Another way to simulate a fish-eye lens is to create a 100% reflective sphere, place it directly in front of your rendering camera and group them. Turn the group 180 away from your scene, and render. You'll see your scene as it is reflected on the sphere and... voila! Fish eye! Try different reflective shapes and see what you get.

Another cause for the large bounding box may relate to your use of control points in the spline modeler. Carrara and Raydream include the position of control points when determining the overall size of an object (as shown above).

If you want a more accurate bounding box you can take the piece back into the spline modeler and add cross-sections, but this can sometimes create odd little ridges that you may not want.

Hope that helps,
Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

Well done Scifirex - I tip my space helmet to you. Now you have an entire month to think of a non-cheese-related theme for the next contest. Congrats, Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

I like your animation - the walk cycle was well done. There are several good renderings in your gallery, too. Keep up the good work! Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

I like those odds. I'm in! Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

Sorry, tjames, but I suspect your best bet would be to purchase a new copy of RDS off of E-Bay. There are several currently up for bid ranging from $8.00 to $30.00 - and the user's manual alone is worth more than that. Good luck, Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. I do have Carrara, and I'm slowly weaning myself off of Ray Dream. Comfortable familiar Ray Dream (dabs a single tear). I plan on getting Carrara Studio 2 soon, based solely on the global illumination renders I've seen here. I'd love to feed this model to the GI renderer. Thanks again, Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

Hey Dex. I love the animation (and the music is pretty good too). What app did you use to add audio? Take care, Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

Sweeeeet. Nice paint, too. Which modeler did you use most? I'm thinking vertex. By the way, you didn't use the AMF plastic model kit for reference did you? The pilots in that kit had super-stubby legs and looooong arms (as if the rebels had been recruiting from the planet of the apes). Great work. Hope you do well in the contest. Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

That's an excellent article, but I have one question.... In section B: Changing the shape of particles, it says to "set the shape of the particles to rectangle". I don't see a particle shape option in the particle modeling window. Where is that option (or is it part of the "Boolean Textures" tutorial mentioned later in the message? Thanks for your help, Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

Very cool! I like the faceted cockpit and the retro-mechanical look of the machineguns. I wonder if George Lucas is hiring ;^) Keep up the good work! Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

Hello all,
Thanks for the comments and suggestions. Some of you had questions, so here's the scoop. Modeled in... Ray Dream Studio v5.5, all parts are free-form (spline) models.
The individual parts were then exported as obj files, mapped with UV Mapper, painted in CorelDraw and Corel PhotoPaint, then brought back into RayDream.
Due to RayDream's poor handling of bump maps, the next renders will be from Carrara Studio 1.1.
Modeling time was embarrassingly long, but educational.
I envisioned the craft as a two-seater with the cockpit configured exactly as described by Bluestone (you been peeking in my sketch book?), functioning as a surface-to-space fighter.
I'm in the process of re-modeling the wings so that they can fold up for easy storage.
Regarding battle damage, weathering and insignia; those will be changed/added when I come up with a specific scene for the model to appear in. The basic paint job was created as a vector graphic which allows for very easy modification.

Here's a question for the room. Can a model composed of several obj files, each with their own texturemap, be brought into Poser - and if so - is there a tutorial showing how to best prepare the model for that process?

Thanks all,
Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

It should be noted, gentle readers, that Lassie had been sent to get help by one of the workmen shoveling out the horse barn. It was his last act before being overcome by the smell of "fine French cheese."

(Just a little joke).

Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean

Superb work. Very close to photorealistic. I'd love to see the final textured model.

The above illustration shows a glowing sphere partially obscured by a rectangle, but when the rectangle's transparency is set to 100% ~~~ viola ~~~ the object is visible, but the aura is still blocked.

Hope that helps.

Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean