OK, this is the image so far, still some work to do but I'll make a few notes for anyone fairly new to the Poser/Bryce combination. I have now posed the dragon adult form in Poser and exported her to Bryce. It took quite a bit of work to get a pose I am happy with but I am glad I did spend the time as it seems to have paid off. I spent some time laying her tail along the ground properly, posing each tail segment individually where needed to get the precise lie of the tail. From this angle you can't even see it, but the pose could be reused in other images so will be saved to the dragon poses folder for use as a basis for others. The same applies to the feet. When positioning in Bryce I always embed the feet of an animal in the ground very slightly; this gives the impression of weight deforming the pads of the feet (or whatever the animal has) and if it is a heavy beast (she looks pretty heavy to me) then if also may give the impression that the ground is giving a little. In this image the ground is rock so it wouldn't give, but it is worth thinking about. The setting is a volcanic crater, not a fully active volcano but also not a dead one either. This is much warmer for the eggs and is the sort of environment that dragons might well choose. It has pictorial possibilities too, with details like the columns of smoke. They are inverted cones with a cloud material on, I have given it a yellow tint but I think it needs a bit more, makes it look more sulphur-laden. The rock material needs a bit of work but is adequate for knocking the scene into shape, I'll post it here in a zip when I am happier with it, along with any other bryce materials used in the scene. It is slope sensitive, crackled rock on slopes and a dusty looking surface on level areas. I have given the mother an impression of size using haze; this is better than the built in Depth-Of-Field in Bryce because it leaves details still visible. The sharp baby dragons in the foreground look suitably small; mother's nose is sharp but the rest of her fades into the haze. To get this effect if it doesn't appear with reasonable haze settings, just select everything, group it, then scale it up a bit. Reposition your camera and there ya go, one huge dragon... When posing both people and other types of figures, try to avoid symmetrical poses unless there's a very good reason for using one, like a soldier at attention or something similar. Truly symmetrical poses are rare in humans and most wildlife (except flying creatures in flight). Oh, and one final point about moving Poser figures to Bryce; if you want them to look their best, never leave the material settings on an imported object without checking them out. Ambience and reflection settings are rarely equivelent to other packages, so play with them. I always ensure that the diffuse and ambient colours come from the texture map; other settings may come from imported maps too (like bump, transparency and alpha reflection maps) or be set carefully and separately. The composition of this image is also fairly good, though the foreground may have to change to make way for two more figues: More tomorrow or when it is ready.

Looks good so far.

Excellent!

I love dragons and these are great dragons. That surface looks dusty to me, so wouldn't the mother's feet sink in a little? Fran

Plus, shouldn't there be a bit of a glint in the mother's eye? Otherwise the eyes are invisible. Fran

The outer surface of the eye is a specular glass material, so if any lights catch the eye they will reflect a highlight. With her head at that angle and the sun where it is there just aren't any highlights. If I boost the reflectivity slightly they may pick up the blue of the sky or something, so I'll try that and see if it looks right.

I can see her eyes anyway, but maybe they need a boost.

I'll be working on this again tonight and tomorrow, so if I don't post later tonight then expect something tomorrow evening, UK time.

Of course, some people think dragon's eyes have their own glow.... Or fire! (ggg) Fran