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From chris@bluelectrode.com:
Wow.  Beautiful structure.  I love the trees...very original, even though you
say you reproduced this from a photograph.  The details are all there and work
well in the image.  The fountain is very realistic and a great touch.  It looks
like you handled the textures very well...are those little golden elephants I
see on pedistals?  The doors, fence, moulding, all very detailed.  

My only complaint is a low connection to theme.  Other than that, good job.

My only complaint would be that the bushes look too much like heightfields...and
the sky looks empty.  Sorry to carp your work but the cloud should have been on
the right to balance the top-half of the image.

One of my top 10.



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From clintona@ibm.net:
Technically flawless.  The stress seems to be on the architechture rather than
the garden however.  Beautiful image, nonetheless.
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From bill@apocalypse.org:
elegantly beautiful.  I find the sharpness striking.

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From YaelParis@operamail.com:
only thing I have too say is that I don't like the fountain. It's too blue and
the water too thick.


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From rbyman@rockies.net:
The sky could use some work.However the rest is incredible. 

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From castlewrks@aol.com:
The building is beautiful... I would have liked to have seen more "garden" in
the garden.

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From whhale@nvl.army.mil:
There is an awful lot of building here.  As usual you do a superb job with your
images.  I just feel there should be more garden.

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From tom@tomandlu.force9.co.uk:
Lovely - would have scored higher except that the garden seems secondary to
the building, and some of the textures could benefit from more detail.

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From ameede@madmac.com:
Well Toni I do not know what the other judges are going to say but I do know
that my first word is WOW!  You used a photograph to base your work upon, this
is OK, I'm not against mimeticism in anyway.  Your knowledge base and use of
tools to create the scene are superlative to anything I have read thus far.  My
final comment is that I'm going to scroll back up to look at one more time
before I move on, excellent work!

ameede@madmac.com
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From Alain.Culos@bigfoot.com:
This is pretty darn near photorealism.
The water's colour is unexpected though, unless the owner used some colorant.
Natural water is pretty colourless and that much cyan makes it look strange.
Otherwise that is the most photorealistic piece in the scene.
I like the trees very much. And the fencing.
There seems to be a huge amount of detail with the building, doors, you name
it,
but somewhat it looks lifeless, artificial.
I think the archway lacks something (visually).
That is a very good submission but the garden seems to be a bit out of focus.
The centre of attraction is the building despite the nice garden in front of
it.

Clouds aren't great alright but they don't attract the attention much, so they
do not deter from the image.

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From cyberjoe@cytanet.com.cy:
It would have been much more realistic if normals were used. Very good work.

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From jaime@ctav.es:
Hmmm... yes, it seems strange, as from an imaginary culture. The trees are
simply
amazing, beautiful, natural. All the architectural work is awesome, hard and 
detailed. Perhaps the water is too blue, but the shape is great. A winer, IMHO.

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From albiaprime@aol.com:
Technical - Flawless!
Artistic - It may have looked nicer if the camera angle had been straight rather
than tipped
         slightly
Theme - pretty close

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From mar@physics.usyd.edu.au:
Lovely image. It looks more like architecture than a garden however - I would
have
liked to see what you could have done with more plants and less building.
Everything
looks beautiful - the water in the fountain especially, but I hope it's tinted
because it doesn't look natural that colour.