I get tired with the same ole same ole and try every now and then to do something different. I have noticed a different response as well, and sometimes it has been positive and other times not so positive...I think the rest of the time I just scare people, LOL. As for making images...I start most in Apophysis and just try and find something that looks as if it may be interesting. Once I have something then I start 'fine tuning' it and usually as i'm doing this an idea for a finished image will come to me. If I don't get an idea then I will just save it and come back to it later. I also tend to re-use a lot of stuff...One day I may post a finished image on Renderosity and the next day I may use it as a background or gradient for a new image. I have used one image more than a dozen times in different ways...but I ain't saying how or where! ;O) Matt.

Flame is a type of fractal most people use a program called Apophysis to create them and then render them in Ultra Fractal. Only trouble is I can't remember the address of the web site, LOL. Maybe someone else can post it...

Congrats on ya win...well deserved.

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What do you mean by big renders? Do you mean for printing purposes? If this is the case then I would say no. I just spent the last 30 minutes playing with flames in Bryce and the only thing I can really say is that the bigger you make the finished image the more it looks like blurry crap. Even changing the finished size from 3000x2250 at 72dpi to 3000x2250 at 300dpi didn't make any difference. It still looks like blurry crap. Bryce is great if you want to change the flame in some way, incorporate it into a 3D scene or turn it into a material. For trying to make bigger renders of basic flames it isn't really an option though. Maybe I missed something when I was testing it and someone else knows how to do this. I don't use Bryce in this way so i'm not 100% sure. Or try asking in the Bryce Forum...

I agree with Kidace on the ulead products especially smart saver pro. I couldn't make digital images without this program now. It just gives you so much control over the compression of images. Money well spent and 2 thumbs up.

Congratulations to everyone that took part. All the entries were superb.

There is a tutorial on the Hilltop Designs web site for building kaleidoscopes in Bryce. You can also download the scenes which makes it a lot easier. He has a 2 way and 4 way kaleidoscope at the moment. Check out the web site here. http://www.hilltopdesign.com/kaleidoscope/ The other thing you said you found sounds like a multi-reflective arrangement which I have used quite often but is really hard to explain without pictures. You basically make a triangle shape (although it can be any shape) out of planes and make them all highly reflective. Then you position some objects inside the structure and they get reflected off of the walls. You can also make the objects reflective too and they will reflect eachother. Hope this helps a bit.