Okay.  Thanks!

Thanks, Mugsey.  I tend to avoid using other people's stuff, even it's made especially for me (although I'd be the first to admit that I'm not a texture artist).  I would certainly appreciate it if you'd go to the trouble for me, but I would use them as inspiration only. :-)

Thanks!

omac2 - 3

eugene_richter - 2

sackrat - 1

I also really liked Zhann, matcreator, AgentSmith, Pankaj and DragonofGaiden.  Nice pictures all. =)

Oh, and about landing...

drawbridgep's ideas sound cool, but the wings are part of the model, so no movement there.  =)  Easy to change, maybe I will, but as this ship isn't really intended to go places where there is gravity anyway, I think that landing abilities are unnecessary (like you said, maybe a hook on top or something).

Conventional engines?  er... dual fusion drive.  The vents on the rear wings and rear top of the craft vent the enormous heat created by the force field generator that controls the reaction.  It's the standard "bottle" type fusion drive: an intense magnetic field keeps the fusion reaction at bay, fuel is gradually fed into it, and then a "hole" is opened at the back.  The resulting force pushes the craft forward at high velocity.  ;-)

Thanks Khai... maybe I'll give it a shot (having it Poser-compatible would probably help a lot).  I didn't mean to offend, just was a bit frustrated at the time.  =)

However, I have issues with Poser besides just its smoothing/shading algorithms, although that is one of my major complaints.  In my opinion, it's quite simply unprofessional to require people to use a third-party program to turn OFF smoothing/shading: this is something that any 3D renderer should have as a toggle.  If they fixed it in Poser6, good for them (don't have it).  Sorry; as you say, it's a tool that needs to be learnt in order to use it best.  I just don't care much for this particular tool myself.  =)

I like the new colors much more. I would suggest that there is not enough contrast between your lights and darks. As Erlik suggested, maybe a lit window or something similar.

pumeco-- I believe that Bryce automatically adds backfacing polygons to your model (at least, if you render within an imported model, the backfacing polys are there, and Bryce does roughly double the poly count of any imported model). If so, this should explain why reversed normals are rendered properly in Bryce (but at the great expense of massively increased poly count--a poor trade-off in my opinion).

Thanks, everone. =) pumeco-- Actually, the glow effect came from Paint Shop Pro. I'm not terribly comfortable with Cinema4D yet (although I'm already in awe of its abilities, can't wait to tackle Maya sometime either next semester or the following semester hopefully). Erlik-- Hmm, copper isn't exactly what I had in mind for this image. Interesting idea, though... Cyba_Storm-- I must very respectfully disagree. Although perhaps this image could stand alone as is, I've got a much different look in mind. =) -------------- I'm a little afraid that Bryster is going to burn me at the stake. =) Er... the little girl is... um... a ghost, yeah, that's it. She's very, um, intentional. Yeah... I'm hoping that sometime in the near future I'll be proficient enough with C4D to create a character model to go along with this. Maybe at that time I will be more equipped to finish this off.

Very nice, I think this is the best I have ever seen of an image of this type. =)

Personally, I've given up waiting for Bryce to improve and am intending to move on soon (my render times seem directly proportional to the square of my poly-counts lately). I think that Bryce is a good renderer, although it is suffering some aging in that regard, but it is a terrible modelling application as it stands now and its animation capabilities are nearly as primitive as those of Wings3D's. I'm not dissing Bryce; it's a great program, but it has aged very badly and I'm not so sure that DAZ will be able to fix that. I wouldn't expect them to be able to do so with a single new version of Bryce, but I don't think that they will be able to do so with any number of versions of Bryce. I'm not even dissing DAZ either, but let's face it: they are a small company whose primary product and emphasis is not Bryce. Can we really expect them to devote the enormous time and effort that would be required to elevate Bryce to a level where it can compete with more popular and respected programs such as Carrara? Personally I don't, and I don't even blame them.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=562735&Start=55&Artist=wotan&ByArtist=Yes

Very cool, especially the one with the windows. =)

Rayraz-- I would agree, it's a very reasonable size for something on this scale. I did not use True Ambience for this image; I find that you get a lot more detail (and a much more accurate representation of radiosity) when you use the Blurry Reflections method (which was used here).

Thanks everyone!

Sans2012--
If you are referring to the method that Rochr and others use to add reflective "hotspots" in Universe, I tried it and for some reason it just didn't look right. =( Maybe the next image will work a bit better for it.

Rayraz--
The Wings file is approx. 11MB, and the Bryce file is approx 22MB (which only makes perfect sense, because when Bryce imports meshes, it doubles the polycount).

Bryster--
I must be having a dumb time =) Great idea, not sure why I didn't remember that (used it many times before). Hmm... I'm kind of itching to start another model though...

danamo--
YIKES!!! I love pressure.... =) Now I get to try and come up with a more original concept... hmm... maybe a variation on i-popba's last image... DANG it! =) ;)

Message edited on: 03/06/2006 12:27

Oh yeah, and programs used: Wings3D for all modelling Bryce5 for rendering Paint Shop Pro6 for postwork