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From spanky@wpi.edu:

Everything looks really good, but the phong settings on the eggs and jays is
a little to high, it makes them look like plastic at the setting you have. 
Turn
it down a little.
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From rotht@televar.com:
Very cute :-P

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From mikko.oksalahti@dosetek.varian.com:
Good choice of background color to give contrast and light to the birds.



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From gregj56590@aol.com:
Birds look like porcelain.
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From dale@midnightgarden.com:
I really enjoy this image and hate to nit-pick, but female bluejays are grey :)

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From d97ta@efd.lth.se:
lovely birds, working in spatch is a dream, isn't it?
the background trees just don't do it in this image, despite
the focal blur... detail, detail, detail, and more of 'em :)

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From marc_w@ncx.com:
great job on the blue birds!
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From ewgr@abaddon.globalnet.co.uk:
I'm impressed.. I loved the birds, the nest looks a little glossy in places and
the eggs wouldn't have highlights at all.



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From manorton@tcnet.net:

Very nice. You did a great job with the modeling.

A couple of tips. The image maps for the Jay's are Great, but I would use
the smooth or soften filters to get rid of the hard lines. It almost makes
them look fake. Maybe set a slight bump texture to it also would help.

The textuer on the tree branch is good also. I would have used it on the
trees in the distance. With the focal blur you would still be able to see
the light and dark spots. The mind would know that it was bark. The way the
image is now it looks like brown cylindars.

But real nice.


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From buck@cs.byu.edu:
A beautiful scene!  The textures on the branches and the next look
completely photorealistic.  The pine-needles seem a bit thick, but they
are truly wonderful, too.

Your blue-jays are beautifully modelled, but the textures make them look
like porcelain models.  Perhaps some bump-maps would help give some
irregularity to them?

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From jaime@ctav.es:
That superb bird is your fisrt Spatch project? Wow! I'm waiting for next ones!
But, only to balance that compliments, I must notice the poor background, which
needs more trunks (with several branches).

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From djconnel@flash.net:
Very good!!!!  The modeling on the birds is excellent, and the use
of focus is extremely effective.  The only small suggestion is the background
tree trunks seem a bit "perfect" and featureless, but the rest of the scene
shows excellent attention to detail.  This one is clealy a worthy contender
for the win.

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From bill@apocalypse.org:
wow, very nice.  wonderful detail and use of focal blur.  The birds look
a little plastic (neat, smooth) though.

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From ethelm@bigfoot.com:
Nice image. Good branches and Nest.
Birds look like ceramic, perhaps different lighting would have 
improved it. 

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From fisher2@pobox.upenn.edu:
WOW!  Very nice. The texture of the trees in the background needs to stand
out more so they don't look so much like brown cylinders.  Otherwise, this
one is a winner in my book! :)

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From arcana@sinbad.net:
Very nice scene. I would have liked to have seen some subtle closeup detail of
the feathers. ie, the ribbing along each feather. Hard to do, I know.
Also, the nest object needs to be thickened up some. Beyond that, it's a great
scene.

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From gmccarter@hotmail.com:
I don't know about the background (it hardly looks "deep in an evergreen
forest"), but the foreground is very realistic.  I'm glad you used focal blur. 
The nest and evergreen are too mathematically precise.  The best part is the
birds themselves -- excellent.  The blue jay is a cool bird, and you've
captured it well.

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From no13@ozemail.com.au:
Only thing I can think of is the ground is a little too flat and the
background trees too sparse.  Other than those minor points this is an
fantastic image.


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From r@199.45.245.103:
*very* nice. I am *very* impressed that you did this by hand. The texturing,
modeling, and composition are all spectacular, and the focal blur gives it that
final touch of realism. The one weakness is the trees- the ones in the back
look too cylindrical and perfect. Overall, though, one of the round's best.
Notable for textures, modelling, composition