How old is grade 8? I think you use a different system from us over here.

In the US, grade 8 is 14 yrs.

You should see what one of my students do (14 years old)! I haven't got a picture, but he's good! Josselin

Not bad! But, as a teacher, aren't you supposed to protect your students from evil influences, like the addiction of Bryce? Shame on you! ;o) But, if you're going to do it, at least teach him (her?) well!

I'm an independent Bryce-learner and I'm 14, too! I'm a high school freshman, but I'm still in that age group. I don't have a teacher to warn me about Bryce addictions but I already am addicted to it!

I've got to admit I went as far as giving him a copy of Bryce 2 I got free a couple of years ago in a magazine. Josselin

Not to be mean or anything, but I think you all are far too easily impressed, lol. You think just because a person is young, they are incapable? Anyhow, I did far better stuff when I was 11 with Bryce 2. I personally don't like to compliment people, it gets their hopes up. I wouldnt be so enthusiastic over something like that, no matter how new they are. Sorry if I sounded harsh(people always say that), but you DID ask what I thought...

Ah, but if they're not encouraged, at least a little, they may decide to give up. Even if they're not that good now, who knows what they'll become in another month or two. Besides, comparing two people is like comparing apples and oranges.

I just glanced back over the posts and it struck me. Besides my "not bad" in my first post, there really isn't anything terribly positive here. Nothing terribly negative either thought. What I see is more of a "if you can't say anything nice, say nothing at all." I'll stick by my "not bad" because considering it's a 14-year-old who may or may not have any artistic bent, who's using Bryce 2 which I would have to say is limiting over what's available now, and it seems to be a new introduction to the art, I still think it's not bad. Personally, I'd like to see the next one or two and see how he/she progresses.

i'm the same as Andini here:D

Personally, I'd be terrified if my daughter showed an interest in Bryce, she's much more talented at art than I am. Thankfully, she's way too busy to take up a new medium. I love the colors in the picture, The trees are nice, very unusual too. My monitor isn't the greatest so I'm having trouble seeing what the background is because of jpegging. I also think that youth has an advantage especially with this app. They have more time, they are less rigid in their thinking and tend to come up with really cool stuff. And there's nothing wrong with saying nice things about renders as long as they are true (to the person saying them-cause not everyone agrees with everyone else). I personally like to get both positive feedback and things pointed out to me about my renders that people don't feel are quite right. Both help me to improve my Bryce abilities [I hope I've improved - ;) ]

Heh come check out my gallery I am 14 as well, but a 9th grader :]

I actually agree with Sparr. I'm taking a computer design class and when I sometimes show my work to my teacher, he always says stuff like, "It's OK," "It's not as good as your last one," "It could be better." Sure I feel a little discouraged at first but it actually motivates me to do better! If I got away with my first try, I'd be going nowhere...fast!

Young man's game....Ha! I've been using computers since TRS-80's that had 16k of memory and tape drives. There were no colors and graphics were blocks. :D

lol, that's nothin to brag about 8^D

Really! Those young whippersnappers! :o) My first computer (Apple 2C) didn't even ~gasp!~ have a hard drive. Ah, I remember my first computer game. It was a dream.... Problem is, it took so much memory, I never could finish it. Got to the last level and it'd lock up every time. ~sigh~ I loved that game.

The youngsters seem to think that we all arrived on this planet aged 30, we were never their age. Mind you I remember thinking, way back when, that anyone over 25 was ancient, so I guess things are just the same as ever. 8D Cat

Hmm, some odd viewpoints on both sides here. Oh well. I started bryce 3d when i was barely14 (birthday present) and now i'm 16 and on bryce 5. The first thing i made was a boolean model of the kenny character in the show "south park."

I'm really kinda sorry I read this thread. some viewpoints I found pretty distressing and disturbing. 'better' is a pretty subjective word. I think everything I've ever done from the time I first picked up a crayon looks better than any of Picasso's work. Obviously, that's just my opinion, look which one of us is still making the money, even though they're dead. Not exactly a word I would throw around while describing my artwork to others. I would've followed eelie's advice and just not said anything. nuski... thanks for encouraging the young'uns to take up this goofy hobby and if they end up making a living doing this sort of thing, then, congratulations to you, and more power to them.

Well it'd be pretty hard for me to show my computer art from when I was 14. (no bryce then) First I'd have to find my ol' Atari 130 XE and all the stuff that went with it. And then I'd have to find the 5" floppies (and hope they're still good.) Then I'd have to figure out how to convert my RemBrandt images to .gif or .jpg... LOL... (sounds close to impossible) I guess you would find some neat 8-bit examples of anti-aliasing and dithering done manually pixel by pixel. Some of the stuff I did back then had cool color cycling stuff too. (Dunno if any of you remember that as being a cool graphics effect. LOL)

My first computer was an Amiga 2000, it had no OS you had to put a floppy in to start the thing. Back then I thought it was a brill machine because it could multitask and none of my mates had anything like that............lol Cat

AT DOESN'T MATTER HOW OLD YOU ARE, ONCE BRYCE GETS A HOLD YOU JUST CARRY ON. THE SUBJECT IMAGE IS ABOUT AS GOOD AS ANYONE DOES WHEN STARTING BRYCE IT'S JUST A LEARNING PROCESS AND I'LL THINK YOU WILL ALL AGREE WE ARE ALL STILL LEARNING IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.

Computers are a young man's game . . . ??? Gaming is what most young people use computers for! For me. . . .a computer is nothing more than a tool. . . just like a pencil, paint or watercolor brush, a set of pastels. . . nothing more than another medium that an artist could use. . . . the quality of an individuals work will depend upon that individuals experiences and talent. . . .give a beginning artist a pencil . . . and they will draw to their ability. . . . .give a beginning artist Bryce. . . and they will create to their ability. . . . in computer design, it is not age but ability which sets us apart. Is it not? . . . .As a teacher, I get enthusiastic over every image I see. . . . in school and in this forum. . . . what I see in each image is the spirit of the individual which is presented through their personal style. . . . each unique in it's own way. . . . . . . . As far as complimenting people and getting their hopes up. . . the only hope that most artists have is to improve their abilities. . . . complimenting is not necessary. . . . but suggestive feedback is. If a teacher would say,"It's OK," "It's not as good as your last one," "It could be better.". . . that teacher is not doing their job. A teacher should create a dialogue, by saying ," perhaps, you could. . ." or " why don't you". . . . In art, it does't matter how good or bad an image might appear . . . . remember. . . there is no good or bad . . . . right or wrong in art. . . . only the image. . . and to judge the validity of the image. . . .we must adhere to the basic principles of composition and design. . . . which sometimes are unknown or have been forgotten by designers in this age of specialized graphic software. It's like the genie in the bottle. . . . Want a figure, press a botton and it appears. Want to change a color, clicking a mouse will produce limitless color combinations. It wasn't like that in the past. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Whoops. . . .Sorry. . . . got a bit long winded there! Anyway, in my opinion. . . . the student's work posted here is rich in color, I liked the composition. . . . with the inward and downward movement of the trees terminating at the rock wall in the foreground. . . but what I liked most about this image is the portion of the image directly above the rock wall. . . when the student said it was a volcano . . . all I continued ti see were the cascading waterfalls of brillant hues with reflections in the foreground pool. . . . Can you see it?

I totally agree with you (must be the job ;-) . When the student I talked about shows me his latest image, I never tell him that it's not good. I always try to explain what I would have done. Most of the time though, it's just a detail, or a change in the atmosphere settings. Anyway, that's what being a teacher implies (even if I teach English and not Art). Josselin

And by the way, I started with a Commodore 64 :-) Josselin

Everyone must start somewhere and I think your student has created a very good volcanic scene. It might not be exact but the intensity of the colors shows the passion and fury of the subjecy matter and the composition isn't bad at all for a complete beginner. Looks like you are doing a good job with your students and lets not forget the old saying, "mighty oaks from little acorns grow". ;) Cat

My point to the post above was that youngsters nowadays don't know how good they have it today. I've wanted to do CG art since I found out about computers (and play games of course :) ) but all we had back then were TRS-80 and such. My first color computer was a Commodore64 with a whopping 64k of memory! I thought I'd never be able to use all that memory when making a program (I programmed in Basic). But still no graphics programs to speak of. Then the Amiga 500 came out and we were up to 1 MB RAM and paint programs were coming out. Video Toaster was the 3D program but very expensive. Now we have Bryce for only $200 and I can now do what I've waited at least 20 years to do. As far as games go today, they have a lot of eye candy but very few have any real "meat" to them. I still love my 8-bit graphic games on my C64 (have to use an emulator now).

Aldaron . . . . you're right on with your statement that todays youngsters don't know how good they have it!! Some do. . . as seen in this thread!! In my classes ( which average about 18 students each) , many of the students take the digital medium for granted. . . . they are assigned to my course and have little or no artistic skills or experience!! . . . most don't appreciate having the ability to create at the speed of light!! . . . . I also began with a C64-upgraded to a C128 and eventually shelled out about $3500 for a LCII. . . . The lab at school back then was equiped with Amiga 500 machines and yes. . . .we had a Video Toaster!! . . . . . and if I recall . . . . an application called VistaPro . . . . I am now 50. . . have waited 20 years like you to do what we can now do . . . . and I still love a good video game. . . . . . and one last thing, I am going back to school this summer. . . . . a college in my vicinity is now offering a a curriculum geared toward game design and development. . . . maybe I could start a new career after I retire.

My son is in 8th grade (13 years old) and he does Bryce and Poser stuff. I'll have to get him to post something one of these days.

My son and daughter are 10 and 8 and both have played with Bryce 5. Rachael seems to show more interest than Franky. Of course we only have one pc so it makes it harder for them since it is my pc.:)

My daughter does't know the depth of Bryce yet. So far she's only been exposed to a small part of what its capable of. This is good. She is going to college this fall and will need to be focused on that. There will be time in the future for her to play with Bryce. Right now, its my time. As her parent, I can't deal with knowing less than her. Let her learn more than I at college. Then I will show her Bryce. :)

I am very into photography, and this was the doing of bryce. I picked up the mouse long before the camera, but using bryce has made me feel much more in touch with the art of photography. Many of the same principles and techniques exist between digital art and photographic art. On my first day in photography class, the teacher asked what contrast was, and i told her it was the difference between light and dark area in a picture. She asked me how i knew, and all i could say was that it was common knowledge to me. When i look back on it, I realize that it was bryce that gave me that knowledge. Also, I find bryce connecting to more and more things in my life as I use it more. It has helped me learn final cut pro (basic animation), helped me with fractal patterns (math class), helped me with photography, and more importantly, i understand the world around me much more and i am more capable of expressing myself. This a role of the artist is it not? I have just realized that there is very little distinction between art and science, and i see that more often in myself all the time. Take leonardo Davinci as an example, blend of art and science. hmm...back to the purpose of the thread, good beginning image! Learn to adjust texture frequncy, and lighting settings. Keep it up! my 2c.

And since there are so many moms here I would like to say something completely off topic, and that is; HAPPY MOTHERS DAY Sunday 30th March 2003 I don't know if this is the same around the world but that's what today is in the UK. So cheers to mom's everywhere. Cat

Cat - you scared me, I thought I forgot it. LOL. Here in the US its the 3rd Sunday in May. Its too early in the morning for me to remember these things. Happy Mother's day to all the Mom's out there now and in May! Ang

God, Cat, you scared the hell out of me too! My mind just tuned out with disbelief! Almost scrambled for the phone at 11:00 P.M. to call mom. Very interesting thread here. I started with Timex Sinclare and had no choice but to write my own programs in Basic. No .exe but .com initiated a program. Programs didnt exist in stores yet. 512k was the largest program size and 8k was RAM, if I remember correctly. Years later I graduated to a TRS-80 and a tape recorder was your storage medium. Computer graphics was nothing but a huge pixel block of white on a black background. As for the artwork, I think Its all terrific to me. Some have more talent than others but each piece is an expression of the individual. I cant get enough of it. Ange

Back to the original topic of this post, I also like the vibrant colors of the picture as well as the reflections in the water. The trees look great too. I personally would consider changing the point of view slightly to show less sky and more water, but that's just me. Lin