(i'd rather do "make the best sphere you can", otherwise it is getting too technical for me to compete!)

Oh, i didn't know that.......thank you!  :)

Oh, I agree the thing should be closed, and done so long ago.....I still thought Dan had won third before the last vote...guess I was wrong.  WHat about the thumbnail thing?  Whats that all about?

LOL......I can't do either distant worlds OR secret gardens (but heck, it will give me something new to try I suppose)....Open to whatver is finally decided.  

Whats with the Thumbnail thingie that we are not supposed to forget?  (are we supposed to do somethign with it?)

(err....double check the pt count, because when I counted I had Dan Whiteside in Third, and me behind by one...double check to make sure)

I haven't checked as of late, but he was going to release GeoControl Pro, which enables you to build and export 8 seamless terrains as 1 big unified mesh......out yet?

u werent thinking proactively!! you shoulda made 20-30 terrains and stored them in your library!  lol

Ha!  Thanks!  It really is a VERY cool terrain....I wish i could do somethig with it!  Would love to give it to someone much more talented then me, and see what they come up with.  (i just do models, i can't do scenes.....and just having the terrain sitting on the grond floor isn't all that exciting)  Well, I could put water around it!  lol.  You'd be really hard pressed to make this terrain in Bryce......so if anyone wants it, just drop a note.

A couple was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary not too long ago....lovingly sharing the event at a glorious, romantic dinner for 2.  A 'good fairy' appeared, granting them each a wish.  The wife wished for a romantic cruise around the world with her wonderful hubby!  The hubby said...."Hey, that romantic cruise sounds great, but I sure woudl like it with a woman 25 years younger"!

Poof!  He became 103!  

Moral:  careful what you wish for!  lol

Congrats to Orbital!  (you mean to tell me this thing is STILL going on?????)  wow!  I have just been checking in to see what was up next!  On another note, I wrote AS in regards that lots of people can not even find their way here TO vote, because the logical place to go would be the link called "Contests in Voting".....which contains basically nothing at all.....so people are at a loss.  Seems logical if people want to vote on a contest, THAT is where they would go!  I think that should be fixed.  I never got a reply, nor has it ever been fixed!  lol  (just throwing the thought out there!)

And since you are the clear winner....even though you need the Moderator (i beleive), to get the forum site for posting going....a head's up on what you have in mind woudl be cool....especially for me., cuz I only get a creative thought maybe once or twice per year!!  I need the headstart, and I hate to blow an opportunity if one should happen to come down upon me! lol

Orbital - 3 pts
jimw -2 pts
Moduleone - 1 pt

This was very tough....I thought jimw did a little bit better technically on his piece, but gave the nod to Orbital for doing his own model building.  Very tough choice.

Was tough to choose between Moduleone and Electroglyph, both very imaginative and imbuing the word "old" with meaning beyond 'rust'.  Gave the nod to Moduleone simply because I thought the lack of 'soft shadows' in the other peice served to obscure and hide what would otherwise have been a 3ptr probably!  

Lots of great posts, and HM to death_at_midnight, because after going and looking at the peice he intended for this contest....THAT would have been the 'clear winner', IMHO.  Great job to all!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1454667&member

Why?  It has taken everything I have learned in the last 4 months, and compiled it all into a signle image, and even during the contstruction of this peice, I picked up a couple of new techniques.  For me, it pushed the the limits of my current technical abilities in all areas....Modeling, Texturing, Lighting...it pushed me personally in Creativity and Imagination...and with over 4,000 metaballs, and a slew of other standard primitives and appx 40 lights....it also taxed the hell outta my computer!  

(now I am going to go look at everyone else's personal favs...because the only way I have been learning, is to study the great works of those that came along wayyyyyyy before me!)

Wow!  I am floored!  I am brand new at this (not quite 3 months yet).  I have looked at Agent Smiths, Drawbridge, Death at MIdnight, Thandaluz, ICM's, and others galleries....and I dont hold a candle to these great artists....i have maybe 5 things I have done that I consider "art" or even all that good....since most of my posts are just posting stuff as I learn it, not artistically oriented.  Getting any kind of recognition at all when standing next to these great technicians and artists is just totally thrilling, and inspires me to keep struggllng along and learning more.  

This was fun!  Many thanks to those that deemed my work meritorious. Congratulations to the winners, it was well deserved.  Lots of fantastic posts in this competition, I dont really know how anyone could choose just 3 out of what I deemed to be about 10 candidates for First Place.

Aw.....thanks!  I liked my picture a lot at the time, but I have now been playing with Bryce for 2 weeks longer. Now that I am finally getting a little more technical expertise under my belt, I find it much harder to please myself, striving for absolute realism as best I can.  I have Vue, 3dMax, Houdini, Maya, and a few more programs awaiting me (still shrink-wrapped), but I wanted to learn how to work Bryce before moving on to others.  I think it has been almost 3 months now since I first started, and I have learned about 1/10th of it!  I betcha everyone that looks at their own work is much harder on themselves then the outside observer.  I see 2 things in my post I wish I woulda fixed before i posted it.  Probably no one else even noticed.    But along the way, I got modeling under my belt, texturing, and a few other tricks...now maybe one day I might actually learn how to do something "green" and make a scene!  lol

In response to Burpee:  yeah, i know.  lol.  I went a different route, for when we think of glass we tend to think of rather transparent glass objects.  I probably shoud have gone more that way, but I was playing with texturized glass, more for my growth; learning how to use multi-channel manipulation for effect.  Everything is glass (except for the chrome), it is just not transparent glass. Reflectivity is set at 100%, just camera angle is high, looking down, deliberately minimizing picking up other objects so each glass peice could stand distinct.  Given a chance to do it again, I think I may have done things differently.  I love hindsight!  Now, if i can figure out how to live in the past, I could take advantage of it!  lol.