Hi there. I'm working on this picture and I want to make a back ground of sky scrapers at night. I've seen them done over and over again, but I don't know how to do them. I don't want a solid blob of lights. I want them to look as real as I can make them. If anyone has any suggestions or links I can go to that would be awsome. Thanks everyone.

Well, if you want realism, get a bean grinder and get some Jamacian Blue Mountain coffee. Make a pot. Then build your skyscraper with windows and walls and structure. Texture each object and throw in some streaming light. Or, you can use one of the city jpg's that comes with the Bryce cdrom and import that to the terrain editor and texture, but I don't think you'll be happy with it if you want realism. Or, you can just use some rectangle objects and play with textures and overlay them. As fun as this program is, there is still some work to be done for the better images. Any program will require input, Bryce is one of the best for ease of use.

Attached Link: http://www.weirdass.net

For Boolean buildings at night _ make the texture of the negative window cuts a simple yellow or green and turn off "cast, receive, self" shadows for the material. also, jack diffsusion an ambience all the way to 100. This will help simulate the glowing office windows. Beware of boolean cities, as these scenes are HUGE renders. For close ups, stuff right in the camera, I use digital photos that I've torn the life out of in Photoshop. I'll make an elevation map, a mask, a specular, and a color image that apply to various parts of terrains. Whole trick is to build your town piece by piece in multiple files, and then join them at the end. Also keep in mind that in a city a) you never have an unobstructed line of sight, and b) there is crap on the ground everywhere. Follow the url to my site, scroll down past the Starry Ones and look for "attention Bryce People" to download a "NYC terrain/architextural thingie" to see how the second technique works. attached art (excerpted from The Starry Ones) uses technique 1.