When I create a metaball it just looks like a sphere. How do I alter its shape? Any help would be appreciated. I am a long-time Bryce 4 user.

Put a couple of them close together. Griggs

Attached Link: http://www.planet-3d.com

You can also scale them in all the directions as in a normal object. I flattened them to make the spill in this picture. I have put in the wireframe views so you can see how it was done.

Hey, that looks real cool... when I get my copy of bryce 5, maybe I can finally make some convincing surf...

If you use the shift button when clicking on the metaball symbol in the create menu, you'll get a 'negative' metaball. When placed near a normal (ungrouped) metaball, it will make a hole in it. The picture also shows that the 'sphere of influence' for metaballs is much bigger than the balls themselves. Gotta love that spray render. :-)

Bryce will also merge the materials on metaballs, as well as the balls themselves.

Hey I didnt't know that negative metaball trick ...I was trying all kinds of stuff making them negative etc.. cool ta very much

There is also a "tutor"folder in your Corel/Bryce5 folder that has some helpful information. Hawkfyr

Thanks for showing how you did the spilled wine.

Seven, you are welcome. PJF, where did you learn about the shift key for negative meatballs? I haven't yet found this in the manual or the docs on the CD. I was a little miffed when I thought they didn't have negatives. Sure glad you shared it.

It's one of those easter egg thingies - an unsupported feature that didn't make it fully developed into the release version but the programmers left in 'cos it's useful. It does point to some potential further developments for metaballs in future releases, maybe even patches. I heard about it either on the Corel Bryce newsgroup or the yahoo_groups Bryce email list.