that?
And beautiful message indeed, we should all remind ourselves of its meaning every now and then.

[michaelplogue]

Thank you all for your very kind remarks. It's very much appreciated!

Herve - I've actually been trying to do some prints of my stuff. I'm having a heck of a time with color calibration though. Can't seem to get the contrast right for the printer. I'm using my old Epson Stylus 2000P with tabloid sized glossy paper. Guess I'll have to break out the Spyder to re-calibrate everyithing

trofaster - I'm actually considering clearing more hands away from the leg. One, to give it more isolation, and secondly, to remove some of the detail from behind the foot (it sort of gets lost in the busy background).

-Adrian - This scene has 4.7 million polygons in it. I actually had a much bigger field of hands, but it kept crashing without having to use the -hd switch (which I try to avoid for speed reasons). I also had textures and bump maps for all the hands, but that was also killing me.

One thing I'd like to ask all of you. How is the contrast comeing out for you on your monitors? On my computers, I've got really nice deep shadows, but when I viewed this at work on an uncalibrated computer, the mid-tones look a bit washed out. How does it look on your systems?

Thanks again to everyone! It's support like yours that keeps me going!

.

[Steve Jepson]

I am viewing on my lap top. Dell M60 with 15.4" UltraSharpTM Wide Aspect WSXGA+display. Shadows look perfect to me. I get a sensation of movement. The isolation of the leg is just right.

I think an additional leg and foot hidden in the crowd somewhere would have added an interesting comment. Something that only the careful viewer would find and be rewarded for looking.

Also, this seems like a good time to thank you for your contributions of art to the forum.