burned out bits....as in the test render above...

Tone mapping Thanks for the heads up on that. It's all cool things like that I want to learn more about and get into. Jeremy Birn gave me a link to a page, from CG I think, by someone called 'Floze'? it's the same scene lit 6 different ways but theyve wip'd it really well. They use the MR parti-volume shader (which is why JB sent it me in the first place).

This is that link...

https://www.floze.org/2008/07/six-tut...e-part-vi.html

As for the inspiration... it is good. When I first started this lighting and rendering course it was taking alot of hours and I was getting frustrated. Now I've got the feeling like I did at the start of the year when I just have so many things I want to try, it's going to take me years!! I have 2 weeks left of course, then, barring a trip to Los Angeles, I will be back to doing my own thing.

P.s. I ordered Boaz Livny's Mental Ray book off Amazon the other day (the same guy who's running the course on CG Society)...have you read it at all?