I do my composition on a small screen (800 x 600) so I can see the basic shapes all at once. Then I change to my final render size (usually 1024 x 768) and do the final tweaking of textures, etc. so that the image will look its best at full size. When the render screen is showing, I use the hand in the lower right of the screen to move about the off-screen parts of the image, plop-rendering to test parts of the image that need work on the textures, etc.-rendering at the final res (usually 64 rpp premium). Then I do my final render when I'm happy with all that. I don't render to disk because that doesn't allow you to save a partial render and finish it later. I'm paranoid about losing a bunch of render time to power outages (we have them too often in the boonies where I live.

This is not my "second childhood". I'm not finished with the first one yet.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

"I'd like to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather....not screaming in terror like the passengers on his bus." - Jack Handy