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IAPLC 2010 Results are out

I might be blind, but where can I see pictures of the tanks in this competition?
 
Keymaker, you have an interesting theory, and I'm sure the more experianced scapers will adopt some of your ideas naturaly.
I can quite figure out what you saying about the lines. How are the lines you have drawn relevent to your idea of composition? Are the black lines the path of your sight and the red dots where your sight lingers?

I think, when it's good, it's good, and any number of artist rules and style can achive a wow, it all depends on who stands before it.

James, the scape is ace mate,
very Marshall indeed. I think you need to go bigger soon mate, you will blow every one away when you do!

Cheers
 
Graeme Edwards said:
James, the scape is ace mate,
very Marshall indeed. I think you need to go bigger soon mate, you will blow every one away when you do!
Click to expand...
Agreed! I've seen this tank and if it were 90cm or even 60cm then it would be mind blowing!
 
Keymaker- Thanks for posting that :thumbup: , you make some very valid and interesting points.

Mike - No offence taken mate 😀 . I see your point about more elaborate planting, I do feel that the planting is slightly bland, however when I experimented with more complex planting I seemed to lose the sense of scale. This is probably due to the small size of the tank.

Graeme & Dan - Thanks for the compliments chaps 😀.
You are absolutely right, I do need to branch out to larger tanks but i find the prospect a little daunting.

Cheers,
James
 
Graeme Edwards said:
Keymaker, you have an interesting theory, and I'm sure the more experianced scapers will adopt some of your ideas naturaly.
I can quite figure out what you saying about the lines. How are the lines you have drawn relevent to your idea of composition? Are the black lines the path of your sight and the red dots where your sight lingers?
Click to expand...
Exactly. Every picture has points (areas) that attract attention. You almost invariably have a central point of focus.

Amano has stressed many times on the importance of A-B-C points, A being the main anchor, B being the second and C the third most important element. We have seen many basic examples from him about that, most of the "A" points being central or on the golden ratio points.

takashiamano01.jpg


The above example is a classics. The golden ratio on the right is tricky 😉 It goes exactly in the middle between rock A and C. Both rocks lean to the right, "pulling the composition" to the right. OK, so we have the biggest and the smallest focus point dragging us to the right, that is tension! So if we want to create something calm, we need to pull this whole thing back into balance by rock B. But we have the strong and the small guy pulling us to the right... How can we balance that with only one element? Easy. Distance that third element further away from the two, thus you"ll have a triangle connecting A-B and C (not drawn on the picture) - a perfect idea. Just like with force vectors in physics.

Also, observe that the central axis (yellow) of all three rocks goes into one point. 😉 Oh, and actually that one point is exactly the same distance from the vertical center of the tank like the focus point A. 🙂 Is that an accident? :idea:

So thing is that triangles are really important in compositions with multiple focus points. Somehow the mind is programmed to consider a scape "calming" if it's constructed like a bridge in real life, it can stand by itself, does not "fall down". When you look at that particular Amano example, you first spot rock A, then you move your gaze to rock B and then you spot C. But there you are, back into the vicinity of A, the main focus point where you want to be.

So what I say is that if you have clear eye-movement lines (black lines in the prev. example) your job is easy in constructing a balanced, calming underwater composition - if that's your goal. I know it's old-school too... 😉

To stress the importance of the eye-movement just observe how feature films are edited. If the hero (or car, or anything) exits the otherwise static shot on the right side, and the editor cuts, he (it) will almost invariably come in from the left in the next shot. Why? Because your eye will bounce back from the right side of the image frame, and it gravitates towards the middle, so if something now comes in from the left you only have to go on with your movement to meet it. This will register in your mind as "flowless editing", you don't even register, that the guy actually had a cut there. Editing 101. 😉

Cheers,
Balazs
 
:text-goodpost:

This is a good poste mate. Life is about vision, and that's what we are playing with. Understand vision and perhaps your half way there.
Takes a hell of a lot of skill and mind controls to get a great scape. We should meditate our selfs to get in the right mind for scaping. It takes serious focus to remember all the rules and the natural way of how are can feel, with what are essential simple yet difficult tricks on vision.

This is why I love aquascaping.
 
This is becoming a great thread.

Does anyone mind if I split it into a separate topic at an appropriate point? ; "The use of the Golden Ratio and Golden Mean" or something like that?
 
Fantastic post Balazs, thank you for taking the time to deconstruct that scape for us.

I remember you did a thread a while back where you deconstructed a couple of other scapes (and a photo of a tree too if I remember rightly). If you have a link to that thread, and/or any other resources on the web also covering this topic that would be awesome.
 
George Farmer said:
This is becoming a great thread.

Does anyone mind if I split it into a separate topic at an appropriate point? ; "The use of the Golden Ratio and Golden Mean" or something like that?
Click to expand...

Good idea, an interesting subject alright and Keymaker is the man to make it all happen!! I would be interested in some successful aquascapes that work but dont adhere to the golden ratio or the classic triangle idea that keymaker has outlined, contra ratio aquascapes lets call them 😀 would you have any examples keymaker?
 
zig said:
George Farmer said:
This is becoming a great thread.

Does anyone mind if I split it into a separate topic at an appropriate point? ; "The use of the Golden Ratio and Golden Mean" or something like that?
Click to expand...

Good idea, an interesting subject alright and Keymaker is the man to make it all happen!! I would be interested in some successful aquascapes that work but dont adhere to the golden ratio or the classic triangle idea that keymaker has outlined, contra ratio aquascapes lets call them 😀 would you have any examples keymaker?
Click to expand...

Maybe worth recovering this old thread 'Keymakers Composition studies';
http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9660

A lot has been already covered in that too. :thumbup:
 
zig said:
There is a good picture in last years 2009 IAPLC contest book of amano basically catagorising all of the entries laid out on the floor of a large hall type area, I'd this gives a good insight of how its done I would say. He basically chooses the top 100 aquascapes for final judging and catagorises the rest into probably 100 aquascapes at a time until he gets to the final positions.
Click to expand...

Single person choosing top 100 out of 1800 plus photos. Not to mention the printed photo on the floor is merely about A4 size paper and he shorted out while standing. He probably wont be able to see the scape detail from that distance. Thus first impression will be very-very important to get the top 100.
 
i do not believe this tank is in the top 100. top 100+ got a a letter to not release their photos til the party. some of the person may did that, but the most of the folks not. can't believe this particular photo is the one which got 100th placement. this maybe just guessing.

that's the letter on the right: http://www.flickr.com/photos/viktorlant ... otostream/
 
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