still playing around with the hdri thing. i modeled the lightbulb in max 3.1, and have only one light in the scene.

oh yeah, i also did some postwork in photoshop. heres another one.

Nicely done! Are you using the one light in the scene for the darker shadow effect?

Is this a visual pun or what? You render a light bulb and say there is one light in the scene. Get it? LOL 8^) Nice job BTW.

hey groingrinder, thats funny. techically there is two lights, but only one is on. yeah, im using the light for the shadow effect. in my other hdri scenes i used no lights, and just used highly reflective materials, but it would suck cuz i wasnt able to get much color unless i cranked up the ambiance, wich didnt look too good. first i tried using a combo of fake hdri and gi using a light dome, but my computer wasnt handling it to well. so i just used one cone shaped light, flattened it out and made it big enough to cover the scene, then i played around with the light settings till i got something i liked. i was actually suprised with the results, i got a pretty descent gi look with only one light. and it definatly saved some render time. i just finished another one, i think this one is even better as far the shadows go, they seem less harsh. i cant remember what settings i used for the light though, i'll have to go back and check if anyone is interested.

That looks fantastic.

I agree it looks fantastic, but I find that using multiple lights with NO blur makes for better shadows. no dithering as in the ones in the last pic.