Still drop in from time to time. The old place isn't as busy as it used to be though. The last couple of years have been slow for me creatively, but in the last month or so I've had a resurgence. I'm currently working on a series of space related images in the hope of a commission. Although photoshop accounts for the lions share of the work I used bryce to render some of the planets in this scene.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2477386

Well it's been a bumper year here in Britain. Lots to cheer for, which is unusual as we like a moan. We had the Olympics, and the Jubilee last year. Then this year we had Andy Murray winning Wimbledon, Chris Froome winning the Tour de France, after Wiggo won it last year. We are currently giving the Aussies a bashing at cricket after many years of them humiliating us. Also the British Lions beat the Aussies down under as well. 

I'm pleased for William and Kate because they seem a nice couple. I think Prince William is breathing fresh life into the Royal family and think his Father should step aside when the time comes. I do appreciate the hard work the Queen has put in over the years, especially now that she is 87. 

Oh and we've actually had 4 a couple of months of decent weather which is starting to resemble a summer. The first in about 7 years after one of the longest/ coldest/ wettest winters in years.

Well not so much a novel, but I'd like to see a good depiction of WW1 put onto the big screen. It's a great interest of mine and I've read many books on the subject and visited Ypres last year. Some photos I took if anyones interested

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinsta303/8396885659/in/photostream/

Spielberg went some way with Warhorse but it never really captured the full horrors or the war and the tragic loss. I think a good story would be the pals battalions that joined up and went on to fight at the battle of the Somme. They were unique in that a whole town or working companions joined together and served together. The problem was that as in the case of the Somme they were wiped out in minutes meaning whole communites were devastated when the men of the town never returned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pals_battalion

The best movie about WW1 in my opinion is Gallipoli which touches on the points I mentioned to some degree. I'd recommend anybody who hasn't watched it to do so.

On a side note I think Spielberg really coped out making War of the Worlds the way he did. I wish he had stuck to the original story.

http://brycetech.daz3d.com/tutor/bryce/mask.html

Use an object mask.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/sbaker5/journal/4405646-bryce-5-5-make-your-own-textures-tutorial-03-in-a-series

Rashad is there somewhere on line that tells you how to make Bryce 7 more stable. At the moment I only use it for the light lab. It doesn't seem to be stable enough for me to work with. I have tried to use it as I would Bryce 5 but have had to deal with numerous crashes when doing simple things such as duplicating an object or changing a material. Also if I load up a large scene from B5 into 7 I find that 7 runs a lot slower between actions than in 5. I'm constantly saving anychanges so it gets very frustrating.

Well I certainly will be sad to see this go. I and others tried to ignite interest in this and only last year we had a decent debate on the matter. But what will be will be and I'd like to thank Chris for his hard work, even through difficult times. I can see your point ArtbyMivan and I guess I am guilty of that as I've won a few over the past couple of years. But I don't enter to win, I just wanted the community to stay alive as I could see the decline on the forum and submissions to the gallery in terms of numbers. The challenge for me was a way of learning and trying out new ideas that maybe I wouldn't try otherwise. I guess I was lucky enough to be around when this competition was at it's height back around 10 yrs ago. 

I'd like to ask that members post up mini challenges within the forum, as in choose a subject of your choice. Obviously the voting process won't happen but members can join in just for fun.

Thanks Bobby

How do you do a clickable link nowadays. Just thought because I'd be probably too lazy to highlight the text and paste in my browser.

Blimey this challenge is really dying a death now, three months and only 5 entries. Oh well. Please don't respond to my comment and keep the thread clean.

Anyway thanks to those who took part and my vote is

1. Danwhiteside ( nice whispy clouds)

2. Eblank

3. adbc

Honourable mention to Karl. Think that covers it!

This should sort the problem for you

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=2281

You need volumetric spheres, but be careful not to overlap them as you will get artifacts on the material. I have a tutorial about making clouds here which may help you to some extent. Ignore the part about changing the volume blend altitude and distance as it wouldn't be needed for this scene. Then you could place a radial light at the base of the space ship and increase the brightness. Probably best to set the range distance that the light has.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=2279

I'll have a go at making the image myself and see what I can come up with.

I know all about David Brinnen, but even he questions it. Look you can't blame people for questioning the techniques involved. All I'm saying is I've been using Bryce for years and have never seen planets or space backdrops created this way that look so realistic. If you have created it all then hats off to you mate. I can't blame you for being defensive  and would love for you to share a few techniques on how it's done thats all. Surely you would love to prove the doubters wrong.

I'm a bit dubious Karl. The wire frames posted on his other vids don't show any signs of volumetrics, and when you look at the backgrounds they are far too detailed as in Nebulas to be created in Bryce alone. So far he hasn't argued the case as there is a thread on Daz which he posted. People questioned the ability to create the whole animation in Bryce alone and he hsan't answered or given any details as yet. Still nice animation whatever the outcome,