===== From bobfranke@halcyon.com: The dark sky certainly gives the dramatic effect you were after. The main area for improvement is the electric sparks. I like their texture, but they look kind of like ribbons instead of thin bolts of electricity. I especially like the texture on the floor in the foreground. ===== From gregj56590@aol.com: Whoohoo! Non-hairless poser figures! A great rarity! All figures are striking. ===== From gmccarter@hotmail.com: Interesting contrasts, well developed. Many nice details such as the translucent staffs and the distortions on the rook tower. Lots of drama. The excellent lighting, color scheme, moody sky, and low camera viewpoint all enhance this. A couple of minor distractions: the strange yellow glow on the far right side, and the too-large copyright notice. ===== From djconnel@flash.net: This is a promising scene. I am not sure what to make of it..... Kings in chess can't attack queens, yet it appears the two are in a battle on equal footing. The lightning does need a little work - - it is too straight, not sufficiently fractal in nature. I really like the texture on the chess board, ===== From east103@dialaccess.com: I know it is hard, but I think the clothes could fit better and the figures seem too stiff, too posed. ===== From ethelm@bigfoot.com: Dramatic and novel! ===== From blaineholmes@hotmail.com: I like the horse and the board. ===== From clem@dhol.com: This is a very nice image and a good interpretation of the theme. I like the dramatic colors of the chessboard. The debris scattered around is a very good touch. The flames (?) in the background are too simple compared to the rest of the image, so they add nothing. I like the detailed rook (castle). The knight (horse) is dramatic, but the neck is too long and the angle artifact in the neck is ugly. If the neck is meant to be broken, the head should be at a different angle to the body. If not, the neck just needs shortening, widening and smoothing. The Bryce sky, to me, is just dark, not dramatic. It hurts the image. The king and queen are pretty good and I like the relatively detailed clothing, but the crowns don't fit and they look more like torture devices than clothing. Perhaps a result of fitting round crowns on oblong heads? The staves and glowing tips work well, but the lightning cross section is too rectangular. It should be smoother and more cylindrical. The layout is good, with a nice asymmetry. The only other notable problem is the excessively plasticky textures that mar all but a very few 3dsmax images I have seen. I would guess it is a weakness in the max lighting model. More variety in surface finish and normals might help to minimize that.