Hi Folks, I know this is a bryce question, but since it isn't technical, but rather more of an artistic question, I thought it would be okay to post it here. I am working on a city animation in bryce, and I have been playing with the sky. I can't figure out which of these 2 skies (only slightly different) looks better. The colors of the building come out more with one of the skies, but does it look better or just fake. Please take a serious look at the images and tell me which you feel looks better - the rigt side or the left. I am at the point where I have been staring at this for so long, I genuinely can't tell anymore... Thanks in advance for your input. Aharon

I like the one on the right (more blue) I think the one with more yellow is too unnatural looking.

I like the scenes on the left better. They are more saturated with the yellows. Bare in mind though that the LCD display here isn't gamma corrected and has a tendency to make images look darker. Nice work on the city-scape scenes so far.

I like the left one more, too. It has some kind of mystic atmosphere. I really undestand your difficulty in taking a decision. How many times did I stared at my pictures and thought: "Oh boy! Which one looks better?" Usually I go and ask my wife. Unfortunately she's not around at moment, so you have to content yourself with my suggestion ;o)

my 2 cents

I really appreciate the input, but am I kidding myself? DO the buildings all look too much the same? I am trying to do a futuristic cityscape, so I figure they can be more uniform than your average 20th Century city. But I might just not see the fact that they sort of just look like a blob of buldings that can't be told apart. Let me know what you think. By the way, all buildings were made from Bryce Terrains which I exported, UV Mapped, and textured. The project file is currently 50MB. Thanks again. Aharon

If you need some ideas, go rent/borrow/pull out Ridley Scott's film, Blade Runner and spend some time looking at the city. Scott's classic vision is rather noir, but had become enough of an icon that people will think of it. With respect to your efforts, the building textures are a bit too uniform. And the choice of skies depends on how much atmosphere you want. Is it a hazy, damp place? Or is it drier? The more saturated colors will be more interesting to people, even if they aren't realistic. You know what's needed? A plume of steam (or two) coming from one of the buildings, to catch the light and make it more mysterious. i'd also place some fill and/or spot lights down amongst the buildings to give them some more depth of modeling. And then take that opportunity to play with the specularity of the textures: there's hardly anything shiny on the buildings themselves. In an animated clip, people might not notice these tiny things, but God's in the details. The overall effect will be improved.