iCE 9811 - score: 8.5 out of 10

God Among Lice:
Ice delivers this month with a great release, with pretty consistent quality throughout. If you like ice, then you'll probably love this pack. If you're not a big fan of ice, you'll probably still be impressed by the large number of quality images created by some talented artists.

It's nice to see the versatility of an artist like Darkmage who's just as able with the digital airbrush as he is with his rendering (although not spectacular with either one). The consistency of mood throughout all his works is a plus in my book, too. "The Demoness" is a lot easier for my eyes to look at than the Yet-Another-Rendered-Spaceship scenes, though. And those logos are pretty clean looking, but uhm.. oh, they're just logos why am I wasting my time talking about them.

Pnakotic's alien bar scenes create a really convincing and creative setting and mood, but his 3rd pic (pn-intr1.jpg) is a failure as a composition. Like some of his work from the previous pack it looks curiously like a completely random still from an animation, as if it was never meant to be seen as a static 2d picture.

For an example of quality composition in a rendered work, look no further than Steven Ståhlberg's lovely lady in black. The steeply stepping wall leads the eye up the exquisite line of the leg, boldly exposing what I think most 3d artists would be afraid to show. As an illustration, the focus is correctly on the main character, and indeed on the beautifully accurate anatomical lines of the model. At the same time it also plants her firmly in a proper, physical setting.

Turning to freehand, Jae's seamonster is probably the most impressive piece in the pack. Tremendously detailed, well colored, not much to say other than "wow". There seems to be more texture here than normally in Jae's pics. Great to see him adding yet another element to his artwork.

The Necro's nf-mekka.jpg is just about as impressive. The bright, tightly airbrushed look gives his pictures a kind of... lush moistness that's heaven to look at. With more attention to small details of shading than the typical wider Catbones airbrush, it is better compared to demoscene pixel art. No hiding unfinished areas with bubbles all over the place, either.. necro actually draws some flowers and vines for framing purposes.

The Knave keeps up the heavily self-touted "newschool abstraction" with this pack. Since this style is pretty consistently the same, I'll give my opinion of it here and not have to worry about dealing with it all the time in the future. When I first encountered this style, it seemed like an obvious borrowing from Tomppa1. I've since been able to appreciate the differences between their work. Basically the difference is this: whereas Tomppa1 was able to use his cross-hatching and shading to create a wonderful play between flatness, depth, and overlapping planes, The Knave merely uses them as a kind of pictorial surface effect, more like a comic or cartoon I guess. There is very little depth to The Knave's pictures, and so the hatching seems to me kind of useless. His best pic in this pack, "the sun-setters", does show that despite this fact, he can still achieve an idea of picture space through including the sea and boat in the middleground and background, a device that he would do well to add more often to his other pictures. The parts that make up the picture are nicely composed and arranged as well, and the colorful palette is applied wisely.

Quickly, the rest: root88's seamlessly tiled "wisdom" is intriguing. DaVinci's pretty girl in bathing suit with melting ice cube is, well, pretty. There's a cute, smooth looking toon character from Jamie McCarter. Megalith looks to have taken a Kraftwerk video, given the mannequins more of a rubbery skin like those pleasure doll things, and set the whole thing in some kind of spooky empty warehouse in the middle of the woods. Mantis is just a pervert. ;) One wonders if those mannequin people are male or female. Well, I guess one is obviously male. Martin Heigen... oooooh I get to see a mech. I feel so special. AE's rendering is pretty solid, if uninspired (although that guillotine IS pretty menacing). Though not hirez, Degenerit's rip piece in this pack is quite impressive, and definitely worth looking at (along with all the great ansi). But finally, what does Tear choose to present to us with her fine creation? SPAWN. Yes, Spawn.

Spawn.

score: 8.5

Mongi:
If it weren't for the lack of reviewers, another non-icemember would have given his/her opinion in this pack. I will try to be unbiased.

The worst things first. It's not bad, but worse compared to the rest of the pack. Ae's rendered pics are small, dark and doesn't say much. Although technically good, they are empty. A pen and a can (smoothly done), a guillotine, a castle etc are quite common motifs. Good, but hardly inspiring pics.

Darkmage's rendered work is very good. They are detailed, massive and the lighting is done with thought. But they tend to have such sharp edges on everything. Now I don't know much about rendering, but I've seen a lot of 3DSMAX stuff that is a lot smoother (not as detailed, though). I assume the pieces are done in 3DSMAX, otherwise it might be the software's fault.

The highlight of the pack is definitely Jae's seaserpent. The atmosphere is perfectly given by the shading and colors. It's one of the most detailed pics I've seen in a while. The way the pic is drawn gives the illusion that you can see every detail in the trees, the cliffs, even the scales on the serpent. A perfect ten.

The rest of the rendered pics are really well done, and it's hard to point out any pic that is better than the other because everything is extremely good. Steven Ståhlberg's chicks are the single best modelled humans I have seen, much better than the models in Poser.

The freehand work is also excellent, with the new member Necrofiliac (ex-Fuel) being one of the stars. The pictures reminds a lot of demo-scene pixel art, only much bigger. The pics are very sharp that way, and everything looks very smooth, and are very detailed. The themes are somewhat nasty, though =).

Really, this is a good pack. I'm not as biased as you think. The last pack was awesome both ansi and hirez-wse, and this pack is at least as good. This is a must-download, both for fans of Ice and more skeptical viewers!

score: 8.5