i have now come to the conclusion that there is little point in using bryce skys as they look imediately like bryce. therof i shall render a sky, save the image and re-import it back as a backdrop disgruntled of london

Perhaps it only looks that way 'cos your so familier with bryce?!

Don't give up just yet....I'm sure you have spent a few evenings seeing which images look good as cloud textures but there can be so much variety....really!

Check out the skyz at these two links. In fact, scroll through the galleries of these two people and tell me they all look like the same old Bryce skyz you are referring to. http://www.3dcommune.com/3d/galview.mv?Bryce+JC9BUzUT6+0992268202 http://www.3dcommune.com/3d/galview.mv?Bryce+XX9zSErFU+1016215557 There's lots you can do with Bryce Skyz.

EricofSD, you're not right. I know that Pinhead (Paul) uses backdrops sometimes. The sky in the first image you linked is NO Bryce sky. It is a BACKDROP as you can see in his tutorial: http://home.attbi.com/~paulvlos/Cloud_Tut/Part2/Sky_Part_2.html Take care, Jimi

Call me offended, call me jaded, but my real guess is that you haven't played with volumetrics yet. One can create any chaos-induced cloud effect in Bryce. If you want real clouds, like for example, ones that you have seen in the sky outside your house, take a photo. If you want true fractal-random cloud schemes, I suggest using the DTE inside of the Bryce 5 Skylab. Also, I've been able to reproduce millions of real-sky effects with a few layers of volume slabs... Another option is to create a skysphere, a-la every other pathetic program, and play with volumetrics there. The snake is black, and it's eye's are drops of blood.

thank you people i was actually refering to the skins in the sky lab and i am now reverting to volumetric spheres, rendering, and re importing the image back in on a 2d plane moved well back in the scene. even going to the dte from clouds is limiting