I love it - particularly the river part. The wet stones and dark water are very convincing. Also the mossy texture on the rock that the eggs are sitting on. woohoo!!! I'd like the whole picture better if I had to work a bit harder to figure out what was happening - at the moment you've laid it all out on a plate for the viewer (me). How about if the ray of light landed on the water near to the eggs, but not illuminating them? If the eggs were located in a dark area they could have a mysterious inner glow, with a hint of the baby dragons visible inside the shell, maybe. The eggs would then do the job that the yellow and red glowing areas are doing now (oops, see a green and a blue as well, on close inspection). $0.02

Hmmm...I rather like the eggs where they are but in a similar vein...what if you left them lit as is to attract the eye of the viewer but actually had a LARGE dragon curled/curved along the whole back wall of the cave almost indistinguishable from the cave wall except for two glowing slitted eyes watching the viewer as though in warning...."don't touch them" That would be REALLY cool is you could get the lighting such that the viewer didn't even notice the dragon at first but had the ah-ha moment once they did. The tail could be the mother leaving and the one in the shadows could be the father...or vice versa...

lol - scary!

watching this on a laptop..pretty darkish..mood as well as image. -Have a glow emitting from the eggs.. -like claymour's idea of having dragon eyes looking at you..creepy... -what is that goldish looking light thinggy on the right? -like the tail disappearing -there is something bothering me.. this line being made.. the wall, the eggs, the stones, ..the stones being in the front of the image..not anywhere else..the mound that the eggs are resting being so prominent.. like as it it was placed there..not naturally there.. (sometimes..it's hard to explain what I mean..sigh. ) -and the white swirls of water..looks.. like painted on brush strokes.. the ones on the left..and the one near the mound. pardon me..I dont' mean to be harsh..I like it.. give me the heebie jeebies - i wouldn't want to be there at all.. it's just that..but..but...

Why not use dragonlance-style eggs? You know: gold, silver, copper, brass and bronze I concur with erosiart on the ripples

For me, the problem is in the fact that there's very little light to see the inside of the cave. Then, I can see the tail, but what is that tail attached to?

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=526415&Start=1&Artist=Gog%5FCA1&ByArtist=Yes

Aye, thanks for all of the input! So far, to sum it up... 1. Water. Gotta tweak it a bit. Terrains aren't working with it, and the splash effects are a failure. 2. Dragons. Needs to be more apparent that they are an element. What you're looking at, Erlik, is the Milenium Dragon's tail, but you shouldn't have to even ask, it should be more readily apparent. I really like Claymor's idea about a dragon in the background, very cool. 3. Lighting. I need to illuminate the crystals better, only problem is that any lights I add affect the volumetrics, as well. Might have to render it in two stages, one with volume on and one without, then layer them in Photoshop... Thanks for ALL your help, everyone! Erosia, I don't mind you being critical at all. I appreciate it.

I'd have thought that the eggs would be all the same size......?

**I'd have thought that the eggs would be all the same size......? ** picky picky picky! ROTFL Good point, that no-one else noticed

You might want to change some of the lines in the picture so you lead the viewers eye around the picture more. Currently you have a line along the beam, through the eggs, along the tail, and out the corner of the picture.

Very cool image so far SDL... in fact. I think this has the capacity to be one of your best to date. As for suggestions.... Can't say anything more than has been stated above. Lots of potential this image has. Nice work so far. 8)

Thanks for your compliments, Swade... And also, I'd considered that the eggs should be the same size. Do you think that would make them seem more, well, egglike?

I don't know, i think that Dragons would most likely only lay one or two eggs at a time. That's just me. Dragons being a fairly rare mythological beast, and all. And i agree, they should be roughly the same size. Some variation is good, as nature rarely creates perfect objects.

In all seriousness, you are trying to depict an event that occurs in nature without number. I don't think any creature lays eggs of varying size - albeit that a slight variation is inevitable.

Yeah, I know it's MD. I recognised the texture. :-) But it's not obvious. As to the volumetric, search the forum for Rochr's post on lights. He posted two of his transparency maps for volumetrics, the faking of. Or you can render without volumterics and then use a transparency map to fake the light in Photoshop. Hmmm, I did post that here somewhere, but I don't remember whether I explained what to do.

I think it looks amazing. Lighting and the scene it sets is just great. They can look like Dragon Eggs, but the pinkish feels a little wierd with me. Leave the picture how it is, instead of adding a fully visible dragon. It'd ruin the great mood of the picture.

Aye, I figured out the volumetric problem. It will just take two renders, one with the volume light only on, and one with the volume off and the crystal and foreground lights on. Then, in Photoshop, I merely copy-and-paste the volume render onto the regular-light render, and set the layer style to, "Lighten." piece of cake... Back in a few with a newer rendering...