By the way, I believe just as strongly in freedom of religion, as well. But that doesn't seem to be the issue at the moment, just race. Whoops! Shh, don't give them any ideas...

Actually, I had no idea about you and Rcook. It does explain why he may be reluctant to enter the fray. But SOMEONE in power here should at least ASK people to restrain themselves. I wish I could believe that these people will "get it out of their systems", but that has never been my expirience. I've always found that they will keep pushing it as long and far as you let them. And let me say that I'm lilly-white and American for as many generations back as I've been able to trace. I live in a small town that has very few minorites, except for doctors at our rather large hospital (who have been targets of some ugly incidents themselves, unfortunately). What stake do I have in all of this? None. So then, why am I so vocal about fighting racism? Because it's the right thing to do. SO right that I can't just sit back and go, "Oh well, whatever" like so many others. I can't NOT speak up. I can only hope that someone listens. One final time, I plead for SOMEONE in authority here to go to C&D and ask these people to restrain themselves. And to you and Rcook, Mehndi, I wish the best. May you be spared from any of the crimes that are being committed against your people. What a horrible time this is for ALL of us.

You prove my point exactly, Mehndi. Aren't you a moderator yourself? And yet, here you are, feeling the need to avoid C&D, only because no one here cares enough to rein in the animals spewing hatred all over the forum. When I wrote the above letters, I was trying to keep an open mind toward the powers that be here at Renderosity. But when even you feel the need to hide yourself, when the administrators don't even care enough to try to protect the feelings of their own people, I have to say I'm disgusted. Maybe some of the other mods share these racist feelings? I'm not accusing anyone, but I really have to wonder. I've seen threads locked and people banned for less. Is it too much to ask someone in authority here to post an announcement in C&D advising EVERYONE to cool it? It probably won't be enough, but it would at least show some degree of effort. The TOS says no personal attacks. In my opinion, attacking someone's race or nation of origin is a very personal attack, whether you mention an individual by name or not. I guarantee that if people were saying "niggers" this and "niggers" that, something WOULD be done. But since Arab people are so unpopular right now, no one cares, hmm? Absolutely revolting.

No, I'll admit that no one has said that in those exact words, but the "impatient to turn Afghanistan into a parking lot" rant is the same thing, is it not? I wonder, do any of our members LIVE in Afghanistan? Has anyone even thought for one short moment as to the fact that the people they are in such a hurry to kill might be the same people who helped them solve a problem with Poser last week? And now we have yet ANOTHER new thread just popped up in which people again debate whether or not they should share a plane with a person of Arab descent. Racism, pure and true. I'm not trying to be an alarmist, nor am I here ranting about bans and boycotts, I'm simply asking you folks that watch over this site if you feel that perhaps these messages have gone too far. When racism and bloodthirsty warmongering raise their hideous heads, I personally feel that we've gone beyond compliants and debates and into something far more sinister. Something that, in my humble opinion, does not belong anywhere on a site that claims to be an "Artist's Community". If people got this rowdy in a bar, they be shown the door. Your site, your choice. Personally, I pledge here and now not to dignify anymore of these kinds of messages with responses of any kind. But they're apparently not going to go away unless you make them. Don't you feel that people are upset and hurt enough as it is without coming here and reading messages that only insults them and inflames this whole thing even more? How far is too far? Just a question. Not a rant, not an accusation, just a question, but one that I hope you will all think about very hard. I've loved this site from the moment I stumbled onto it, but all of a sudden I don't feel comfortable here anymore. And having talked privately with other members, I know for sure now that I'm not the only.

A piece of advice: you'll get more responses if you type your link in the URL box so that people can just click on it, especially since that's one long damn link! Most people would just say to hell with it rather than type all that in. Try again.

I love Amapi. I upgraded to 6.1 and I use it for most of my modelling. Carrara's spline modeller is good for some things, and the metaballs have possiblities (although I haven't explored that too much yet), but the vertex modeller is pathetic compared to Amapi. Amapi isn't too hot in the texturing area (and forget about trying to export models with texture intact), and it is a bit touchy (although most any crash I've had was due to my own screw-ups), but it is a really great, flexible tool. It does nurbs, too, one thing Carrara doesn't. Personally, I think Carrara and Amapi 6.1 are an incredible combination. If it weren't for the shaders and all, though, I probably wouldn't even care about Carrara,. Anyone who hasn't really gotten into Amapi doesn't know what they're missing :)

Let's come right and say it. Yes, Bryce sucks. At least when it comes to exporting. I was REALLY hoping v.5 would address this, but I guess they just don't care. Probably too much trouble. Instead they give us a tree lab that almost no one can make work right. What a waste, too. You can build some really great stuff in Bryce, especially now with the MetaBalls and all, but you have to use it in Bryce. Forget about making stuff to use in Poser. Forget about altering stuff in a dedicated, more flexible modeller. Ain't gonna happen. I feel like a sucker for getting the upgrade (stupid me, I thought the tree lab might actually something that resembled a real tree without spending eight months trying to figure the damn thing out), and there's no way I'LL be buying Bryce 6 unless they add better exporting capabilities. But they'll probably just add a plant maker that's as useless as the tree lab. And of course, it'll be even SLOWER...

Just an observation: I see that KidAce posted the same announcement in the Truespace forum, where no one replied at all; the 3DS Max forum, where one person took a guess at what the technique might be; and the Poser forum, where several people discussed rendering techniques. I haven't checked all of the forums (although I know that he didn't post it in the Amapi, Carrara, Lightwave or Amorphium forums), but it appears that only here in the Bryce forum did he get his ass chewed so viciously.

Yes, they did. But as cold as it may sound, life goes on. Should we ignore every insult because thousands of people died yesterday? As far as I'm concerned, it just makes me more determined to fight this sort of thing. Life is too short to spend it being insulted and abused by morons like the PFO. What's more, that is exactly what the terrorists wanted: to cripple us, demoralize us, to stop us in our tracks. And I for one will be DAMNED if I'm going to give the bastards the satisfaction. You want to curl up in a ball and wimper, fine. But I don't think most Americans are going to give up that easily. Life goes on, and by God it SHOULD! Forget bombs and tanks: you want to fight them? Just keep living your life, same as always. That IS what they hate us for, right? That IS what they were trying to stop? They've stolen enough lives. They're NOT getting mine.

Hmm. The PFO folks hate us because we're members of Renderosity. Kind of like how these terrorists hate us because we're Americans...? Sigh Hasn't anyone learned ANYTHING from what happened yesterday? I support a ban wholeheartedly, at least until they see the light, apologize, and end this stupid obsession with Renderosity. Anyone with such ignorant biases should be held accountable for them. I don't care what their gripe is with this site, they should not be taking it out on our members. Maybe when nine-tenths of their members leave, they'll re-think their policies? On the other hand, if no one takes a stand, then nothing will ever change. But no flame wars, please. That just causes more anger. We've had enough of that, haven't we? If you want to support this, just don't go there anymore. If Ian gets lonely, let HIM come HERE and apologize. Until then, I for one am going to avoid the PFO like a dead skunk on the highway.

People, let's get control of ourselves before the admins step in and start locking threads and banning people, OK? Jesus, you'd think a major catastophe like we've just suffered would help people put things in perspective, and yet here you are clawing and slashing over the stupidest shit. If the Kid's technique is useful, fine, if not, oh well, he tried. And if anyone really wants to be an asshole, at least let the poor guy POST his idea before you rip him to shreds, OK?

I just want to know how you posted in red letters. I didn't think that was possible. Cool.

Hoooooo-boy! Kid, I'm sure you have the best of intentions, but when you do finally post your big secret method, you'd best do it from the Burn Unit, 'cause no matter how brilliant it may be, you are going to get flamed like no one else has ever been flamed here in the history of Renderosity, and maybe even the internet itself. And if you chicken out and don't post, it'll be even worse (if that's possible). What are you going to do if someone guesses your method here first? Just some friendly advice, but I'd just say to hell with it and post it now. The longer you wait, the longer unrealistic expectations build, and the worse you'll get torched when you do spit it out. Again, I'M not flaming you, I just don't think you realize exactly what you've gotten yourself into and, judging by your secound post above, I don't think you're thick-skinned enough to handle it. Hell, I'm not sure ANYONE is THAT thick-skinned...

Thanks for the help.

Yeah, now this looks more like what the manual was talking about (although the flat mapping works pretty good). Is there a way to do it this way with vertex objects, aside from the Detach/Cut/Paste method I described above? Also, I haven't used the metaball modeler yet. Do any of these methods work with metaballs?