I forgot to mention....after you have duplicated the user.mat file you need to either put it into the user folder or the installed folder in the material presets folder.

In bryce 5, there is a file in called user.mat that is just like 1k or something (it's really small) and it's in the main presets folder. Duplicate that file and call it whatever you want .mat. Then in bryce there is a new category! You need to unzip all of the materials outside of bryce and then you have to go to the presets menu, select the new category, and import the materials into the right places. Hint: You can also duplicate the user.mat file and turn it into user.obp, user.brt, user.bsk, and it will allow you to do the same things for materials, objects, and skies.

Anyone know when the deadline is or when the voting starts?

I want both.

I do the same. I use post-work only for render defects - such as artifacts or jaggy edges. I think the real reason people use post-work for big things, i.e. smoke, color enhacing, blurring, etc. is that althought they are possible in bryce, most post-work solutions look better and are easier. I never got caught up in the post work world because for my first year and a half of bryce I was to poor to get a darned graphics app like photshop. In order to encourage more experimentation with these effects in bryce, I am soon to release a tutorial/web section "how to skip the post work," and it will cover different ways to acheive certain effects in bryce that will look like the real thing. For example: lightsaber blades, fireworks, some lens flares, smoke/spot fog, ocean and wave mists, and glossy/sparkly glass effects.

Make a path from the preset libray...preferably one with a lot of curves to it. Then make a crapload of metaballs that are the right diameter for your pipes or tubes. Bend the path into the shape you want by pulling the little blue handle points around. Then link all the metaballs to the path, and under attributes, click "align to path." Then move one metaball to the end of the path, the next one so it's touching it....and so on....until you've finished the tube. Then delete the extra metaballs if you have any and do any tweaks to make it just right. This is the real cool part: save it in the presets because it's fully editable. Whenever you want a pipe just get it from the presets and you can edit it to fit your needs by pulling the pah handles around. You can also change the size of the metaballs as needed.

Very nice, I love to ripple effect. The one thing I could point out is that the scale is just a bit funny in the picture, and without close studying it looks like the dome is just an underwtaer buoy or a piece of research equipment. Maybe it's the camera angle and the lighting. If you have a chance, play with the camera and see what you can come up with. Also, try dimming the lights as you go further away, and that will help with both depth-illusion and scale.

Click the little button right next to the big render button on the right to resume the render if you've stopped it. I don't now if this works during lightning but I would assume it does. Whenever you click anywhere on the bryce screen it will stop whatever render you are doing.(yes, we all hate this - a simple warning message would be nice) In figuring out how long it will take, render one frame and look at the time it took, and then multiply it by the number of frames you have in the animation. The numbers may tell you, but I don't know what they mean because I have never gotten lightning to work before. Also try looking in the bottom left of the host computer and you may find info there.

Just try making the material lightly reflective and switch TIR on in the render options. This will give it sparkle and will actually save render time!

I use only bryce and rarely photoshop franly because I am dirt poor and can't afford anything else. I actually feel that only relying on bryce has helped a lot because I can do things now I would have never thoguht possible if I had other software.

try using a cluster of metaballs with different volumetric textures that blend more into the water towards the bottom of the splash, and then turn to a mist at the top.

OK, I figured something out here fellas. There are two ways to go about this. One is to make lattice terrains and stuff them full of little dots and keep make them solid. Then apply the desired color and make it a bright additive transparent blend. Then duplicate the terrain, open it up and smooth it a few times. Then go into the mat editor and make it dimmer, more transparent, and a slighly different shade. This way, It looks like you have a whole load of dots that are bright in the center but are surrounded by a glow. Another thing i thought up of draws its inspiration frm Vic Haynes, so I'd like to give him some credit before I continue. Ok, well...what are particles? Particles are many small objects in their own 3d space. What is the closest thing bryce has to a lot of small objects through space?.....It has a tree lab, by George!!!! Basically, make a tree, go into the tree editor and set randomness to zero and gravity to around 80. Mess with the othr settings until you get a somehwate high density tree in a spherical shape. Then go into the trunk material and make it invisible. Under foliage, make the leaves something round...maybe use the user leaf option...size 2...amount 4-5....and then in the mat editor make them a very dim yet still easily visible additive transparent color. Make sure the leaves are set to the "bunched" setting(this is what I used). Then duplicate the tree make the leaf size 1, and keep everything else the same. For the leaf material, make it a brighy and fuzzy additive color. Then render and check it out. (You may want to group the trees and flatten them a bit) I am sorry that tutorial is kind of sketchy, but I am still working on the concept. Expect a full and complete tutotial soon.

I'm glad you like the image. The render was sure long enough....lol...and I actually figured out a cool technique to use for the "abyssal" effct but I will wait until some more pics have been posted before I go write a tutorial about it. Boy, the thing that gave me the most trouble in that image was the darn jellyfish...sheesh.....I had to hand-paint all of those tentacles on because they wouldn't mask right....lol

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

ahhhh.....ok...i get it...lol. Thanks for the comment.