Author: thepipper

Tools Needed

* Bryce 6.0

* Paint

Create a custom valley using a brush that you create.

Open MS Paint or any other similar program that has the ability to invert colors. (While you could use white brush strokes on a black background, it just seems easier to create on a white background with black strokes, and then invert the colors.)

Create a triangle similar to what I have. Do not worry about the size of the triangle as we can change the size of our brush within Bryce. Next, invert the colors, so that our brush that is shaped like a triangle is in white with a black background. Save the brush to your computer.

Open Bryce and add a terrain object to your scene. Click on the E to edit the terrain's layout.

Now click on the top circle as shown in the picture to open the interface which will give us the option to add our custom brush to the list of User brushes. Now click on the drop-down to select User. Click Add and locate where you saved the brush created in step one.

Click on the brush to select it and click on the checkmark.

Use the second circle below our brush interface to resize the brush. We will create a valley that is the width of the brush. I made the brush about 1/4th of the width of the terrain.

Use the Raise/Lower Editing tool on the Elevation tab to raise the terrain as high as possible.

Now place the brush erode/raise setting near the bottom of the scale

Let's begin shaping our valley out of the terrain. Cut out the middle of the terrain (you may need to make several passes to get it low enough.)

Tip: User multiple passes on multiple erode settings and multiple brushes to create more unique features on the terrain floor and walls.

Now click on the checkmark to save and apply the settings. Use the Y object scale/resize on the Edit Section to raise the walls of our valley. Use the Z object scale/resize if you want to make the valley longer or shorter.

Since our terrain has a fresh new valley look, let us choose a new material to apply to it. Regardless of the material you choose to apply to the terrain, match it to any ground or other terrains in the same scene. Otherwise, you will have terrains that clash/coordinate the differently and may give a different sense of depth, perception, etc.

Click on the Sky and Fog section.

In order for us to see what lies within our valley we will need to change our sun positioning. Double click on the sun's orbital position to go to the Sky Lab.

On the Sun Controls, change the Azimuth to 185.50 and the Altitude to 25.10.

This will shed some light on our valley, while still getting some shadow play on the side wall.

Add Fog and Haze to create a more dramatic affect to your valley. I used various settings for the fog and adjusted the Haze, and sky mode selection. The details are shown below:

Cloud Cover 20

Cloud Height 24

Haze 55

Fog 71/41

Sky Mode Darker sky

Now that you have created your valley you can use these similar techniques to create other terrains and link to Studio to get characters, props, etc.