I think TopMod is a program I've wanted for years. Awesome. Like Hoofd', I found a reference to it in 3DWorld magazine and the past two months, it's consumed all the time ... I should be doing other things ... but I can't get past it. Another program that 3DWorld mentioned is my second favorite freebie, and very different but equally captivating and engrossing - www.contextfreeart.org. Another arrow in your 2D quiver never hurts, I always say. But this is the first time I said it! You might get some ideas from the most recent 10 or 12 posts here at renderosity. Here is a fancy one. and my "new" page . Since that fateful day all my Bryce time is rendering topmod goodies! Getting a large collection! I really like the rind modeling and columns, sponges, golly I've got a handle on a few but there are so many. -thanks for starting a thread, I'll be back I'm sure. Any other magic tools I should know about? ;-) HapiHoli

the wips are lots of fun and very inspirational! thanks for posting them!

It's fun to see so many nice shots all pre-selected for my enjoyment! Please keep up the good work, and I'll try to shoot something extra-nice to hold up my end! Good going everyone!

Ohboy! "Drench me" with the links!

Great tut... Thought i'd chime in... I do the same 'wear'thering for some terrains and lattices with a blur in PhotoShop. Depending on the scale you need this is a very quick way to bevel/fillet, and as you can see, it makes a difference. The erosion operator in the terrain editor is sometimes nice after this step, to get some grooviness. An advantage is that one material can be mapped to the whole thing with parametric, which I can't always do well on the primitives (The best solution I found for primitives was "object cubic" mapping). A disadvantage is a terrain has to be more or less flat to hide its little steps... I do wish we had beveled primitives and a sphere and cylinder terrain object, It's hard to make a good sphere with two hemi terrains or a lattice, you get artifacts at the seam... :-( If you do quarters or eighths, maybe you could hide it, but lots of work. Cases like that, made me buy Carrara, and I'm still not getting something. My buddy Clark tells me ZBrush has great bevels and fillets.

I had to go look at his gallery again, and reflect a minute. I really liked his work, it seemed he was "talking" to us every day with a new picture. There was a consistency and reliability that very few others could match. I'll sure miss him, and IronHeart too.

I'll miss the BFG! If Renderosity is a great democratization, BFG was a benevolent monarchy with a governing council! And, it seemed to fit like a warm mitten. Part of the charm was knowing there was someone dusting up, and pulling the levers... Not that the model couldn't be done at 'rosity, but it might be hard to automate, or become a full-time job. Bruce points out that many of the links were already to pages here, but there were lots of others that were wonderful, it's those I might not have otherwise found. Thanks, Bruce.

hey, it's working again today. of course, NO ELECTRONS mean you can't look at ELECTRONIC stuff. Duhhhhh! stupid me, whew, i had visions of tobacoo-induced armageddon, glad they're just heavily moneyed people with a similar name. so thanks all, i am happy as a pig in s**t again.

no joy again, "the server could not be found". bummer

thanks, antevark. it's really no effort for me to get the patch updater thaing tomorrow. no need for any sweat. it's just blocks away and i plan to visit potamus anyway. i appreciate your diligence! -bummed that www.corel.com didn't answer the telephone anymore, but we've been through this with MetaCreations products before, eh? ... they always re-emerge somewhere else because like rasputin, you can't kill'em! - jim

sounds like my own experiments, thanks for the great explanation.

snigger! with that hilarious introduction i can only say "auzgezeichnet!!". if you win the challenge, i'm worried you will make the next challenge far, far more difficult: "Body Parts Architecture Puns ". -"Jimbo von Zitronenstein zum Palo Alto"

Attached Link: EyeCage

alright, i can no longer resist. no sooner did i read about this fantasy "challenge" thing, when up THROUGH THE FLOOR came a cage with an eye in it, surrounded with 8 waving hands. Blinked and it was gone. i guessed it must be a fantasy, so i will attempt to enter it. See the full "sideways" panorama at www.jjlg.com/panoramas

please yes, do try. i'd like to know in a few months how it works out, i've never tried myself.