I haven't done any Carrara-ing in quite a while, but I thought I'd give this one a shot. This image took me a touch longer than 10 minutes - lets just say I had a cold Saturday to kill.

I call this image "Fun with Gradients". I haven't used C's gradients much before, but went all out on this. The candle, wick and flame are all done with gradients - in the color, glow, and transparency channels. Light is provided by a single bulb inside the flame, and a quick Anything Glows on the candle. Rendered without GI in about a minute on my Mac G3/350.

I really like Kixum's pool of melted wax and the melting inside of the candle. I think my flame is not bad, but I'd like to see Kixum's tutorial.

• Jasen.