I am glad you liked it. Thanks. Nevertheless, I am also sorry, I forgot to mention this is just a fraction of a larger model of a shell with a weird glass texture applied and some fiddling with the usual Bryce features. Model is from 3D cafe, I believe. I guess it takes the magic away. I would love to post a very detailed tutorial here and boast with my skills, but they are poor and I just work around with what I know until something happens and I know I'm done. And many times I cannot remember what the procedures were and what I changed. In this particular image I was turning it around, changed viewpoints, applied different textures and the image in the middle suddenly appeared, simultaneously with the title in my head. From then on, it was just to make it look better. Unlike most of you, when I start I never know what I want to to. I do not have a goal, an image in my mind, maybe just an inkling. Or a challenge idea :-)

3 - pidjy 2 - Jausse 1 - Erlik Congratulations to all.

It looks as if the invador ship is grinning! Love the planet.

You're right. There is something archetypal about the topic of quest. Evertime I see a new image for the challenge I feel two things at the same time: I have seen it before and why didn't I think of it first. Confusing... Very beautiful and serene image!

Well, I am the third Aquarian here. :-) But, let's stick to the names so not to turn this into a horoscope list. My username is my first name and since where I live this name is usually shortened to Tanja, I have never felt the need for a third name or a pseudonym. It comes from Latin, via Russian, originally meaning "the one who names". This is fun, actually, since I have wondered about some of the usernames before. Thanks ocddoug for initiating this.

Don't bother, Z Shadow. There will be years before any machine translates any kind of text, not to mention English phrases and idioms, into any other language. And I am not just being negative here, it is after all my profession. Now, the reasons why machines are not fit YET, are to do with the nature of each language, and the neurolinguistical characteristics of different peoples. Actually, it has become a science by now. I am not saying computers cannot translate anything, it actually works well with very similar languages, such as Spanish and Italian, English and German (believe it or not), where the syntax and word origin are pretty similar. Trouble starts if you cross the boudaries of language families. I have yet to find a program that would grasp the fine meaning and translate it properly. One more thing, due to the pychological and neurological setups in our brains, no language, whether first or second or third, can be leant in a short period of time. So, forget crash courses, it will always take a certain period of time. I am not explaining this in detail here, I am sure you can find some articles on that somewhere on the Internet. On the other hand, since English is not my native language, I found it best to learn it by using it. So, by communicating in good English you are actually doing everyone a favor by teaching them more. It does not really matter which language we all use to communicate, if it happens to be English, fine.

I like the idea and the technical requirements will force me to learn, but I have a newbe question. Could someone explain exactly what is meant under photographic texture? Does it mean it has to be a photograph used as a texture, or can it be, for example, an abstract from, say, photoshop? Or am I getting this completely wrong? Thanks.

Yeah, outstanding!

3 - Sparr 2 - bhubenig 1 - tjohn Great work everyone else! Why don't we vote for at least five? :-(

Good idea and great miniature models.

Fabulous!

You're getting more dramatic with each image! Good one.

Great colors!

I wish I had Bryce when I was still at school. Actually, I wish I had a computer back then :-)

Oh, you're killing me! Where do you find the time? They all look great!