Hi everyone,
Didn’t post any image for a while. Picture is in 4000*4000 zoom in it to see all details.
Around 5000 samples/pixel.
Blender 2.73, LuxRender 1.4 and GIMP.
LadeHeria
absolutely gorgeous. I’m guessing the imperfections on the pieces are sculpting and not displacement?
It’s an interesting concept, but not all pawns aspire to be the king. Sometimes it’s better to convert to a knight or a bishop simply because it’ll be the most ideal way of crippling the opponent. Having a pawn reflect one of those would add a little variety to this render as it’s a bit more unorthodox!
That said, it’s a good image and gets a good metaphorical phrase across I think; aspire to be best you can be. Navigate the chess-board well you can be the next king!
Great job! I love the image and message behind it. 
Love it! It’s like the Mirror of Erised from Harry Potter.
I really like how much meaning this picture has, even with its simplicity. Also it’s 100% photorealistic to me. Great job!
Good one
This is really nice, reminds me of the picture of the cat that see’s his reflection as a lion.
The imperfections what makes it look more like a photo. I have worked in photography for years and trying to get a photo takes a lot of time but there will still be some type of imperfection. One of the things I’ve noticed in 3D art, If there are no imperfections it’s highly likely it’s 3D art. I think the message stands clear. “If I could be like that.”
Very good storyteling, I love it.
Many possible variation, queen instead of king verssion will work as well. A fool seeing a king in the mirror have my preference thoug. 
I love the message behind the render. It’s funny how even simply renders like this can deliver such a message. Inspirational one.
Hi,
Thank you everyone for your messages ! I am glad that all of you like this picture and the idea I try to share with it.
@@Mir : Indeed, your are totally right, the imperfections, scraches, etc are sculpted. I first plan to do a bumpmap but it doesn’t look very realistic so I used the sculpted model in the scene.
So I go from 1,5 M poly (ground has got displacement, and a fully procedural material) to 6M, surprisingly without slowing down the render or increasing the memory used.
What was already nice with LuxRender, it’s that Lux is very mature and can handle a lot of Geometry or Texture or complex Shaders. And now, with Luxcore, it has become incredibly fast, it a living renderer.
Here are pictures and a quick turnaround :
@@RaySedler :
I totally agree with you, and more than that, I make also some photography and try always to heradicate all imperfections I can see. I think, when doing 3D, we must found the rigt balance : some imperfections but not too much, else it become a bad picture. A good exemple is chromatic aberration :
witch photographer will show a picture with a picture with chromatic aberrations ?
None (or in very special situation) ! But 3D artists continue to add CA to every renders.
@@Kurtis :
You are right I think, but when I defined my image, I think I had also in head that the King is the most “important” of a chess-board, but also the weakest because he has a poor moving capacity, and no ability to win the game (can’t take the other King). It was in my mind, like a second reading of the picture, so this choice of the king was an evidence.
By the way, I like your reading of the picture, think a little about it and feel, that to express it, (for instance, basically putting a bishop) it’s also need to put the King somewhere else to suggest the alternative and just not “Oh got, I am a pawn who dream to be a bishop”.
(don’t know if my idea is clear, it’s hard to explain, english is not my mother tongue).
LadeHeria
A perfect example of extracting beauty from simplicity, and a good display of the idea of aspiring to become something greater in the future.
Nice work, the imperfections add a nice touch.
Love the simplicity ,nice image
Great image. A minor comment, but I think the mirror surface is too clean. Some scratches, scuffs, and dusty buildup would help create depth and build not only the space of the scene, but the realism as well.
Loving your image!
amazing work , I really love chess!! , any hint about render time and pc specs? also about which GI algorithm in LuxRender? CPU or GPU, etc…
just wanna know how fast is Lux compared to Cycles.
cheers.
Actually, you can’t turn a pawn into a king.
Mystical! psychotic hidden details, I love it! Keep it up, to infinity and beyond!
EDIT: I tried to make it my new desktop picture but the format is not big enough… how long did the render take? May we ask for a wallpaper version?
Excellent visualization!