Hey nice, Dave!

Very nice:-)

Great sky (clouds and stars). Not bad for a beginner.

OH my, this came out wonderfully. I love the shadows on the sand. Sharen

nice sky! i need to start making my own sky's too, they look much better :D

Looks cool Dave! Great to see you get here. The next image will be even easier :) RE: the model: The San Juan is one of the Free HighModels from DeEspona; available at 3D Up.com ;)

You're off to a great start, Dave. If you aren't addicted and totally in love with Vue yet, you will be soon. :-) Have fun playing with light variations and the atmosphere editor.

Thanks all :) The layers add a whole new dimension..

Very well done! :)

You have discovered the world wide web as a place for recourses. It is most important to know where to find the things you can not create yourself. Nice sky, light is very important, it can really make or brake your scene. But try to photoshop away the lens flare, you will never see a lens flare on a photo that was shot at night. Palms are ok, but I would have placed them more to the sides, so they do not pull your eyes to them The texture of the ground looks too fake. It is very hard to make realistic textures, and very important, realistic textures can also make or brake your scene. I had best results using photographs. Also add some more plants on the ground, and stones, perhaps an animal or some wood or something like that. It are the details that really make a scene realistic. Remember: recources, light, textures and DETAILS! Nice job for a first time by the way ;)

thanks for the advice, peterbron :) Yes, I agree on all the above....especially as you highlighted details...one of my weaknesses, or perhaps lack of patience...I tend to get bored fast, and don't take the time to really look at and refine my work....slap the idea down and move on to the next one, which of course makes for not so good of an image.