Comments please. This is an update on my previous project. I modified the cieling to produce some effect of depth (it is domed but it looked flat). I also added 72 skylights and attempted to use a cloud plane to produce the feeling of a massive structure. The opening at the apex of the dome is a sort of steeple and colminates light into a visible pillar strecthing to the floor. I'll post a pic of the modifications to the central fountain as soon as it finishes rendering.

You'll want to make the tree trunk thinner to help with scale. You may also want to increase the frequency of the dome texture to make it look smaller. It's needs just a few more "known" things to help show the scale of the building. Maybe some candle holders or a spiral staircase...something that will help compare to the size of the building.

Ahh ok. Thanks. Any other suggestions on 'known' things to use? Candlsticks, i can work in, they won't seem out of place. A spiral staircase though...I don't think that will work in well, I'm trying to create the impression of a Large open air feeling within the structure. Some Poser Models perhaps? If a few peopler were inserted, it might give an impression of the scale.

Any thoughts as to this?

yes, that would be great. i didn't suggest it because I thought you might not have poser, but now that I know you do, people would be excellent. Maybe cut some long narrow slits in the walls to give is a more open feeling. I would also make the steeple hole bigger around to let more light in. You might also try moving the camera furthur back from where it is now, and that way you can see more rows of those benches/blocks. Maybe also put a few statues around the place (you can use poser people)

Perhaps some balconys (-ies???) between those pillars! Looking forward to the end result

Pillar caps, even small simple ones may add a bit more detail to draw the eye. Looks great

You need to decrease the bump maps. High bump maps make things look smaller (and I'm talking about bump depth, not frequency). I normally use a value of 15 or less for any object more than a few metres from the camera.

Thanks for the sugestions so far. Well, I don't have Poser, I was thinking of going to the Poser forum an suggesting a joint project. I had Poser but never got the hang of it, so I got rid of it (borrowed from a friend to try it out). I did make a couple of statues with some of the preset poses. I think balconies are a good idea, I'll try a couple. If I mov ethe pillars out a little, I could intersect te balconies with the pillars so they are supports. As to pillar caps, they were there somehow the got lost in the render. I'll try to fix that.

I know it will kill your render time, but you'll want to make that light volume visible so it will cast more realistic shadows. You'll also want to give it a little edge softness. Try blending the marble in those pillars with another material for color. When you control-click one of the empty dots in the materials lab, you can share spaces. Try blenginf the marble with a light smooth snady color.

Attached Link: http://www.brycetech.com/tutor/bryce/matlab9.html

here's more on blending materials

you might want to make the pillar of light fade as it goes up? seems like there's a lot of haze close to the ground, so it would be much more visible there than at the top

Thanks for the good suggestions regarding the light. I'll try to soften it some. Maybe a different type of water will help the effect as well. I'll see if the volume visible light does the effect differently, and if it does, well, I'll just have to suffer a bad render time, I can splite the load with three otehr comps in my room. That pic took about 7 hours to render, with no AA, split across 3 comps. And there's only two light sources other than the sun right now....a sperical light for ambient light and preview renders that I'll get rid of before the final, and the circular parrallel light as the column...Oh boy the final is gonna take days.

I really want to replace that tree with a rose bush. Does anyone know where I can get a rose bush to import into Bryce?

Your render time is so long because of the marble material. I don't know why but that takes forever for some reason. Take a look at the link and see if any of the materials are close to what you want, and then you can down load them and edit them so they will work. All of them are relatively fast. For a rose bush, go here: http://3dmodelworld.com/3dsmodels3.asp http://3dmodelworld.com/3dsmodels4.asp http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/plt_pics.asp whichever one you choose, make the leaves slightly transparent and it will look great with the volume light.

Attached Link: http://home.earthlink.net/~sandrewssprint0/index.html

oops...here's that link for the materials

Thanks for the links to models. I found a coupld good roses and will make an experimetn of it. Probably will have them ready tomorrow afternoon cometime.

You guys have been great. I'll post the next batch of renders in a new thread

So far this picture has a very nice feel to it. This may be just a personal quirk, but here it is: I would cut back on the ambience of the walls and pillars.

either that or darken the ambient light in the sky lab (one could also increase the shadow intensity there) That would give a more moody sense to the visible light beam in the centre of the building. More draw for the eye.