Attached with this question are two jpg's. The two pictures are not anything special just some objects & terrains I created to experiment with. What I am trying to do is figure out how to manipulate the tools in Bryce to create a work that will depict a series of buildings, ledges, or cliffs stacked one on top of another but slightly set back and smaller as they ascend from the base or bottom most terrain to the top or upper most level.

I want to be able to create these images and then manipulate the view so that the effect is the same from any angle and still get the proper depths of field creating a feel or illusion of height and distance.

You will notice that one picture is a simple Terrain and the other is a very simple structure, an old temple with a walkway over a stream. What I was wondering was what would you do if you wanted to merge the to pictures into one and then manipulate the images so that the temple and the terrain its built on gives the appearance of being perched on a high narrow cliff over looking the bottom terrain.

What I need to know is,
1, Am I on the right track by creating two separate files and then merging them into one?

2, What would you suggest I do to create and slope the sides of the upper most cliff to add dimension so that it does not look so one dimensional?

3, To create the Water in the mountain stream I used the square 2D flat plain on the top tool bar and applied a material from the water presets.
My question is this how do I manipulate the edges of the 2D plains so that they are not so straight and fit better along the edge of the terrain and give more of a waterfall effect?
Thanks Much
Steel

not sure I completely understand, but... 1, unless there's some good reason not to, why not just make the whole thing one file. Do you mean merge 2 pictures together in photoshop or something?... 2, maybe show a bit of the side of the cliff not just the flat top 3, maybe instead of the plane use another terrain, which would be easy to round off the landscape on the right looks nice. (maybe change the sky up a bit ;)

Hepcatbrandon thanks for your reply to my question. What I mean by merge is this...In the file menu of Bryce there is something called merge and when you click on it you can bring up another Bryce file that you have already created and all the objects in that picture will be placed in the file you are currently working on. What I want to do is create a picture where it looks as if you were standing above the temple looking down on it. The temple and the terrain its built on would be like a peninsula or cliff jetting out over the terrain below. Hope this explains my question better. Please remember I'm new to all this and still donot have all the tech. Language down yet.

Sometimes making two bryce "scenes" is the smart way actually. You could focus on one creation and develop detail. Then save it for later. Then you could compose a scene more complex by loading in multiple detailed objects that might be difficult to comprehend if you did them as one thing straight from the start. I know that's been mentioned before. That's even in Real World Bryce, so it must be worth keeping note of. LOL... Just remember when you make a building or whatever and save it as a "scene" for use in a later creation that you'll want to delete the default ground plane. That way you wont end up with multiple unwanted ground planes when you merge your files for the final creation. The stacking you speak of makes sense. Just remember that planning pays off. If you have an idea of how to integrate your layers, go for it. The worst you could do is make something that looks funny. Regardless, there's always something to learn. Eventually you'll get the hang of it and people might start asking you the questions. LOL

Do you mean like the one above? the greyscale was at 1024x1024 res...

Well, one more important thing: You have to make the terrain much bigger. Go to 3D transformations and put 1000% in xyz dimensions. Go to wireframe resolution and increase it to the max so you can see where to position your model. For distance buildings, go to the terrain editor and shift click on Posterize. You will get mosaic, which will have terraced blocky shapes. Play with clipping and then position on your existing terrain. Sorry about the inexactness but I don't have Bryce here.

steeleyes, that's what I thought you meant by merge. Pauljs75 has a good point. Hope it helped (I'm fairly new too)