this is something I have currently been working/struggling with. Im finding the easiest way to do this is to make your image as simple as possible. Meaning, make the image as close to monotone as you can. Remember, highlites in the picture from reflective surfaces or the camera flash will appear as a very high elevation in Bryce (may sound a lil obvious, but its something that Ive been dealing with lately). I usually just make the image completely white and tinker with details after that, depending on the texture to make up for any lack of details in the modeling. Dunno if any of my rambling helped, but I tried :-

haha Claymour...beat ya! (just barely) 2288kbs from AT&T @home...ahhh, I love my cable...DOWN with AOL :-)

looks very nice so far.... I would like to see some wildlife in it. Perhaps a crane, egret or water bird of some sort by the edge of the pond. about all i can think of :-)

sweet...Ill keep that in mind Hepcat

thanks for the replies...Roch, Grandfather clock is actually under the floor too far...the lighting makes it appear as if it is floating...The strong shadow cast by the fan is due in part to a radial light I forgot to take out before rendering ...good ideas about focal point and "messing up the room" rayraz and madmax...my look I was going for was kind of a fancy room where a rich person might dwell. But maybe Ill change around some of the objects and the style of the image...thanks again all!

not yet...planning on doing any gun model I can think of though...eventually (when I have the time). For now, its the mp5 series and the Colt/Armalite series

...and pakled, I have figured out how to do the magazine more accurately now. Im going to use a 2d picture in the lattice editor to create the magazine (like i did for the m4a1). and the ejection port if thats what you are referring to is on the other side of the gun)

yeah, thanks...I feel stupid...I figured it out 5 mins after posting...thanks though :-)

ok, Ive been using Bryce for 4 years but have only had Bryce 5 for like 3 months and this metaball thing is killing me. I want to do some metaball modeling, but I cant get the boolean thing to work (well I did once, but havent since). Im not too sure wut I did to make it work, butI really want to learn how to do this. it wont make the metball negative when I give it negative attributes. Can anyone help?? thanks

I got a better look at it....it does appear to be the bullet...my bad, thought it was the casing again, very good!

Bryce's real limitations are those of the user. You can create nearly anything with such a simple tool as many people dismiss it as a "newbie" program. If you are de-noting the fact that you can create art in Bryce, I believe you can create art in anything. I often have friendly competitions with my classmates at college to see who can model a certain object fastest and have it be judged to see whos is best. I have won on several occasions with just using Bryce whereas they used Lightwave and 3dmax. So I wouldn't really call it a limited program, its got a lot to offer...arg, I digress, I dont want to get too off topic (im sure I already have)

very nice....techical suggestion though...you show the casing going through the glass, the casing is ejected by the gun, the only part that leaves the barrel is the bullet attatched to the end of the casing....very nice though!!

I am new to these here forums ;-) but have used Bryce for about 4 years. I used to be an importer (meaning I used to borrow other's models because I did not know how to model them myself and used to think it was impossible to do in Bryce). In the last year or so, I have started doing all my own Bryce modeling. I really enjoy it and find it a fascinating challenge. I also recently started "real" 3d moedling (by this I mean 3dmax and what not). I have to say, I personally like modeling in Bryce because fewer people can or want to model in Bryce. Im not familiar with the contests you guys are talking about, but I personally think pure Bryce art should be entirely modeled and rendered in Bryce. Just my lil opinion if anyone cares :-)