The Visitors

You're welcome! And thanks for the kudos on Ring Theory. :-) As for the old back, this is not something that will ever 'heal'. Three flattened and bulging discs create a troubling instability, to say the least, and once in a while things slip to the point where I have to deal with an extended period of disabling pain. Only surgery would help and I don?t mind admitting that it terrifies me just to think about. If I?m going to wind up in a wheelchair I?d rather it happen without a slip of a scalpel. I will say this. If and when I finally do land in a wheelchair it had better be built by someone in NASCAR. ;-)

Reflections......of course! Spektyr, thanks for catching that......there was 20% Reflection on the 2D image.....forgot the image has Material settings.....will pay closer attention. Sorry about your back....hope it's healing. BTW, just saw Ring Theory.......way cool!

Hi Cal! Sorry I haven't commented on any of your posts yet. My back problem put me out of commission for the last few weeks. By the time I got Ring Theory posted I was in agony. I admit I could have done better but pain really gets in the way. :-( The low resolution makes it look like a moving painting. It's a neat effect. The 'shadows' on the clouds actually look like reflections. Do you have the Reflection channel on the background plane turned all the way down? Give that a check.

Thanks Rashad....I know it's very simplistic to create, but it gives me a sense awe to imagine them cruising by....these look pretty benign...no obvious weapons protruding. May do one that makes me want to hide! I tried using one of David's vol cloud scenes... looks [b]great[/b] but the render time is prohibitively long for animations (18min). Hope to get an i7 soon. Also want to try using the satellite data for a height map for the terrain (did it already in Carrara), use the 2D sky again, and fly through the "loch" (Hodges), reflecting on the water. Looking forward to Horo's tut on lighting outdoor scenes (using HDR?)

Interesting experiment. Looks a bit like a painting.

Looks awesome, incredible the sky chosen for this! I think I would like some more detail in the ships, but I still get the idea without any added details.

You got them all right! =O There are only 3 saucers (decided not to include cups =), but there is a shadow on the 2D scene that I can't quite get rid of regardless of the angle of the sun, the ships, or the plane that the image is on. It is, after all, only a mirage. =) Hope you like the clouds (another 3 jpg> hdr >jpg) I'll be using vol slabs more often when I get a faster machine. We had a good weather system pass through, and couldn't resist putting some big saucers in a scene I saw from home on early Thursday. We usually have wall-to-wall sun here especially this time of year, so I go bonkers with my camera when we get big clouds.

Answers Q. Where are they from? A. Somewhere over on the left there. Q. Where are they going? A. Over to the right. Q. What do they want? A. To see if the grass really is greener or it just looks greener. My questions. How many saucers are there? If only three, what is causing the "ghosts" in the clouds?