lol... that's awesome. =)

me neither...

Claymor-- Yeah, probably read-only. Still, can't hurt to try, I suppose... it's not as if Microsoft loses more money by actually giving us a useful product for once in this instance, since they don't actually TELL us it's read-only. (fingers crossed)

The above is an image that I did a while back. Ignoring the poor modelling of the rocket, the cloud effect was achieved by using multiple volumetric spheres with the "Burning Tire Smoke" texture applied to them. You avoid overlapping them so that you don't get those annoying volumetric artifacts; instead, you overlap them from the point of view of the camera. This makes it look like one large cloud effect rather than the several cloud spheres that would appear from any other POV.

You might try a variation on this technique, but the dust kickup that you have should not be simply a round kickup; instead, it should have a much more irregular shape. Also, you might try making the ground indent somewhat underneath (all that dust had to come from somewhere). Otherwise, it looks like a landmine exploding. =)

Message edited on: 02/28/2006 12:56

Awesome. You can't get more cool than exploding mice.

Bryster--
Guess I should be flattered. I was originally inspired by that image, but personally I'm not sure how it's close enough that they could be confused, lol. Ah, well, hopefully the next one will be more original. =)

bandolin--
People would be nice, but I'm sort of through using other peoples' models in my scenes and I don't have a good program for creating/posing character models (not to mention that any character model made by me would be totally out of place in a scene like this, quality-wise, lol).

Sans-2012--
lol@light domes. Blurry reflections just looks ten times better to me.

Good idea on the core scaling, but after seeing a partially rendered variant of this image with the floor all glassy, I'm FINALLY completely satisfied with it. I think that the reflection adds enough detail to the floor and makes the composition interesting enough.

Thanks!

Message edited on: 02/23/2006 13:00

Sans2012--
Actually, neither. I find using light domes to be overly complicated and limited in application, and the "True Ambience" setting under Premium... well, it leaves a LOT to be desired. I'm referring to the old trick of making everything in your scene reflective with full white as specular halo, and then using the "Blurry Reflections" option under Premium settings. It's a passable falsification of radiosity, I suppose, but no substitute for the real thing. It's the best I know how to get using Bryce as my renderer.

Cyba_Storm--
Great idea. However, this scene is already taking FOREVER and several weeks to render, even using some of the tricks mentioned in this thread that I didn't already know (thanks for those, btw). I'm already having nightmares/headaches about the final render. =( Oh, well, something to think about for the next one....

Message edited on: 02/23/2006 04:49

Thanks, everyone! foleypro-- If you're talking about layered rendering, I can't do that. I'm using fake radiosity; this means that every object has a slight effect on every other object. So, no layered rendering. AS-- It's not resized down. However, the fake radiosity means that EVERYTHING is reflective (yes, I'm using that method for lack of real radiosity). That's why it's 16hrs instead of 15mins or so. I rendered using radiosity because one of the things I'm testing out is how the ambient lighting will look in the final image. So, Premium is necessary I'm afraid. =( I'll look into reducing the shadows on lights, etc.; sounds like a good plan. Dann-O-- Hmm... I'll check out turning down the bump. I suspect that it may not end up with the effect I'm going for, but I'll try it anyway (anything to reduce those render times!<-without sacrificing quality, of course). As for the ranged lights, you're probably right. I think the scene is too bright, anyway, so turning down the range is something that I've been intending to do since I first saw the final rendered scene. lol@flak I'm not very disappointed; it's still a major step up from anything else I've ever done. And again, it should look better with the floor made of glass. Thanks again and will keep you posted.

I agree. Even if not a background, so long as it's a flat surface. Looks very useful and impressive.

Wow, that is immensely useful to me. Thanks very, very much.

Thanks for the comments everyone! AS-- Your textures always get me in your scenes. I'm awful with texturing (hopefully will be taking a class in Photoshop next Summer or Fall that may help to rectify that somewhat). Quest-- Good idea there, although it seems to me somewhat limited in application because it can only be applied to flat surfaces. Looks like some great greeble can be generated that way.

That is AWESOME. My roommate is really into Linux and hates Windows; he'll get a kick out of this. The really sad part is that, according to this, it looks like they're going to fix a lot of the bugs in the current version. =)

Um... Technically speaking, wouldn't it be infinite mice (assuming that we are counting the reflections as real mice), since the reflections will just continue back indefinitely? Even if not, remember that there will also be mice behind the camera, since there is obviously a mirror behind the camera as well....

Sweet....