"Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better." --John Updike Novelist Well guys I thought I'd throw my hat in to the April Challenge. Two and a half days of work has culminated into this image. I thought the shape given to us to use was very similar to that of the Cassiopia Star Constillation. So of course, I thought ".. uhm. Ok.. Why not.." :) ** Technical Notes ** Premium Render with Radiosity Lighting. 3.2 Trillion Ray Hits rendered. Total Render time was about 2 hours. The sun was created in photoshop as well as all the stars and the "constillation". Mountains and water sulpted by me. Some photoshop touch-ups. Created and rendered in Bryce 5.0. Obvious post work in Adobe Photoshop 7.0 I hope you like it.

• Excellent idea - ! Great post too!

Wow I love your water and lighting effects.. Thats FANTASTIC!

dude, maybe my settings are screwed up, but I swear that until your second pic I didn't see any constellation up there. And I had to squint in front of my 19 incher like there was no tomorrow. Aside from that, the work is extremely photo-realistic. You've done a great job :) drac

Hey Drac, Yeah i was going for ultra realism and may have made the constilations too dark. Here is a Re-Post for consideration.

Here is a quick screenshot of the object and how i started on doing the stars.

Wow...I'll have to look at this tonight with less light coming in through the window. My first thought at seeing the original pic up there was..."What the heck, Dash posted a photograph. Are the clouds supposed to be the shape? Doesn't make sense if it is a constellation." LOL awesome pic!!!

nice :)

Great pic Dash. Yeah I also had some difficulty seeing the constilation in your first image. But I totally see it in your re-post. Its an astounding image. Really fantastic. You should post it in the Art Gallery so others who dont normally check out the forums can see it. Awesome work Dash.

Thanks for the nice reviews guys.. Just for fun, I thought I'd update this nasty original test render of the water. In an image like this, the water is the MOST important thing to get right. Here is what it originally looked like when I started making it. hehe..

Very good realism, Dash! I had the same problem of Draculaz, difficult to see the shape in the stars. Apart from that, this is killer! The water specially. Way good, man! Stefano

wow dash--this is extremley creative, i wouldve never thought about using the shape like that. awesome presentation also. good luck w/ the contest.

Great entry, and idea! damn! this is gonna be one hard challenge (and also to vote for hehe)

Dash: What size is your monitor and what rez do you use?

19' inch I use 1224 x768 .

Dash: Thanks! You lucky #'.[l;',**** !!!! :-)