I really like this one, can you tell me how you think I did it? What do you think of this picture?

Hmmmm! The picture is cool. It looks like a top down view of a sphere over a water type texture, with a light over the sphere pointing down so some of the water is a bright blue circle and the outer edge is darker. Then it looks like you busted out Knoll Lens Flare Pro for the bitchin' lens flare in the center. Then again, I may be smokin' crack. Oh, wait! I am! ;)

Looks like that sphere from that one movie called "Sphere". But underwater, translucent. and Kinda like a "lifeform" that gives off light (from the movie "Cacoon" ?) but with a bluish tint to it. All underwater of course.. sweet! I especially love the layers you have within the sphere.

Thanks for the comments. Well Rbanzai you were pretty close(I think I was smokin' crack!). There was absolutely no post work done (except for my tag). Shannara, thanks for the complement.I started with a volumetric water slab picked the type of water(nighttime lake I believe) then used a conical light set as follows... intensity: 25 no edge of softness cast shadows checked set both options to 0 visible object selected surface selected infinite light selected color: uniform use gel: procedural falloff: linear I used lit rays for the material as is(no changes). Next I moved the conical light just at the surface of the water and pointed it straight down. As far as rendering goes, you can see from the pic included. I positioned the camera just above the cone as seen in the pic. Now just select the camera view and render away! I tend to be very critical of everything I do in Bryce and I am hardly ever pleased with what I create. I was very pleased with the results. This one was a real fun one(and quick one too). I know it isn't as cool or creative as most of the ones posted here but I liked it, and I am glad some of you did as well! I just wanted to share my excitement with all of you! Like I said there wasn't any postwork done on this which is why I was so amazed with the results.

Hey Joey, this is great... However, I'm trying to duplicate it, and I don't get anything anywhere near it... Is there any additional info??? I set the light exactly as you described, used the volumetric water slab, the nighttime lake material.. I used the lit rays gel in the light... This is what I'm getting

Here's the side view of the scene...

and light settings... So, what do you think is up??

Hey Tradivoro....First let me say I had a brain fart when trying to explain this...What I mean is I did leave somthing out. Set your sky to simple gray backround. I noticed in your image that your conical light seemed pretty solid. Make sure that your light is set to lit rays. Also you need to remove the ground plane, I forgot to say that before. Sorry for any confusion. If this doesn't help let me know, I can email you the B5 file it is pretty small. When I did this pic I was trying to get the rays to shine through the water. The camera was originally in the Directors view. So this was really just a cool accident. Included are three captures one is the top view of my scene second is the Light Lab, and last is the material used. Hope this helps.

here is the last capture

here is another variation of the first pic

Yeah, definitely my problem is that the light doesn't want to take the lit rays gel... It's funny it'll take other gels, just not that one... Here it is, using the lost marble gel... This takes, but not the lit rays... i gotta figure out why that is...

And here it is, using the alien disco ball filter... So, it's taking these effects, just not the lit rays... Weird, huh??

Ok, I figured it out... Whereas you had a brain fart in leaving stuff out, i had brain diarrhea in that I was working with the gel and not with the material... :) And as you can see it's almost exactly the same picture, even though this is a quickie render... anyway, thanks for sharing this, since it gave me a chance to experiment, that I wouldn't have done otherwise... And cool picture...

Glad to be of some help!! And thanks. ;-)