Wow! That's really amazing! Should be infinitely useful for the poser freaks out there :) -Paul

Thanks guys, I can get there with the new link

Such is the nature of volumetrics, it takes forever to render. I've done work with only one volumetric and some transparent objects. It took almost two straight days to render on a system similar to yours (k6-2 366, 64ram). I know people who have had images that took anywhere from several days to over a week...but the end result has always been entirely worth it. -P

Ok, NOW your comment makes a little more sense to me :) Through the time I have been working on this image, it has almost been more fun getting people's interpretations on this image than it has been creating it. I've heard several ideas about what this image is about, I'm tempted to just leave my idea alone and let people make up what they think it's about... As for the URL, "The Lord Is Here" is a small organization run by a guy at my church that promotes christian concerts here in Gainesville, FL and sponsors mission trips to third world countries. I'm working on the web page for him (not done yet, but close), so feel free to browse around thelordishere.org, even though it's not technically "live" yet.

wow, very nice. i love the textures. A sentry bot at the door would look cool (holding a large gun, of course).

well, here's the thing. whereas (in general) a 3ds file defines an object, a br4 file defines a whole slew of variables that describe every aspect of the scene you have created. It seems to me that the formats are fundamentally different, so I doubt that you'll find a utility that can convert br4 to 3ds. As far as i know, the only things you can export from bryce are terrains and previously imported meshes. -Paul

Thanks for all the comments, hopefully I'll suprise everyone with the final result. Eric, are you sure you are commenting on the right pic? It sounds like you were looking at someone else's work...

BT's pic gets my vote. -Paul Griffin

Personally, I recommend Rhino, mainly due to ease of use and modeling power. It doesn't have the best renderer in the world, tho... -Paul

I believe IRA (in the context I mean it) stands for Individual Retirement Account. It's a way to put aside money now that you can pull out of the account later, tax free (since the money you put in has already been taxed). You can't pull the money out of the account until you turn 59 (i think), but in the meantime, you're allowed to use it to buy stock or mutual funds or myriad other similar investments. Hopefully, all of this will mean that I can retire a rich man someday, and devote all my time to my new copy of Bryce 12, and maybe doing a lot more sailing than I get to do now :)

Got it, thanks for the heads up! I've also downloaded the free version of strata 3d, but I haven't had time to screw around with it yet. It looks pretty powerful as well, so we'll se how it goes. So far, for pure, unadulterated modeling power, I love Rhino...I must have it. Man, I really need to subscribe to 3d world, they're always giving stuff away... -Paul

nitpicks would be the jellyfish texture..but thats minor Yeah, that does seem to be the consensus for... Now that I have a (much) faster computer, maybe it won't take three days to re-render changes anymore. fingers crossed As far as putting the model up for download, I'll have to hunt it down on my HD, but I'll try to do that soon.

I made these with the demo of Rhino 3d, but unfortunately, I have run out of saves, so i guess i need to buy the full version while I'm still a student and it's cheap. That's next on my list of things to buy after I get my IRA started (turns out those things can be a bit pricey to start). Anyway, thanks for the quick reply! Btw, you (and everyone else, for that matter) can call me Paul, I just used the same username from delphi so people could reconize me from there :) -Paul Griffin