Hi Well as I said this is my first real attempt to create an image using Bryce5. Before now I've mainly used it to create terrain and skys to use in poser. Ok what I intended to do was try to show off the Dragon and this just 'happened'. The idea I had was he's attacking no he's hunting ..big creature ...big food what will he eat in the sea thats big enough a whale(nah like whales) a shark ,great white (I like sharks/whites too but well poetic justice?) well what's the problem i here you say? Ok first off you tell me how I can improve the pic. what do I think needs fixing (perfectionist talking here) -the rocks on the beach esp big one have too much of an edge to them as if they were cut from card and placed on (2d?) -the shark needs some 'bow wash'/ripples/waves to show movement ....but how I did think place a flat surface over it to simulate water somehow cut shark out ?bolean? then use this as a tmplate in terrain editor to make waves however can't figure how to do it... any and all comments welcome Dave

wow-excellent for a 1st attempt, this is looking very good! i dont consider myself a profesional, or even an expert at bryce, cuz there is always something u can learn new from it. The first thing I would add would be some haze, the color depends on the mood u want, dark grey would make the place look dreary and scary, or just white would make it look like somwhere on earth. Secondly, u should bring the dragon more to the center of the image, jst because he is one of the main components of the image. Im guessing u have some type of paint program (painter, photshop) and u can add ALOT to the image just by messing with the color effects and special effects when ur done. as far as ripples in the water, ive never done them bu im pretty sure there is a tutorial somwhere on the web... These are just my suggesetions, but do whatever u think will make it look better, just expereiment alot with colors/lighting. once again this is extremely good for a first try, and i cant wait to see it finished. peaceout

Make ripples by adding a terrain to the water. just draw concentric circles one big white one, Then make the brush all dark and slightly smaller, and make a dot of black then change it to white and yet again slightly smaller and click in the middle. Rinse and repeat until satisfied.

Something that sticks out a bit to me is that the ocean waves seem a bit big for the size of the rest of the picture. You could try to enlarge everything in the scene (but keep the same setup).. this will make the waves on the water plane appear smaller relative to everything else in the scene which will help with the sense of scale. Also, for the large shark... try to make a wake effect (like the wake that follows a large moving boat) behind it with a terrain. That should also help the scale thing (your shark is meant to be like a bigger version of Jaws size I think).

Yes, for a first time attempt, this is good. Many things can be done in many different ways to get what you want. For bow wash, go into your image editing program of choice (PhotoPaint, Photoshop, Painter...whatever) and using a black background and using shades of white and gray, create a top view of your bow wash as you would like it to appear around the shark's fin remembering that the darker grays will have less elevations than the lighter grays. Black is zero elevation and white is the highest elevation. When done, save as "BMP" image (Bryce 5 can accept "jpg"). In the Bryce scene, create a terrain, then go into the terrain editor (the "E" in the wire mesh mode). Make the terrain resolution 512 or better, click "new" in the Editing Tools panel. Then go to the "Pictures" tab and over the leftmost image click "load" and load your bow wash top view from your image editor. Below the leftmost click "copy" and below the middle image click "paste" then "apply". Go back to the "Elevation" tab and use Raise/Lower button to lower the new terrain to where it's just above positive ground level. You may now click "smooth" a couple times. Now in the "terrain canvas" next to the down arrow in the upper right of the canvas frame, to the left, you'll see a little drop down window icon, click this to expose the clipping gradient bracket. Bringing your mouse curser to the lower part of the outside bracket (not inside the gradient itself) slide the clipping bracket up until, in the canvas you see your bow wash surrounded in red (maroon...whatever). Now click the check mark to OK the terrain change and bring you back into the mesh mode screen. You may now position, and resize your bow wash as needed and you can add a material of your choice to it. Happy hunting!

First attempt? God helps us when you get to your 100th! Perhaps a slight increase in the contrast? The Bryster

Flak/TW- to make the water ripples finer. either shrink the water plane or in the texture editor increase the frequency in the pop up.

Definitely a good effort. To my eye, the shark looks too close to the land for the size that he is. You could either move him a little close to the bottom of the picture, maybe lower the camera slightly or make a larger canvas. Or you could move the land back slightly. Or you could move the camera to the left a little bit, then move the shark more into that cove. Don't forget to show us your changes! Lin

This is a great first attempt, you should see mine, well maybe not. 8) All that's been said above I agree with so nothing to add there, but please remember to post whatever you do next I'm most anxious to see where you go. Cat

Alot of idea for you here to try. All I can suggest is scale, think of how each objects size works in relation to the other. There are a multitude of tutorials out there. A good source which helped me is www.3dlinks.com. The tutorials there may not be relevant to this picture, but will help you learn a lot of bryce skills. As woodhurst mentioned just try messing about with the haze option in sky lab, and try different skies. Also if you have a paint program, try adding after effects such as some surf bouncing of the rocks to brak them up. The water mat applied to a terrain also works well for waves, once again there should be a tutorial for it. Great first image, look forward to more!