thanks for the comments re the picture. @bigbadelf - fixed the dude so that he is now smooth. i had forgotten to smooth the mesh :/ he does look much better smoothed. @burgi if you get more than enough donations for a G5 - could you please send the excess my way - i'd love one too. ;) an apple a day keeps bill gates poor. :)

so sorry to hear about your loss. :( we have a lot of hoons around here so i've brought up both my cats as indoor cats - lots of toys and cat stuff to keep them content. i'd be so cut if i lost one of my 'girls'

my condolences to you and your family at this time of loss. i am sorry that this has happened to you and yours. i will keep you close in my thoughts and prayers. Lee

thanks for sharing

it would definitely be the file size affecting the paintstrokes. painter 8 is very memory hungry to begin with. also some of the brush types will drain memory even more due to their complexity. you should really consider increasing the ram to at least 512 - more if you can afford it. good luck with it. :)

My deepest condolences to you and your family. Lee

sorry i meant Slakker not alakker - my typing skills are not so good :/

thanks for the comments :) alakker, the image shows the structure of the fairy. i made a 3ds model, created a transperant mat for it and then placed a small radial light at the centre. i used the default light settings with intensities ranging from 20 to 30 for each of the models. found some of the results to be very colourful while experimenting. if you'd like to IM me your email addy i can send you a zip of the 3ds file and the mat i made - that is, if you use a PC. was going to upload it and provide a link but i can't contact my host sever at the moment - annoying in more ways that one. when i get the server sorted i'll upload it to free stuff, but don't know when that'll be.

thanks for the suggestions Melansian - will try it out, and will definitely look up the tutes - those eyebrows have really driven me nuts. i was going to leave the girl bald - but am interested to know what others think. the piece is about an unexpected discovery but haven't made up my mind as to a definite title yet.

version 2 :) - getting more waterdrop like, i think.

tjohn i don't know if this will help, but is this along the lines of what you had in mind for the water drips. this is very rough but if this is like what you're after i could see if i could improve it and then make it into a mat

these are so cool - thanks :)

thanks danamo - they're great suggestions and i'll definitely try them out too

thanks for the info - i had thought i had just done my usual trick of missing an obvious setting. :) i'll try what you suggested eelie - much gratitude

draculaz - i just love the realism of your VUE work :) this is certain to cause an impressive conversion rate of users from Bryce to Vue ;) to think this is what i've been missing