Hi Everyone,
I'd like to congratulate all the entrants for the inaugural Image of the Month Competition on their fine work. Each entry showed us a different aspect of terrain rendering, and all were a pleasure to behold.
Before I get to the judgement, I'd like to take a few moments to discuss what I really liked about the images received. In no particular order:
DeathTwister's renders were well-composed, combining an interesting heightfield (I like the plateau!) with the excellent atmosphere and terrain-detail for which Terragen is renowned.
SeerBlue gave us two striking images of an eroded mountain protruding from a desolate wasteland. Again, Terragen's sky and terrain detail produced a hauntingly realistic scene. The use of an L3DT light map as a surface map for Terragen was also very innovative and effective.
Forboding Angel's image is an excellent exhibition of TA-Spring's terrain and water-renderer. The custom desert climate was particularly well-done.
The tree-rendering in Rofar's images scored highly on technical merit, especially since trees and vegetation were conspicuously absent from the other entries. This is clearly a project to keep an eye on.
dEaThMaStEr's images from TSE set the standard in water and atmosphere rendering. To have achieved that quality in a real-time renderer was most impressive.
I fretted for some time over the right mix of criteria by which to objectively judge these very different entries, such as realism, technical achievement, artistry of composition, et cetera. In the end, I couldn't do it, so I made my decision based purely on my subjective aesthetic preferences. Accordingly, and by a narrow margin, I am pleased to announce the winner of the May Image of the Month Competition is:
...drum-roll please...
Forboding Angel
Congratulations on a lovely image. Eternal fame and glory are yours, as is the honour of choosing a theme for this month's competition (if you so desire).
I had previously proposed that the winner also judge next month's competition, but on second-thought I think it better if we use a popular vote of forum members. Otherwise we would have to exclude the victor/judge from competing for a month, which wouldn't be all that great.
So, once again, I congratulate Forboding Angel, SeerBlue, dEaThMaStEr, DeathTwister and Rofar on their excellent work, and I eagerly wait to see what they will cook-up for this month's competition.
- Aaron.