It is indeed a great logo. I agree with the comments on the bevel. I think a more angular bevel would produce a more "Iron" feel rather than the rounded one. The goldish ring around the edge is a good touch.

It could be things like issues with the fact that it's overclocked, or your processor might be happier with pc100 rather than pc133 depending on which version of the p3 you have, and what motherboard you have. It might also be a video card issue as well, but it's more likely that it's an issue with the processor or memory. Try running your processor at 450 and see if it is more stable.

Actually, the model is based on Obi Wan Kenobi's lightsaber from Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope. did about 6 hours of online research to get it right before I modeled it.

Could you post the code required to embed the metastream 2 files?

Made my first MetaStream file tonight, it looks kinda nifty. Decided it would be nice to embed in a web page so maybe I could have a description on the same page. I thought to myself "hmm me, how do you embed a MetaStream file?" So I go to metacreations.com and from there to metastream.com and find a whole bunch of junk about how I can use metastream to improve my business. So after a while of digging and poking I find the source I need to embed the file. In the source they posted there's a line reading something like "please obtain a broadcast id". What's a broadcast id? More poking and searching. Hmm, a broadcast id is a code that you have to either purchase, or prove your are a non-profit entity to obtain. Then there's mention of a form to fill out online to get it. But there is no form, it says it will be up soon. So I have to email sales@metastream.com or something like that. I just want to make a page that I can use to show people on renderosity my work! Does it need to be so complicated?

Hmm, for me it would probably be quicker to revolve a curve and do some booleans in Rhino and then render it in Carrara than it would to take the time to make the grayscale image in photoshop and then tweak the settings in Carrara to get a mesh that way.

What image resolution did you use for such detailed meshes (the wheels)? Will a higher image resolution result in more detailed meshes?

In the documentation for my scanner it says both the hardware and software resolutions for it. 9600dpi software 1200x600 hardware. If it gives you two sets of numbers the lower set is usually hardware.

I have left photoshop unattended for entire weekends with screen savers going and other programs using memory (like realjukebox which is wonky with it's memory handling) and photoshop has held up like a champ. Photoshop is probably the single most stable application on my computer.

So it's all a matter of personal preference? How do people like modelling in Carrara? I use Rhino for my modelling currently. I have only had Carrara a week so I have yet to learn how to use the 3 modellers in it.

Based on my recent reading of the manual Carrara has a terrain modeller with the same features and more than I remember from Bryce 2. I will admit that Carrara doesn't have the tree library that I remember from Bryce, but I am sure there are ways to work around that. With the volumetric clouds and fog, as well as the neat stuff you can do with light sources, and particle systems and things like that I still don't understand the point of Bryce.

I think that the transition from 4.0 to 5.0 was a worthwhile one, if only for the history pallete, the improved text and the layer effects. I admit I was mighty annoyed when they moved the transform stuff from the layer menu to the edit menu, but I am used to it now and don't think I could go back to using 4.0.

I stumbled across Bonestructure's kitten picture last night and have to say I am impressed. It's quite skillful, looks painted, and skillfully so. It's a good example that the capabilities of the program depend largely on the capabilities of the person using it. I say find the program that you find most comfortable working in, and improve your skillset for that program instead of trying to learn a new program because it has a different toolset.

For those of use with only one monitor.... I have my display set to 1280x1024 (the highest the monitor supports) and still find that I don't have enough work area in Photoshop. it's a 17" monitor too. I don't want to try moving my toolbars or palletes or anything like that cause I have them where I am used to them. The only solution for people like me is to get a bigger monitor that supports higher resolution.

It has always been my preference to use jpegs whenever possible. despite their lack of transparency you can get pretty good file sizes without any loss in your color pallete. Pages with a background color and no background image are easier to read, quicker to load, and easier to match images to without using transparent gifs. I am just generally against gifs for anything but small and simple animations. Also I have been known to beat up my coworkers for pronouncing GIF as JIF. (it's Graphics Interchange Format and Graphics does not have a J sound) Sorry for the rant...