Documentation Center artzone:pub:tutorials:bryce

High Speed OpenGL Animation

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

High Speed OpenGL Animation

Author: Anonymous

Tools Needed

Bryce 5.01
OpenGL supported Graphics card

Support Files

Introduction

Tutorial Written by Wyld Animal

In this Short Tutorial I will show you how to Turn on the OpenGL feature of Bryce 5.01 and use to create an Animation, with very quick render times.

This is the perfect way to check out how your animation will look before doing a fully Rendered Animation.

The First Support File is the Bryce 5 Source Used to Create my small Animation.

The Second Support File is the OpenGL Animation AVI file.

Step 1 - Turn on OpenGL Mode

You must have a graphics card that supports OpenGL in order for this to work.

Open Bryce 5 and with a Blank or Default Scene, Click and hold down the mouse button on the Small Box that is used to Switch between WireFrame view and Rendered View.

A popup window will open that lets you swith to OpenGL mode.

Step 2 - Create your Animated Scene

Now Create and Prove out your Animated Scene, or Download the above Bryce 5 support file for a jump start.

When proving out your Animation, you can use the normal WireFrame View, or if you switch to OpenGL, your Animation will be displayed using OpenGL.

Clicking on the Display Modes Control Box will switch between WireFrame and OpenGL.

Step 3 - Render in WireFrame Mode

Now that your Animation is Proved out just the way you want it, It's time to use OpenGL to Make a Fast Preview Animation.

Make Sure you switch the Display Mode to WireFrame.

After Switching to the WireFrame Display, you Can Click on the File Menu, and Select Render Animation.

Step 4 - View and Playback your Preview Animation

Your Animation will be Created with OpenGL rendered images at a much Accelerated Rate, Compared to a Fully Rendered Animation.

As you can see in my sample Image, I rendered 142 of 151 frames in just 38 seconds. This is almost as fast as the normal wireframe animations, but with OpenGL textures and renders.

My PC:

P4 2.8GHz 512meg memory

When Bryce is Done creating the Animation, it should automatically open and start to play back.

The Second Support File Above is my Sample Animation in AVI format.

Seamlessly Looping Bryce Clouds

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Seamlessly Looping Bryce Clouds

Author: Disciple

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Support Files

CloudsLoop.zip

Introduction

Bryce users have asked how clouds can be animated in a loop that repeats seamlessly, without a “pop” at the join. Here's a method I used back when Bryce 4 was new. Bryce 5 is used in this example.

Step 1 - Make the scene cloudless.

Here is a Bryce 5 scene at startup, with a small-sized canvas (to save time), and a render from the camera view.

I create or load my scene. This is a single terrain and material from the standard Bryce library. I lowered the camera and tilted it slightly upwards.

I open the Sky Lab and turn off the cloud textures and the “Link Sun To View” button. (I may need to reposition my sun once more.) Now my sky is cloudless with only the sun glow.

Step 2 - Place loop-enabled clouds in the scene.

I added to the scene a single cloud plane and gave it a cloudy material from the standard Bryce library, “Wispy Afternoon” in this example. Save the Bryce file.

This is where I position my plane, at XYZ= 0, 40, 0. These nice round numbers will be important in a minute, because they'll need to be duplicated. Its name is now “CloudPlane 1”.

I open the Materials Lab to edit the cloudy texture, because the default scale makes the clouds too big to suit me. Increasing the scale in XYZ from 25% to 50% shrinks the clouds nicely. (Seems backwards to me. Oh, well.)

If you use a different cloudy material, make sure the texture is not mapped using any of the “World” spaces. I prefer “Object Space”.

Now I've opened the Deep Texture editor for my cloud texture source to show you something. Notice that the noise source for my clouds is a 3D noise, and that the Z frequency is about the same as the X and Y frequencies. This will become important when I add motion. If you use cloud textures made with 2D or 1D noises, it's good to change them to 3D and adjust the Z frequency to a number close to X and Y.

Here's my scene now, good enough to show the effect. Time to give it some motion.

Step 3 - Keyframe the primary motion.

I make sure that “Auto Key” is active and add a keyframe at exactly 2 seconds. In this example, my loop will be 2 seconds long, so I also set “Play Mode” to “Repeat”. Save the file.

Duplicating my cloud plane (Ctrl+D in Windows) produces “CloudPlane 2” in the same centered position. Now I'm going to move the cloud planes and change their keyframe positions. CloudPlane 1 will have its keyframe repositioned at 2 seconds, and CloudPlane 2 will be repositioned at 0 seconds. Their other keyframes should remain matched, and I'll leave them untouched. Here goes.

The plan is that both planes should move at the same speed and direction, and the position of 1 at the start is exactly matched by 2 at the end, so I'll make the changes very simple. By entering the following numbers into their attribute windows, these will be the position values at 0 and 2 seconds…

CloudPlane 1

X = 0 to 80

Y = 40 to 35

Z = 0 to 0

CloudPlane 2

X = -80 to 0

Y = 45 to 40

Z = 0 to 0

(Both planes are traveling westward and descending slightly.)

I can preview my motion if I shorten the workspace in Bryce's timeline by one frame. In my example the workspace extends from 0 to 1:14.

Step 4 - Keyframe the transition.

Now I'm going to keyframe the plane materials in a manner similar to their position values. In my example the transparency value is 0% (other textures may produce different values), and I add keyframes at 0 and 2 seconds for each plane. Then I change the transparency values. CloudPlane 1 is set to 100% at 2 seconds, and CloudPlane 2 is set to 100% at 0 seconds.

Step 5 - Keyframe the smaller motions.

Here's where the 3D nature of the noise sources makes the difference. I'm going to keyframe the textures on the planes as they dissolve and fly. This will add a little turbulence to the cloudy motion. Again, the values will have matched keyframes and speeds.

CloudPlane 1, texture position Y = 100 to 116

CloudPlane 2, texture position Y = 84 to 100

Save the file.

A preview of the loop shows that the motion is starting to look smoother. One plane of clouds melts away as its counterpart melts in. The motion no longer has a “pop”, but it does have a “bounce” in density at the ends, and the density gets very sparse in the middle. Let's make some adjustments.

Step 6 - Smooth the bumps.

I select both cloud planes and open the Advanced Motion Lab. Expanding the material channels, I select the Transparency channel for one plane and assign the “ease-in, ease-out” motion curve to it. Then I do the exact same thing for the other plane's Transparency channel. This will soften the “bounce”.

Now I select CloudPlane 1 and move my timeline slider to the halfway point, 1 second in this example. That's where the clouds become thinnest. I'm going to thicken them.

In the Materials Lab, I change the transparency at the 1 second point, and a keyframe will be added there automatically. I reduce the transparency, but not as low as at the starting keyframe (which was 0% in my example). I'll use a roughly 10% value. Then I select CloudPlane 2 and reduce its transparency at 1 second in the same way. Save the file.

Step 7 - Finishing remarks

The basic scene is ready to render. It will not “pop”, but will resemble time-lapse footage of windy weather.

There are many ways to improve the result, by experimenting with different rates of change, different durations in time, different texture sources, additional pairs of cloud planes. These can improve on the remaining shortcomings, like the still visible transition between cloud patterns, and the non-uniform nature of linear motion in Bryce. Have fun.

Praise the Lord!

Disciple

Snowing animation; With a little help of Photoshop.

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Snowing animation; With a little help of Photoshop.

Author: Omid

Tools Needed

Bryce 5 or Bryce 5.5

Support Files

Snow_Motion_20.zip

Introduction

You can design fantastic snow scenes in Bryce. No need for particle systems or thousands of small objects. All you need is few good image objects that can cover the whole height of your scene and a high quality texture that can be applied on this objects.

Step 1 - Prepare the Snow Pattern in Photoshop

Use the above settings to create a new document in Adobe Photoshop. Then select Brush tool, and draw many white spots, using three different Brush size; 9, 11 and 13 pixs. Save this image in Windows Bitmap format (BMP).

Step 2 - Prepare the Snow scene in Bryce

In a default Bryce scene, select the Camera view (Click on the icon of “Director's Chair” at the left side of “View Controls”, or simply chose it from the camera selection list by pressing the small triangle at the right side of the “View Controls”). Then change it attributes according to the above picture.

select “Ansel's Evening” from Sky Presets, by clicking the small triangle at the right side of the “Sky and Fog” located at the top of tools' palette.

Step 3 - Fill the background

Create a “Terrain” and press the star key (Shift + 8) two times to make it big enough. Do not forget to click the arrow icon at the right side of its mesh, to bring it at the ground level. Then either by using the UP arrow key or by entering the appropriate numbers in Terrain “Attributes” send it back to fill the main part of the background space. Render your scene few times to place the terrain in a good position. When you are happy with the general composition of the background, apply the “Mid Winter” material in order to give this terrain the look of an impressive snowy mountain.

In “Sky and Fog” Palette, change the Haze Value to 13.

Step 4 - Be Creative: Make use of infinite plane in a new way!

You can use an infinite plane for the Snow “Picture Object”. Although you may think that Bryce has already a “Picture Object” icon which can automatically take care about the things you want to do with a picture, but there are several advantages for using Infinite Plane (IP) instead of Picture Object. For example IPs has no limit in dimension, and there is no need for tiling theme. Based on dimension, there are two types of IPs: “Ground Plane” that its dimension is 163.84 x 163.84 and, “Water Plane” and “Cloud Plane” that their dimensions are 81.92 x 81.92. For this tutorial we are going to use the bigger one. You can use the smaller size whenever you like but then you should adjust the texture size and tiling according to that smaller dimension.

Click on the “Ground Plane” icon on the “Create Palette” to make a 163.84 x 163.84 Infinite Plane. Then click the small “M” icon at the right side of its mesh to call the “Material Lab”. Now click the first empty hole at the first row and the first column (Color section, Diffuse channel, Column A). A random material appears in the “Texture Preview Area” at the right side of the Material Lab. Here, click the middle gray button with a “p” on it at the button of the texture preview to tell Bryce that you want to apply an image to this IP. Then Click the middle pink button at the top row of the same texture preview to call the “Picture” window. Here, click “Load” at the top left corner of one of the three main squares. Find and then select the “Snow Pattern” bitmap file that you made in the first step. Repeat this for other square until you've got the same bitmap file in the two first squares, and the result in the third square (at the right side) is a transparent picture with small black dots. Now click OK sign to go back to material lab.

Step 5 - Fine tuning the "Snow" texture

Still in the Material Lab, adjust all the values and options according to the above picture to bring a more natural snow to your scene. Then click the OK sign to close the Material Lab.

Now call “Attributes” of the Ground Plane and change its name to “Snow”. Then enter the values in the following picture in appropriate sections to stand up the plane, and also bring it exactly in front of the camera. If you would like, you can make a preview render to see how the “Snow” plane looks like.

Select the “Multi-Replicate” command either from Edit menu or by pressing Shift + ALT + D. Copy the values in the following picture to make 9 copies of “Snow” Plane, each 20 units far from each other in “Y” axis. Press “Enter” to create the copies.

Step 6 - Irregularly reposition the "Snow" planes

Select the Top view and from there rearrange “Snow” planes in “X” direction, one by one to give them a random look (Except the original Snow plane). Repeat the same adjustment in the Side view to alter the planes “Y” position (Except the original Snow plane).

Step 7 - Animation Settings

Double click on the time line slider to open the “Animation Setup” dialogue box. Set the animation length to 20 seconds, leave the rest values to default and click OK.

Now with the help of “Selection Palette” select Snow Plane (the first plane that you have created). Call its “Attribute” by clicking the small “A” icon at the right side of its selected mesh. Then use exactly its dimension values for its “Y” position. Look the picture bellow. Click OK and then press the “S” key on your keyboard to switch the “Selection Palette” to “Animation Palette” (or simply click on the sphere mesh at the right bottom corner of the Working area to “Toggle time/selection palette), and now click on the small “Plus” sign at the right side of the yellow key icon to assign a keyframe.

Please remember that when you press the “plus” icon you assign keyframe for everything in the scene. You can keep your Bryce file size smaller, and your keyframe management more organized if you assign the keyframe only for the position of “Snow” plane. For doing this you simply need to click on the “Plus” icon and hold down the mouse key until a list appears. Then from this list chose “Snow” and then chose “Position”.

Now go to the last frame by pressing the VCR controlling buttons. Call the “Snow” plane “Attributes again, and use the same number for its “Y” position but this time with a negative value. Press OK and assign a keyframe.

Step 8 - Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Now you should repeat the step 7 for all the snow planes one by one. The difference is, these planes are dispersed differently. So you need to calculate their displacement in a way that, while give them a good movement, keep their speed harmony with the rest of planes. This task is very easy: as we already know all the planes dimension is 163.84 x 163.84, we have used this very value to adjust the first snow plane (163.84 in the first frame, and -163.84 in the last frame). In other words the first snow plane moves 2 x -163.84 (-327.68) units during 20 seconds. Now it is very obvious that the rest of snow planes should move as much as the original plane to show the same speed.

Simply assign keyframes for all the snow planes at the first frame. Then go to the last frame and call their “Attributes” one after the other, then set their last “Y” position by calculating it from this equation: YL = Yf - 327.68 where YL is “Y” value at the last frame, and Yf is the “y” value at the first frame.

Step 9 - Optional final touch

You can add some vapors and bumpy clouds by using “Sphere” object and assign a Cloud or Fog material to it. Sometimes a good material and a “Taurus” around the mountain can give a very good effect for a heavy storm scene.

You can alter haze and fogs, or even use the volumetric world settings, but remember that we came all this way to keep the file size low, the structure simple and our work organized. When you master this three very important skills, then you may add the heavy duty settings to your scene.

At last, but not least, you can link the snow planes to your camera. To know how to do this you can refer to my previous tutorial “Forest with 2D trees”.

3D Text by Peter Sharpe

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

3D Text by Peter Sharpe

Author: BryceContentCD

Tools Needed

Bryce
A Painting Program

Introduction

To create great looking 3D text in Bryce 3D all you need is a paint program and Bryce; there is no need for a separate 3D modeling program to extrude the text and create a model to import into Bryce. You can use any of the fonts you have on your system.

Step 1 - Getting Started

Create the text in Photoshop or your favourite painting program. All painting programs allow you to create white text on a black background.

The size of your text image should be 512×512 pixels and the text should be antialiased. Save the image in BMP format on the PC or PIC on the Mac. Try to fill the image with the text by adjusting font size.

Step 2 - The Symmetrical Lattice

In Bryce 3D create a Symmetrical Lattice. I've also applied a sky preset and a water plane. With the Symmetrical Lattice selected click on the E button to enter the Terrain Editor. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

Step 3 - Loading the Text

In the Terrain Editor select new and select a grid size of 512×512 and click on New. Also select Solid from the options given by the downward pointing triangle next to the colour rainbow icon.

Now select Pictures, click on Load above the left thumbnail and load your text image. Click on Load above the next thumbnail and load the image again. Now click on apply and your screen should look like Figure 3. The 3D preview looks terrible but wait it will improve.

Figure 3

Step 4 - Clipping

Drag the Clipping bracket UP from the BOTTOM and then drag the clipping bracket DOWN from the TOP. Your screen should look like Figure 4.

Figure 4

Step 5 - Examples, pt I

Click on the check mark to return to the rendering screen. Rotate your 3D text to a upright position facing forwards. Apply a material and render. You need to move the sun around to get a glint on metallic textures. You may also need to tilt the text backwards slightly.

Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 7 and Figure 8 show examples. The one in Figure 8 was constructed of four separate text images and Symmetrical Lattices, this allows you to place the text components in different planes for a neat effect.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Step 6 - Examples, pt II

Figure 7

Figure 8

3D Text in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

3D Text in Bryce

Author: Zhan

Tools Needed

PaintShopPro
Or Photoshop
Bryce

Introduction

This tutorial will take you through the steps necessary to create 3D text in Bryce using terrains. This is the first in a series of easy to do terrains modification tutorials, to get an assortment of effects in Bryce…Requirements for this tutorial; A paint program such as Paint Shop Pro, Photo Shop, Corel Paint, Windows Paint, or any paint application that allows you to do white text on a black background and blur it. And BRYCE….

Step 1 - OPEN YOUR PAINT PROGRAM

I have Paint Shop Pro 7, so that's what you see here for illustration purposes. However, Photoshop works in a very similar way. Create a new canvas in black the approximate size of your letter or text. Mine is 500×300. In the file menu, go to 'new', enter a window size, click 'OK'. Make your outline and filler colors both white.

Step 2 - CREATE YOUR TEXT

Go to the text tool (circled) click on your black ground. The text dialog box should appear for you to select

the font you wish to use, and type in the letter or phrase, that you want to make 3D. Make it the largest you can fit within the rectangle, I used 72 points. Close the dialog by clicking 'OK'. The letter or text should now appear on the black ground.

Step 3 - SOFTEN THE TEXT

Merge all the layers, this is important. Open your 'Effects' browser, and select 'Soften'. The hard outline of the text should soften somewhat, if it doesn't check to make sure the layers are merged. Okay, save it as a JPG or BMP, under a name that identifies it, in a place you'll remember, to save searching for it later. At this point we close Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop, and open Bryce up.

Step 4 - OPEN BRYCE, CREATE A TERRAIN...

You won't need a lot of space so make the document 800×600, or something you are comfortable with. Create a terrain. I use terrains for text because they are not mirrored like lattices, and you get nice crisp letters. After creating your terrain go to the terrain editor, that's the 'E' on the little menu to the side of the terrain.

Step 5 - IN THE TERRAIN EDITOR

Load your image into the first box by selecting 'Load', at this point you can choose to copy and paste into the second box or load the image again. Hit the 'APPLY', for it to show up in the editor. (Note: the 'load' on the second box comes in handy when doing special effects, but that's another tutorial altogether…)My image needed the resolution increased so I went and selected '2048' or 'gigantic', then hit the 'APPLY'. (NOTE, it is very important when changing resolutions or images to hit apply for the change you want to take place.)

Step 6 - IN THE TERRAIN EDITOR cont...

Next steps, you want to; first make sure your terrain is solid, then raise the clipping bracket up to eliminate the black ground, »NOTE: be sure to grab the end of the 'clipping bracket', the bracket is outside to the right of the gradient bar, grab the very bottom and move it up, DO NOT drag in the gradient bar, or it won't eliminate the background. You should have white text on a red background.««« Next, go to the 'Elevation' tab, click it, and hit the 'smooth' bead a couple of times and you're ready to go out and texture your letters (or text)…

Step 7 - OUT TO THE MAIN WORK AREA

Once you are in the work area, scale your letters or text to the size you want (this can be changed later of course), rotate them upright, and forward facing, so that you can see if anything needs adjusting….

Step 8 - QUICK CHECK, THEN RENDER

Do a quick render 'without' texture to see if you need to tweak the terrain any…when you are satisfied apply whatever texture you like and render! If your terrain isn't to your liking, go back to the paint program and increase the size or, soften the text more. Or in the terrain editor, raise the height (make whiter) the terrain, and smooth again. It's as simple as that…Any font, anytime you need 3D letters or text…

Beer

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Beer

Author: Moerse

Tools Needed

* Bryce 5

Introduction

Making some big party or do you need some objects to place in the king's private bar where the mighty medieval knights can come home to after a glorious battle? If that's the case, then I have just the right thing for you. In this tutorial I will show you how to make a mug and add some beer and realistic foam to it in just 5 simple steps.

Step 1: Make Mug Part 1

Before we get to the beer let's make a simple mug. Press the Cylinder button on the create pallet twice.

Select one of the cylinders and call it ~Inner Mug' (open its attribution window by pressing the little ~A'). Call the other cylinder ~Outer Mug'. In order to make a mug we have to have a cylinder with a hole in it. Bryce offers a unique tool to do this job. When you place a negative object in a positive one and group them, the negative object will cut a hole in the positive one. The ~Inner Mug' will be our negative object and the ~Outer Mug' will be positive. Switch to ~From Top' view. Zoom in until the two cylinders take up almost the entire screen.

Select the ~Inner Mug'. Enter the following in its attribution window (make sure to mark it negative).

Select the ~Outer Mug' cylinder and mark it positive. This is important because if the object is neutral and comes in contact with a negative object, nothing happens. Now open the ~Outer Mug's attribution window and copy the following.

For now, group (press ~G') your two objects (the two mugs) although you will be adding a handle in the next step. Go and switch into director's view. Do a quick render; notice how there is a hole in the ~Outer Mug' now?

Ready to add a handle?

Step 2: Part 2 (add a handle)

On the create pallet click the torus icon. This will be your handle.

Just like with the two cylinders, copy down the information in the attribution window.

The reason why I marked the handle positive too is because we will be grouping it with the rest of the mug. If the handle would have been neutral, half of the torus would still be visible inside the mug'

~this is how it would look like (all objects are grouped and the sun is set at a different spot to shine some light in the mug'). Now go ahead and select the group made in Step 1. Ungroup it (click the little ~U') and select the two Mug parts and the handle. Group them and do a quick render if you want to.

This is how your scene should look now. Notice how the handle doesn't appear inside the Mug anymore? This is only when marked positive. Now, let's add some texture to this Mug. Select your group (I will be referring to it as Mug) and open the texture library (press the little triangle next to the edit button). Go ahead and choose your texture.

Left one is ~Crystal', that's the one I will be using, mostly so that you can actually see the beer inside. The right one is ~Weathered', good if your scene plays sometime in the past and you want to make it like some old, handmade mug. Next step will be adding some beer. Fill it up!!!

Step 3: Fill it up!

Go back to ~From Left' view and select the ~Inner Mug'. Duplicate it (Ctrl+D); this will be your beer. Open its attribution window. Name it ~beer' and make sure that it is marked neutral. This is really important because otherwise if you group it with the mug the beer will be cut out. Using the rescale tool located on the edit pallet make the beer shorter. It should be about 75% of the ~Inner Mug'.

The red line indicates the bottom of the mug. Make sure that your beer sits exactly on that or otherwise it will float in the glass. Open the Beer's materials lab (click the little ~M'). Copy the following settings.

These setting will give your beer a nice greenish look. If you want to do a different kind of beer feel free to change it, but I suggest looking at real beer or at least at pictures first (ex. Root Beer ). Go to ~Director's view' to see if it all fits.

Notice how I use a texture ~Goldenbump'. This is so the beer isn't just plain yellow. One last thing to do is ungroup the mug, add the beer to the selection and group it. You can also do a quick render to make sure that the color is like you want it.

Step 4: Add Foam

Now it's time to top it all off with some foam. Select the beer and duplicate it. This is going to be your foam. In its attribution window enter ~0.5' for its height (y) and call it foam. Also make sure to change its y-position so it doesn't float somewhere inside the beer.

Your scene should now look something like this.

The object selected (red) is your foam. Open the foam's materials lab and take over the following settings.

These setting might (will!) take a long time to render but the result is worth it. I suggest making the picture smaller by changing the document settings so the render takes up less time. Go back to ~Director's view' and do some quick renders, although they won't be very quick anymore.

Voila, one refreshing looking beer!

Step 5: Done

That's it. Now just take the beer and place it into the hands of one of your knights. Even they need a brake sometimes. You can even add little details like'

~ (it's a German beer coaster) although I don't think that they existed back then, but it fits well into a bar.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Happy rendering!

Breaking Glass by Peter Sharpe

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Breaking Glass by Peter Sharpe

Author: BryceContentCD

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

In this tutorial, we'll use different types of Booleans to create a broken glass effect.

Step 1 - Creating the Glass, pt I

First of all create a sphere. Enlarge it and move it up off the ground. Click on the A button and select positive.

Duplicate the sphere (Ctrl - D) and reduce the duplicate in size slightly. The difference in size is the thickness of the glass. Click on the A button and select negative. Select both spheres and group them together (G). Click on the A button and select positive for the group. You now have a hollow sphere although you can't tell by looking at it.

Figure 1

Step 2 - Creating the Glass, pt II

Create a cube. Enlarge it so that it completely encloses the hollow sphere when viewed from the top. Reduce the height of the cube and move it vertically to the position shown. I'm using the view from the right in Figure 2. Click on the A button and select negative. Group the cube and the hollow sphere together. Click on the A button and select positive.

Figure 2

Step 3 - Creating the Glass, pt III

Apply a glass material (I used crystal) and render, it should look like Figure 3.

Figure 3

Step 4 - Creating the Break

Create a rock, not just any rock, try to get one that's roundish rather than one of the more rectangular ones. Delete and recreate until you find a suitable one. Raise the rock and position it to intersect the glass bowl rim. Use side, front and top views to help in the positioning.

Figure 4

Step 5 - Broken Glass

The rock should have the same glass material applied as the bowl. With the rock selected, click on the A button and select negative. Group the glass rock with the bowl group. The resultant render is shown in Figure 5. Attach a glass cylinder for a stem and make a base from a flattened sphere with the bottom cut off by subtracting a cube. There you have your broken glass.

Figure 5

Step 6 - Creating the Missing Piece

But wait - there's more and this is the really neat bit. Move the whole group (rock and bowl) to one side. While it's selected press Ctrl -D to duplicate the lot. (Cmd - D on the Mac). Move the duplicate to the left, to clear the original group. Click on U to ungroup the rock from the bowl. With the rock selected, click on the A button and select Intersect. Regroup the rock and the bowl. There is the missing piece.

Figure 6

Step 7 - Moving the Glass Piece

By using the shift key and rotating 90 degrees or 270 depending which way you go and then lowering the group you can position the broken piece on the ground plane where it fell. Use a side view and zoom to position the curve of the outer sphere on the plane. A subsequent render is shown in Figure 8.

Figure 7

Figure 8

Step 8 - Creating a Glass Crack

But wait there's more. This broken piece of glass is an exact fit for the gap in the glass bowl. So if you just want a cracked glass just select both groups and hit the centre align button. The piece will be fitted into the gap.

Figure 9

You must do this before the previous rotation or it won't work. Notice that the crack is visible in the projected patch of light. Play with the lighting position to get the crack to sparkle.

Campfire

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Campfire

Author: liquefusion

Introduction

Fires are found everywhere, this tutorial gives guidelines on how to create realistic fires.

Step 1 - Log on

Create your scene, dark scenes contrast with the fire better.

We want to build a fire so we need some logs. You can create your own using cylinders, symmetrical lattices or model your own. Lean them together so that they create your basic shape and then apply your log material (I used logs created in Amorphium and applied Bryce's Simple and Fast - Weathered Wood material).

Step 2 - Rocks

Now we need something to contain the fire so make a number of rocks and arrange them up on the ground in a circle. It doesn't matter what size or shape they are, nature isn't perfect. Apply whatever rock texture you like, remember to set the bump height high to show up the firelight (I used Weathered Granite).

Step 3 - It Burns

Now, create a sphere and place it in the center of your rock circle, over your logs. This will be the flames so you will need the correct volumetric material. You can use Bryce's Voluminous Fire however I used a material created by Clay Hagenbusch, a master of Bryce art. You may need to create a number of spheres to get the right look. If your using only Bryce preset materials then you should place a sphere with the Complex FX – Fire material in the middle of the volumetric flames which should use Bryce Volumetric Fire.

Step 4 - Firelight

Fire casts light so you should position a number of small radial lights within the flames, remember, the burning logs will be lit up and glowing as well as light being cast outward. Caustic light gels can be applied to these radial lights to simulate the dancing, flickering light.

Step 5 - No Smoke without Fire?

The smoke is just another sphere with either a volume material or cloud and fog material applied and adjusted as required.

This method of fire building also works in fireplaces, on torches etc.

Circular path

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Circular path

Author: yaniko

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

The “circular path” given in the object-path library is not very convincing, isn't it ?

So, let's make a “real” circular path in a few minutes…

Step 1 - First of all

First of all, create a sphere, then click at “show origin handle” in the object attributes.

In “from top” view, move the origin along the horizontal axis, somewhat like that

Then, adjust animation on 12 frames for example ( a rotation of 360' = 12 X 30').

Adjust the animation on the 11th frame, then rotate the sphere around Y axis until reaching 330'.

Go back to the 1st frame.

Step 2 - Making the path

Create a second identical sphere. Go to the 2nd frame.

Make coincide the 2nd sphere exactly with 1st one.

You may see the path of the 2nd sphere (the line between the blue dot and the sphere).

Then, do it again with 3rd, 4th… frames and so on , until the 11th frame.

Step 3 - Adjusting

Then, adjust the animation on the 12th frame, and make coincide the 2nd sphere exactly with its first position (the blue dot may help you)

Step 4 - Finishing the path

You can now remove the 1st sphere, and select the remaining sphere.

Choose menu “Object-create path”.

You will then see appearing the path corresponding to the movement of the 2nd sphere.

You can now remove the 2nd sphere

Your circular path is now finished.

Step 5 - Save the path

Record it in the object-path library

That's all, folks !

Create a Bamboo tree! (Simple and fast with great results)

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create a Bamboo tree! (Simple and fast with great results)

Author: Guy Hod

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

In this tutorial we'll create a bamboo tree with the Bryce tree lab.

Step 1 - Create the tree and start editing it.

First we'll need to create the tree.

To do that click on the tree picture located on the top of the work space.

If you can't see it make sure that the category “create” is selected.

After you've created the tree click on the “E” letter to open the tree lab.

Step 2 - In the tree lab

Now that we've opened the tree lab we'll change some of the definiteness.

Well start with Branch\Trunk properties first.

Distribution- 0

Branches per segment- 1, 1

Segments- 12, 20

Branch start angle- 110

Branch end angle- 137

Trunk thickness- 1, 46

Branch thickness- 0, 0

For now, do not change the texture.

Second are the tree properties.

Shape- Bamboo

Gravity- 100

Randomness- 100

And last are the foliage properties.

Shape- Bamboo

Scale- 8

Number of leaves- 8

Distribution- spiral

Now, for the texture choose whatever you find suitable.

Once you're done it should look like this:

After you've checked everything continue to the next step.

Step 3 - Editing the trunks texture in the material lab (optional, recommended)

For the trunks texture you have two choices:

One is to choose any of the available textures in your library or create your own.

The second one is to use a texture provided by me through this tutorial.

If you decide to choose the first one then continue to the next step.

First, download these pictures to your computer:

Now, at the texture sector in the Branch\Trunk column, select the image option.

Do not click on the edit button, it is only to reset the texture.

Now select the material option again then click on the edit button near it.

You've now opened the material lab. See that everything is blank.

Like this:

Now in the diffuse row in the color sector select the first blank dot, or in other words the A dot.

After doing that you'll see that a box has appeared, in that box find the letter P (picture) and click on it.

Now click on the red button above it. In the window that just opened you can see three rectangular in the first one load the “bamboo” picture you've downloaded earlier.

You can also load the green bamboo picture as well.

Now load the “bamboo bump” picture to the second rectangular.

Leave the last one and apply the picture to continue back to the material lab.

Now set the diffuse properties to 100 and the bump height to 50.

In the material box change the definition from parametric to object cubic (this is very important).

And last, click on the blue button that's left to the red button and define the very first Y as -80%.

Apply all the changes and go back to the original work space.

Step 4 - Last step, modifying the tree just a bit more

Click on the A button that's near the tree and in the box that will open, in the size row define: 20, 60, 20.

Please notice that if you are intending to apply more changes than do not complete the last step before finishing them. If you are not sure if you're done you should back up the original figures.

I hope you enjoy the tutorial and your new bamboo tree 8)

Create a Meta-Alien Head, Using Negative Metaballs in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create a Meta-Alien Head, Using Negative Metaballs in Bryce

Author: BillMTracer

Tools Needed

Bryce 5 or
Bryce 5.5

Introduction

As a dedicated 3D artist, I find software like Bryce a useful tool. Over time, I've learned several interesting techniques. Of the undocumented features I know, one of the most powerful is the use of negative metaballs. While not particularly intuitive, it is, however, incredibly simple to create a negative metaball in Bryce 5 and 5.5.

Step 1 - Set up Work Area

Before we get creative, let's set up our work area.

When I activate Bryce I like to work without the ground plane, and with a simple white background. That way all of my attention is on the model. Test renders go faster with these settings.

To delete the ground plane, click on the ground plane and hit your delete key. Then activate the 'Sky and Fog' palette, seen in Figure 1.

In Figure 1, note the small triangle (circled in red) next to the words 'Sky and Fog. Click it.

This should show you the preset skies. Among the standard preset skies is the 'Simple White Background'. As its name suggest it is simple and white.

Click it to select, and then click the accept check mark in the lower right corner.

The attribute settings used in this tutorial are easiest to set while viewing the model from the Front. You can activate the Front view by using the keyboard View shortcut, then hitting the 4 number key.

Step 2 - Get Creative

Activate the Create Palette by clicking the word Create in the upper left region of your working window, as seen in Figure 2.

From left to right this palette reveals clickable icons for Bryce object creation as follows: Water, Sky, Ground Plane, Terrain, Tree, Rock, Symmetrical Lattice, Metaball, Sphere, Torus, Cylinder, Cube, Tetrahedron, Cone, Disk Flat Plane, 2D Picture Object, Rectangular Flat Plane, various lights, and lastly in version 5.5, the icon for DAZ Studio.

Step 3 - Make a Positive Metaball

The eighth icon from the left is the Metaball icon. It is the left most of the group of blue icons, and can be seen in Figure 2 surrounded by the red line.

To create a normal positive metaball all you have to do is click this knobby icon. A positive metaball will appear in your scene, as in Figure 3. Before moving on, let's adjust its size and shape.

Step 4 - Changing Attributes

Click the A, (Attribute box), circled in Figure 3. Give your metaball these attributes' Position: X=-40.96, Y=30.72, Z=40.96; Rotate: X=0, Y=0, Z=0; Size: X=51.84, Y=69.12, Z=51.84, like you see in Figure 4.

I always like to give objects their own names, for easy identification. Name this one 'AlienHead'.

When finished, click the check mark in the lower right of the attribute box, as shown by the red line in Figure 4.

So far, pretty easy stuff.

(A quick side note about numbers in Bryce. Undoubtedly, you've noticed the oddness of the Bryce numbering system. An entire tutorial could be devoted to explaining how they work for us, but I'll sum it up like this; everything is a power of 0.08, or you might think of it as increments of 0.08, starting with 0. It all has to do with that 8 bits to a byte thing. So if you should take the time to get your calculator out, you'll notice that all of the numbers I use for positions, and sizes are all powers of 0.08, or as I like to call it, 'base Bryce'. Rotations are not in base Bryce in the interest of symmetry to our view.)

Step 5 - Make one Negative

Making a negative metaball is easy.

While clicking the metaball icon we talked about back up in Figure 2, hold down the shift key. That's all there is to it. Give it a try. Simple huh?

Step 6 - Drill a Hole Through

After creating your negative metaball, while it is still selected, click on the A, (attribute box).

Give it these attributes – Name: 'EyeDrillNegator'; Position: X=-40.96, Y=32.48, Z=34.96. Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0. Size: X=32.48, Y=16.16, Z=15.36. As before, click the check mark lower right when complete.

Step 7 - Test Render

Give it a quick render to see a hole drilled through your original metaball. It should look like Figure 5.

Step 8 - Let's Make it a Little More Interesting

While this alone demonstrates how to use negative metaballs, let's add more metaballs, to make our model a little more interesting.

Select the positive metaball, labeled 'AlienHead'. Click on Edit in your Menu Bar, then Duplicate from the pull down menu.

This will create a duplicate of the selected metaball. The duplicate will appear in exactly the same location as the original, and will be the currently selected object.

We must change the position and size attributes of this new positive metaball, so click the A box.

Change its name to Brow, and set its attributes as you see in Figure 6;

Position: X=-40.96, Y=38.88, Z=38.88; Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0; Size: X=46.08, Y=13.12, Z=30.72. Click the lower right check.

While we still have the brow selected, make another duplicate, as before. Give it the following attributes:

Name: 'LeftLobe' Position: X=-48.48, Y=46.08, Z=46.08. Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0. Size: X=28.88, Y=23.04 Z=28.88.

Duplicate this LeftLobe, and give it these attributes:

Name: 'RightLobe' Position: X=-33.44, Y=46.08, Z=46.08. Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0. Size: X=28.88, Y=23.04, Z=28.88

The result should look somewhat like Figure 7.

Step 9 - Add More Character

This time, select the negative metaball, 'EyeDrillNegator', and duplicate it like you did the other duplicates. The difference is that since you are duplicating a negative metaball, the duplicate will also be negative. Give this new negative metaball these attributes:

Name: 'LeftNoseNegator'. Position: X=-42.96, Y=25.92, Z=31.60. Rotation: X=40, Y=0, Z=-20. Size: X=1.92, Y=4.32, Z=10.24. Click the check mark, when complete.

Duplicate again. Click the attribute box of this second duplicate and set its attributes:

Name: 'RightNoseNegator'. Position: X=-38.96, Y=25.92, Z=31.60. Rotation: X=40, Y=0, Z=20. Size: X=1.92, Y=4.32, Z=10.24.

After this you should have two more holes drilled into your original metaball. But before we do another test render, lets' add a few more metaballs to enhance the overall form.

{For ease of reference in the following list, PM represents a positive metaball, and NM a negative metaball. Also note that I like to use the word Negator in the names of all my negative metaballs. This helps keep track of which metaballs are negative, at all times).

PM > Name: 'Nose'

Position: X=-40.96, Y=28.40, Z=30.72

Rotation: X=20, Y=0, Z=0

Size: X=6.48, Y=8.64, Z=6.48

PM > Name: 'LeftCheekRidge'

Position: X=-52.48, Y=30.72, Z=38.88

Rotation: X=-20, Y=-20, Z=0

Size: X=8.64, Y=10.24, Z=25.92

PM > Name: 'RightCheekRidge'

Position: X=-29.44, Y=30.72, Z=38.88

Rotation: X=-20, Y=20, Z=0

Size: X=8.64, Y=10.24, Z=25.92

NM > Name: 'LeftTempleNegator'

Position: X=-56.08, Y=32.64, Z=48.48

Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0

Size: X=8.64, Y=20.48, Z=30.72

NM > Name: 'RightTempleNegator'

Position: X=-25.84, Y=32.64, Z=48.48

Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0

Size: X=8.64, Y=20.48, Z=30.72

NM > Name: 'LeftSideCheekNegator'

Position: X=-54.96, Y=25.52, Z=36.96

Rotation: X=-20, Y=-20, Z=0

Size: X=10.24, Y=15.36, Z=30.72

NM > Name: 'RightSideCheekNegator'

Position: X=-26.96, Y=25.52, Z=36.96

Rotation: X=-20, Y=20, Z=0

Size: X=10.24, Y=15.36, Z=30.72

NM > Name: 'LeftFrontCheekNegator'

Position: X=-52.08, Y=25.52, Z=28.48

Rotation: X=20, Y=-80, Z=40

Size: X=10.24, Y=15.36, Z=30.72

NM > Name: 'RightfrontCheekNegator'

Position: X=-29.84, Y=25.52, Z=28.48

Rotation: X=20, Y=80, Z=-40

Size: X=10.24, Y=15.36, Z=30.72

PM > Name: 'OccipitalLobe'

Position: X=-40.96, Y=34.56, Z=56.56

Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0

Size: X=28.88, Y=28.88, Z=28.88

NM > Name:'OccipitalNegator'

Position: X=-40.96, Y=20.48, Z=56.56

Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0

Size: X=30.72, Y=30.72, Z=30.72

When all are in place, do that test render. A left view should look somewhat like Figure 8, while the front view like Figure 9.

As you can see, we have the beginnings of our alien head. But wait, where are the eyes? Not to mention, we have no mouth! Don't worry, with just a few more metaballs we'll flesh out these last details.

Step 10 - Refining Our Meta-Model

To refine your Meta-Alien Head further, try creating more metaballs with attributes as listed below:

PM > Name: 'NoseBridge'

Position: X=-40.96, Y=33.44, Z=35.12

Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0

Size: X=8.64, Y=15.36, Z=12.96

NM > Name: 'UnderNoseNegator'

Position: X=-40.96, Y=21.12, Z=27.76

Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0

SIZ X=6.48, Y=17.28, Z=6.48

PM > Name: 'Mouth'

Position: X=-40.96, Y=20, Z=33.36

Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0

Size: X=5.12, Y=3.84, Z=5.76

NM > Name: 'MouthNegator1'

Position: X=-41.20, Y=19.60, Z=32.32

Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=8

Size: X=2.56, Y=0.96, Z=5.12

NM > Name: 'MouthNegator2'

Position: X=-40.72, Y=19.60, Z=32.32

Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=-8

Size: X=2.56, Y=0.96, Z=5.12

NM > Name: 'UnderMouthNegator'

Position: X=-40.96, Y=13.12, Z=33.44

Rotation: X=-40, Y=0, Z=0

Size: X=6.48, Y=17.28, Z=7.68

NM > Name: 'LeftLowerCheekNegator'

Position: X=-49.68, Y=17.92, Z=37.76

Rotation: X=-40, Y=0, Z=40

Size: X=10.24, Y=20.48, Z=40.96

NM > Name: 'RightLowerCheekNegator'

Position: X=-32.24, Y=17.92, Z=37.76

Rotation: X=-40, Y=0, Z=-40

Size: X=10.24, Y=20.48, Z=40.96

After adding the above to your creation, group all the metaballs you have thus far.

To do this, simply select all of your metaballs and click the G box. Give this group the name, 'MainHeadGroup'.

Now, with the main head group finished, we have but to fill the eye cavity with eye balls. These are simply 2 spheres, given the following attributes:

Sphere > Name: 'leftEyeBall'

Position: X=-47.12, Y=32.96, Z=35.76

Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0

Size: X=10.24, Y=10.24, Z=10.24

Sphere > Name: 'RightEyeBall'

Position: X=-34.80, Y=32.96, Z=35.76

Rotation: X=0, Y=0, Z=0

Size: X=10.24, Y=10.24, Z=10.24

So far as materials go, experiment with different presets, tweaking the colors and other characteristics. When all is done, your rendering should look similar to Figure 10. Don't be afraid to experiment. Use different materials. Play around with sizes and positions and even rotations to see what kind of variations you can come up with.

This meta-alien head is just to get you started on the principles. Add more metaballs in specific places to enhance your realism. Add teeth, if you like. Of course, if you want teeth, you'll probably need to make him a bigger mouth. But above all, have fun creating with both positive and negative metaballs. Who knows, if you keep practicing, you might even come up with a better way to make a metaball slug.

Stay tuned for the future tutorial, 'Attack of the Meta-Slugs'.

Create a shell or ram horn by Peter Sharpe

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create a shell or ram horn by Peter Sharpe

Author: BryceContentCD

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

In this tutorial, we'll go over the multi-replicate command to create a shell and a ram's horn.

Step 1 - Create the torus

Create a torus. Rotate it from the vertical to the horizontal (hold down the shift key whilst rotating to rotate in 45 degree steps).

Figure 1

Step 2 - Modify the torus

Select view from right. Click on the A button and then click on Show Origin Handle. This is the green dot and is the normal centre of rotation. Drag the dot to the right so that it is half the outer radius of the torus past the right hand edge. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

Step 3 - The shell, pt I

With the torus still selected click on Edit/Multi-Replicate and enter the figures as shown in Figure 3. If there are any values in the boxes with zero in change these to zero.

Figure 3

Step 4 - the shell, pt II

Click the checkmark, the rotated duplicates appear as in Figure 4.

Figure 4

Step 5 - the shell - rendered

Render your shell.

Figure 5

Step 6 - the ram

If you enter an offset in the x column as shown in Figure 6, you will get a ram's horn instead of a shell. Here I've only used 40 replications.

Figure 6

Step 7 - the ram

Figure 7 shows the rendered left side ram's horn. To make the right hand one enter -1.5 in the x offset.

Figure 7

Create an exact circle of columns with Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create an exact circle of columns with Bryce

Author: Stargazy

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

Sometimes when you create a temple or a building with many columns, it is difficult to position the columns in an exact circle with the same distance to each other. This tutorial shows you an easy way to arrange them.

Step 1 - Create a column

First of all you need a column that you want to be copied and arranged. So create your own one or use the pre-defined one in Bryce's object library. If you construct your column out of several objects, don't forget to group and name them before you go on.

Here is my column.

Step 2 - Some calculations before you start

Now think about the number of columns you want to arrange. Take the degrees of a circle (360 degrees) and divide them by your column number. This will be the distance angle.

In my example I'm going to arrange 10 columns, so my angle is 36 degrees (12 or 6 would also be a fine number of columns).

Step 3 - Activate the origin handle of your column

Change to the top view and open the Attributes dialog by clicking the small 'A' beneath you column.

The attributes dialog opens and you now have to activate 'Show Origin Handle'.

If you leave this dialog, you can now see a little green dot in the middle of your column.

Step 4 - Modify the origin handle of your column

Now you have to move the origin handle of the column to what will be the center of the circle. Just drag the little green dot out along the positive Z axis to that what you want to be the center of the circle.

Now you should have something like this.

Step 5 - Replicate the Column

To do the multi replication press Alt-Shift-D (or Option-Shift-D on the Mac). A dialog box appears. As quantity I typed 9 (I want to have 10 columns at the end and I already have one).

Make sure that all values of 'Offset' are set to 0 and all values of 'Size' are set to 100% (we want to have the duplicated columns all the same size).

The rotation should be along the Y-Axis and depends on you number of columns. We calculated the angle already in step2 (do you'remember?). For my example, I type in the calculated angle of 36 degrees.

Click the checkmark or hit Enter and you will get a perfect circle of columns.

Step 6 - Additional Tip

Now group all the columns and open the attribute box for the group (click on the little 'A' icon beneath the group).

Because these many columns will take a lot of time when they are redrawn, you can check the option 'Show as Box'.

No all the group of columns is shown as a single box and it is easier for you to go on with your work.

If you want to see the wireframes of the columns again, just remove the checkmark. Note that your nano preview is not affected.

Step 7 - Create the complete building

Now have fun to create you hall or temple.

Creating a Gemstone by Peter Sharpe

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating a Gemstone by Peter Sharpe

Author: BryceContentCD

Introduction

Stock your own virtual jewelry store with your own Bryce gems.

Step 1 - Start with a Pyramid

Create a pyramid - use the squat one. Click on A to bring up the Attributes dialogue box. Make positive. Check Show Origin Handle. In Rotate X type 180. Exit the Attributes dialoge box.

Figure 1

Step 2 - Modify the Pyramid

Select From Front view. Click A and in Rotate Z enter -26.5. Note the negative sign. This aligns one edge vertically. Exit the Attributes dialogue. Drag the origin to the bottom corner as shown in Figure 2. Be accurate here to ensure all the points line up when you Multi-Replicate later.

Figure 2

Step 3 - Multiply the Pyramid

Select Edit/Multi-Replicate. Enter Quantity=11 and Rotate Y=30. Make sure all other boxes are set to zero except for the size boxes which should read 100. Click on the check and the result should be as shown in Figure 3. Click on the pyramid at the bottom of the screen to select ALL of the pyramids, (The first one you created will not be selected at this point). Group them and make the group Positive.

Figure 3

Step 4 - Cap the Gemstone

Create a cube. Position and size it so that it looks like the one in Fig 4. Use the top view to roughly centre it over the pyramid group. Note that he bottom surface of the cube passes through the lower intersection of the pyramid surfaces. This is important. Click on A and make negative. Group it with the pyramid group. Apply the crystal or diamond material from the glass library and you have your gemstone.

Figure 4

Step 5 - And Render

The final result. Have fun …..

Figure 5

Creating a Nebula in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating a Nebula in Bryce

Author: thedanman

Tools Needed

Bryce (5)

Support Files

Nebula.zip

Introduction

Using presets and Bryce library textures you can create a simple yet impressive volumetric nebula for your deep space projects.

Step 1 - Create an empty scene and set your atmosphere

Create an empty scene and modify you sky&fog settings to the Bryce preset “Starfield” mapping - this will set up your stars and space. You can always change these values and presets by using the SkyLab and modifying its entries.

Step 2 - Create a sphere primitive for your nebula

You don't want to use a volumetric cloud plane because the nebula will be infinite and too dense. Use a sphere instead and stretch it around and position it as your nebula

Step 3 - Texture the sphere

Edit the material of the sphere by clicking the “M” on its selections. Make sure that the texture is volume(tric) and not surface. This will give you a 3D texture you can work with and it will fill your sphere so that you can place your camera inside the sphere.

Step 4 - Place your camera inside the nebula

For a cool effect that views the nebula from the inside out, place your camera inside the sphere as shown above.

Step 5 - Your nebula awaits

Render and view your new cosmic creation

Create a realistic looking oil spill

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create a realistic looking oil spill

Author: Moerse

Tools Needed

* Bryce 5

Introduction

Ever wanted to make some deserted space complex or an industrial harbor? But once you have placed all your objects and characters, it still seems like something is missing. This tutorial is going to help you give your picture a bit more character by placing in an oil spill in your scene, or if you are talking about the future some weird alien liquid, even blood.' There's an idea.

Step 1: Create Metaballs

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to make an oil spill. I will be using five Metaballs but you can take how many you want, although you should never be using only one, because that will make it look too simple. On the object pallet, press the Metaball icon five times.

Step 2: Resize objects

Switch to ~From Top' view. Take one of your Metaballs and drag it a little away from its original position. Be careful to not drag it too far away from the others, or otherwise it won't connect with the rest in your final render. Repeat this process with three more Metaballs. Your scene should now look something like this.

You can make your outer Metaballs a little bigger or smaller to make the oil spill look more random.

Switch to ~From Left' view. Select all Metaballs and open the Attributes window. In the y-size box, enter '2'.

Step 3: Position spill

Floating puddles don't look too good, so let's put them on the ground. Still in ~From Left' view modus, select one of your Metaballs. Notice how a line separates the top half from the bottom half. Align this line with the ground plate. Zoom in to get more accurate results. Do this with the rest of the Metaballs too.

Step 4: Add texture

The final step is to add some texture. I used ~Oil slick' form the texture library but you can use whatever you want. Get in the ~Director's view' and do your final render. And voila, one slimy looking oil spill.

Now just add some other objects and you have one nice looking picture.

Step 5: Final hint

Different liquids have different properties. While oil is a pretty thick liquid, water is rather thin and can therefore easily spread out over a larger area. This is important for choosing the thickness of the Metaballs.

Have fun and happy rendering J !!!

Sorry if the English isn't so good.

Creating a web design gel button in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating a web design gel button in Bryce

Author: josquine1000

Tools Needed

* Bryce 5.5

Support Files

* gelbutton.zip

Introduction

Do you need a website button ? Usually, a gel button is done in a graphic application using fake reflections, refractions and everything. But what if I told you that you can do a simple gel button in the true way, simulating a glass button with Bryce ?

Step 1 - Setting up the workspace

Select File > New Document … ( Ctrl - N ) and choose a size. I have chosen 1024×768 because I usually render the graphics big and then I resize them as needed.

Select the default camera and click on the A button on the right ( Ctrl - Alt - E ) and in the track object name select the plane. Press Ok.

This tracks the camera to the plane so that now it's easier to control. The camera has to be positioned exactly over the plane.

Step3: Select the perspective toggle button to switch to camera. Now adjust the camera so that it's over the plane in a straight angle.

Your project should look something like this:

Step 2 - Creating the geometry

Add a cylinder and rotate it exactly 90 degrees on z axis ( keep Shift key pressed to go in a straight angle )

Resize the cylinder so that it looks like in the picture

Add a sphere and resize it to match the radius of the cylinder. You can use the Attributes Panel ( Ctrl - Alt - E ) to set the exact radius.

Move the sphere along the side of the cylinder like in the picture.

Press Ctrl - D to duplicate the sphere and move it in the other side of the cylinder.

Step 3 - Creating the boolean button

It's time for booleans !

Select the two spheres and the cylinder and click the Families button and select a family. Now all the selected objects are in the same family.

Press the Group button ( Ctrl - G ). The selected objects will form a new group.

Move the group a little under the plane.

Step 4 - Setting up materials and rendering

Select the plane, enter Material Editor ( Ctrl - M ) and put the settings in the image. This will be the background but will be cut off from the picture eventually in a graphic editor.

Step 12: Select the group and enter Material Editor like before. Set the parameters as in the image. The button has to be transparent and look like a glass.

Step 13: Go to Sky and Fog and adjust the settings like in the image.

Step 14: Render! You should have a nice gel button which can be used for web design.

You can also try changing the color of the glass, the index of refraction, or even better if you own Bryce 6 you can use the new HDRI skies to create truly organic buttons !

Enjoy !

Creating cogs in bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating cogs in bryce

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

Creating objects using basic shapes in Bryce can give some great results but may seem daunting at first.

I'll try to show how relatively simple shapes can be created fairly quickly with a few of the inbuilt tools in Bryce.

In this example, you'll see how to create a basic cog shape.

Step 1 - The main cylinder

The first thing we'll create is the main part of the cog wheel.

This part is a simple flat disk, or cylinder.

To create it, create a new cylinder object from the toolbar at the top of the interface. It's in there with the sphere, torus, cube, etc.

Once you have the cylinder in the scene, click on the 'A' in the vertical set of icons that appear next to it whilst it's selected.

This will bring up the object attributes window. Set the various values as shown below:

The positive option should be selected

origin 0, 0, 0

position 0, 0, 0

rotate 0, 0, 0

size 100, 10, 100

Step 2 - The first tooth

The next thing to do is to position the first of the cogs teeth. This time we'll be using a cube.

Place a cube in the scene, make sure it is selected and click on the 'A' just as before.

Before we start setting values, we need to click on the padlock between the Origin and Position rows. This allows them to have different values rather than being the same all of the time.

Now we can set the various values as shown below:

positive should be set

origin 0, 0, 0

position 0, 0, 52

rotate 0, 0, 0

size 10, 10, 10

Step 3 - The rest of the teeth

Rather than try to position and rotate the teeth by hand, we can use a neat little trick that Bryce has to do it for us.

With only the cube selected, we need to click on the Edit menu and select the Multi Replicate option. This brings up a little window with more options to fill in.

Fill in the following values:

quantity 17

offset 0, 0, 0

rotate 0, 20, 0

size 100, 100, 100

When you click on the tick, you will suddenly have 17 more teeth around the cog.

The reason this worked so well is because we set the first tooth to be positioned at the edge of the cog, but have it's origin (or centre of rotation) at the centre of the cog. This means that when we replicated it, each cog moved around the edge of the cog nice and neatly.

The reason we have 17 replications at 20 degrees each time is because there are 360 degrees in a circle, we are stepping forward 20 degrees each time which means we want 18 (360/20=18) teeth, but of course we already have the first one.

Step 4 - Put the hole in

The next thing to do is punch a hole in the centre of the cog.

We do this by adding another cylinder to the scene, selecting it and clicking on the 'A' as before to set it's various attributes.

The values should be as follows:

negative should be selected

origin 0, 0, 0

position 0, 0, 0

rotate 0, 0, 0

size 20, 12, 20

The reason that this cylinder is negative rather than positive is because we want to use it to cut a hole in the overall shape.

When you group objects together, which is what we'll be doing in a little while, all of the objects that are set as positive will be in the final shape whilst objects that are set as negative will cut their shape out of the overall object.

The more astute will also notice that the hole is slightly larger in the Y axis than the rest of the shape. This is because if it was the same size, it may not cut all the way through the object.

Anyway, we need to group all of this lot together.

Start by selecting one of the objects. To add another object to your selection, hold the shift key down and click on another object. Keep doing this until you have selected everything.

You will probably find that it is hard to select an object that is overlapping one or more other objects (the hole for example). If this is the case, hold the control key down as well as the shift key and when you click, you will be given a list of possible objects that could be selected.

Once everything is selected, a 'G' appears in the vertical list of icons next to the selected objects. Clicking on this will cause the whole lot to be grouped and make the positive and negative objects work together.

Step 5 - Texture the thing

That's it. You can now texture the new combined object with one texture (click on the 'M' in the vertical list of icons to enter the texture screen).

Have fun and try out different things.

As a point of interest, if when you apply a texture to the group, the main cylinder appears to be different to the teeth, try changing the texture mapping mode to 'World Space'. The texture mapping mode can be changed by clicking on the text that will say something like 'Object Space', 'Parametric', 'Spherical' or a whole host of other variations underneath the colourful textures on the right hand side of the texture screen.

Engraved Rings

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Engraved Rings

Author: djblueprint

Tools Needed

Bryce 5 or above

Support Files

Introduction

Married couples often have rings with their names and the date of their wedding engraved.

Since “Lord of the Rings” nearly everyone knows what an engraved ring should look like.

In this tutorial you will learn in a few steps to create this effect in Bryce.

There are 2 support files; the first is for this tutorial, and the second is the ring, ready as an obp Bryce object file

Step 1 - Preparation

First we need an image containing the text we want to engrave.

The text has to be mirror-inverted and for this tutorial, please use the included source graphic.

You need to understand that the way the source image is created directly influences the way the engraved text appears on the ring!

So just play around a bit when creating your own.

Continue with the next step.

Step 2 - Modeling the ring - part I

Now start Bryce.

Left-click once on the torus-thumb to create a torus.

Then left-click once on the cylinder-thumb to create a cylinder (see first image).

With these two primitives we will build our ring.

In the scene select the torus so that he is red marked. Left-click once on the E and enter a radius of 200 (see second image) and click the check mark.

Then click on the A and set the torus as positive (see third image), then click on the check mark. Leave all other attributes untouched.

Continue with the next step.

Step 3 - Modeling the ring - part II

Now select the cylinder in the scene. Left-click once the A and set all attributes exactly as shown in the first image!

After that select the torus and the cylinder and group them by left-clicking once on the G (see second image).

Now they are grouped and the negative cylinder cuts off a piece of the torus. The ring is basicly modeled and now it is time for texturing!

Continue with the next step.

Step 4 - Texturing - part I

With the grouped still marked left-click once on the M to change the material (see first image).

In the Material-Editor choose brushed-gold from the metals (see second image). Now the ring is golden. But we still have to engrave it.

Continue with the next step.

Step 5 - Texturing - part II

Select only the cylinder and left-click the M again (see first image). Now apply all settings shown in the following two images.

Go to the last step.

Step 6 - The end

That's it. Now the text appears as it is engraved in the inner ring.

There is room to play around a bit with different settings at some steps. Just do it!

If you have any additional questions feel free to ask me by mail!

Yours

Sascha aka djblueprint

Enticide 101 - Removing Tree Roots.

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Enticide 101 - Removing Tree Roots.

Author: Flak

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

Ever felt the need to put a tree on the edge of something or into a pot and had roots sticking through a wall, or out through the side of the pot? How about using tree's as branches to make an uber-tree, and had roots sticking out into mid air….. well, here's one way to easily de-root your bryce tree using a simple transparency map.

Step 1 - Preparation

For this tut, I'm looking at putting a shrub (which I've made from a bryce tree using AgentSmiths piece of LA flora for the leaf textures) into a pot. It all looks reasonably good, except for those roots sticking out through the bottom of the pot, and thats what we want to work on.

So after you've come up with the tree that you want to put into your scene, its time to go to work on those roots. Firstly, pull your tree off to the side of the thing its going to go into - this will help you see whats going on later in proceedings.

Step 2 - The Tree Trunk Texture

What we now want to do is to apply a specific transparency map to the trunk of the tree.

So to do this, firstly select the tree and then click on the 'e' button to bring up the tree lab. Now in the tree lab, click on the material editor for the tree trunk as shown.

What you can now see is the material that is being applied to the tree trunk and the branches of the tree. Here the branch and trunk texture is a photo based texture (tex A) which includes both the texture and a bump map. So what we want to do now is to apply a transmap to this texture to in effect make the bottom part of the tree (the roots) invisible.

Step 3 - Loading The Transparency Map

Click on the second dot in the transparency row - this will bring up a new texture entry on the right hand side of the material editor. On this new texture entry on the right hand side, click on the approrpiate dots to open the picture library window.

Once in here, load an image that looks like what I've shown into the middle of the three texture boxes. In this image, the black parts will correspond to those parts of the tree that will become transparent and the white part will correspond to which part of the tree will remain visible. For this case, I've gone for about a 2/3 white, 1/3 black - thus the top 2/3s of the tree will remain visible, while hopefully the bottom 1/3 will become transparent. If, on the other hand, you wanted to chop the top of the tree off, you could use an image where the top part was black and the bottom part was white.

Once you've loaded your transparency map into the library, click on the tick symbol to go back to the mat editor.

Step 4 - Texture Positioning

After you've done that, make sure the blend transparency option is ticked - its not necessary for the workings of this tutorial to do that, but its always something to check for if your transparency maps aren't working the way you think they should be. Also, set the mapping mode to object front - this seems to be the simplest option when visualizing whats going on with the transparency map.

If we now render the tree, we'll notice that it looks like a bit has been cut out of the trunk of the tree, however the bit may not be in the correct position.

What you've now got to do is a little bit of trial and error to position the transparency map so that it deletes all of the roots and not any of the top of the tree. This is easiest done by altering the offset values for the texture in the 'y' (vertical up and down) direction. In the above image you can see the effect on the transparency with 0, 10, 40 units of offset (the leaves have been removed from the tree to help show whats going on). The more the offset, the lower the boundary between visible and transparent is moved. Find the value for the offset at which the roots and enough of the trunk are now invisible for your purpose - in my case, 40 units of offset in the y direction was enough.

Step 5 - Finish

Once you've found an offset value that will have the effect of making the tree roots invisible, you can move your tree back into its pot, or the branchs back onto your ent to get the desired result.

If you have any questions concerning this tutorial, feel free to send me an email at wastelandd@hotmail.com (make sure you spell that email address properly) and we'll see if we can find you an answer.

Forest with 2D trees

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Forest with 2D trees

Author: Omid

Tools Needed

Bryce 5 or Bryce 5.5

Support Files

Forest.zip

Introduction

As you may probably know, adding many Bryce tree objects (3D objects) to the scene can significantly increase the redrawing and rendering time. These trees need lots of processing by CPU, make your PC slow, and lead to long delays when following your orders.

If you are familiar with the use of 2D objects in Bryce (known as “Pict Objects”), you know how to solve this problem by getting the most out of the 2D object capabilities. Yet there are few tricks that can help you fulfill this task professionally.

Step 1 - Preparing the terrains

Create a new document, leave the settings to default.

Chose the “Director's View” from the view list by clicking on the small triangle at the right side of the view icon. Then double click on the “Camera Trackball” in the “Camera Control” area. Input the values according to the following picture to set your “Director's View”.

Create three terrains, send them to far background. You can use the Right and Up arrow keys to move terrains in X and Z axis, respectively. Each time you want to make the terrains bigger, you can do this either by dragging one of the corner points of the selection box (by default is red), or simply hit the * key on the keyboard several times. Each time you press the * key, it doubles the terrain scale.

Do not forget to click the small arrow at the bottom of series of icons at the right of the selected terrain (it brings the terrain at the ground level).

Do some minor changes to the terrains by editing theme in the “Terrain Lab” (press the little “E” icon at the right side of the selected terrain), such as smoothing, making erodes, etc.

Step 2 - Assign Material to the terrains

While pressing the “Shift” key on your keyboard, click on all the terrains and also the “Ground Plane” to select theme (Their wireframe turn to red).

Now click the little triangular icon at the right side of the “Edit” on the top palette. Form the material list that appears, “Planes and Terrains” category, chose “Whole Mountain” (5th column 5th row, in Bryce 5).

Step 3 - Sky and Atmosphere Settings

Now click the little triangle at the right of “Sky and Fog” at the top palette to call the sky and fog presets. From here chose “Low Ceiling” and then click the OK icon.

Then you can arrange the terrains by changing the View to the top view.

In order to have a better control on adjusting the positions, click the little triangle at the bottom of “Nano Preview” and chose the “Director View”. This way you can do the adjustment from the top view while take and eye on the overall look of the scene in the Nano preview.

Do a quick render to check your scene. If necessary, do some minor changes to in the scene and test render again to achieve you desire look and feel.

Step 4 - 2D Tree Object

Now you can create the first tree. In this tutorial we use only a single type of tree for our 2D object, but remember that you can use several different type of trees, plants, even stone or other 2D objects.

Click on the “Create 2D Picture Object” icon on the create palette. The “Pictures” window appears. From here you can select the picture of the tree (and other plants) that you want to use. Just click either on one of the empty squares, or on the “load” icon at top left corner of the main image box.

From the “Open” dialogue that appears chose the address and file name of the tree or plant picture, do not forget to “load” its ALPHA file in the middle main image box (the file in this tutorial is “QuebecJPG” and its mask “Queb_AlphaJPG”).

Click the OK icon at the bottom right side of the window to close it and bring the 2D tree object in the scene. By default, the director's view is oriented in -45 degree horizontally. In other word, director's view looks at the scene with a -45 degree horizontal angle. Thus, although everything you create in the scene, come exactly in front of director, but it does not align to director's view. That is why at the moment, the 2D object looks to be turned 45 degree to the left and it is not perpendicular to your view. To align the tree object to director's view, call the “Object Attribute” by pressing the little “A” icon at the right side of the selected object.

Here enter -45 for “Rotate” of axis “y”. Now that you have the “Object Attribute” open, chose a name for your 2D tree, for example “Tree”. Click OK.

Step 5 - Populate the scene with 2D trees

So far, we have the scene ready, but only with only a single tree. If you select this 2D tree and then look at the text area at the bottom left of the working area, you see that this tree consists of only one polygon! If you like you can temporary create a tree object and check how many polygons you bring to the scene that way. You can imagine if you want to have 300 tree objects (and not 2D objects) in your scene, how heavy would be the scene file and how slow your computer would work. I tried this comparison myself and find out that the total polygons of such a heavy scene would be around 646000 to 690000 polygons! But 300 of the simple 2D objects will only add 300 polygons to the scene that is even less than single tree object. When you're done with this comparison, delete that temporary tree object to turn back to tutorial.

Make sure that the 2D object (Tree) is selected. From the “Edit” menu, click on “Multi-Replicate'” or simply press Alt+Shift+D on your keyboard.

The “Multi-Replicate” dialogue appears. Here make all the settings exactly like the following image. The X, Y and Z scale (Size) should be 100% and the “Quantity” should be set to 299 (299 copies + the original 2D copy = 300 2D objects). Click the OK icon.

Now you have 300 2D objects, but they all positioned at the same coordinates. That is why we cannot see them separately at the moment. Remember that they are all selected now, do nothing to deselect theme.

Step 6 - Disperse the 2D trees naturally!

Now is the turn of the fun part, one of the great features of Bryce that makes the scene more natural, at the same time save us our precious time. This feature is called “Randomize” and it consists of two parts, the “Mode Selector” and the “Amount” icons. By clicking on the first icon you can easily chose how you want the selected items to be randomly dispersed and by the second, you adjust the dispersing (or randomization) amount.

Now by clicking on the small triangle at the bottom of “Randomize” icon, chose “2D Disperse”.

This tells Bryce to disperse all the 300 trees (2D objects), in X and Z directions randomly. In other words, Bryce disperses these trees on the Ground Plane.

Now click on the “Amount” icon (a bluish sphere in the upper part of “Randomize” icon) and carefully drag your mouse in right or left. Try not to rush in dispersing the trees in a single step. Just begin this first step of dispersing 2D objects, with small moves. If you want you can repeat this function one more time, again only with slightly movements.

This time click on the small triangle at the bottom of “Randomize” icon, and chose “2D Disperse size”. Now Bryce resizes the trees randomly, while disperses theme on the Ground Plane. Again be very careful with the randomize amount, try to use this tool in several steps, with small changes in each step.

If you have done everything correctly, the scene is filled with trees (2D objects).

Step 7 - Keep the trees on ground level!

If you do a preview render, you see that many of these trees are not placed correctly on the ground, and part of their trunk is under the ground level. To solve this problem change the view to either “From Right” or “From Left” view.

Click the small arrow at the right side of selected 2D Objects. All the trees will come to the ground level.

Now set your view to “Director's View” again and make a preview render.

Your scene is ready. In order to make the trees more vivid, you can add a “Spot Light” to the scene. Then call its attribute and input the following values for this spot light.

Step 8 - The trick limitation

You may think that everything is set and the scene is ready. But what if you turn the camera to shot another angle? Try this, render your scene and you'll be surprised with lots of fake and distorted 2D trees. As soon as you change the angle of your camera, the trick that you have used to populate the scene with 2D trees, will be revealed. In other word, if you move the camera, the 2D nature of the object is very obvious.

Although using a “Pict Object” is a quick way of creating very complex-looking objects, the only limitation is that you can view them from only one angle. So the front of the “Pict Object” must always be facing the camera.

A good way of ensuring that your “2D Pict Object” never appears distorted is to have it “track the camera”. Here you should apply the “Tracking” for all the 2D trees (your scene's Pict Objects).

Remember that if you accidentally deselect 2D planes, you can select theme all again, by clicking the “Select Square” icon on the selection palette.

Then, chose “Select All of Type” from top of the list that appears.

Step 9 - Professional Touch

First click the small triangle at the right side of the camera “Control” area and chose “Camera to Director” from the list.

Then click on the small icon at the top left corner of “Select View” control, which looks like a director's chair, to switch to “Perspective Camera”. If you complete these steps correctly, you see no difference in the scene.

Click the “Select Square” icon on the selection palette, then chose “Select All of Type” from top of the list that appears. Now that all the “2D Pict Objects” are selected, call their attribute settings by clicking on the small “A” icon. Click the “Linking” tab, and then click on the “Object Parent Name” input box. From the list that appears chose “Perspective Camera”. Uncheck all the “Propagate” options except the “Rotation”. Click OK to close the “Object Attributes”.

Step 10 - Feel free to move your camera

Now you can make your final rendering! Now you can change the angle of your camera without being worried about the trick that used in the scene. To check how all the tress adjust their position according to camera's angle, go to the “Top” view, select the camera and turn it based on Y axis and see the results.

Remember that you can only turn your camera based on this (Y) axes. Other rotations will reveal your secret. For complex camera movement you can process several renderings, with different settings; in some, link the 2D objects to camera while in the rest use no link.

Now that you are sure about your scene settings, you may want to change the position of camera and shoot another angle of this scene.

How to create a realistic sand glass

2011-11-01T17:42:08+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

How to create a realistic sand glass

Author: poser_bohne

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

In this tutorial you will learn, how to create a realistic sand glass in Bryce and get a fair knowledge of managing metaballs.

Step 1 - The ground

First we create the ground for the sand glass. Create a terrain with the terrain button. Construct it in a whise, that the sand glass can be placed on it.

Use a water-texture for this ground plane.

Step 2 - The bottom of the sand glass

Now we want to create the bottom of the sand glass. Create a clinched cylinder, texture it and position it on the ground we have created in the first step.

Step 3 - The glass or the two Metaballs

After that step we have to create two metaballs and pull them so far outer each other that a narrow transition develops.

These two metaballs are the glass. Therefore we will change the texture to a glassy one.

Step 4 - The sand

Now it is time for the sand. The sand for the lower half will be created with a clinched sphere which is positioned in the lower meatball. The sand for the upper half will be created with a cone which was turned around 180' on the x-axle. For the sand stream we take a clinched cylinder. This cylinder connects the clinched sphere in the lower half with the cone in the upper half. As far as you have created all these things, texture it with a sandy texturing. That should look like that:

Step 5 - The second bottom

After that we copy the bottom of the sand glass and shift it upward on the y-axle so that a 'second bottom 'is created.

Step 6 - Decorations for the sand glass

Finally you CAN create some decorations: Use some nice things out of the create menu (you can find it when you click on the arrow) – for instance some columns or other things between the two bottoms.

That's it!!!

How To Model a Doric Column in Bryce 6

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

How To Model a Doric Column in Bryce 6

Author: Kraig Hausmann

Tools Needed

* Bryce 6 (preferred) or Bryce 5 or Bryce 5.5

Introduction

Using primitives and booleans, you can model a very realistic Doric column in Bryce. While created in Bryce 6, the column can easily be made in previous versions of Bryce, such as Bryce 5 or Bryce 5.5. Based upon architectural proportions from classical Rome, the column consists of a fully articulated base, tapered shaft, and capital. The tutorial provides step-by-step instructions, including exact measurements and locations for each primitive. The finished column can be easily moved about and resized to create architectural props for use in Bryce.

Step 1 - Opening Bryce

Open Bryce, so that you have a new document ready. By default, Bryce includes a ground plane and a basic sky preset in the scene. These are fine for now, so we'll leave them as they are.

We will be using several primitives. A primitive is a basic shape, such as: sphere, torus (ring), cylinder, square, pyramid, or cone. By default, the Create Palette will be open when you launch Bryce or open a new document in Bryce. The primitives included are spheres, tori (ring shapes), cylinders, cubes, pyramids, and cones.

Step 2 - Create the Plinth

To make the base of the column, we'll begin with a cube. Click on the cube in the Create Palette.

The cube appears in the view. Since we've just created it, the cube is red which indicates it is selected.

Step 3 - Starting the Column Base

Now we will change the shape and location of the cube so that it will be correct for our Doric column. The Edit Palette allows you to resize, rotate, and reposition. However, since we need exact numbers, we will use the Attributes window so that the column has the exact proportions desired.

Open the Attributes window by clicking on Objects Menu and then Attributes. You can also access the Attributes window by clicking on the 'A' next to the selected cube. The quick keyboard command for attributes is Ctrl + Alt + E. You can find keyboard versions for Bryce next to the same choice in the menus.

In the Object Attributes window, you see the default values of the basic characteristics of the primitive.

You can see the Object has a name and its boolean status. By default, the name of the object is 'Cube 1' because it is the first cube in our Bryce scene. Its boolean status is 'Neutral' by default. The boolean status determines how it interacts when grouped (boolean) with other objects. The attributes window also displays values for Origin, Position, Rotate, and Size. The Origin defines where the 'center' of the object is in three dimensional space (X, Y, Z Coordinates). The Position is the object's place in three dimensional space (X, Y, Z Coordinates). By default, the Origin of the object is its true center (more or less) and the values of Origin and Position are locked. That suits our purpose for now, so we'll leave it that way. The Rotate values show how the object is turned about in Bryce, sort of like the yaw, pitch, and roll for an aircraft. The Rotate values are in degrees. The last row of values are quantities for the size of the object. By default, cubes in Bryce are sized at 20.48 x 20.48 x 20.48.

Change the values in the Object Attributes window as illustrated for Cube 1. Press the checkmark to apply the new values and close the Object Attributes window.

The cube now reflects the new attributes input into its Object Attributes window. It forms the plinth of the column base.

Step 4 - The Column Base proceeds

In this step, we proceed with the rest of the column base.

(A) Click on the Create Palette and click on the torus to create torus. Incidentally, the word 'torus' comes from the ancients and it happens to be the architectural term for this part of the base.

(B) The torus appears in the scene.

(C) The torus is too big. We need to change the radius of its ring. To do so, click on the 'E' next to the torus to open the 'Edit Torus' window. The torus should already be selected and appear red. You can also press Ctrl + E to bring up the 'Edit Torus' window. The default value for the radius of a torus is 256.

(D) Change the value to 115 which is what we need for our column base. Then, press the checkmark to apply the value and close the window. It's necessary to change the radius in 'Edit Torus' before the size is changed, because changing the radius also changes the size. If you change the radius after the size, then you will have to go back into the Object Attributes and input the size values again.

E, F, and G Input the information in the last illustration for this step to complete the torus.

Step 5 - Lower Half of Column Base

In this step, we begin the lower half of the scotia. That's a special curve used in an Attic base. First, make a cylinder and give it the following Object Attributes:

Second, make a torus and modify as shown in the illustrations below:

Step 6 - Second Half of Column Base

In the sixth step, we learn how to select certain objects in the context menu and then create the first boolean in this tutorial. To finish the lower half of the base, we need to group it into a boolean shape. Ideally, we would want to wait until the primitives for the entire column are in place and then group into a boolean shape, so that we would have a single object. However, the spiral-like curvature of a 'scotia' is not possible unless we build the lower half of the base first and then the rest. Therefore, we need to create this part first.

The tricky part is to select only the shapes that are needed for the boolean and not other objects, like the ground plane or the camera. We need to select Cube 1, Torus 1, Cylinder 1, and Torus 2, but not anything else. However, all of these objects are in front or behind another object. If we click on one object, we may end up selecting another one very close to it instead. Additionally, we need to select multiple objects. If have one object selected and then select another, the second object will now be selected by itself and no longer the first.

While Bryce supports the use of the selection box (or marquis), this too will not work well for us for this project, especially as we add more and more primitives. The more objects that are in the scene, the more difficult it is to finesse the selection box to choose exactly what is wanted.

TIP: You can right-click and hold down the CTRL (or CMD) key when selecting through multiple objects.

Therefore, we need to have a way to see all the possible choices for a given point and then have the ability to choose what we will. Additionally, we need to be able to keep a previous choice selected and add more specific primitives to the choice. We will use the context menu to see what choices we have and the Shift button to accumulate our selections, rather than only have the latest one.

To do this on the PC, place the mouse cursor over the primitives. Right-click (press the right mouse button). A context menu will appear as below. Don't be concerned if your context menu doesn't have the same exact objects listed in the picture, because the exact place you click may not be the same.

The object named 'Torus 2' has a checkmark next to it because it was selected before the context menu was displayed. If we chose 'Select All, ' we would also get 'Plane 1' which should not be part of the boolean group. In the context menu, select one of the following shapes (Torus 1, Torus 2, Cube 1, Cylinder 1).

To add another primitive to the selection, bring up the context menu again (On the PC, right mouse click.) Then, press Shift and while holding shift down, select the next shape. Holding Shift down tells Bryce that you want to add another object to the selection and not simply change from the first object to the second. Repeat the procedure of using the context menu, holding down Shift, and selecting the next object until all four objects are in red (Torus 1, Torus 2, Cube 1, Cylinder 1). Make sure you do *not* have Plane 1 or the Camera selected. Press the 'G' box to group them all and thus form a boolean. Compare to the illustration below:

If you have the above and only the above objects selected, press 'G' to group and then 'C' to convert. See the picture below:

Once you press 'C' to convert, an hourglass appears. Bryce 6 is now converting the boolean into a single shape which can also be exported from Bryce. If you don't have Bryce 6, don't worry. You can still create the column without converting it to a single mesh. Now compare an orthograde view of the primitives before being grouped and after being grouped into a boolean and then converted:

If your grouped boolean doesn't look right, then some value along the way was not properly set. You will need to check the Object attributes. Be especially careful to make the object negative or positive as indicated.

Step 7 - Completing the Base

In this step, we complete the base of the Doric column. This step like the rest of the tutorial builds upon the skills previously used, so some beginners may wish to review the previous steps, especially the use of Object Attributes and Context Menus for precision selection as the rest of the tutorial relies heavily on these.

To create the upper half of the scotia and the column base, three tori and a cylinder are used. The attributes for these will no longer be shown with a screenshot, but rather with text.

For ease and speed, only the attributes that vary from the default are shown, except for the names. So, if a particular primitive doesn't require rotation, no rotation values will be given. The names for your primitives should be the same as the names given, if you have followed the tutorial exactly. If additional shapes have been made or deleted and then remade, your numbering may be different.

Change each respective shape's values in the Object Attributes Window to match those given. For each torus, remember to edit the radius first ('E' or Ctrl-E) before changing the 'Object Attributes.'

Create Torus

Name: Torus 3

Radius: 50

Negative

Position: 0, 4.61, 0

Rotation: 90, 0, 0

S: 13.80, 13.80, 0.70

Create Cylinder

Name: Cylinder 2

Positive

Position: 0, 6.10, 0

S: 13, 3, 13

Create Torus

Name: Torus 4

Radius: 110

Positive

Position: 0, 5.85, 0

Rotation: 90, 0, 0

S: 14.40, 14.40, 1.50

Create Torus

N: Torus 5

Radius: 95

Negative

P: 0, 7.60, 0

R: 90

S: 14.15, 14.15, 1.33

Now select Torus 3, Cylinder 2, Torus 4, and Torus 5. Use the context menu and Shift on the PC to select only these shapes. Group them and, if they appear right, convert. Compare your work to the picture above:

Step 8 - Creating the Shaft and Capital

The shaft and capital of the completed column are created in this step. There will be many more primitives used before the final grouping and conversion in this step. As before, the values for each primitive will be given. Since this column will have a gently diminuted upper shaft, a cone is used. To create this shape, the cone will be quite longer in relationship to the whole column and then lopped off with a boolean group of a negative cylinder

Create Cylinder [This is the lower third of the shaft]

Name: Cylinder 3

Position: 0, 21.60, 0

Size: 11.50, 28, 11.50

Create Cone

N: Cone 1

Positive

Position: 0, 210.60, 0

S: 11.50, 350, 11.50

Create Cylinder [This is to eliminate the unwanted portion of the cone above the capital]

N: Cylinder 4

Negative

Position: 0, 242.20, 0

S: 20, 290.40, 20

Create Cylinder [This is the first part of the capital]

N: Cylinder 5

Positive

P: 0, 90.53, 0

S: 10.60, 1.20, 10.60

Create Torus

N: Torus 6

Radius: 80

Negative

P: 0, 90, 0

R: 90, 0, 0

S: 11.50, 11.50, 0.90

Create Torus

N: Torus 7

Radius: 40

Positive

P: 0, 90.90, 0

R: 90, 0, 0

S: 11, 11, 0.45

Create Cylinder

N: Cylinder 6

Positive

P: 0, 93.20, 0

S: 10.60, 0.60, 10.60

Create Torus

N: Torus 8

Radius: 40

Negative

P: 0, 92.95, 0

R: 90, 0, 0

S: 11, 11, 0.45

Create Torus

N: Torus 9

Radius: 200

Positive

P: 0, 94.80, 0

R: 90, 0, 0

S: 13.30, 13.30, 2.65

Create Cylinder

N: Cylinder 7

Positive

P: 0, 95.35, 0

S: 13.80, 1.10, 13.80

Create Cylinder

N: Cylinder 8

Positive

P: 0, 96.20, 0

S: 15.30, 0.80, 15.30

Create Torus

N: Torus 10

Radius: 50

Negative

P: 0, 95.80, 0

R: 90, 0, 0

S: 16.10, 16.10, 0.80

Create Torus

N: Torus 11

Radius: 50

Positive

P: 0, 96.60, 0

R: 90, 0, 0

S: 16.10, 16.10, 0.80

Create Cylinder 9

Positive

P: 0, 96.80, 0

S: 16.50, 0.40, 16.50

Create Cylinder

N: Cylinder 10

Positive

P: 0, 92, 0

S: 9.80, 1.80, 9.80

Create Cylinder [This is for two of the four adornments on the capital]

N: Cylinder 11

Positive

P: 0, 91.95, 0

R: 90, 0, 0

S: 1, 10.20, 1

Create Cylinder [This is for the other two of the four adornments on the capital]

N: Cylinder 12

Positive

P: 0, 91.95, 0

R: 90, 90, 0

S: 1, 10.20, 1

The following illustration shows the final primitives before the last boolean grouping:

Now group together the newly created primitives: Tori 5 through 11 (7 tori total), Cylinders 3 through 12 (10 cylinders total), and Cone 1. If everything is in order, convert this group. Since there are 18 primitives, conversion may take a minute or two, especially on older systems. The third boolean grouping will have a tall, empty 'top' area. As you may have noticed, a box shape always enclosed the area of a converted boolean. This box area is always the size of all the primitives used before the grouping and conversion in Bryce 6.

The result will look like the following:

Step 9 - Grouping the Column and Adding Material

To wrap things up, the three boolean groups, Group 1 (lower half of column base), Group 2 (upper half of column base), and Group 3 (shaft and capital), should be selected and grouped together to create the final, Doric column. Open the 'Object Attributes' for this group and rename the new group: Doric Column 1. The number '1' is used in the name as it may be desired to duplicate the column for architectural constructions. Bryce will automatically give a duplicate the next number in sequence.

Apply a procedural texture to the Doric column. Make sure the Doric column is selected. Click on the 'M' next to the selected Doric column.

In the Material Lab, you can choose and select procedural or textural materials to apply to your Bryce creations. The following pictures show how to go to the Stones – > Marble portion of the library to choose a pink marble procedural texture. Of course, you can apply any one you like.

To return to the Bryce scene, click on the checkmark in the lower right, first to exit the Material Library, and then to exit the Material Lab. Go to File – > Render or Press Ctrl + R to render the Doric Column and viola':

The Doric Column 1 can be saved to the objects preset library. Select the Create Palette and click the arrow just after 'Create.' In the Objects Library, choose the desired location of the new object, then click 'Add.' on the bottom. As always, click the checkmark in the lower right to exit and apply the new object.

Make several columns in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Make several columns in Bryce

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

Bryce 5
Paint-program

Support Files

col3.zip

Introduction

You can make your own column in Bryce. If you don't have any paint program or you want to make this tutorial with me, please download col3.zip. In this zip there is a bump map for column's head.

I will show you a method and after you can make any number of columns in this way.

Step 1 - Arrangements

First you need some map. Bryce uses maps for sculpturing. You can made it in Bryce (edit object), but if you better like paint programs, you can make some maps in there.

See the picture. The 2 maps on top will be used in this tutorial. The bottom two are some example for other column's heads. You can download the column's head map (top left side) if you can't use any paint program. Download the support file at the beginning this tutorial.

In paint program you need to make a 512 x 512 picture with black background. Make some shapes (use several layers for the best work) and use several gradient fills) Make layers darker or lighter if need. The lighter side will be high and the darker will be low in Bryce. Export as grayscale bmp or jpg.

Step 2 - Make the basic objects in Bryce

First of all determine what you want. If you want to use this objects in Poser, you will need the export function. In this case use terrain or lattice object, because the other objects (cone, cube…) are not exportable as wavefront object.

So create an object (terrain or lattice) Terrain has on side. A flat bottom and an editable top. The lattice is a two sided object with a flat middle.

So make the column body. Select the object, click on the little E in bottom right side and you can edit the shape. Load your white circle map (picture tab in editing tools) to each places. Or paint a circle into terrain canvas with brush.

You can change the shape with little skate or clamp on terrain canvas window's right side. Now you see the column body.

Create a new object and go to the Edit area. In picture tab (editing tools) load the col3JPG from zip file, or use you own bump map.

The basic shape is ready.

Step 3 - Make experiments

In Edit area you can try many variatons in Editing Tools' Elevation tab.

Use posterize (see above)

or Raise/Lower (below)

or use some Sharpening (below)

Try all of functions. You can combine them too.

If you want to maky your column for poser, you can use a Poser's primitive prop for column's body, but it will be plain. In Bryce you can make interesting columns.

Use your imagination and paint your column's cross-section with brush in Terrain canvas editor.

Step 4 - Composition

If you need, make some other changes. In this case I need to cut the top side of the head.

Like this

Now go to the main window and join the head to the column. Still it will be the pedestal, but duplicate this object, rotate 180' and attach to the column. I tried to make group, but than I can't export so if you want to use it in Poser, you need to export the head and body separately.

You can change the wireframe options. I think it is useful if you want to edit this object later in other 3D program. Or maybe the texturize will be easier.

Step 5 - Use what you learned

I shown the way what you can use for several columns.

I hope this tutorial was useful for you and now you can make your own columns.

If you have some question feel free to contact me

fairyfan@freestart.hu

Making a classic robot eye.

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making a classic robot eye.

Author: Locke21

Tools Needed

Bryce 5 or 5.5

Support Files

Rivet_MAT.zip

Introduction

Have you ever wanted to give an Arnold-type robot eye to one of your characters? Well if you have Bryce, here is a real simple way of not only doing it, but once done, you can do it over and over just by using the Create option. You'll also learn a bit about Boolean operations, which aren't as scary as they sound.

Step 1 - Step One

Ok, first you need to download the Rivet MAT that I've provided. Then open a new scene and CREATE a sphere. This is going to be the base of the robot eye.

Then CREATE a cone and place it like in my picture.

Step 2 - Step Two

Now for the Boolean Operations. For those of you that don't know, Boolean Operations are nothing more that describing how two different objects interact. What we need to do is tell Bryce how we want the cone and sphere to interact with each other. What we want to happen is for Bryce to create a cone-shaped hole in the sphere. Well here is how you do it. First select the sphere and select the A from its menu. This opens the Attributes tab. Look where it says Neutral, Positive and so forth. We want the Sphere to be checked as Positive. This tells Bryce that when rendering, to keep the Sphere visible.

Now select the cone and open its Attributes tab. For the cone, select Negative option. This tells Bryce to make the cone invisible when rendering.

Step 3 - Step Three

Now here comes the magic. Select both the sphere and cone, and in the menu, select G. This creates a group from the two objects.

It also starts the Boolean operations, because when Bryce renders the group, it will remove the cone, and whatever it is in contact with. This means that our sphere will render with a cone-shaped hole in it!

Step 4 - Step Four

Now we need that classic red glow. To create it, use Create to make a spherical light. Go over to the Edit tab move it around and shrink it down till it fits in the bottom of the cone shaped hole in the sphere.

Then click the E tab on the light's menu and use the following settings. This will recreate the classic red glow we're looking for.

Step 5 - Step Five

Now for the lens of the eye. Just use Create to make another sphere, then use the Edit tab till it is just inside the rim of the hole and deform it till it is a classic lens shape. Once it's in place, add a glassy material to it, one that has a nice amount of refraction.

Now add the Rivet MAT that I've provided, or use your own and this is the result! I know it doesn't look like much now. But go ahead and use the ADD feature and add it to your personal library of objects.

Making a large grassy field or forest

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making a large grassy field or forest

Author: Flak

Tools Needed

Bryce 5
Adobe Photoshop Elements or other paint program

Introduction

This is a technique for making a large grassy field in bryce without reducing your PC to a smoking pile of plastic and metal. The same technique can be used to make a distant forest while minimising the polygons and hence file size and render times.

Step 1 - Making the grass

The grass that we will be making will be made from a series of 2D picture objects. To do this we need to make or find a grass texture as well as a transparency map that will give the grass the “shape” we want.

For this tutorial, this is the grass texture I used - the angle seen in the grass texture matches the sort of lean I envisage the grass in the field to have. The jagged uneven look of the grass will be made with the alpha (transparency) map, so don't worry too much about trying to draw individual blades of grass in this part.

I then made the transparency map - this one was made in Adobe Elements using its default grass brush. This transparency map will give the grass its random sort of shape.

Step 2 - Making a grass picture object

After creating the scene that you want to put the grass into, the next thing is to make the 2D grass picture objects.

To do this, firstly click on the “Da Vinci” figure in the “create” palette in bryce. Then load the grass and transparency maps that you just made into the appropriate channels as shown and click on the tick. This will then give you a grass object in your scene. You should then scale the grass so that its the right height and size when compared to everything else in your scene.

Step 3 - Multi-replicating the grass

First move the grass to a height well above the rest of your scene and then view your scene in the “From Top” view mode - this will just make life a lot easier later. Move the grass object to one corner of the area you want to cover in grass. Now, with the grass selected, click on the Edit > Multi-replicate.

Make a row of grass objects across the width of the field in your scene (the x-direction) where you wish to have the grass. The number of grass objects you will need will depend on how big an area in your scene that you want to put grass in and on the size of your grass object.

When this is done, select all the grass objects in that row and use the Edit > Multi-replicate option again to make a rectangular pattern of grass objects that now covers roughly the area that you want to cover with grass (multireplicate in the z-direction this time). When you are doing these multi-replications, make sure that the “Size” is set to 100% and the “Rotate” is set to 0 degrees.

You should now have a rectangular shaped grid of grass objects that roughly covers your field (when viewed from above).

Step 4 - Randomizing the Grass

If we just dropped this lot of grass onto the field terrain, then we'd end up with artifacts in the resulting grass - i.e. there would be furrows or patterns/lines appearing in the grass. To make sure there aren't any, we need to randomize the positions of all the grass objects. We do this by using bryce's randomize function.

Go into the Edit palette and click on the randomize arrow - this will bring up a series of randomizing options. Choose the “2D disperse” option. Now click on the randomize dot and drag the mouse slowly over to the right while holding the left hand mouse button down - this will randomly move the selected grass objects around. When things are looking reasonably random and not too spread out, then you can release the mouse button.

Step 5 - Grass onto the ground

The next step involves dropping the grass down to the terrain. To do this, select all of the grass and then click on the down arrow symbol next to this selection. This will then (after a short wait as bryce does some calculating) drop all the grass down to the terrain of the field.

If there's any obvious gaps or grass that has landed where it shouldn't then you can either add more grass to those gaps or move the wrongly placed grass out of the way respectively.

Step 6 - Gap Filling in the field

After rendering your field you will see, in general, a few small gaps in the grass. The easiest solution I've found here is to use a clone brush or cut and paste technique in a painting program to fix these problem areas.

The important thing to remember here is to clone an area from the grassy field from the same “depth” (or distance) into the field as the gap you will be filling - this will ensure that the haze effects with distance will remain consistent across the field.

Step 7 - Results and other uses

After fixing up the gaps, you will have your grassy windswept field. The exact same technique can also be used to make other backgrounds such as a distant forest.

If you have any questions concerning this tutorial, feel free to send me an email at WastelandD@hotmail.com (make sure you spell that email address properly) and we'll see if we can find you an answer.

Making a Roman Coliseum

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making a Roman Coliseum

Author: yaniko

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

This tutorial does not claim to carry out a real reproduction of the true Coliseum.

Its goal is to show you how multi-replicate works, and what you can do with it.

Step 1 - Making a wall

Making a wall with an aperture is rather easy.

The wall is composed of a positive cube (see under),

a negative cylinder …

and another negative cube…

The three objects are grouped to form the wall.

(dimensions are given as an indication. They will help you to make the project easily)

Step 2 - Making some details (1)

Let's add an additional detail like this one (under)

You'll only have to group the previous three elements with a negative torus…

placed against the 1st cube …

Step 3 - Making some details (2)

Another detail consists of a simple cube placed under the aperture..

Here is a first render of our wall:

Step 4 - Making some details (3)

Let us add some other details, by positioning a cube as indicated under.

You'll have now to use a very interesting property of Bryce : the multi-replicate option…

Say you want to repeat 2 times the rectangle, by moving it downwards and reducing it : enter the value of the height displacement, and reduce by 95% both its length and its width…

Step 5 - Making some details (4)

Here under is the result….

You may add other details, like this column for example…

( the creation of the column presents no difficulties)

And here is the final render…

Step 6 - Choosing materials

Choose a stone matter, like this one for example..

(reduce the bump height to 10 )

You should obtain this rendering ( front view)…

Step 7 - Making of the entire monument (1)

First of all, go to top view.

Click at “show origin handle” in the attributes.

You must see appearing a green point (the origin) in the medium of the figure.

Move this green point far from the “wall”, corresponding to the radius of your “virtual coliseum ”.

Let us use multi-replicate once again, with the criteria indicated here:

44 objects (either 45 with that the duplicate one)

rotation of an angle of 8' (45 X 8 = 360 ') *

Scaling and displacement with 0.

* the angle depends on the distance displacement (the “radius” of the coliseum)

Step 8 - Making of the entire monument (2)

You should obtain this…

(in top view)

Or that…

(in Director's view )

and this one with materials…

Step 9 - The End

Group all the objects, duplicate 3 times the set (displacements = 0, H, 0 with h=height of an object, here 66 with the values taken since the beginning, no rotation nor scaling)

Have a drink or go shopping…(depends the speed of your PC)

You should obtain this…

The Famous Roman Coliseum !

That's all Folks !

Have a Good 3D.

Yaniko

Modeling a vase using negative primitives

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Modeling a vase using negative primitives

Author: babyclanger

Tools Needed

* Bryce

Support Files

*bluechina_floral_168x168.zip *bluechina_floral_168x168.zip

Step 1: Create a new file

This is simply to have a clean area to work in. 'Nuff said.

Step 2: Create two spheres.

These will form the basic shape of our vase. Set their attributes by clicking on the [A]. Set the attributes for both according to these pictures.

Step 3: Create a torus.

This will eventually produce the flared neck of the vase. Click on the [E] to edit the radius (highlighted in red). Set it to 422 as shown.

Next, edit the attributes (highlighted in blue). Set it according to the picture.

Step 4: Create a cube.

This will create a flat portion as a base for our vase. Set its attributes to the ones shown.

Step 5: Create a cone.

This will indent the neck of the vase, giving it the illusion of being hollow. Set the attributes as follows.

Step 6: Create the vase!

At this stage your vase will look like a jumble collection of shapes. Which in fact it is. The final step in creating the vase is to select all of the above shapes, and group them together by clicking on the [G]. The shapes with negative attributes will remove pieces of the ones with positive attributes, thereby creating an elegant vase shape. Render you image and see how the negative shapes function

Step 7: Finishing touches: Texturing

This stage is entirely optional. You are free to apply your own textures, or materials from the standard library. Some examples are shown here. Also, I would recommend you go back and play around with the shapes, scale and position, and see how versatile this basic shape can be.

Here, we are going to apply a blue china texture, which is available in the support file at the start of the tutorial. Unzip the texture to somewhere you will able to find it easily.

Step 8: Applying the texture.

With your entire vase selected, click on the [M] to enter the materials lab.

On the texture palette to the right, click on the image texture button [P] (shown here in yellow). Then click on the image source editor button (shown in green). This will take you to another window, where you want to click on the first empty tile down the bottom (highlighted in red), and browse to where you unzipped the image. Then, make the second picture pure white by clicking the white circle above it (highlighted in yellow). Click the okay tick, and we have returned to the materials lab.

Click on the transformation tools button (shown as no. 3 in red) and adjust the scale by clicking on the centre of the scale control and dragging to the right. If you have altered the proportions or scale of the vase itself, you'll need to play around with this setting until it looks right. 10% should do if you have stuck to the tutorial.

Ensure that the settings in the centre are the same as in the diagram, and click the OK tick on the mat lab.

Step 9: You Render

Frame the vase in the window, and render. Voila! You have created a fully-textured vase. Congratulations. You now have a very classy vase to place in your renders.

Remember to save your file!

Hopefully this has given you an insight into negative shapes, and applying your own textures.

Tg go bog

Babyclanger

Populate your Scene with Flat Trees - 2

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Populate your Scene with Flat Trees - 2

Author: White Knight

Tools Needed

Bryce 5 or bryce 5.5

Introduction

This tutorial was inspired by one of the tree tutorials included with the bryce 5.5 content kit. I wanted to be able to create my own flat trees to use to populate my scenes. As a result of my work, here is a tutorial that will show you how to create your own flat trees in Bryce 5 or Bryce 5.5.

Step 1 - SET UP YOUR DOCUMENT

Begin with a new Bryce Document.

Then Setup the Sky for a Simple Gray Background.

Next you want to delete the Infinite plane.

And last you want a high Resolution output so when you render to disk you will have a good image to use.

I set my work size to 640 x 480, and the render size as 1:3.00

Step 2 - CREATE A DETAILED TREE

Create a Tree, then click on the “E” to enter the tree lab. Here you will edit the tree parameters to create a more detailed tree. I selected an Elm.

If you want to make a test render, you should first change the Document Settings back to 1:1.

After your test render, make sure you sent the settings back to 1:3.00

Step 3 - RENDER TO DISK AN IMAGE AND A MASK

In the File Menu, select render to Disk.

In the Redner Popup I change the default 72Dpi to 300dpi.

I also save the image as a tiff file.

This disk render may take a few minutes.

After the Image is rendered. Change the render options to Object Mask.

Now Render to Disk again. I use the same Name but add “-mask” to the end of the name when I save it.

Step 4 - DELETE THE TREE AND CREATE A TERRAIN

Once Your two renders are complete.

Delete the tree object.

Create a terrain.

Select the “E” to enter the terrain editor.

You will Load the MASK into both of the Pictures and then Apply them to the Terrain.

Also raise the clipping of the terrain so that there are no edges.

Click the Check mark to apply the picture to your terrain.

A lot took place in this step.

Step 5 - Flatten the Terrain and rotate into View

Now Click on the “A” to edit the attributes of the terrain.

Here you can name the terrain Elm1.

Change the Y axis Size attribute to 0 (zero) to create a flat Terrain.

Now you Can Use the Edit Controls to Rotate 90 on the X and then Rotate 45 on the y to bring the flat Terrain into view.

Step 6 - APPLY A PICTURE MATERIAL TO THE TERRAIN

Click on the “M” to enter the Materials lab.

Place a DOT In the “A” column next to Diffuse. Then in the A texture box, click on the “P” dot.

Then click on the Pink Dot at the top to enter the Picture Editor.

Click on one of the Empty Boxes to make a new one. in the File Window Browse to where you saved the Hi resolution render of the Tree and select it as the picture to load.

In the Second Picture box, click on load, and now select the Mask.

Clcik on the Check mark to apply the new Pictures.

Before applying the new Material, select Blend Transparency.

Then click on the Check Mark to apply the new Material to the terrain.

Step 7 - EXPORT THE FLAT TERRAIN AS AN WAVEFRONT OBJECT.

Now you can click on the File menu and Select Export Object.

In the Pop up window Change the File type to Wavefront Object.

In the last Export window, I change the Size of the picture to 1024 x 1024 or 2048 x 2048.

I also Increase the Mesh size to about 3600 polygons. Click on the Check mark to export your flat tree.

Step 8 - IMPORT AND TEST YOUR NEW FLAT TREE

Save your Bryce Scene, so you have a back up copy of a flat terrain with your tree texture on it.

Now you can create a new document, or just delete the terrain to test out your new flat tree object.

If you just deleted the Terrain object, be sure to reset your Document Properties back to 1:1, so when you'reder it is the right size.

On the File Menu, select Import Object.

In the pop up window, browse to your new tree.obj file, or in my case I saved it as elm1.obj

Make a test render and it should only take a few seconds.

You can duplicate and populate your scene with your new Fast rendering Flat trees.

Here is a hint. you can link the tree rotation to a parent object such as the camera, that way no matter where you move the camera, the flat trees will rotate and always face the camera.

Simple Abstract Images with Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Simple Abstract Images with Bryce

Author: Kaedric

Tools Needed

* Bryce

Step 1: Getting Set-up

Each image you create can have a life of its own, and it is influenced by many elements of the composition. I won't try and give you any hard rules about how to make an abstract image, but rather just show you some tips that will lead you in the right direction. For the purpose of this tutorial we'll create just a simple abstract and then you can branch off on your own and add other elements to create something unique and special. We will start with a simple gray background from the presets, and we'll delete the default ground plane to keep it from obscuring our image.

Step 2: Get your camera ready

First thing you should set-up is the camera. For this step I've switched to Top view and panned the image until the camera and its field of view lines are all visible in the wireframe window. Click on the [A]ttributes button and note the position of your camera. It will probably be in a different position than mine since I've changed my default settings from the standards.

Once you know where your camera is, create a simple sphere and position it in the same location, scaling it slightly to surround the entire camera. I use a size of 30x30x30 for this sphere. I also name it so that I can easily identify it later if I have more spheres in the scene.

Step 3: Give the sphere a new material

At this point the sphere that surrounds your camera is probably the default flat gray material, and as such it's not very easy to see through it. So we'll select the sphere and give it the Standard Glass material for now. We will come back to this later for the final magic, but for now this will let us see the objects we will be placing in our scene.

Once you have the material set, select both the camera and the sphere and click on the [G]roup button. Once grouped, click on the [A]ttributes button and name the group if you like, and check the “Locked” button. This will keep you from selecting the camera group accidentally while you are setting up the other objects in the scene.

Step 4: Add some Primitives

Switch your view back to Camera for the rest of this tutorial. Next we will add a few objects to the scene to give it some depth and color. I'm going to keep this simple and just work with a few torus primitives. You can use anything you like in your own images, and it's lots of fun to experiment with all sorts of primitives, lattices, and even terrains.

So we'll add a torus to the scene and size it so that it will play a larger role in the final image. Click the [E]dit button and scale down the interior radius to somewhere between 100 and 120.

Next click the [A]ttributes button and scale the entire torus up to 100x100x5 and adjust its position so that it's in the center of the wireframe window.

Next we'll give it a bright shiny red color.

Step 5: Duplication!

Next we will just duplicate the first torus a few times and rotate each copy. For the first copy rotate Y by 60.

For the second copy rotate Y by -60.

For the third copy rotate X by 60.

And for the fourth copy rotate X by -60.

This will give a nice interlocked pattern and give a nice abstract result when we are done. Give each torus a different color so that they each will stand out when rendered.

Step 6: Let there be light

I suggest adding a few extra lights to give more exposure to the objects and to show off more of the colors. I've placed a simple radial light right in the middle of the torus cluster to light it from inside.

Next I've added a spotlight and moved it close to the camera, positioning it directly in line with the torus cluster.

Next I set the tracking of the spotlight to aim at the radial light in the center. This isn't entirely necessary, as you could manually rotate the spotlight so that it points in the right direction. I just find that using the tracking makes things a lot easier if I move stuff around later.

For larger groups of objects I will usually add a few more radial and spot lights and place them as needed to show off as much of the scene as possible.

Step 7: Test Render (Before the Magic)

A quick test render shows that the torus group is centered in the window, and that the additional lights we placed are really highlighting the vibrant colors we selected. There's nothing very special about the image so far, but we will fix that in the next step.

Step 8: Making the Magic

Now for the part you've been waiting for. It's time for the magic of making abstracts. Select the camera sphere once again and change its material from Standard Glass to Bumped Glass #5. This glass is almost perfect for what we want, but we'll tweak a few settings to get an even better abstract image.

First we'll set the Ambience to 0 as this isn't really needed. Next we'll play with the Bump Height, as this is the primary setting for the magic with this technique. I like to use settings between 25 and 75 depending on how many objects I've placed in the scene. For this example I've set it to the midpoint of 50. Play with this setting to find what you like best.

Step 9: Final Render

Render your image now and check out the results.

It's almost impossible to tell what the original objects in the scene are at this point. For other effects you can try using one of the colored bumped glass materials or combining a second sphere around the first one. The only limit is your imagination, and I hope that I have given you something to experiment that will help you create some incredible abstract images.

Solar System - Earth, Moon, Planets, Sun

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Solar System - Earth, Moon, Planets, Sun

Author:

zedman1000

Tools Needed

* Bryce

Support Files

* Earth_HighResTexture.zip

Introduction

Solar System Tutorial v1.0

Step 1 - The Background

Okay, first thing. Remove the bottom default plane.

Open the Skylab and move to the preset list. Next choose starfield.

You can exit the sky lab or edit the amount of stars and so on. Raise the asteroids/comet bar up slightly.

(To many looks over done). Adjust the star intensity up slightly. Exit Sky lab.

Step 2 - Creating Earth

Create a medium sized sphere (40 in size). Place it in the centre of your area.

Next add the Earth Texture into Bryce (This can be downloaded as a support file). Open material lab

and add it to the sphere.

Step 3 - Creating Atmosphere Layer 1

Next duplicate the sphere you just made (earth). Make it slightly larger (as shown in picture above).

Open materials lab and make it 'Fuzzy Blue Sphere'

Materials Lab - > Presets - > Complex Fx - > Fuzzy Blue Sphere

Step 4 - Creating Atmosphere Layer 2

Duplicate the sphere you just made. Only this time make it 47 in size. You have just made an atmospheric glow.

It gives your scene that extra something.

Step 5 - Creating the Moon

Time to make the moon… Create a small sphere close to the earth. Open materials lab and edit the

default material to the above pictures specifications. I.e. Make the texture 'Moon rock' and adjust the bump height

to 44 on the first bubble.

Step 6 - Planet Steps

In these few steps you will create the rest of the planets.

Step 7 - Planet Step 1

Create 5 spheres on top of each other (same size as earth).

Next change the randomize setting (featured in red) to that featured in picture.

The button highlighted in yellow is the button which you scroll/drag across to get the desired effect.

In our case it randomly spreads the spheres out. Scroll the button across until the planets are evenly distributed.

Step 8 - Planet Step 2

Next, texture all the planets with whatever material you want.

I.e. Mountain rock.

Now that you have completed the planets, earth and the moon we can finish off with the sun.

Step 9 - Sun Step 1

Create an extremely large sphere far away from the other planets. (Make it about 5 time the size of the earth)

Step 10 - Sun Step 2

Then, texture it with the above parameters.

Step 11 - Finished

You have completed your solar system. Render and see what a master piece you have created.

The Picture Cube by Peter Sharpe

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

The Picture Cube by Peter Sharpe

Author: BryceContentCD

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

In this tutorial, we'll create a cube that can have different images on each face and then map the images.

Step 1 - Creating the Cube from pyramids

To make a picture cube, which is a cube with a different picture on each of its six faces, is not as simple as creating a cube in Bryce and applying an image to each side. You can't apply a separate image to the faces of a Bryce cube. This method creates a cube out of pyramids and applies each image to a separate pyramid using Object Top mapping.

First create a pyramid, it's important to use the one shown ringed to in Figure 1. This pyramid is 20.48 units square on the bottom and 20.48 units in height. More importantly, its centre of rotation is already positioned so that when you rotate a duplicate through 90 degrees, the base of the rotated duplicate lines up with the base of the original.

Figure 1

Step 2 - Finishing up the cube

Duplicate the pyramid (Ctrl D). Hold the shift key down and rotate the duplicate 90 degrees around the X axis by dragging on the rotation wheel. Now duplicate the new pyramid and rotate again through 90 degrees around the X axis. Duplicate again and rotate to finish up with four pyramids whose bases form four sides of a cube.

Select the original pyramid, duplicate it and rotate through 90 degrees around the Z axis. Duplicate this one and rotate it through 180 degrees around the Z axis. You now should have six pyramids whose bases form the six sides of a cube as in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Step 3 - Mapping the "cube"

Applying the pictures to the cube faces.

Select one of the pyramids (choose one whose base appears to the front of the cube so that you can see what's happening) and click on M to enter the materials editor. Click on the diffuse and ambient buttons in the A column of the colour section. This will cause a random material to be loaded. Click on the P button and Leonardo will appear. Click on the pinkish button above the P button. The Picture Source editor will appear. Click on the word Load above the rightmost of the three images. Select your BMP, .PSD or .tif image in the dialogue box. The image will be loaded. Select Object Top as the mapping mode. Click on the checkmark.

You will see the image appear on the base of the pyramid. It is important to note that the image as it appears on the base will be flipped right to left or even upside down so you will have to compensate for this in your image preparation program. This happens because the image is actually applied to the peak of the pyramid and what you see on the base is as if you were looking at the image through the back of it.

Repeat for each of the pyramid bases. Render the finished cube as in Figure 3.

Figure 3

Torus and Cylinder Links with Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Torus and Cylinder Links with Bryce

Author:

Kaedric

Tools Needed

* Bryce

Introduction

This was always something that puzzled me when I first started using Bryce, so I thought I would share this information with everyone. The basic Torus and Cylinder primitives always looked like they were just made for linking together to form curves and bends. But it is not immediately apparent just how to get them the same size to make a seamless connection. Now the secret is revealed.

Step 1 - Gathering Information

We will start off and create just a basic Torus primitive and leave all the default settings as they are. This will give us a frame of reference later when we resize the Torus and want to create the right sized Cylinder with which to connect.

Here we have the basic Torus. Clicking on the [A] button brings up the Attributes to the primitive. Notice the Z size here, as this will be one of the dimensions needed to make the Cylinder.

Clicking on the [E] button will bring up the information for the internal diameter of the Torus. This diameter is needed to calculate the second part of the Cylinder. The value you want is the internal diameter divided by 50. I know, this isn't all that obvious, so here's a quick example:

256 / 50 = 5.12 Notice that this is the same value as the Z size above? Simple, once you see what the trick is.

Step 2 - Create a Cylinder

Next we will create a basic cylinder and resize it to mate with the Torus. Nothing fancy here, just keeping it simple for now.

Using the values from the Torus, we'll resize the Z value to match the same from the Torus, and resize the X value to be the Torus internal diameter divided by 50.

Step 3 - Making the Link

Positioning the Cylinder to intersect the centerline of the Torus requires a few more simple calculations. For the X offset you take the radius of the Torus and subtract the internal diameter divided by 100.

As shown here, the radius of the Torus is 10.24 (half of the 20.48 diameter. And the internal diameter of 256 divided by 100 is 2.56, and thus 10.24 - 2.56 = 7.68

To calculate the Y offset, you simply take the Y origin value of the Torus, and subtract half of the Cylinder's Y length. 10.24 - (20.48/2) = 0.

A quick render then shows that the Torus and Cylinder are aligned properly and are ready for any additional boolean operations you may wish to apply.

Step 4 - Non-Standard Sizes

What if you don't want to use the default size of the Torus? Just follow the same steps above and you'll have your primitives joined together in perfect harmony.

Here's a modified Torus to play with.

Remember the Z value of 7.

And we'll calculate the X value as 130 / 50 = 2.60

Step 5 - Making it come Together

Plugging in all the numbers we calculated above, we get the right sized Cylinder to mate with the Torus. Calculating the position of the Cylinder follows the same steps as above.

Internal radius divided by 100, then subtracted from the main Torus radius gives us 10.24 - 1.30 = 8.94

And another quick render shows that everything is aligned properly as we expected.

Step 6 - Go Crazy

You now have one more tool to use, so go forth and create all kinds of Boolean masterpieces.

Using 2D images in Bryce 5

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using 2D images in Bryce 5

Author: SMtechgirl

Tools Needed

Bryce 5
A 2D image
Graphics software

Introduction

In the picture a 2D image was used to add an object to the scene, can you guess which one it is? Bryce allows you to use 2D images in your 3D scene. It does a pretty good job of rendering the image so that it looks like a 3D object.

Step 1 - Getting a 2D image

The most important part of using 2D images in bryce begins with your choice of the picture. This is a picture of a horse figurine. I chose it because you can clearly see the leg muscles and this picture is bright without too many shadows with a nice color. The picture should have a white background. Now you should crop/eliminate any unnecessary white space around the subject in the picture. I try to keep the size below under 700 X 700 pixels.

Step 2 - Making your image negative

Now open your picture in your favorite graphics program and set the picture to negative image and then fill in the pale white areas until they look pure white. This white color will help to make your image appear more vivid when blended in Bryce. Create a folder for your project and save both the original picture and the negative picture in that folder.

Step 3 - Adding your pictures to Bryce5

Now open Bryce and set up your scene as you wish. When you are ready to add the 2D image press the add 2D image icon in the top menu.

Pressing the 2D image icon immediatetly opens a picture dialog box. We are now going to load our picture in the first of the three boxes. Click on one of the tiny squares or click on the word “load”. This will open up the file dialog box.

On your hard drive, find the picture with the white background and highlight it then press “open”.

Step 4 - Blending your 2D pictures

Your picture is loaded into the picture box. So far so good. Now move to the second box. Click on the word “load”. This will open a file box. Look for the picture with the black background, highlight it and press “open”.

Now all three boxes have a picture in it. The last box is the result of combining box one and box two. Notice that your image is there and the background in transparent. Press the checkmark to return to the scene.

Step 5 - Adding the 2D image to your scene

Your image will not be visible in the main scene but you will be able to see it in the preview box in the top left of your screen. A hollow bounding box will be visible in the scene. This means that your 2D image is still highlighted. While it is still highlighted press the M key to enter the materials room.

Play with the diffusion and ambience settings to get a rich look. Use the preview window at the top left to view your work. When done, press the check mark in the bottom right corner of the box to return to the scene.

Sometimes, depending on the color of the image and the location of light thoughout the scene, the image can appear “see-through”. A neat trick I use to fix this is to copy the 2D image onto itself. Highlight the 2D image, go to the “edit” menu and press “copy” then immediately press “paste”. This places a copy of the 2D image right behind the original. Sometimes I decrease the ambience of the 2nd copy of the image to give it a rich look. Now you are ready to render your scene.

Good luck from Sandra @

http://www.mbswebsite.com and http://www.mbscreations.com

Model a Heavenly Body

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Model a Heavenly Body

Author: thedanman

Tools Needed

Bryce 5 or other 3D Program with parametric texturing abilities

Introduction

This tutorial refers to modeling planetary heavenly bodies, not human ones. Simple steps to creating your own solar system by modeling any number of planetary bodies with textures actually taken by NASA!

Step 1 - Create Double Spheres

Using your 3D program, insert two spheres into your scene - one in the inside of the other just ever so slightly. The inner one will contain the earth texture while the outer one will serve as a cloud layer.

Step 2 - Texturing the Earth

Obtain a parametric texture of the earth (one that is flat and wraps around) such as those obtainable at NASA's website at http://maps.jpl.nasa.gov/ where planet maps and star maps are available free for download. Star maps can be used to set your background to your scene. Meanwhile, take your planetary texture and parametrically map it around your inner sphere are shown in the image.

Step 3 - Texturing the Cloud Layer

Add a realistic looking cloud layer to your planet by texturing the second sphere with any water, cloud, or swirly looking texture as found in Bryce or created by yourself. Make sure to set its transparency to some value so you can see through to the inner sphere of the earth's texture.

Step 4 - Your Planet

Add some rotation and animate your planet! There you have it, who needs 7 days to create your planet - you've finished it in 10 minutes!

DAZ Studio export to Bryce 5 and up

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

DAZ Studio export to Bryce 5 and up

Author: Wraith3D

Tools Needed

DAZ Studio
Bryce 5\5.5

Support Files

Introduction

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the Export feature in DAZ Studio, along with the Import feature in Bryce 5.5 to transfer your favorite objects. In addition, this tutorial will explain how to add your new object to the Bryce 5.5 Objects Library.

Step 1 - LOAD DAZ STUDIO

At this point, you will be loading only DAZ Studio. Bryce 5.5 will come later.

Step 2 - CHOOSE AND LOAD OBJECT

For this tutorial, I have selected the DAZ Creeper. Use any object you wish for following these directions, though I recommend you choose an object that will load as a single item (though it may have several individual parts). By this, I define a single item as one selected from the available objects in any given folder, that can be loaded separate from any other item in that folder.

I have both DAZ Studio and Poser 6 installed on my computer. If the proper paths for Poser are confugured in DAZ Studio, the proceedures I am about to explain should work for your Poser content (if it will load in DAZ Studio).

Step 3 - POSE FIGURE

Now is the time to apply any poses to your figure (Poses, MATs, Injections). Once exported, you will not be able to apply changes to the pose in Bryce. This is also the time to add Clothing, Hair, and other extras to your figure if it is available, and to Parent them to your figure as necessary. With the Creeper, I have moved the left leg back and the left arms forward to imply motion.

Step 4 - SELECT FOR EXPORT

You can now Export the figure. Begin by going to the “Scene” tab and selecting your figure. Make sure by clicking on the arrow ( > ) to the right of the Scene tab and selecting “Close All” from the menu. Now you will be certain you are not selecting a body part instead of the whole figure. (If you have added clothing, hair, etc., you can also do this by right clicking on the preview screen and choosing “Select All”.

Step 5 - EXPORTING

In the “File” menu, select “Export…”.

A menu will pop up for you to name the object and decide where to save it. I have created a folder called “Creeper” in my DAZ > Bryce 5.5 > Presets > Objects folder. I named the file simply “Creeper”. (As you will see later in this tutorial, there is a reason I chose to place my file in the Bryce directory… trust me, it will make things easier in later steps! The folder can be named whatever you want, but should reflect what the object is.) DAZ Studio creates all the files necessary for the next steps in the directory you choose. That's it for DAZ Studio. Now open Bryce.

Step 6 - FIND YOUR EXPORTED FILE

Move your mouse to the top-left corner of the screen to have the Main Menu appear. Click on “File” and choose “Import Object”.

In the pop-up window that appears, select “Wavefront OBJ Files (*OBJ)” for “Files of Type”, and navigate to the folder you created for your exported object. There you will find the file name you created for the object, along with a couple folders (probably Maps, and ConvertedMaps). Select the OBJ file that corresponds with the file name you created, and click “Open”.

Step 7 - USE LOCATOR

You should see a “Progress” bar appear. Once the initial file loads, you will see what looks like an error message saying the file could not be found or has been moved. This is normal. Simply click “OK” to proceed.

This part is quite simple. In the next window, Bryce will ask you to locate a file needed to load the object correctly. However, Bryce has already located it for you! At this point, all you have to do is click “Open”.

Another “error” message will appear, and again, this is normal. Just click “OK”. Now we're back to the file locator window, and again, Bryce has already located it for you! Click “Open” to continue. (Some objects may require you to repeat this process several times, depending on how many items comprise the object as a whole. Don't worry, it's normal. The nice thing is, you won't have to go through this process but once for each object you export/import after doing it once!) Just click “OK” and “Open” until your object loads in Bryce.

Step 8 - PAN AND ZOOM

Now that you have the object loaded in Bryce, you might find that it is a little off-center, and maybe a little small. Using the Pan Tool (looks like an outline of a hand) found at the bottom-left of your screen, you can move the camera so that the object is more or less centered on the screen. You can also place your mouse over the highlighted object (by default, all new objects loaded into Bryce begin highlighted), and click-and-drag the object physically to the center of the screen

Using the Zoom Tool (looks like a magnifying glass with a (+) sign in it), also found at the bottom-right of the screen, you can zoom in on the object so that it shows up good in the Render Preview box at the top-left corner. Alternatively, you can use the resize tool to physically enlarge the object if you desire

Step 9 - ADDING THE OBJECT TO THE OBJECT LIBRARY

Now, go up to the top and click on the arrow next to “Create”. This will open up the “Objects” Library.

Remember in Step 5 when I said that placing your newly created export in a new folder within the DAZ > Bryce 5.5 > Presets > Objects folder would make things easier later? Now you'll find out why. At the bottom-left of the “Objects” Library, you will see, by default, the catergory “Installed” with a small arrow beside it. Click on that arrow. A list of all the Folders in the DAZBryce 5.5PresetsObjects folder appears. One of those folders should be the one you created, if you followed my advice in Step 5.

Once you have found your folder, in my case, the one named “Creeper”, select it to open another Library pallet. You should now see a small preview of your object in the upper-left corner, the catergory name under it, and 5 rows of 6 black boxes (assuming you did not put your export in a folder which contained other objects already). Click on the first box at the top-left to highlight it.

At the bottom, just to the left of center, you will see the options “Add”, “Delete”, Import“, and “Export”. Click on “Add”.

A small dialogue box will appear. Here you can Name the object, and give a small description (optional). When finished, click on the checkmark at the bottom-right to close the dialogue.

Step 10 - FINISHING

That's it! You should now see your new object in the top-left box. Now, any time you want to load that object, simply click the arrow next to “Create” to open the “Objects” Library, find the folder your object is in from the drop-down at the bottom-left of the Library, and select the object to load.

Repeat this process step-by-step with any object you want.

EXTRA NOTES ***

I suggest grouping similar objects into categorized folders; such as “Vehicles”, “Buildings”, “DAZ Trees”, etc. That way, you won't have large amounts of folders with only one or two objects in each.

I mentioned earlier that you should pose your object (if that's an option) before exporting it. For these, I suggest you create a folder just for that object, and do a new export-import to that folder for each of several poses, MATs, morphs, clothing sets, etc. In this way, you will have multiple choices for that object's use in Bryce.

Hope this helps!

Wraith3D

Exporting Textures and Alpha Maps from Picture Lab

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Exporting Textures and Alpha Maps from Picture Lab

Author:

evinrude

Tools Needed

* Bryce

* Image-editing program like Photoshop

Introduction

A fascinating and sometimes infuriating thing about Bryce is that it contains lots of so-called Easter eggs, nice little functions that never made it into the user's manual, so there is no explanation as how to obtain the function or how to use it. (In fact, at one point in the history of Bryce, the entire Texture Lab was an Easter egg.) One thing I'd always wanted to do in Bryce was find a way to export picture-based textures out of the Picture Library in the Materials Lab for further enhancement (particularly, downsizing) or for personal use in other programs. In the user's manual there's no information on such a function; however, merely by dumb luck I stumbled on a way to do it. In a recent DAZ forum thread, someone posed the question whether it was possible to use Estevez's Realistic Leaves in other programs, so in this tutorial I'll be using his Realistic Leaves package to explain the procedure of exporting picture-based textures and bump/alpha maps. My image editor of choice is Adobe Photoshop 7, but any photo editor that can load BMP, .tif, or JPG files should work.

Step 1 - Materials Lab and Materials Library

Open a new file in Bryce. Since we will only be working with texture maps, we won't need to insert any objects. Hit 'Control + m', which will take us into the Materials Lab. Near the material display window, click the top, right-pointing arrow, which will take you into the materials library.

In the materials library, click the down-pointing arrow near the bottom left-hand corner to display the subfolder categories. I have made a subfolder named 'Leaves' into which I imported the .mat file (instructions on how to do this can be found in the Bryce user's manual). Choose the appropriate subfolder.

Click on the icon of the picture-based texture you want to import. Here I'll choose leaf_1. When you click on the little picture, it should be outlined in red. Click the check mark in the bottom right-hand corner to exit the library.

Step 2 - Picture Library

On the right-hand side of the Materials Lab interface, you can see the texture information in three small windows—the first in color, the other two in grayscale. These are the texture, alpha, and bump windows, respectively. We'll be exporting the information from the first two windows only; the third is unnecessary, because in Bryce, the information in the alpha channel is also used as the bump channel. Above the first window, click the second of the two buttons, which will take us into the picture library.

We'll see a larger version of our pictures in their respective channels. Beneath the first picture, near the lower left corner, is the word 'Copy.' Click on this. Our leaf picture is now copied onto the Clipboard and can be loaded into the image editor.

Step 3 - In the Image Editor

In Adobe Photoshop, open the program and hit 'Control + N' for a new file. In version 7.0 or above, the file information in the dialog window will have switched to the Clipboard preset and will already contain the dimensions of the picture on the Clipboard. Name the file Leaf_1. Click 'OK.'

When the new file window opens, hit 'Control + V'; the file on the Clipboard will be pasted in the window. Since it is pasted as a layer over the background, the default format for saving will be .PSD format. If you intend to save it in another format, hit 'Control + E' to flatten the image.

Step 4 - Exporting the Alpha Channel

Return to Bryce and re-enter the Picture Library. Click on 'Copy' under the left-hand corner of the middle window, then repeat Step 3. When naming the imaging, you might want to call it Leaf_1A, to designate it as the grayscale alpha image.

Step 5 - Texture Files with an Embedded Alpha Channel

First, a short explanation on alpha layers. Many 3D programs have a so-called Transparency Channel that when tweaked by itself, makes an object lighter, but not invisible. True see-through invisibility of an object is achieved through the alpha channel, which uses grayscale information in the following way: full black represents 100% transparency, white is 100% opacity, and shades in between equal varying degrees of transparency/opacity.

If you intend to import these textures into a program like Carrara, which accepts .PSD and .tif documents with alpha channels, you can combine the two exported files from Bryce, the picture texture and the alpha channel picture, so that when you import the combined image file into the color channel as a texture map, the alpha layer is automatically assigned to the alpha channel.

Here's how to properly combine the files. Open them both in Photoshop. It's better if both of the windows are floating so that you can easily click back and forth. We want to first work with the alpha channel picture. Click on it once and bring it to the forefront if it's not there already.

Hit F7 to open the layers palette. At the top of the palette are a series of tabs marked Layers, Channels, and Paths. Click on Channels. At the bottom of the palette, there are four tiny icons, the first of which is a dotted circle. Click on this. This selects the entire picture as a 'mask.'

Hit the second icon, the rectangle with a white circle in the center, to save the selection as a channel. If you double click on the name, you can rename the file to your specifications. Hit return to accept.

Step 6 - Incorporating the Alpha Channel into the Texture Picture

Click on the alpha channel so that it's highlighted, then drag it into the window of the picture file, where it will be copied as an alpha layer.

Save in .PSD or .tif format, and you're ready to go. When you import the .PSD or .tif file into the color channel of a subsequent 3D program, the transparency should be automatically applied.

If you have any questions or comments, please direct them to me at ledept@maik.ru.

Import a Bryce Terrain into Terragen

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Import a Bryce Terrain into Terragen

Author: Stargazy

Tools Needed

* Bryce 5 or 5.5

* Any graphic program

* Terragen with the plug-in

Step 1: Create a Terrain in Bryce

So, let's start. Open Bryce and create a terrain. Then open the 'Terrain Editor' by clicking on the small E.

At first you have to adjust your terrain size. It depends on the size of terrain you want to use with Terragen. For my example, I will use a terrain of 513×513 in Terragen, so I select '512 – ultra-fine' for this one. If you want to use another size in Terragen, select the appropriate size (Terragen size minus 1) in Bryce. You could resize the terrain later in your graphic program, but there you would lose a lot of details.

Terragen terrain size: 129 - > Bryce terrain size 128 – normal

Terragen terrain size: 257 - > Bryce terrain size 256 – fine

Terragen terrain size: 513 - > Bryce terrain size 512 – ultra-fine

Terragen terrain size: 1025 - > Bryce terrain size 1024 – massive resolution

Terragen terrain size: 2049 - > Bryce terrain size 2048 – gigantic resolution

Terragen terrain size: 4097 - > Bryce terrain size 4096 – planetary resolution

Then sculpture your terrain as you like. I added some metamorphism on this one, but it's up to you, what you prefer.

Step 2: Export (copy) the Terrain

If you are happy with your terrain, click on 'Pictures' in the 'Editing Tools'. Your terrain should now show up in the left picture frame. If not, just click on the picture and it will appear.

Now click on copy. The terrain will now be copied into the clipboard. That's it for the Bryce part.

Step 3: Adjustments

Now open your graphic program and paste the content of the clipboard as a new picture.

Now there are three things you have to do:

The first thing you have to do is now to resize the picture to the Terragen settings. In my example I resize my picture to 513 x 513.

Since Terragen works with 8 bit colors only, reduce the colors to 265 colors (8 Bit).

Then save it in BMP (Bitmap) format.

Your terrain is now ready to be imported.

Step 4: Import your Terrain into Terragen

Open Terragen and go to the 'Landscape' window. Adjust the size of the Terragen terrain to the size of the terrain you want to import. In my example I click on 'Size…' and select 513 for my Terragen terrain.

For importing the bitmap, you will use the 'For Export Only' plug-in. If you don't have it, refer to the following URL:

http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/resources.shtml

Here you will find the download link and instructions how to install the plug-in.

Click on 'Accessories' and then select 'F.E.O. – Windows BMP Inflator'.

A window will open and you can search for your file. Open it and you will get the following window:

Since we don't want to resize anything, type 1 into both fields. Then click on OK.

Wait one or two seconds and Terragen imported the terrain.

Step 5: Render your Image

Here is a quick render with the terrain I just imported.

Happy rendering !!

Poser / DAZ Studio to Bryce Tips

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Poser / DAZ Studio to Bryce Tips

Author: Sray

Tools Needed

Poser/DAZ Studio
Bryce
Photoshop

Introduction

The following tips can be used to correct problems and speed up work flow when using Poser and DAZ content in Bryce.

Even with the uses of DAZ Turbo Imported the problems covered here will still occur.

Step 1 - Correcting Orientation

When Poser or DAZ Studio exports OBJ ( the preferred format for Bryce ) the X and Z axes orientation of the figure is swapped. This makes the figure face backwards and swaps the left and right sides. Bryce has built in tools that can easily correct this problem. On the Edit Tool Palette select the white arrow next to the Resize Tool, then select the Flip X option, then the Flip Z option.

Step 2 - Making Material Families

When mutable object use the same materials, they can be assigned to families so their material attributes can be edited as a single object. This is done by selecting all the designated figure parts, then use the family tools to control the color of their wire frame display. The easiest way to select the figure parts is to hold the Ctrl Key then right click on the figure parts. A sub menu pops up with a list of all the object that are directly under where the cursor was pointed. The figure part can then be selected off of the sub menu. Although only one object can be selected at a time from the menu, mutable objects can be selected by holding the Shift Key each time the menu is brought up, so the object that where previously selected will remain selected.

Once all the figure's parts are selected, the Family Icon is clicked and the parts can be assigned to a color, then a name given to the Family. The wire frame of the selected figure will take on the color of the family to identify that it is part of the family. Then at any time the family can be selected using the Family Selection Tool and Menu located at the right of the Selection Palette. With the family selected the Material Lab can be entered and materials changed or adjusted on the complete figure at any point of the project's progress.

In the Image Example below the dress of Victoria 3 is assigned to a family.

Step 3 - Working in Solo Mode

When new figures are imported into full or nearly completed scenes, object selection can become difficult, due to the many meshes listed on the Mesh Object Selection List and even on the Object Pop Up list. There is a solution to work on only one object or a single group. On the right of the Selection Palette are some VCR type buttons, the middle button is Solo Selection On/Off. This option will hide all the objects in the scene that are not selected when the button is pressed. So to use the Solo Mode Option simply select the objects or groups to be worked on, then hit the Solo Mode Option Button.

Step 4 - Correcting Bump and Trans Maps

Bump and Transparency maps can be made so the alpha automatically loads into the middle window when the map is imported into the Bryce Image Library. Bryce can read alpha channels in image types that support alpha channels, ( like PNG and PDS file types ). The problem is Poser does not use alpha channels, so texture maps made to be used in Poser do not usually have alpha channels.

This example will show how to create an alpha channel for a Poser bump texture map and a Poser transparency texture map, in Photoshop 5.5

Open the bump map in Photoshop. Open the Channel Window ( Window/Show Channels ) if the map is a grayscale there will only be a black channel, right click the black channel and select Duplicate Channel. In the Duplicate Channel dialog, name the new channel Alpha 1. Save the Bump Map as a PNG file. When the PNG is imported into the Bryce library, Bryce will read the Alpha 1 channel and place it into the middle window, which will enable the image to be used in the Bump Material Channel.

Open the Transparency Map in Photoshop, open the Channel Window. If the Transparency Map has RGB channels, convert it to a Gray Scale by going to Image/Mode/Grayscale. ( This can also be done to Bump Maps with RGB Channels ) Then like the Bump Map duplicate the black channel and name it Alpha 1. Save the map as a PNG and it's ready to be imported into the Bryce Image Library with alpha channel to be used in the middle window.

RBG mode images do not always have to be turned into grayscale images. Just one of the RGB channels can be duplicated and named as the Alpha Channel. This way Color Texture Maps can also have an Alpha Channel to use in Bryce.

Step 5 - Facial Problem Areas

There are some facial areas that may need some special attention. Some of the following tips can occur on all Poser Figures and some only occur on Millennium Figures.

Usually for eye lash transparency to look it's best, it is necessary to disable the Cast Shadow Option on the Eye Lash Object. This will clean up the eye area, and bring out the eye lashes. Usually the lack of eye lash shadows is not ever noticed.

Some Millennium Figures have an extra set of eye brows, which can help enhance the eye brow effect in Poser. But in Bryce they can create some problems, like rendering a black residue where the large eye brow meets the for head. This is caused by the large eye brow being slightly embedded into the forehead. When the large eye brow is made transparent it leaves a residue where the forehead and large brow mesh over lap. This problem can be solved by deleting the large eye brow or by moving it forward so it is not embedded into the forehead.

The Millennium Figures have an extra eyeball mesh. It is used to create a glass or liquid effect, it can even be used in Poser 5 as a reflectivity device, by mapping a refection map to it. In Bryce it may be necessary to either delete the extra eye mesh or make it completely transparent. For close up shots, a glass, water of reflective material can be applied to it to make the eye appear wet and reflective.

Poser to Bryce in 4 steps

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Poser to Bryce in 4 steps

Author: BryceContentCD

Tools Needed

Turbo Import for Bryce 5
DAZ Studio
Bryce 5

Introduction

With the new Turbo Import for Bryce 5 plug-in developed by DAZ and the use of DAZ Studio anyone can easily bring DAZ Poser content into Bryce 5.

This 4 step tutorial will lead any beginner through the simple process of taking your DAZ Poser content into Bryce 5.

After you install Turbo Import for Bryce 5 and DAZ Studio v.0.9.2 or later, you are ready to get started.

Step 1 - Load Content into DAZ Studio

Load your DAZ Studio or Poser content into DAZ Studio by either double-clicking an item in the Content tab or by selecting File/Import' or File/Load' from the main menu.

You should be able to view/edit/render the model(s) once they have been brought into DAZ Studio.

Step 2 - Export Content from DAZ Studio

Select File/Export' from the main menu. Make sure that OBJ is selected as the export file type. Browse to the location you want to save the Bryce OBJ/MTL and associated images, then click Save.

DAZ Studio saves the entire scene into a single OBJ with separate groups for each object in the scene. The corresponding MTL file includes materials for all objects in the scene.

Note: All images used in DAZ Studio and referenced in the exported MTL file will be collected and copied into the same folder as the exported OBJ file. DAZ Studio will convert transparency maps from regular color maps to white images with transparency information in the alpha channel of the image.

Step 3 - Import Content into Bryce 5

Use the Bryce importer'. File/Import Object. Select OBJ as the file type and browse to the location where you saved the OBJ file from DAZ Studio. Bryce will load the geometry (OBJ), materials (MTL), and image maps (individual images) into the Bryce environment with appropriate material assignments.

Objects that are imported from DAZ Studio can be selected individually, but not on a per body part basis (e.g. you can select a single figure from a scene OBJ that contained multiple figures, but you will not be able to select individual hands/feet/etc. on a figure).

Step 4 - SMILE!!!

Smile while you rip up the 28 page tutorial explaining the OLD way to import Poser content into Bryce. You just did it in 3 mouse clicks! If you feel that this was too easy, you may also giggle and dance a little jig of happiness as optional steps.

Using the Studio link to import from DAZ Studio

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using the Studio link to import from DAZ Studio

Author:

thepipper

Tools Needed

* Bryce 6.0

* DAZ Studio 1.3

Introduction

Were you hesitant to use Bryce with DAZ Studio characters because of the process of exporting and importing? At first I was too. Bryce 6.0 has made it simple to add your DAZ Studio characters to Bryce and take advantage of the scene building abilities that are in Bryce. Now you can use the studio link

Step 1 - Create the basics of your scene in Bryce

To begin, open Bryce 6.0. Create your scene or begin with a saved scene or template. I used the basic Sky terrain to become my floor and set the haze to 0. Give your scene a quick render using the large centered green button of the on the left side.

Step 2 - Open DAZ Studio

On the Create view of Bryce, indicated at the top of the Bryce window, there is a button to the far right that will open DAZ Studio. Click on this button.

Step 3 - Create/Pose/Style your characters

Now that DAZ Studio is open you can create your character as you normally do. There is no need to worry about backgrounds as we will move all objects created here, back to Bryce. I used my favorite figure The Girl (the super heroine clothing is from a custom color set on The Girl Bodysuit.)

Don't forget to pose it the way you want to be in Bryce if you are using a pose-able figure.

Step 4 - Return to Bryce

There are multiple ways you can return to Bryce with your character(s). I prefer to use either the shortcut Ctrl+Q (which means to hold your control or Ctrl button on your keyboard while pressing the letter Q) or by going to the File menu and selecting 'Return to Bryce'.

Step 5 - Place your figures

Now you should see your character(s) in the Bryce window. You can at this point move, scale, and position your figure(s)/character(s) the way you want them.

If you need to return to correct a pose or other DAZ Studio feature, you can click on the DAZ Studio link to return with the characters you created.

Step 6 - Minor Corrections

If you find that your characters are all grouped together and you want to ungroup them, select the items you want to ungroup and click on the ungroup button.

Step 7 - Render away

Once everything is complete, you are ready to render you masterpiece.

Adding light to sunset scenes in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Adding light to sunset scenes in Bryce

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

When you do a sunset scene, everything not facing the sun falls into darkness. If this is the effect you were aiming for, that's all well and good. If not, it can be annoying trying to get enough light on the scene so that you can see things a bit better.

This tutorial shows how you can add that extra light easily.

Step 1 - Our Sunset

To start off with, we need a sunset scene to mess around with. Here's one I prepared earlier.

You can see that the land masses are jet black, no light is falling onto the side we can see at all.

Step 2 - Into the Sky Lab

Everything we need to do is in the Sky Lab. To get there, click on the 'Sky and Fog' option at the top of the screen, and then click on the Cloud and Rainbow picture.

The Sky Lab has three screens, 'Sun and Moon', 'Cloud Cover', and 'Atmosphere'. We want to be in the 'Sun and Moon' screen.

Once you're there, you should see something like the following.

You'll notice that by default, the preview shows the Sky in relation to a simple sphere. This is a good idea if you have a complicated scene or if you're just fiddling with settings.

For the purposes of this tutorial, I want to see the preview rendered in the scene. To do this, click on the drop down selection arrow beneath the preview and select 'Render in Scene' from the list.

After changing that, the preview should change to something like below. I've circled the little drop down selector to help clarify things.

Step 3 - Add some ambience

In the same screen, there are two settings that will help us, an 'Ambient' colour and a 'Sky Dome' colour. The 'Ambient' colour sets the surface colour of every object in the scene.

I'll set the 'Ambient' colour to white and do a quick render to show that by itself, it has very little effect on what we're trying to achieve.

Step 4 - Let's try the Sky Dome

The 'Sky Dome' colour is different. This adds extra colour to everything in the scene that is facing the sky.

I'll put the 'Ambient' back to black, set the 'Sky Dome' colour to white and do a quick render. This has added enough light to allow us to see the parts that were in darkness before.

Step 5 - All together now

If we use the 'Ambient' colour at the same time as the 'Sky Dome' colour, it adds even more light to the scene.

I'll set both the 'Ambience' and 'Sky Dome' colours to white and do a quick render. This has added a bit more light to the scene.

Step 6 - Conclusion

There we go, a nice and easy way to add light to an otherwise frustrating scene.

Obviously, if you use different shades of grey rather than white, you will add different amounts of light. If you start playing with other colours, even more options become available to you.

Have fun.

Candle Flame in Bryce 5

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Candle Flame in Bryce 5

Author: Tirjasdyn

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

You don't have to just place lights in bryce, but use them to create illuminated objects.

Using lights to create candle flame can change the mood of your image. In this example I have taken two candle objects and placed them in the recesses. I've used the same light as in the previous picture except I've turned off visibility. The floor has been changed to a reflective pool.

In this tutorial it is assumed you know some basics. Please look up any terms you don't know in the Bryce 5 Manual.

Step 1 - Flame Object in Terrain Editor

First you need a flame object. You can create a symmetrical lattice and edit it in the terrain editor to look flame shaped. I did this by creating a spiral with the high altitude in the middle.

You can also import a picture from another program to create the flame look. Experiment in the terrain editor to get the look you want, but use the symmetriacal latice to get the same shape from top to bottom.

-Actual object with red material applied.

Step 2 - MetaBall Flame

With Bryce 5 you can also use metaballs. I simply resized and stacked metaballs in such a way to look like flames.

Metaball only scale down so much. You can get a much more detailed mesh by working at a larger scale.

Next choose a material. I used the spiked cloud material included in bryce, with its color changed to orange.

Step 3 - Lighting the Candle

Now we need light! I created a radial light, and placed the source at the bottom of the flame object (The candle with flame is available in Renderosity free stuff).

Radial lights simulate the glow of a candle well and light the environment around it. Change the size of the light to get the light to cover a larger area. With the light selected, click on the little E to edit the light.

Once in the light lab, you can edit to get the light effect you want, I would suggest using a volume material on the light and make it visible. This is up to you; the light will show depending on the objects in your image and the size of the light.

Step 4 - The Finished Candle Flame

Here I have done all the above and used the light settings in the last picture. I placed the Bryce egg(included in Bryce) with a glass material just behind the candle to have it light up.

This process can be used to light up any object.

Lighting an underwater scene

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Lighting an underwater scene

Author: liquefusion

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

The aim of this tutorial is to show how to use Bryce to create a realistic underwater scene. No postwork was used, just Bryce's powerful lighting.

Step 1 - Set the scene and position the camera

It is easiest to create your basic scene without the water, this allows you to position everything and do test renders in the shortest amount of time. Remember that the underside of the water will reflect whatever is below it so if you are creating a deep ocean picture you can delete the ground plane creating a feeling of infinite depth.

In this example I wanted to show a dolphin swimming in mid ocean. Therefore I imported my model, positioned the camera using the trackball options and then deleted the ground plane.

Step 2 - Add water

The next step is to add the water, to do this select the Infinite Water Plane. Adjust the position of the plane to create the desired effect. The water material used can affect the look and feel of scene, so experiment to find a suitable one, in this example I have used 'Deep Blue'.

Even in the clearest water visibility is limited to 30 meters or so, to reproduce that effect you can use Bryce's Sky and Fog controls.

Set the fog and haze colours to whatever colour required, in this case I have used a mid tone blue.

Fog acts like a thin layer of cloud and can be used to provide more depth, for this scene however haze is more important so fog was set to minimal values (3 – 0). Haze is what you see when a plane stretches to the horizon. With haze set to zero, the horizon will have a hard edge to it, so I set its value to near maximum (93).

Step 3 - Caustic lighting

As sunlight enters the water, the uneven surface means that whatever is below is unevenly lit, to reproduce this effect, 'caustic' lighting is used. Create a spotlight (I tend to use the square spotlight as I find it easier to manipulate as I require) and in the Light Lab, set it to Infinite Light.

Select the Light Gel option, from the Pictures dialog select Load in the Bryce directory you can find a number of light gels, select Watery Reflection.tiff.

Position the light so that it mimics the angle of the sun, you may need to use more than one light (I used 3), so duplicate and reposition as required.

Step 4 - Up lighting

Tiny suspended particles in water reflect a small amount of light upwards, this is recreated by creating a round spotlight, reducing its height so that the beam covers a wider area and then rotating the spotlight 180 degrees to point upwards. The light should have soft edges and be fairly weak with cast shadow disabled, set the light colour as desired. Position the light under your figure.

Step 5 - Streaming Light Rays

In order to create the shafts of light playing through the water, two options are available; you can add them in post production or use Bryce's volumetric lights. Using volumetric lighting is render time intensive and so should always be the final stage.

Firstly, create a spotlight, position it so that it is at the same angle as the caustic lights and the sun, the figure in your scene should be lit by this spotlight. Although not important in terms of lighting your figure the volumetric light will now have areas of shadow where the 'sunlight' is blocked.

In the Light Lab for the spotlight select Cast Shadows, Visible Object, Volume and Infinite Light. Set Edge Softness quite high and then use Intensity and Falloff to tweak the lights properties just right.

Perform your final render and you should have a realistically lit underwater scene.

Making shadows using pictures

2011-11-01T17:42:09+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making shadows using pictures

Author: Moerse

Tools Needed

* Bryce 5

* Any paint program

Introduction

Ever wanted to make a decent picture in design time but you'really don't have the right figures at hand? This tutorial will show you how you can undergo that problem by using an imported 2D picture to cast shadows, and therefore eliminate the need of some complicated character that you just don't have.

Step 1: Choose picture

I will be making a scene from Romeo and Juliet (for all of you who wonder why Romeo and Juliet, I still have it form a school project a while ago and it has just been rotting away in its folder'). First let's find a picture that has the right character(s) on it.

When you choose your picture, you don't really have to look out for anything like quality or colors as long as the outlines of your character(s) are clearly visible.

Step 2: Prepare picture

Open your picture using any paint program (although I suggest using something like Adobe Photoshop because it will save you hours of work. Trust me I did this using Paint'). Draw a black line along your character's outlines and color everything on the inside black. Make sure that this line isn't too thick, otherwise it might mess up your final image.

Either erase or color the background white.

Hint: When you draw the line around your character be sure to use a color that sets itself apart from the background, otherwise it might make it hard to see where he/she starts and ends.

Step 3: Import picture

Go and open Bryce. On the ~Create' pallet at the top you will find the Vitruvian man.

Click on him. A new window opens titled ~Pictures'.

Click one of the gray squares next to the Vitruvian man's picture. Another window opens asking you to locate the picture you made in steps 1&2. Do so and press open.

Your picture should appear in two of the top three boxes. Click copy right beneath the fist box and paste beneath the second one. If it asks you whether you are sure that you want to delete this picture, press yes. Next, see the half black and half white circle at the top, click that too.

Notice how now in the third box only all black parts appear but not the background, which was white. Close this window by pressing the little check sign. Your picture has now been imported into the 3D world (Bryce).

Step 4: Prepare background

Before we do anything else, let's prepare some objects within the scene. Create a cube (found on the create pallet) and enter the information as listed below in the cube's attributions window.

This will be your wall on which later the shadow is going to fall. You can add some texture to make the scene look more interesting. Also hit the little sun located on the Sky and Fog pallet to make it night.

Step 5: Position picture

Now here comes the tricky step, positioning your picture and the light (next step). Before we move the picture let's play a little with the camera. Switch to ~From Top' view. Select your camera and enter the following in camera's attribution window. Check the box labeled ~Locked' once you are done.

Your scene should now look something like this.

Try selecting your 2D picture. Notice how you can't do it from above? Switch to ~Director's view'. Select the picture and go back to ~From top'. By using the Repositioning tools located on the Edit pallet move it behind the camera. It shouldn't actually touch it though.

Open the picture's attributes window and enter ~16' in the box label y-position. Hint: In this case, because the picture only contains the heads of R&J, it's important to not place it too high or otherwise in the final render it will be visible that they don't have any feet. Remember this when you choose you picture, it always better to have it larger than necessary.

Switch back to camera view and do a quick render. You shouldn't be able to actually see your picture right now, which is good.

Pretty boring scene so far, let's change that.

Step 6: Add light

Hit the spotlight button on the create pallet.

Open its attribution window and enter the following.

Stay in the camera view and try rendering. Not quite the effect you would have thought of. Enter the light lab by pressing the little ~E' that appears when the spotlight is selected. Change the light intensity to 10, the shadow ambience to 100 and the shadow softness to three. Also make sure that in the falloff section linear is selected.

Go back and try rendering again.

That's much better. Hint: It might sometimes be that the edges of your shadows look like they are made of squares. That's because the shadow is actually just a magnification of the original picture in black. That means that also all individual pixels were magnified. To change that square like appearance, raise the shadow softness level in the light lab.

Now just add some more obstacles in your scene and you are done.

Step 7: Final Tip

When you choose your picture that's going to be your shadow, try using ones where the character(s) has a very distinct outline, especially if you want that shadow to be a certain person. For example take the Vitruvian man. Everybody would recognize a shadow form him. But fold his hands across his chest and it might be anybody.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Good luck and happy rendering!!!

Soft Global Lighting in Bryce 5

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Soft Global Lighting in Bryce 5

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

For some people, the correct positioning and angling of the light source/s can be the most frustrating task in Bryce, especially when you just want to light the scene.

This tutorial shows you how to get soft global lighting without using a single light source.

Step 1 - Put some objects in the scene

Here I've put three spheres in the default scene and given them textures. One glass and two metal.

Step 2 - Remove the floor

For this tutorial, I want to show the objects floating in mid air, bathed in a soft light. So, I'm going to need to remove the floor. Click on or otherwise select the default ground plane and delete it.

Step 3 - No atmosphere

The main trick to this lighting effect is removing the atmosphere.

At the top of the screen, there are six images that control things like clouds, shadows and so on. The one on the left hand side has a drop arrow beneath it. Click on that and you will get the option to turn the atmosphere off.

Step 4 - No sunlight

Now we need to turn the sunlight off.

Go In the Sky Lab (select the 'Sky and Fog' option from the top of the screen and then click on the cloud and rainbow). In there, there are three areas, 'Sun and Moon', 'Cloud Cover' and 'Atmosphere'.

Because we've turned the atmosphere off completely, we don't need to worry about those settings. All we want to do is turn the sun light off. Just click on the 'Disable Sun Light' option and you're done.

Step 5 - It's all a bit blue

Now that we've turned all the lights off, if we do a render, we'll see that there is still a light of sorts, but it's blue.

Step 6 - Change the light colour

Now we've turned the atmosphere off, you'll see that the left hand image at the top of the screen has a blue bar at the bottom of it. Click on this bar and you will enter a colour selection screen where you can select whatever colour you like. I'll select white.

Now a final render and you'll get the effect I was aiming for.

Special effects with negative lighting in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Special effects with negative lighting in Bryce

Author: - esha -

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Support Files

Lighting.zip

Introduction

In Bryce you can create negative lighting. You can use this to create dark corners and the like without changing your light settings. You can also use this to create some very special effects.

Note: This tutorial is written for Bryce 5.5, but it will also work for Bryce 5.

Step 1 - Prepare your scene

I will use a very simple scene with an object which will cast shadows and some walls where the shadows will appear.

Of course, the principle is the same with every scene.

The file I used is included in this tutorial, just download it. You will get the basic scene with normal lighting. Feel free to play around with all the settings.

Step 2 - Switch off the sun

Note: For this example scene I left the standard sky because its neutral light settings are good for illustrating the principle of negative lighting. Changes of Ambient Color or Fog/Haze Color will also influence on the light effects. Also the Ambient Color settings of the material which receives the shadows can change the effects. Your possibilities for variation are unlimited!

Click on 'Sky and Fog' in the menu. Click on the small cloud with the rainbow to open the Sky Lab.

Here we will leave most of the settings just as they are. We will just check the following:

- Sun/Moon Shadows have to be turned on

- 'Disable Sunlight' must be turned on

Explanation: We need to turn on the shadows to get the effect. If you don't switch off the sun you will have an additional shadow. In many cases this will be just what you want, then by all means keep the sunlight. In my scene I want only the 'artificial' light sources, so I switched the sun off.

Confirm your changes by clicking on OK and leave the editor.

Step 3 - Create a light source

Switch to the 'Create' menu and create a light. For this tutorial I will use Radial Lights (see screenshot) but with other types of light it will work the same way.

Put the light somewhere next to the object.

A test render shows the scene with normal lighting. The object casts a normal dark shadow.

Step 4 - Edit the light

Select the light and click on the small button with the 'E' to open the Light Lab.

Light intensity is set to 25 by default. Click on the field with the '25' and put a minus sign ('-') in front of it.

Leave the Light Lab by clicking on OK.

Render again. Now the scene has changed dramatically. The negative lighting leaves the 'lighted' part of the object dark and creates a bright shadow.

Step 5 - Combining two light sources

Of course you can use both positive and negative lights in the same scene. Here I put a positive light on the right side of the object and a negative light on the left.

Step 6 - Negative lighting and colors

Let's have some colored light!

Start the Light Lab ('E').

To make the effect stronger I'll increase the intensity to 55.

Hold Ctrl+Alt and click on the field for the light color. Now you can enter an exact value.

I'll use Cyan (R 0 – G 255 – B 255).

Click OK.

I used these settings for both the negative and the positive light, only the negative light has an intensity of –55.

Step 7 - More light

To make the effect more visible we will use a third light source.

So let's create another radial light and put it above the center of the scene.

Intensity is set to 55, light color is white and shadows are turned off.

In the rendered image you will see that the positive light creates a shadow in the complementary color red. The negative light casts a shadow in the light color cyan.

Step 8 - More color

Of course the third light does not have to be white. Here I used orange light.

Step 9 - Complementary colors

Note: Here is a list of some complementary colors. Just subtract the RGB values from 255 to get the complementary color.

By combining several positive and negative lights and by changing the ambient settings you can create an astounding range of effects. Or try to change the shadow color in the Light Lab – still more possibilities!

Have fun,

Anatomy of a Wall - PART 1

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Anatomy of a Wall - PART 1

Author: BobCox

Tools Needed

Bryce5

Support Files

Bryce4Mats.zip

Introduction

Hi! Welcome to my insanity. Well, some think so because I spend so much time in the Deep Texture Editor in Bryce. The reason is that I derive a deep sense of satisfaction of creating textures using only Bryce for my materials. Oh, I use some bitmap textures for leaves on close-up trees but for the most part, I use only Bryce for my materials.

Think about it, procedural textures are seamless, have great flexibility for size and appearance, don't repeat unless you want them to, and vary throughout the scene if you use World Space mapping. Also, I am finding that they are quicker to create and easier to use than bitmaps.

Step 1 - What

The image above uses the built in Stone Wall from Bryce. In order to create a better texture, I must be able to identify what I don't like about the Bryce material. Let's see… what don't I like about that material?

The joints between the stones are raised not sunken… i.e. they are white and the stones are black.

1. The pattern of the stones are too repetitive.

2. Of course, not much color.

3. I applied the texture to a cube and the edges of the cube are too prominent.

Well! Let's fix the mortar between the stones!

Step 2 - Fixing the Mortar 1

1. Open the material and enter the Deep Texture Editor.

Then:

Step 3 - Fixing the Mortar 2

What do we do when we are in doubt about a texture? Right! Turn off Color. So, Click on the “C” in Component 1 and turn of the color in Combination like shown below.

Render. - Good gravy!! What's this? Could it be where there is white in bump that it appears to lower the surface? Yep! Sure is! Well, well. well.

Step 4 - Fixing the Mortar 3

What we want is to view our material while creating it just as it is going to be on our object. We have just discovered the use for negative bump. Change the bump setting as shown below.

Render again. Gadzooks!! We are getting somewhere!

Step 5 - War Against Repetition

Load the base texture (BaseWall.mat) from the download. I have done several things here and I am going to go through them. I provided the base texture to spare you from the work. But, you if you plan to work in the DTE to create your own materials, you should try to understand and duplicate my work.

Component1

I turned off Alpha because it will interfere with the next to channels we use.

Set the first two colors to black. I want the divisions between the rocks to be clearly visible. Set the third color (top of the rock) to light brown.

The mode under the dropdown (not shown) is set to Linear interpolation 3.

I reset the frequency of X, Y, and Z to give me a little better relative size of the stones.

Filter - Adjust “A” and “B” for clear divisions between the rocks. Change the mode to Clip aX+b ( from Smooth Clip Ax+b) for sharper transitions from stone to crack.

Phase - The secret ingredient! It is so in many of my materials. :)

What we want to do here is move the edges of the rocks in a random way so that they are not so repetitious. The edges will be affected by the Amount of phase and frequency. Grab the Frequency adjust and vary the frequency while watching the stone positions in the preview. Rotate XY and YZ and observe. Change the Amount of Phase, carefully in small amounts and observe.

Step 6 - Character and Color

From here on out, it becomes subjective. What I mean is that you may see stone walls differently that I. If you live in an arid climate, there may be no moss. But I'll show you the hows and whys of the stone wall I created.

Add the B channel with Procedural Blend. Use Spline Interpolation or Linear Interpolation 3. (Click on the little dart at the bottom left of Component 2). The purpose of this channel is to add detail on the surface of the rocks.

Choose a noise, that suits your fancy [I like Weird Value :)] and set the frequency high.

Add the Filter with Clip aX+b and adjust “A” and “B” so as to not blow out the detail of the individual stone cracks. You may have to test render of see REALLY how you are doing at this point. Let the render run through antialias to bring out the detail by smoothing some of the noise. Plop render works well here Then throw in some Phase of another noise.

Chose a cloud like noise for the 3rd channel. Set the filter to Gaussian(a(X+b)) and adjust “A” and “B” in the Filter for the amount of moss you want on your wall.

Step 7 - Anti Knife Edges

Surface and Edge Character

1. I have tweaked the phase amount and frequency in component 1's texture of the wall mat to give a little sharper definition to the rock for this example. Also, I mapped the material to a cube. Download this material if you want to follow me.

2. Create a cube and apply the texture downloaded above. Create a second cube and size like the cube on the right.

3. Place a radial light behind the camera, move it way back. Set the light to not cast shadows, no fall off, and intensity to 1.

2. Move the sun until the second cube that looks like a post casts a shadow on to the rock wall.

What is wrong with the shadow on the rock wall? Yep! It is a knife edge shadow. You could use soft shadows but even that won't give us what we want. Normally the surface of the wall would vary because of the rocks. The shadow would be distorted by the differences in the surface.

Ok, let's attack this problem.

Select the cube and use the Edit menu to convert it to a Lattice. Click and hold the double arrow and select Lattice as shown below.

Oops!

Step 8 - Anti Knife Edges 2

First, select Object Space from the Edit menu under any of the transformation tools icons like below.

Click on the “A” to expose the attributes menu. Set the rotations as shown.

Step 9 - Anti Knife Edges 3

Rescale the lattice until it is approximately what the cube was. We could have rotated the cube from the beginning to keep from doing this. Well, sometimes I don't think that far ahead. :)

Click on the “E” for the Lattice to open the Terrain Editor.

Set the resolution of the terrain to 1024 or higher.

Select the noise type of Cauliflower Hills.

Click on Fractal until you get a fairly detailed terrain.

Adjust the height of the lattice to your preference. I use Raise/Lower and Equalize to take out the drastic elevations so that it looks something like below. Alternate between these two controls to make the elevation terrain pretty bright. If you don't your wall will be very thin. Also, Select the Dropdown, shown below, and choose Solid.

Select Done and exit the Terrain Editor.

Adjust the thickness of your wall until you are satisfied. You should have something like below.

Step 10 - Here

Before we start into the nuts and bolts of a more intricate wall, it is necessary that we understand a few of the Deep Texture Editor's basic functions. These are Frequency, Phase, and the Filter. Additionally we'll cover mapping mode. color and scaling. Previously I have been focusing on results rather than detail. It has been brought to my attention that people can duplicate my settings and achieve the same results but cannot deviate from them without losing themselves in the mire of the DTE.

So, in this part of the tutorial I am going to backtrack to some basics. It is obvious, however, that most will not want a bunch of technical babble in the explanation. If you want that kind of information, I am going to disappoint you. Agreed… it has helped me understand how to use the DTE but it is not necessary.

Step 11 - Phase 1

It is VERY important that in any beginning that you know where your are when you start. If you don't, you won't know where you are going. :) So, load my ultra-secret nothing Sine material (NothingSine.mat). As you can see from the image above, very nice wood wall boards can be made with just Sine! This material has all of the settings you will need to start creating ANY material.

Import the “Nothing Sine” material into your materials library. Create a cube and apply the “Nothing Sine” material to it.

Go into the Deep Texture Editor by clicking on the red square shown above.

Notice the settings outlined in yellow. No Filter, No Phase, and Component 1 with just Alpha and Bump. Mode=Standard, Octaves and Direction in the noise palette are set to 0. If there is a secret or key to learning the DTE, this is it. That is simply to start creating any material from a known point. That way you will be able to see the effect of any adjustment. Render it as it is and all you will see is disappointing dimples on your cube.

But! Are you getting excited now that you know where to start? Ha! I still do! I know that there are many surprises ahead! As I experiment, I look at a test render of each step and I go through the “Hey, that looks like a ….”. If it is good enough, I save the material to come back to it if it doesn't fit what I am trying to achieve.

Step 12 - Phase - The Filter (an aside)

The filter is one of the key ingredients in any DTE material. AND its function is very easy to understand. The filter is simply a Contrast and Brightness control just like you have on your TV. Brightness brightens everything. Contrast makes grays blacker and whites whiter. In the case of Alpha and Bump, it simply raises, lowers and changes the contrast between the raised and lowered parts of the surface.

Take Clip aX+b for instance. the aX portion of the formula is Contrast. The b portion is brightness. So, when you adjust the “a” value in the filter, you are adjusting Contrast. When you adjust the “b' value, you are adjusting the overall brightness. For the techie, aX changes the slope of the line from black to white and b offsets the whole line from zero.

Because the RGB color palette in our computers is limited to a brightness value of 255 for each color, we have only two choices if we try getting brighter than 255. We can either clip ( stop at 255 ) or fold it. To fold a value above 255, we simply start subtracting the difference from the maximum value of 255. I.E. If we clip 300 at 255, we get 255. If we fold it, we get 255-300 = -45. 255 - 45 = 210.

So, all of the different modes in the Filter either clip or fold to modify the brightness and contrast of the noise. We cannot get brighter than the brightest or blacker than black.

So, lets see what's what:

In the Filter, Select Clip aX+b.

Now, adjust “b” (brightness) up to about .5

There are several things worth noting here.

The black area got whiter - notice it is now gray.

The white area got whiter and larger! What happened? Well the very white part could not get whiter but some of the formerly gray area got moved to white and was clipped. So, the circle of white got larger.

Notice the graph in the Filter palette. The slope of the sine wave in the graph area did NOT change. But the entire sine wave was moved up and clipped at the top.

Step 13- Phase - The Filter (an aside) 2

Click Reset.

Now adjust “a” to 30. Notice the graph in the Filter palette. Now the slope has changed and the black to white Rate of change has increased and was clipped at the top..

Adjust “a” to read exactly 30

Tip!

Adjust “a” by dragging the mouse left or right to get as close to 30 as you can.

Without moving the mouse let off the left button and then click and hold again. Adjust as close to 30 as you can.

Without moving again, let off the left button and then click and hold again. Adjust to 30.

Step 14- Phase - Noise (an aside)

Now adjust the “Y” frequency to 0. Uh Oh!!! I guess you can see where we are going now! But before we go much farther, I had better take some time to go over a few things in the Noise palette.

Change Octaves to 1 as shown below. Adding Octaves is equivalent to striking two or more keys on a piano to play a chord. It looks like Bryce adds an even multiple of the original frequency to the mix. This creates a more complex wave form with harmonic content. The higher the Octaves, the more notes are played and the richer the content.

In this case, the multiple canceled out the number of lines and blurred the ones that were left.

Increase the frequency of X and Z by 2 times and adjust “b” in the Filter down until you get what is below.

Step 15- Phase - Noise (an aside) 2

Increase the frequency of X and Z by 2 times and adjust “b” in the Filter down until you get what is below.

It looks like we are right back where we started. In fact, we are not. We just can't see the harmonic content because of the Y value. Change “Y” frequency to 200.0.

Mushrooms! You now have seen a chord! The more octaves, the more complex the interaction.

Now flip the Octaves to 0. Back to dimples.

Put the “Y” frequency back to 0 and “X” and “Z” frequency back to 100. Reset “b” in the Filter to 0.

You may wonder why we are setting “Z” when it appears to have no effect. Well it does. If you check the sides of your cube with any of bumps we have created, it will have the same pattern. So, for this exercise, keep “Z” the same as you have “X” if you want a uniform pattern for your object.

Well, the use of Octaves is just great for mixing even multiples of frequencies of our original noise with itself. But how would we mix uneven multiples or even different noises with our Sine to create complex or even chaotic noise?

Step 16- Phase - Demystified 1

Your phase adjustment is nothing more than a way to mix noise. Phase, in the technical term, is the relationship between two different waves in time. In our example, we are going to mix two sine waves. In some places on our object, they will add to each other, in others they will subtract. Because, we have the “Y” frequency at 0, their places of adding and subtracting will be only in X and Z on our object. In some places they will add to make a high bump, in some places they will subtract to make a low bump. In some places, they will cancel each other or be somewhere in between.

Before we start, your Noise should be just like the Noise palette shown above.

Click on the green button in Phase.

Set your phase settings as shown above.

Step 17- Phase - Demystified 2

Setup the Filter as shown.

Now adjust the Amount of Phase as shown in the image above. I stopped at 228. Watch the lines in Component 1's preview window. Change “Y” in the frequency of Phase and play with the Amount of phase. Look for a repeat or a pattern of lines that suits you. Select done and test render to see if the bump suits your fancy. Also, tweak the filter for the depth of your gaps between the boards.

The Next Component

Chose Blend Max and Set the filter to Clip aX+b. Choose Fract Stone for the Noise type and set it up as shown above. The low number in the “Y” frequency stretches the pattern for the grain in the boards. Octaves at 2 smoothes the edges and adds richness to the texture. Use Linear Interpolation 3 or Spline Interpolation for Component 2. ( Click the dart at the lower left of Component 2 ).

Now click the Green button to the left of Phase.

Play with the amount of phase, currently 185, frequency, and Direction to create your own grain. Adjust the frequency of the Noise too. Change the noise source, i.e. try square or Rnd Linear or whatever you fancy. You should be able to play now. :)

Step 18- Color and Color Filters 1

I carefully avoided color in the previous sections of this tutorial. Color adds a whole new dimension to the materials we create in the DTE. What we have done up until this point is exactly what I did when I was ( still am ) learning the DTE. I took one area and learned what I could. By confining my attention to Alpha, Bump, the noise editor, and the Filter I was able to understand a little. Trying to do it all at once was overwhelming!

You may also wonder why I have confined my attention to repetitive pattern materials. In order to see the effects of parameter adjustment, repetitive patterns show the result more easily than complex materials. The same is true for color.

Color - Setup

Load my handy dandy neutral sky in the Sky Editor.

Create the proverbial cube.

Load the Nothing Sine Material.

Change the Noise Type to Square.

Change the Noise to 3D.

Make sure that Filter is None and Phase is 0.

Click the little dart at the lower left of Component1 and set the color mode to “Spline Interpolation”

Step 19- Color and Color Filters 2

Set the color to easily recognizable colors like shown in the image above.

Click on the “C” in Component1's palette. Where is our red? Let's see if we can force it.

Choose Clip aX+b in the Filter and Click Reset.

Step 20 - Color and Color Filters 3

Set our “Brightness” control “b” to about .5. Notice that our blue has been replaced with red. Our bright white-red has stayed the same.

Ok… Let's change our brightness to -.5. Notice that the squares are now using the top two colors . If you watched as you changed “b” slowly, the middle color mixed the the color you were replacing in varying amounts.

Change “b” to be almost 1.0 and -1.0 and observe the color in the preview window. Notice the relationship between the position of the wave in Filter's preview. At 1.0 you are entirely clipped at the top. At 0.0 you are entirely clipped at 0.0 at the bottom.

Ok, now the big question. Why can't we adjust the Filter to display all 3 colors at the same time? Ok… time is up. The problem lies in the nature of the noise we are using. Click on the “C” to turn off color. Note that the squares have no gray. Remember what I said about turning of color when in doubt? They go from black to white very quickly. Therefore we can only display two of the three colors at the same time in component 1 because we have only black and white in the noise. Move “b” with the color off and notice when you get gray. Turn the “C” back on. You will now show the Middle color but will lose either blue or the white with a touch of red. ( I didn't use pure white with that color )

Also notice what color corresponds to the Filter's output. It is counter intuitive but the order of the color buttons in Component1 is reversed. The bottom color represents the top (white) of the Filter's output. The position of the other two colors are shown below.

Step 21 - Color and Color Filters 4

So, how would we get gray into our squares and still preserve the square? See above. :) Remember what I said about Octaves is like striking two or more piano keys? Are we making harmony or what? :)

Notice the different shades of color. This is accomplished by the mixing of the square noise with a multiple of itself. At some points the two noises add to each other and at some points they subtract. The net result is a gradient from black to white in alpha and bump controlled by the Filter.

Now adjust the filter like the example above. Try negative numbers in “a” and positive numbers in “b”. Reverse that logic and try positive in “a” and negative in “b”.

Step 22 - Quantitize and More - Filter Magic

If you want a complete material for the material above - Bryce 5 - Download it from -

http://www.janthevillageweaver.com/special/anatomy_of_a_Wall/downloads/Color_Tutorial.zip

You will have to rotate the cube to see this pattern. If you want to know why the sides of the cube have different patterns, read on. :)

Go to the Filter and choose Quantize. Click on Reset.

Although Quantize isn't really suited for this kind of noise it easily demonstrates its function. Additionally it demonstrates our brightness, contrast, and color mixing model of the Filter. Looking at the graph in the Filter preview, our model doesn't seem to work! Notice that we appear to be in the middle to the top with our wave form. Why are our blue squares being shown?

The fact is that there is a middle to bottom part of the wave but it is so small we can't see it. By making “b” a very very small negative number, we can see it. Adjust “b” until it is slightly positive. Our model holds true! Notice that the middle color and the top colors are displayed without the blue. See Next Step

Step 23 - Quantitize and More - Filter Magic 2

What is Quantize?

What Quantize does is Step the contrast, brightness and color mixing from black to white, from color to color. Let's check it out.

Adjust “a” and “b” as shown above. The middle step allows our red to be displayed. Notice c = 2. Change that to 4 and Adjust b to the value shown below. Vary “a”, “b”, and “c” and observe. Various patterns and different shades of color can be had using this filter. Try using another noise that has varying shades of color using this filter. Quantize will allow you to create stepped color changes with the number of steps determined by “c” in your materials.

Step 24 - Size and Scaling

Back out to the Bryce open screen. Size your cube and rotate to 45 degrees in “Y” as shown above.

Go into the Material Editor for the cube. Set the scale as shown above.

Set X, Y, Z to 40%. Make sure the mapping mode is Object Space as shown in the image above.

Render your cube. You should see something like this (below). Scaling is a balance between the frequencies of the noises and scale. Scaling affects all frequencies in the palette where the individual frequencies of the components in the DTE affect only the noise that it is associated with. Too low scaling will result in high frequencies that make it difficult to see what your work in the DTE.

Step 25 - Size and Scaling 2

Notice, in the image above, there is a balance of the texture with the cube. This is not always true particularly with asymmetrical patterns. A chaotic material, such as a rock surface, doesn't require precise positioning. But patterns can be a problem. Fortunately we have controls to fix that.

Go into the Deep Texture Editor for the material on the cube add some Phase as shown outlined by yellow in the image above.

Render.

I want to shift the pattern slightly to the left to balance it horizontally. Just how would I go about that? Well first I have to determine what axis of the pattern, X or Z, to shift. Remember we rotated the cube and we are using the Object Space mapping mode.

Step 26 - Size and Scaling 3

Position your mouse pointer over one of the handles on the left or right of the cube and pause. Gadzooks! We want to move our pattern in Z!

If you don't have a good render, render now.

Go into the Material Editor and enter -.4 into the Offset Z parameter. Remember… this control is scaled in Bryce Units… a little goes a long way.

We have shifted the pattern a little to the left. Use the same procedure to move the pattern up and down in Y. Use plop render to re-render half of the pattern to see how you are doing. See above.

Step 27 - Size and Scaling 4

Now go back to the wireframe view and click on “A” for the attributes of the cube. Change the rotations of XYZ to be 0, 0, 0. Render. See the results above.

What's this? We have different patterns on each side of the cube! Well, that is not an issue if you will only see just one side in the cube in your scene. However, if you wanted a column in your image to have a uniform pattern, what we have above would not be acceptable.

The reason for this apparent disconnect is somewhat difficult to understand. We have a 3 dimensional Noise mixed with 3 dimensional Phase. If you can visualize that, you will see that we are just seeing different sides of the mathematical results.

So, how can we get around this issue? Yes!! Change the mapping mode! Excellent!

Go into the material editor and choose Object Cubic for the mapping mode. Exit to the wireframe.

Render

Grrrrrrr!!! What?!!! If you go back to Object Space mapping and rotate the cube, you will find that this is one of the sides of the cube. In Object Cubic, you are only mapping One side of the 3D noise to all sides of the cube.

Step 28 - Size and Scaling 5

Setup as shown above.

Play with the Phase rotations to find your original pattern or a new one that you like!

More Fun

Go to the Edit menu and select the double arrow on the right. While hold your select button on your mouse down, move over to the cylinder icon and release. Converts the cube to a cylinder.

Step 29 - Size and Scaling 6

Rescale the cylinder until it looks like a column.

Go into the Material Editor and change the mapping mode to Cylindrical and adjust scaling as shown above.

Play with the phase rotation to get a pattern you like. Tweak the scaling.

Step 30 - Size and Scaling 7

This finishes the section on size and scaling. Can you imagine the different patterns that you can give your DTE textured obects? :)

Next - Into the Mix

Step 31 - Into the Mix

Well folks, we are just about at the end of this tutorial. Hopefully you will be able to see why you have endured cubes, squares, patterns, phase and all of the other stuff. By understanding pattern creation, you will have the ability to create realistic or surrealistic materials for your images. Why? Because you know, in a general way, what effects what for any noise source or combination of noises.

For me, learning is a process not an event. It takes time for me to understand. I avoid getting frustrated because I can't grasp new ideas and concepts immediately. I learned this lesson a long time ago when I bought my first real graphics computer the Commodore Amiga. I bought the ROM Kernel, Windows, Hardware, and Operating System manuals. When staked up, they made a great foot rest. I couldn't get past the first page in any of them. But as I worked with the computer, each time I opened one of those books, I understood a little more. For me, the same is true for the DTE.

Designing a Wall

Create a cube and stretch it out like the one in the image above. Rotate it in “Y” to 45 degrees. Make it as you want.

Apply the Nothing Sine Mat to it and make sure that you have the World Space mapping mode selected.

Go into the DTE. Change the noise type and settings as shown above. The reason the Octaves are set at 6 is that I want rich detail in the surface of my wall. As I went up in Octaves, I went up in frequency to achieve this.

Step 32 - Into the Mix 2

In the beginning, I don't want to use color. So, I adjust the color buttons, from bottom to top, in a gray scale. Basically this corresponds to the Bump and Alpha. After adjusting your color, click “C” on and off to see that you are in sync with the Alpha and Bump.

Select Done and go out to the Material Editor. Set your scaling to 20 as shown above

Render to see what you have. If the general pattern of white, gray, and black are not what you are looking for, go back to the DTE and change Frequencies or Rotation in X, Y, and/or Z to get the layout that you want. Don't worry about bump or color yet. All we are trying to do here is establish the relative sizes of white ( the good part of our wall ), gray ( the partially eroded part of the wall ) and dark gray ( holes ). We'll refine these later.

Anatomy of A Wall - Part 1 (cont)

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Anatomy of A Wall - Part 1 (cont)

Author: BobCox

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Support Files

DownloadsB5.zip

Introduction

Just so we know where we are:

Step 1 - Into The Mix 3 (continued)

Now let's add some character to the surface of our wall. Go back into the DTE and set Phase as shown above. Go back out and render. Adjust Phase to your liking.

The default for the Basic Nothing Sine bump is 25.4. Try lowering that if you think that the relief of your wall is too much. The image above is with 25.4. However, there is another way to add some “flat” to our wall.

Go into the DTE and set the Filter for Component1 to Quantize. Set “a” approximately to -1.0 and “b” to +.9.

Step 2 - Into the Mix 4

Now set “c” to a number that reflects your idea of the level of detail you want. I am going to try 13.

Notice the stepped look to the surface. I'll leave “c” for awhile until we get a little farther along. You can always change it. :) Now you can see why I introduced you to “Quantize”. :)

For my eye, the render above of the wall is a little much. So, I changed the scaling to 10.0 and moved the sun to the right to see how my bump is doing.

Step 3 - Into the Mix 5

Notice just to the right of the cursor in the image above, that the light gray to dark gray shadow appears to be wrong. The black should be white if the light is highlighting the raised white area. Hmmm… negative bump.

Above is a blowup of that area with negative bump. It makes sense now.

Time to Use Color

By clicking on the Dart just below the color buttons, change the color mode to Spline Interpolation. Set your colors something like shown above. Notice the bottom color is almost white but we have very little, if any, white showing in the preview. Why?

Step 4 - Into the MIx 6

Check our Filter for Component1 and you will see that the peak of the waveform doesn't quite reach the top. However, the Filter will blend white with the middle color, dark blue, to give us the varying shades of blue. We have a dynamic color mixer!! :))

What we want to do now is add some surface color to give our wall some more character.

Click on 2, as shown above outlined in yellow, and choose Procedural Blend.

For the noise in Component2, choose as shown above. How did I decide to use this? I played until I found something that looked like it fit. :) I used very high frequency and an high Octave number to give me detail.

Step 5 - Into the Mix 7

Setup the Filter as shown above. Now, choose some Contrasting colors. While I am working with color, I'll choose some really yucky colors to contrast the other Component's colors so that I can see what I am doing. The very last thing we will do with this material is coordinate the color.

When you get this done, render. On your way out through the Material Editor, adjust your bump to -8.0. Plop render and go back to the DTE adjusting the Filter and Noise to suit you. Do not use bump here because it will blow the bump away from Component1.

Finally, let's add some cracks to the upper part of our surface with channel 3.

Render.

Step 6 - Into the Mix 8

As with any material, it is time to tweak. I have set the colors and modified some of the settings. They are listed below.

Color

Noise

Step 7 - Into the Mix 8

Phase Above

Step 8 - Holes 1

The Magic

The following procedure is so simple! And you can get it done is minutes!

Shift/Click in the yellow area shown above for the material you just made.

Click “ADD” shown in yellow and name it. Select Done

Step 9 - Holes 2

Ctrl/Click to add balls in the B and C channels for Diffuse and Bump Height

Go into the DTE for the B channel and choose the noise type and setup seen above.

Chose spline interpolation for Component1 and select CAB. Choose Quantize like shown above. Adjust “a” and “b” for the gap between the boards.

Step 10 - Holes 3

Select Component2 and Minimum as shown above.

Setup as shown above.

Adjust the Filter using Clip aX+b being careful to preserve the gap between the boards for Component2.

Step 11 - Holes 4

Shift/Click whatever came up in channel “C”

Load the Texture you just saved.

De-select Components 2 and 3. Change the sign of “a” and “b”. Set “c” to 2. Adjust for the size of the holes you want. But don't render just yet. We need to set the scaling of the boards.

Step 12 - Holes 4

Set the scaling for the boards in the “B” channel as shown above.

Render. In the C channel, adjust the size of the white area for the size of the holes you desire.

Note: This material is World Space mapped and as you create and move this wall around your scene, the material character will change. If you map it Object Space, you will have to rescale it. If you have this material applied to more than one object, you will have to change rotation, frequency, etc. to keep from having the same look to the objects.

Adjust Specularity, Ambience, Bump etc. for your needs.

I hope that this tutorial was worth your effort. :)

Meski

Building Convincing Terrain Materials in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Building Convincing Terrain Materials in Bryce

Author: aintnosin

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Support Files

terrain.zip

Introduction

Real terrain is very complex and it's difficult to simulate in Bryce without the use of the altitude and slope filters in the Deep Texture Editor, subjects that have been known to intimidate the most seasoned Bryce artist. This tutorial will show you how to build convincing terrain materials. (You'll notice I didn't say “realistic.” I never claimed to be a geologist…)

Create a terrain. I usually smooth my terrains considerably, then add some erosion. Then I increase resolution to 256 pixels and add a little slope noise. I increase resolution to 1024 and smooth the noise out a bit. Then I clip the bottom and I get something like the image (colored added for clarity).

Step 1 - First Steps

We're going to use a three-texture material. That means that the alpha channel for Texture C will be used to combine Textures A and B. We'll start by building Texture A.

Open the material lab and select Texture A for the Diffuse color and the bump height. Also knock the Ambience down to 0 while you're at it. Now click the second top bottom to take Texture A into the Deep Texture Editor.

Initially, we're just concerned with how the Altitude and Slope filters affect the combination of the various components, so we're just going to use color before we start applying any noise.

Click the “3” in the top left to turn on all three components and set both blending modes to Average.

For all three components, set the color mode to “RGB” and “Linear Interpol3” and the Noise Type to “None”. Now disable the second two components for now.

Step 2 - Copping an Altitude

Now we're going to start playing around with the filters. Open the filter dialog and make sure Component 1 is selected. Select X(a*altitude+b) as the filter type. With this filter the “a” value controls the abruptness of the change while the “b” value controls the height at which it starts. Generally, if your “a” value is positive, then your “b” should be negative and vise versa. A positive “a” moves your color change and noise down from the top, while a negative value moves it up from the bottom.

For my purposes I selected an “a” value of approximately 3.6 and a “b” of about -0.83. I also use bright, highly contrasting colors to check the height and slope variations more easily. I came up with something that looks like the picture.

Step 3 - Hitting The Slopes

Next, we'll use the Slope filter for the second component. Enable the second component and select the X(a*slope+b) filter. Again, the “a” value controls the abruptness of the change while the “b” controls the level of slope at which the noise starts. Allegedly, with a positive “a” value, you can place noise on the vertical surfaces, but I'm still trying to get that to work like it says in the manual. So I always use a negative value to place noise on the horizontal surfaces.

For this material, I used a “a” value of about -3.15 and a “b”value of about 1.84. Again using highly contrasting colors, I end up with something like the picture.

Step 4 - Adding Noise

Now it's time to make some noise! (Sorry….). Time to choose the noise type that will actually give us our texture. There are quite a few that are appropriate for natural rock, like RND Continuous, RND Linear, RND Saw, Turbulence and Fractal. Stuff like Stucco Noise and Stone Cliff are good alpha channels for combining textures, but I don't think they make good textures themselves.

The Vornoi noise types also make good rock textures.

Textures for this sort of work usually require high frequency settings, anywhere from 300% and up. Keep the octave settings low, from 0 to 2. Anything more and your texture gets too muted. All noise should be set for 3D, unless you're trying for layered rock appearance.

I also tend to avoid using Phase when building these textures. They are already complex enough with adding more rendering time.

Select different noise and frequency settings for both components 1 and 2. Also, enable component 3 and set a different noise and frequency for it. Component 3 does not get an altitude or slope, as this component fills in the gaps not covered by 1 or 2.

Also, be careful about changing the texture frequency in the material lab, especially with altitude filters. The texture frequency will affect the starting height of the noise. This is is another way of controlling your altitude changes, but be aware.

Exit the deep texture editor and set your bump height to something like 30. At this we point we get the image in the last picture. Not exactly “convincing” at this point, but it certainly has character.

Step 5 - Texture B

Okay, for now we're going to stick Texture A in an unused channel, like Ambient Color and select Texture B for Diffuse and Bump. Repeat the steps above, but throw in a little variety. Change the order of components by doing the slope texture or the all-over texture first. Invert the values for the altitude filter so the noise comes from the opposite direction. Go wild and experiment.

Step 6 - Alpha Mail

Now's the time to build our alpha channel for Texture C. In the material lab, Ctrl-Click (I believe that's Command-Click for Mac users) on the Texture C button for Diffuse Color and Bump Height, activating all three textures, using the C as an Alpha channel. Now take texture C into the Deep Texture Editor. The same noise types you used for your color and bump textures will work here, in addition to Stucco Noise and Stone Cliff.

Generally, noise in the alpha channel should be low octave, lower frequency and not heavily filtered. You're looking for high contrast. I usually use three components, using Blend Altitude and Blend Slope as my blending modes. This varies the manner in which the textures combine according to both height and slope.

Also make sure that alpha output is enabled for your components, of course. Bump and Color are irrelevant.

Step 7 - Getting Real

Okay, now it's time to take those wild colors we started with and replace them with the color we actually want to use. For my material, I'm aiming for a more desert-like rock formation, so I'm going to stick with the sandy yellows, tans, and pinks, with a dark brown or gold thrown in for “character.”

Work through both textures, replacing your colors with more “natural” colors that suit the terrain you're trying to create. You might wind up with something like this.

For your convenience, I've included copies of this material, plus another, and the terrain I used for this tutorial. Just download the support file.

Creating Yuletide Spirits and Halloween Ghosts in Bryce 5.0

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Yuletide Spirits and Halloween Ghosts in Bryce 5.0

Author: Nightsong

Tools Needed

Poser or DAZ Studio
Bryce 5.0 or Later

Introduction

This tutorial will show you how to take your models from Poser and DAZ Studio and turn them into spooky Bryce ghosts in just a few simple steps. You will need an image already created in Poser or DAZ Studio to complete this tutorial.

Step 1 - Importing Your Figure

Create your figure in Poser or DAZ Studio. Feel free to add such effects as making their hair and clothing blow in the wind, look tangled or rumpled, or otherwise appear in the manner that you feel a ghost would. Do not add any textures, since they not only slow down your system, but you shouldn't be needing them for the purposes of this tutorial.

Import your character into a blank document in Bryce. There are tutorials here and here in the DAZ Tutorial Arcana that already explain how to do this, so I will not cover it here.

Step 2 - Setting Up Your Canvas

Make sure that you are in camera view by pressing the first small triangle immediately on the left side of your canvas. Turn, resize, or position your figure in the manner that you wish it to appear in your final scene. Change the sky, if you wish, using the presets from the Sky and Fog pallette. You can access those by pressing the triangle next to Sky and Fog at the top of the screen.

For this tutorial I used Because the Night to give it a nice, dark background to work with, and changed the material of the ground plane to a simple, flat black.

Step 3 - Setting Up Your Character

Select the group that is your figure. Click on the A in the little square next to it to edit the attributes.

Give your figure a descriptive name, in order to easily find it in later scenes, and click on the circle next to Locked. This prevents it being accidently moved or deleted if you should happen to press the wrong key or bump your mouse.

Step 4 - Basic Cloud Materials

Press the M in the little square next to your figure to edit the materials it is composed of. Click on the triangle on the right side of the sample window and choose a cloud texture from the Clouds and Fogs menu.

If you have a texture that seems too bright, try turning down the ambience a bit. If you have one that doesn't quite have the transparencies in the places you want, try changing the size or orientation of the texture with the Editor (the top left button found on the textures lined up on the right side of the screen). I would suggest avoiding turning the percentages in the Editor very high, since this will cause you to lose many of your figure's details. I would also suggest making sure that you have World Space instead of Object Space checked on the bottom right of your texture's window, since this allows the textures to more smoothly wrap around the entire surface of your figure, rather than tile amongst the many small meshes that compose it.

It is completely up to you which you choose, but note that if you choose something too transparent, body parts such as eyes and teeth will show through the face, adding a more sinister and macabre appearance to your figure. For this particular picture I used a variation on Summer Clouds, which is third from the left on the top row of the Clouds and Fogs menu. The changes I made to this texture are noted below in red. When you are ready, click the check mark to accept the change.

Rendering at this point (Ctrl/Command -R) shows that you have achieved a basic, semi-transparent material on your figure:

Step 5 - Adding A Ghostly Glow

Create a sphere using the Create pallette.

The sphere should be selected. Shift-Ctrl-right-click on your figure and select it from the drop-down list, so that both it and the sphere are selected. (Ctrl should be Command on a Mac.) On the Edit pallette, click on the sphere in the middle of the triangle, in order to align the two figures on all axis. The fact that your figure is locked will prevent it from being moved.

Resize your sphere using the resize tool on the Edit pallette so that it covers your figure entirely.

Step 6 - Adding A Ghostly Glow, Cont.

You should now have a scene that appears somewhat like this:

Ctrl (or Command) -right-click on the sphere and select the sphere from the drop-down list, so that only it is selected. Click on the M in the square next to your sphere in order to open the Materials menu. Again click on the triangle on the right side of the preview window to open the presets, and select Marley's Ghost from the Complex fx menu. When you have done that, make these additional changes to the material:

This adds a pale glow with a slight greenish-blue sheen to your figure. If you wish to use another color instead, simply ALT (Or option) -right-click on the color and use the sliders to change it to the hue you wish to use.

Step 7 - Making your Spirit Shine

It has a glow, but what good does that do in areas with little to no light? Go back to the Create pallette and make a radial light.

Move this light so that it shines on the face of your figure, or else wherever on your figure that you wish to bring attention to. In order to do this accurately, you may wish to switch your view to the Top view by clicking on the top triangle immediately to the left side of your canvas.

Make sure that the radial light is very close to your figure, since it will also serve to shine a ghostly glow on the objects around your figure. You may also want to make it shine from above (or below) for more angelic (or demonic) effects. By turning the ambience down to 50 on the cloud texture earlier, we made it so that any shadows cast by lights we placed would show up more clearly.

After you have positioned your light, click on the E in the square next to your light so you can edit its properties. ALT (Or option) -right-click on the white square in the upper right-hand corner to change the color, and make the following other changes so that it matches the screen shown below.

If you changed your sphere's material to another color, you'll want to change the color here to a lighter version of that hue.

Step 8 - Adding the Finishing Touches

By rendering now we see that our picture has gained an unearthly glow, but there may still be some finishing touches we wish to add.

In your picture, you may note that certain parts of it (especially those with finer meshes than the rest of the picture) show up more starkly than you might wish. An example in this picture might be the hem or cuffs of the dress. This is easily fixed.

In Bryce, the meshes are labeled differently than they are in DAZ Studio and Poser, but each should be readily recognizeable by their names. Simply Ctrl (Or command) -right-click on the mesh you wish to change and select it from the drop-down menu. (You can also hold down Shift to select more than one at once.) Remember that if you select any part on accident that you don't want to, simply select it again to de-select it.

When each of the meshes you no longer wish to appear have been selected, click on the M in the square next to them to bring up the material menu and change their transparency to 100. It is important to change their transparency to 100 rather than deleting them. This way you have the option of turning the transparency back to the previous value if you decide you do not like the effect, or else simply toning it down if you wish.

At this point you also have the option of using radial lights to add small 'ghost balls' around your figure, create small spheres full of ghostly fire, or else add additional lights to the scene to heighten the effect of light and shadow playing across your ghost.

If needed, go back and change the transparency on any more parts of your figure to add to the ghostly effect.

Step 9 - Saving for Later Use

This is all well and good, you might say, but I made this in a blank document! How do I add this to my renders? That is the easy part. Once you have achieved a finished product that you wish to save, select all parts of your figure (the sphere(s), the figure itself, and the light(s)) using Ctrl-right-click and Shift-Ctrl-right-click (using Command instead of Ctrl where appropriate on a Mac). Then click on the small G in the square next to the group. If the G does not appear, it means that you have already grouped part of your figure together, and have selected one of the pieces inside of a pre-existing group. Select the necessary pieces to make a group out of the whole, then click on the G to group them.

Click on the A next to your group and rename it into something that you will be easily able to recognize as this set of ghosts in the future. Don't copy the name you used for the figure itself before – if you do you will then have two things with the same name when you try to select them, and this can get confusing very quickly.

Click on the triangle next to the word Create to bring up the creation menu. You may have to click again, very quickly, to get it to stick around.

Click on the triangle next to Installed at the bottom of the menu and select User from the popup menu.

Click on Add, at the bottom of the menu.

The name you used for your group should already be showing in the title area, but if you wish you can type in a new title and description to describe just what the figure you created is, and what it ought to be used for. This is for your own library, so feel free to add whatever notes you wish.

You can also change the orientation of the thumbnail, zoom in, or rotate using Shift, Ctrl, ALT, and the spacebar in combination with the mouse, just as you can on the main canvas. When everything looks as you want it to, click the checkmark to accept the preset.

What this does is save the character to your library, making it so that all you need to do to add it to a picture in the future is simply go to the Create menu and select User presets from the bottom of the menu. This saves you from having to create or manipulate the figure from scratch in a pre-existing scene, when you might already have several figures that use up much of your computer's memory. To backup these presets or transfer them to another computer, use the Export option (next to Add on the Create menu) or simply save the Presets folder in your Bryce directory.

With a little practice, you'll be able to create any type of haunted scene, from Halloween ghosts to Yuletide spirits. Happy rendering!

Galactic Background by Peter Sharpe

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Galactic Background by Peter Sharpe

Author: BryceContentCD

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

In this tutorial, we'll explore the Material Editor to create a galactic background with stars and nebulae.

Step 1 - Setting up the scene

Select Sky and Fog. Click on the Sky Options inverted triangle and select Atmosphere Off. Drag over the Haze picture and reduce the value to zero.

Figure 1

Step 2 - Setting up the ground plane

Select the Ground Plane and click on A to bring up the ground plane's attributes box. Enter the four numbers highlighted in red for position and rotation.The ground plane will now be in the distance and facing you. We will apply the galactic texture to the vertical groundplane.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Step 3 - The Material Editor

Click on M to bring up the Materials Editor. In the colour section click on DIFFUSE and AMBIENT in column A as shown in Figure 4. A randomly selected material will appear.

Figure 4

Step 4 - Loading the Material

In this case TechnoD24 appeared. Click on the button after the name and from the Clouds Group select Cosmics. The lower picture shows Cosmics loaded.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Step 5 - Edit the Texture

Click on the pale green button shown highlighted in Figure 7 to display the Edit Texture panel. By using the Coarse and Fine scale controls reduce the scale to 2.0. Now exit the materials editor and render. Add a couple of planets and you get the result shown in Figure 8. A spherical light with brightness 3 and no fall off has been placed behind the far planet to brighten up the background slightly.

Figure 7

Step 6 - Afterwards

As an afterthought I should add that you can change the colours in the DTE and also if you use only Component 1, in the DTE, you have a starfield that does not disappear when you anti-alias. You can also remove the stars and just have the nebulae.

Figure 8

How to create complex materials in Bryce 5

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

How to create complex materials in Bryce 5

Author: Butterfly Fish

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Support Files

Introduction

Complex Materials aren't really as complex as you'd think. It's just a couple of textures and an alpha map. Your first two selections (“A” nd “B”) are the textures you'll see in your finished render. Your third (“C”) selection is the map. Texture “A” will appear in the black sections of the “C” texture's alpha map (often used as the transparency map). Texture “B” will appear in the white ones. Simple, right? Well, let's give it a shot anyway.

Step 1 - Getting Started with Procedurals

We're going to start with Procedural Textures.

1.) Click on the ground plane to select it.

2.) Click on the “M” to enter the Material Lab.

3.) While holding down the Ctrl key, click on the “C” space (the third column) beside diffuse and ambient in the color section, and diffusion, ambience, and bump height in the value section, as shown. All those little dots should turn blue just like in the picture. Now it knows you're using the third material as a map for the first two. But you probably won't like the look of the randomly assigned materials, so we're going to pick better ones.

Step 2 - Choosing your Components

4.) Select the material for “A” by opening the drop-down menu. (Click the arrow at the top right of the “A” box.) For this example I chose “Forest” from the “Bump” menu. It's going to be our vegetation.

5.) Select the material for “B” in the same manner. For this example I chose “Marble Sand” from the “Sand” menu. It's going to be, well, sand.

6.) Select the material for “C” in the same manner. For this example I chose “BlackWhite” from the “Basic” menu. I picked BlackWhite because it has good balance and contrast between the two colors. This makes it easy to see our results clearly.

Step 3 - Check Your "C" Frequency

7.) Now open the editor for texture “C.” (Click the blue button in the top left corner of the “C” box.)

8.) Check to make sure that texture “C” is set to a fairly low frequency. You probably won't want anything over 20% for now. If you don't like the results, you can always come back and change this setting later.

9.) Click the check mark to exit the Material Lab.

Step 4 - Render It

10.) Render. You should have something that looks similar to mine. See, now that wasn't hard, was it? The forest texture went where the black parts of BlackWhite are, and the Marble Sand went where the white parts are.

Now you can return to the Material Lab and adjust the frequencies of each texture until you have something you're happy with. Save the material if you'really like it.

What do you mean that isn't quite what you had in mind? You want it to look a little more realistic, you say? OK, we can do that. Here we go. We'll do the same thing with image textures. Go ahead and click the “M” to go back into the Material Lab.

Step 5 - Working with Images

11.) Change your “A” texture type to an image texture by clicking on the “P” button toward the bottom left of the “A” box. (Yes, I know it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for “P” to stand for “Image” texture and “T” to stand for “Procedural” texture. But that's the way it is. Just go with it.) Leo will appear after you click the “P” button.

12.) Now click the pink button just above Leo's head to enter the Texture Source Editor.

Step 6 - The Texture Source Editor

13.) Click any of the empty gray boxes. (Most people pick the first one.) A dialog will appear that will allow you to browse to whatever image you want to use for the “A” texture. You can use the one of the ones I provided or choose one of your own.

14.) Click the word “Copy” which appears below your image to copy it.

15.) Click the word “Paste” which appears below the box to the right. This will paste your image in as a grayscale image, so you have a bump map.

16.) Click the check mark to exit the Texture Source Editor.

Step 7 - Rinse and Repeat ;-)

17.) - 22.) Repeat steps 11 - 16 (as shown in the image) for your “B” texture, choosing a contrasting image.

Step 8 - "C" Frequency Again

23.) Open the editor for texture “C.” (Click the blue button in the top left corner of the “C” box.)

24.) Check to make sure that texture “C” is set to a fairly low frequency. This way you can better see how your textures look together.

25.) Click the check mark to exit the Material Lab.

Step 9 - Render It Again

26.) Render and evaluate. What do you think?

If you don't like the contrast between your textures, just go back and choose a different image for one or both of them. If you don't like the frequency, you can change that, too. Experiment to find something you like.

If you're feeling really adventurous, you can even create an image in Photoshop (or your favorite paint program) and make a custom image for your alpha channel. This will allow you to make roads, rivers or whatever you can imagine. Good luck!

Neon Signs

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Neon Signs

Author: liquefusion

Tools Needed

Bryce 5
Photoshop

Introduction

London, New York, Tokyo, mega-cities of the future, they all have vibrant neon signs that add character and flavour. This tutorial shows a quick and easy way to add neon signs to your cityscape.

Step 1 - Photoshop text

In Photoshop, create a new document (I use 512 x 512 pixels), with a Transparent background. Type your text using the Horizontal Type Mask Tool to create a selected outline in the shape of your text.

Step 2 - Stroke it softly

Now go to Edit – Stroke and choose the Width and Colour of your signs neon tubes.

Step 3 - Glow

To create the Neon Glow, go to Layer - Layer Style and set Spread and Size as required and set the colour to match your neon tubes. Save this as a .PSD file for use later.

Step 4 - Bryce Picture

Open a new Bryce scene, remember a neon glow works best with dark backgrounds. On the Create palette, click the 2D Picture Object tool. This opens the Texture Source Editor (Picture Room). In the Texture Source Editor is only one Picture-“Leo”. Click on the right empty black button and find your Photoshop .PSD file. Load it. Apply Selected Image.

Click on 'M' to enter the Edit Material. In Materials Lab set all settings as in the image above. Make sure the Texture Mapping Mode is set to Parametric and Material Options to Blend Transparency.

Step 5 - Add Light

Go back to Bryce Scene Editor and render, you can see it lacks that certain glow.

To add this, create a Radial Light and position it just in front of your sign. Click 'E' to enter the Light Lab and make your settings:

Colour: Gradient a light and dark version of your sign colour.

Intensity: Adjust as you need.

Falloff: Linear.

You now have the perfect neon sign.

Quick and easy material replication in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Quick and easy material replication in Bryce

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

When you're working with a lot of objects in a scene, and you discover that you want to change the material for a whole bunch of them at the same time, it can be a daunting task. This tutorial shows you a very simple way of completing such a task.

It might not seem like such an ordeal, but when you've applied a material to a bunch of objects, and you've fiddled around with one to get it looking just right, you don't really want to have to replicate those changes to the other objects individually.

For this tutorial I'm assuming that you know how to create a scene, and also know how to apply a material to an object.

Step 1 - Set up the scene

Obviously, you need a scene with lots of objects. Here's mine, both wireframe and rendered.

Step 2 - Pick a material to replicate

Okay, now the fun part. Let's say that we want to apply the marble material in the nearest spheres to the whole row on the front right side.

The important thing is to make sure you select an object with the material that you want to keep first. So, we'll click on the nearest sphere to select it.

Now while holding the shift key down, we'll select the spheres that we want to copy the material to.

Step 3 - Apply the material

Go to the materials lab, and you should see the material settings for the first object you selected.

Click on the tick to apply the material, and you have now applied that material to all of the selected objects.

If you do a render, you'll see it all worked as expected.

Step 4 - Conclusion

This simple process can save you no end of headaches, especially when you've spent ages tweaking a material and getting it just right. Or when you have a whole bunch of changes to make.

The main thing to remember is always to select the texture that you want to keep first.

Raindrops on a Water Surface

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Raindrops on a Water Surface

Author: Stargazy

Tools Needed

* Bryce 5 or 5.5

Step 1: Create a water plane

Create a water plane in your picture. Open the Material Lab and give it a nice water texture. In my picture I used “Oasis” for this example. The surface is not too rough, so the ripples of the water drops will show up fine.

Now open the deep texture editor (DTE) by clicking on the pink button above the texture components.

Step 2: The Deep Texture Editor

The DTE shows at a maximum three components which can be combined to create the final texture (combination). You can see the three components in small preview windows. Each of these components can be used for color (C), as an alpha channel (A) and/or as a bump map (B). Three buttons on the left of each component indicate which components as used for which purpose.

The components can be blended by various blend modes. The text on the arrows between the components indicate the used blend mode.

The fourth component named “combination” shows the result of blending the three components. Note that not every texture contains three components. There might be some that are only using one or two.

I will not explain the full functionality of the DTE in the further steps. I will only mention the steps for creating the tickling of raindrops.

If you are interested in getting more knowledge about working with the DTE, please refer to the manual.

Step 3: Work with Component 3

We will now use component 3 for creating a bump map for the tickling. So click on the title to activate it. A random structure will appear.

Make sure, that the button for the bump map (B) is enabled and C and A are disabled.

Because we want to blend the tickles with eventually existing bump maps, select 'Average' as the blend mode. Simply click on the text and a menu will appear.

So the ripples from the water and the drops will interact with each other.

Step 4: Open the Noise Editor

Now we are going to make some drops. Therefore we need some spots on our texture. This we will do by adding the appropriate noise to the component.

Open the noise dialog by clicking on the glassy top left button in the component or the Noise button at the bottom of the DTE.

Make sure the blue ball is in the third hollow (that indicates that we are working on the third component), and click the green corner on the dialog to open the Noise Editor.

Step 5: Making the Drops

To get the spots into your texture, select 'Spots' for the Type. Set the Octaves to 2. That will give us some spots in different sizes.

Set the Direction for XY and YZ to 0. As it is now, assigned to a cube, it would only cover the front. We will correct this in a further step, but now it makes it easier to follow the changes in the preview windows.

Set all three values for Frequency to the same value. Otherwise your drops will not be round. Select a value between 80 and 90.

At least set the dimension to 2D, because we want the drops on the top of the surface only.

Close the Noise Dialog by clicking on the checkmark.

Step 6: Creating the Rings

What's now missing are the rings around our drops. These rings we create in the Filter dialog. Open the filter dialog by clicking on the upper right glassy button.

The filter Sin(aX)+b will give us nice rings around the drops, so select this filter.

Now click on the Reset button in the filter dialog to reset all values.

Click and drag the number for 'a' to the right to set a value. Drag until you have a good number of rings around the larger spots; somewhat between 30 and 70.

Set the value of 'b' to around -0.5. That will make the ripples a little bit smoother. You can come back here later to adjust the value if you think the ripples are too deep or too low.

Step 7: Some more Adjustments

If you are satisfied with your rings, go back into the Noise Dialog. Decrease the frequency to get larger rings. A good value is about 35.

Try also to increase the Octaves to 3 or 4 and take the value you like more. In my example I used the value 3 for the Octaves.

To make the rings a little bit more intensive, switch the mode to Maximum.

The last thing we have to do is to rotate the texture. As it is now, assigned to a cube, it would only cover the front. But we want to cover the top. Therefore we have to change the YZ direction to 90. The spots will nearly disappear, but don't worry, they are still there.

So here are the final settings.

Close the Noise Dialog by clicking on the checkmark.

Close now the DTE. Don't worry if you can't see the raindrops in the texture preview of the Material Lab. As I mentioned before, that is because the drops are only visible on the top of an object.

Close the Material Lab as well.

Step 8: Render your Image

Render your water surface.

Here is my result:

If you like your water surface, don't forget to add it to your material presets.

Realistic Bullet Trail

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Realistic Bullet Trail

Author:

zedman1000

Tools Needed

* Bryce 5 +

Support Files

* Bullet_Free.zip

Introduction

It's time to create your own cool Bullet trail.

Step 1 - Download The Bullet

Download the bullet which is available in .br5 format found as a support file. Its fully textured.

Step 2 - Create the Bullet Trail shape

Create a sphere from the basic shapes. Move it into the middle and stretch from the ends to make the shape featured in the screenshot. (You can adjust the shape to suit your scenes needs.)

Step 3 - Applying the Bullet trails texture

Go into the materials lab. Click the arrow next to the preview to bring up the preset textures menu. Find the highlighted texture.

Materials Lab - > Presets - > Clouds&Fogs - > Bright N Bumpy

Apply it to the object and exit the materials lab.

Step 4 - Render

Render the current object to see if that's what you want. You can also change the texture to another if you are not entirely happy.

Proceed to next step when ready.

Step 5 - Adding it to the bullet.

Copy the bullet trail you just made (Ctrl C) and open the bullet file that you download in the first step. Paste the bullet trail in and align as shown in the picture so (in wire frame mode) it looks like a bit of the bullet trail is in front of the bullet.

Step 6 - Finished.

Render your scene and you should have a wonderful small ranged bullet trail for your scenes.

Resizing Textures with Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Resizing Textures with Bryce

Author: Stargazy

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

For sure you have had textured an object in the past and you were not happy with the size of your selected texture. It seems to be too rough or too fine and does not really fit into your picture. This tutorial will help you to adjust your textures in their granularity.

Step 1 - Texture Your Object

Create your object and texture it with your desired texture.

For my example I created a box and textured it with the standard Gilded Cage out of the Wild&Fun materials.

Step 2 - Check Your Render Output

My render looks now like this.

I'm not happy with the size of the grid. I want to have it much smaller.

Step 3 - Open the "Edit Texture" dialog

Enter the Materials Lab again and click on the small greenish button on the top left corner above your texture display.

A small 'Edit Texture' window opens.

In this small window you can change the size of your texture with the first three parameters. With the additional parameters you can ajust the position of the texture, it is worth it to try it out but this is not content of this tutorial.

We concentrate on the first three parameters. As you see, in my example all three values are set to 37, 5%.

0% means the texture is as large as possible.

Higher values define how often the texture is repeated.

Negative numbers don't make the texture larger. See step 6 for how this works.

Step 4 - Define New Percentage Values

With a click on a percentage value, you will get a small input field, where you can define your new percentage. Have a look at the small preview window in the Materials Lab. There you will get a rough idea of how your texture will change.

This example shows the change of the X axis to 120%. Y and Z remain on 37, 5%.

Here I changed the Y axis to 120% and the X axis back to 37, 5.

Step 5 - The Final Values

And here is my final render that shows the result with all axis on 120%.

Funny, isnt't it?

Step 6 - Negative Values

Negative values will also increase the frequency of the texture, but in the different direction of the axis. Here an example with a sphere.

In this example I used the Texture Alien Tree Bark out of the Wild&Fun textures. The standard values for X, Y and Z were all 25%.

Now I changed all values to -25%. You will now notice that the texture flips somehow on all axis and looks a little bit strange. So be careful to change to negative values.

Try it out yourself with single values.

Step 7 - Adjusting Trunk Materials of Trees

The resize option for textures is very helpful for tree trunks. If you create a tree and you change the trunk thickness you mostly have to change the texture size to fit it.

For this tree I used the default Silver Maple and changed the trunk thickness from 40 to 87.

The render result does not really look like a real trunk.

Now we have to change all the texture axis values in the same manner. This means if you double a value for the X axis, you have to do that with all other values as well.

In this case I multiplied all values by 20 and this is the result. The bark looks now more realistic.

Step 8 - Additional Tips

If an object (like tree trunks) has more than one texture, all values of the all textures have to be changed in the same manner.

You can click through the different textures in the 'Edit Texture' window using the four buttons on the right.

Happy rendering !!!

Stained Glass Window Tutorial for Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Stained Glass Window Tutorial for Bryce

Author: NAngel1298

Tools Needed

Bryce 5
Art or Photo Editing Program

Support Files

Stained_Glass_Tutorial.zip

Introduction

Here is a tutorial for those of you who charish the beauty of stained glass. So many windows throughout history have been pinicals of the world of art and religion. The art of stained Glass, is one of harmony with light. This tutorial is dedicated to those magnificent artists who have brought so much beauty into this world using those little shards of glass.

Step 1 - Finding and Using the Right Image

The correct way to find and utilize a religious stained glass window is to ask the church minister if you may photograph the window, and then leave a donation to the church. You will find doing this is much more rewarding.

Step 2 - Monochrome JPEG Image

You will need an image of a stained glass window, or similar image you created yourself. Open the image in your favorite Art program (I used Photo Impact 6.0), and change the image to black and white (Monochrome).

Step 3 - Invert Monochrome JPEG Image

Once Monochrome, Invert the Image so that it is like a photo negative, then save as a transparency'. Placing the word Trans in the name usually does the trick.

Step 4 - Create 2D Surface

In Bryce, Select the 2D object. Select the square or circle depending on the shape of the window being created. Then size it to the shape and size similar to the image. This can be done after the images are applied to fine tune the window.

Step 5 - Apply JPEG Image to 2D Surface

Click on the 2D object, and press the (M) materials editor. Select Diffuse, and Ambient in both places as shone above. Select the “Image Texture button”, and then the “Texture Source Editor” button. Select an empty box at the bottom and load the desired Image.

Step 6 - Apply Invert Monochrome JPEG Image as Transparency (Optional)

Select Transparency from column B, and the select “Image Texture” button, and then the “Texture Source Editor” button as before. Select an empty box at the bottom and load Monochrome JPEG Image.

Then Select Copy from the first window and Paste to the second window.

Step 7 - Adjust settings to achieve the desired look

Make Adjustments to your settings as needed. Transparency may remain at zero. This still gives a slightly transparent look. The higher the transparency the more diminished the color and detail. Raising the Ambience will increase the color, and create the illusion of light on the other side of the window. Bump Maps may be added, but should only be considard for extream close-ups.

Tiffany window with realistic shadows

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Tiffany window with realistic shadows

Author: - esha -

Tools Needed

Bryce (Version 4 or 5)
Some image editor

Support Files

Introduction

In this tutorial I will explain how you can create stained glass windows that cast realistic colored shadows.

NOTE: I take for granted that you already know the basic techniques like booleaning and working with the Materials Lab and the Terrain Editor.

Step 1 - Prepare your image

Open your paint program (I am using Photoshop 7) and paint on a new layer the outlines of the pattern. Save the file.

Add the colors (the best way to do this is to put a new layer under the first one) and save the file under a new name.

Write down the size of your image, my image for example is 544 x 768 pixels.

Step 2 - Create a wall with a window

Open Bryce and use two cubes to bool a wall with a window opening.

IMPORTANT: The negative cube which creates the opening must be the size of your image;

in my case I set for x 54.4 and for y 76.8, z can remain as it is.

Don't worry if the wall looks very large at the moment, later on you can scale it down.

Step 3 - Insert the glass

Press and hold the Ctrl key and click the negative cube. Select it from the list.

Copy it by pressing Ctrl+C and paste it by pressing Ctrl+V einf'gen.

This creates a copy of the cube at exact the same position, but it is not part of the boolean group.

In the Object Attributes box reduce the value for z, for example 0, 1 oder 0, 2 (see screenshot above).

Now the cube looks like a thin pane of glass.

Step 4 - Apply the glass material

Open the Materials Lab. For Transparent Color set your colored image. Set transparency to 100.

Note: The option “Normal” must be selected, because if you use “Blend Transparency” the glass would get invisible!

Higher intensities of Ambience and Diffusion make the glass appear brighter and more luminant.

These settings depend on your personal taste. You can set Specularity and Reflection to your liking as well.

To test the effect:

Place a light behind the window or move the sun to light the glass from behind.

Render.

Our window looks quite nice already. If you use it for background only it can remain like this.

But just in case you want to do a close-up we will improve the look of the metal frames which are so typical of Tiffany glass:

Step 5 - Add an extra metal frame (1)

Duplicate your glass cube (Ctrl+D).

Click on “Edit” and click and hold the small double arrow (see screenshot above)

and choose the symmetrical lattice from the list.

Now our cube has turned into a lattice, but it is turned the wrong way.

We will correct that now:

Open the Object Attributes box.

Swap the values of y and z and rotate 90' around the x-axis.

Increase the value for y a little bit, let's say 0, 5.

Step 6 - Add an extra metal frame (2)

Open the Terrain Editor.

Click on the grid selector and choose 256 or 512 (try what you like best!).

Load the image with the contours (Rose1).

Click on “Invert”.

Click once or twice on “Smoothing” to soften the edges.

Click on the OK sign to close the editor.

Now apply some material to the terrain, for example silver or gold.

Of course you can also create framings of wood or stone. Use your imagination, be creative!

Have fun,

esha

Using Water Materials And Radial Light To Create Glowing orbs

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using Water Materials And Radial Light To Create Glowing orbs

Author: malthemornion

Tools Needed

* Bryce 5.5

* DAZ Studio

Step 1: Set the scene.

Import Whatever poser you would like to use. Here I used DAZ Studio's Victoria 3 RRLe. I deleted the ground plane and used Bryce's Typical Night background.

I recommend you use this tutorial mainly for night scenes because it doesn't work as well during the day time. Here I put radial lights around her in the relative points of the compass.

Step 2: Get object to be the orb.

You can use any object here. I used a sphere but a lattice can work just as well. First go to the top of the Bryce screen and Click on the sphere. It should now appear on your screen. We must resize this sphere now.

Step 3: Resizing

Next to the orb there should be a panel and the first thing on that panel should be a letter A. Click on that. This should take you to a screen that looks like this image.

Change the X, Y, and Z size values from 20.48 to 15. Click on the check after you have done this.

Step 4: Editing the materials

On the same panel that we used to resize, there should be a letter M. Click on that and then, click on the arrow next to the sphere. Your window should look like this:

I used Deep Blue but you can play around with the materials a bit.

Step 5: Light things up

Click on the radial light option on the top of the screen and move light so that it is in the center of the sphere. You can also do this by going to the attributes (the A on the panel) and copying the sphere's origin to the origin of the new radial light.

Once it is in the same position as the sphere, resize the light to one half of the sphere's size.

Go to the Edit on the panel next to the light. Set the light intensity to 100.

Step 6: Render And Show off!

Click render and save. Now you can show off your skills to others.

CATEGORIZE YOUR BRYCE LIBRARY PRESETS

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

CATEGORIZE YOUR BRYCE LIBRARY PRESETS

Author: paulbrittgarcia

Tools Needed

* Bryce 5

Support Files

*bryce5emptypresets.zip

Introduction

Running out of room in your User Preset Libraries? Would you like to categorize your User Preset Libraries? You've come to the right place!

Step 1: Get Empty Presets on your Desktop!

Download and Un-Zip the Bryce Empty Presets Zip on your Desktop! You should have 2 files: a “User” Empty Material Presets File“ (Red Ball) and a “User” Empty Object Presets File (Silvery Metal Ball).

Step 2: Move User Presets to Another Disk

You must move the 2 User Preset Files to another disk; either by dragging or burning! It does not matter where you put them; as long as they ARE NOT on the same disk that the Bryce program is installed on; and they are readily available.

Step 3: Arrange on Screen

Open both the disk where you put the User Preset Files and the Disk where Bryce is installed! Arrange them on screen so you can easily see both windows.

Step 4: Dig Into the Bryce Folder Part 1

Open the Folders of the “Bryce Install Disk” side until you can see the Bryce Folder!

Step 5: Dig Into the Bryce Folder Part 2

Open the Bryce Folder; then open the Presets Folder; then open the Materials Folder; then the User Folder!

Step 6: IMPORTANT: READ AND FOLLOW CAREFULLY

NOTE: You should see a User Presets File in this last folder; if you do not; don't panic. Most people's User Presets File in the Bryce folder will also be larger than the empty one in the other window; because they have been filling it with items.

IMPORTANT: READ AND FOLLOW CAREFULLY:

If you DO NOT have a User Presets File in your Bryce Folder; just drag the empty one in; it will be copied. And then RENAME it to YOUR NAME!

If you ALREADY HAVE a User Presets File in your Bryce Folder; you must RENAME the existing file to YOUR NAME!

WE DO THIS SO IF YOU HAVE EXISTING PRESETS THEY WILL NOT BE LOST!

Step 7: Drag Another One!

Drag the empty User Presets File from the “other disc” window to the User Presets window and rename it “Cloth”.

Step 8: Drag Another One!

Drag another empty User Presets File from the “other disc” window to the User Presets window and rename it “Clouds”.

Step 9: Keep Dragging!

Keep dragging copies of the User Presets File over and rename the rest: “Creature”, “Glass”, “Human”, “Metal”, “Plant”, “Rock”, “Space”, “Special”, and “Water”! This should give you categories to store almost anything!

NOTE: You could use whatever names you desire and can change them at any time (as long as Bryce is NOT running!

NOTE: You can only have 14 Categories so choose wisely!

Step 10: Navigate to the Material Presets

Now you are finished setting up your Bryce Material Presets. Navigate to the User Objects Folder —– > Close the folders on the Bryce program side slowly —- > when you go up 2 folder levels; open the Objects folder; then the User folder!

Step 11: Repeat Step 6 For The Library

(Exactly as Step 6 above)

If you DO NOT have a User Presets File in your Bryce Folder; just drag the empty one in; it will be copied. And then RENAME it to YOUR NAME!

If you ALREADY HAVE a User Presets File in your Bryce Folder; you must RENAME the existing file to YOUR NAME!

WE DO THIS SO IF YOU HAVE EXISTING PRESETS THEY WILL NOT BE LOST!

Step 12: Drag as Before!

Drag empty presets over and rename them as before! The following are suggested Categories: “Buildings”, “Containers”, “Creatures”, “Indoors”, “Lights”, “Plants”, “Space”, “Special”, “Stained glass”, “Terrains”, “Treasure”, “Vehicles”, “Weapons”!

Step 13: Let Us Go Look at Bryce

You should now have completed setting up all your categories! Let's look at them in Bryce!

Step 14: Do Not Forget!

REMEMBER! If you had presets saved in your original user files — > they are now in the category with your name on it.

You can now sort them by bringing each into the Bryce main scene and re-saving them into the proper categories!

DON'T FORGET TO BACK UP ALL OF YOUR NEW PRESET FILES!!!

CATAGORIZE YOUR BRYCE LIBRARY PRESETS is ~ 2006 Paul Britt Garcia

Creating a website template in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:10+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating a website template in Bryce

Author: josquine1000

Tools Needed

* Bryce 5.5

Support Files

* webpage.zip

Introduction

Have you ever wanted to create an organic and beautiful website ? Now you can ! Using only Bryce and a graphic program you can create all kinds of cool looking websites.

Step 1 - Setting up the workspace

Select File > New Document … ( Ctrl - N ) and choose a size. I have chosen 1024×768, but usually a website should be about 750 pixels wide.

Step2: Select the default camera and click on the A button on the right ( Ctrl - Alt - E ) and in the track object name select the plane.

Step3: Go to General in Attributes and set the positions like in the image. This centers the camera straight over the plane.

Step 2 - Creating the structure

Create a new cylinder. Resize it like in the image.

Duplicate the cylinder ( Ctrl - D ) and move the new duplicate in the opposite side.

Duplicate the cylinder again and rotate it on Y axis

( Keep Shift pressed to go in fixed angles ).

Create additional duplicates so that the image looks like in the picture. This will be the website structure.

Create a tree and move it on the right corner. Move it a little under the cylinders like in the picture. This will look like a bunch of leafs over the cylinders.

Create 2 more small trees and move them in corners. This will give the website a cool look.

Step 3 - Creating the buttons

Create 4 cylinders and move them like in the picture. Try to rotate them slightly in random directions.

Create a box and resize it like in the picture. This will serve as the background inside the cylinders.

Move the cylinders and the box you created earlier so that it's half under the plane. You should have something similar to this:

Step 4 - Setting up materials

It's time for materials !

Select the plane and give it a wood material. I have chosen the Wood > Pine Wood from the Vegetation category and I scaled up the texture a little.

Select the cylinders and group them. Assign them the material Wood > Maple Wood2 from the Vegetation category.

Select the tree in the right corner and enter edit mode ( Ctrl - E ). Select edit material from the texture panel and choose Leaves > Default leaf 3 from the Vegetation category.

Select the button cylinders in the middle and assign them a wood material. I have chosen Wood > Maple Wood from the Vegetation category.

For the box in the back set a wood material, like the Wood > Pine Wood from the Vegetation category.

Step 5 - Setting up the sky and rendering

Set the sky settings like in the picture:

Render! You should have a nice wooden website that you can cut in a graphical program and make an html template out of !

You can also try other materials for other kind of websites !

Enjoy !

Migrating Presets and Objects from Bryce 5 to Bryce 5.5

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Migrating Presets and Objects from Bryce 5 to Bryce 5.5

Author: hamfast

Tools Needed

Bryce 5
Bryce 5.5
Windows 98
Windows 2000
Windows XP
MacOS

Introduction

The older Bryce 5 has been around for a few years and no doubt you have built up a nice collection of Material, Object and Sky Presets. Along comes Bryce 5.5 and now you are faced with the dilemma of what to do with your old presets. Are they lost? Are they compatible with the new revision of Bryce? This tutorial will help seasoned Bryce users and beginners alike to organize and manage all your presets for the move from Bryce 5 to Bryce 5.5. The tutorial is aimed primarily at Windows users, but will also work for Macintosh users.

Step 1 - The Bryce 5 and 5.5 Directory Structures

Bryce 5 and Bryce 5.5 work quite happily side by side, and you can in fact run both of them at the same time – as long as you have sufficient memory. It is important to understand the workings of the respective directory trees of Bryce 5 and 5.5. Essentially they are the same with slight cosmetic changes.

The screen grab above show how the directory trees differ between Bryce 5 and 5.5.

There is an important thing to remember that although you can have large numbers of sub-directories containing various libraries of materials, the first level can only have 14 libraries as there is a 'bug' which does not allow you to display more than this. These screen grabs should explain what I am getting at. Notice how the bottommost directories (categories) disappear off the list. (Perhaps something that we can hope to see improve in Bryce 6?)

Step 2 - Creating the new directory layout

Although it is everyone's prerogative to organize the preset libraries as they see fit, I strongly recommend that you in some way separate the older presets of Bryce 5 and the new presets of Bryce 5.5. It is no good mixing them all up and then struggle to manage them or find a particular preset at a later stage. I set about separating them by creating the above directory structure. There is already a 'User' directory but let us leave this alone for now.

Using Windows Explorer or your preferred file manager, (you cannot do this directly from within Bryce 5.5) create a single subdirectory in Program Files\DAZ\Bryce 5.5\Presets\Materials called 'Bryce 5 Presets', then a single subdirectory in Program Files\DAZ\Bryce 5.5\Presets\Objects called 'Bryce 5 Objects', and finally in Program Files\DAZ\Bryce 5.5\Presets\Textures, a subdirectory called 'Bryce 5 Textures'. This last directory more difficult to access in Bryce 5.5, but I will show you how that works in Step 5. Furthermore, if you are curious why I have not created a 'Sky' preset directory, the currently limitations of the Sky Presets in Bryce 5.5 do not allow a user to create separate directories. All the Sky presets are thrown together in one big library. (Perhaps this will be improved too in Bryce 6 so a user can categorize skies in a meaningful way.)

Currently any of the new directories that you might create will be empty. There is no need to go in to Bryce 5.5 just yet. If you do AND try to access these empty folders and you exit Bryce again, you will find that Bryce 5.5 has created an empty Library file of its own, which might confuse things later.

Step 3 - Exporting from Bryce 5

Now it is time to return to Bryce 5 to begin to export the presets. The methods described below in Steps 3 and 4 apply to all the categories of Bryce Materials, Objects and Textures and there is no need to repeat myself for each as the procedures are common to all. I will use the Material Presets as the example in this tutorial.

Go to the Bryce 5 Material Presets library. This can be done 3 ways:

Press the Ctrl+M Key (Apple users check the graphic above for the correct key to use.) to bring up the Materials Lab and then click on the small arrow on the top right edge of the small preview window to get the preset libraries or'

With any object selected press the small [M] icon of the Object Controls and then click on the small arrow on the top right edge of the small preview window to get the preset libraries or'

Click on the small arrow to the right of the Edit Palette. (This way takes you directly to the Preset Libraries – unlike the previous 2 methods)

Choose the Preset Library that you want to export from. This might differ from user to user but for this tutorial I will choose the default Miscellaneous library. With the presets displayed, you will now have to select the presets you want to export. These libraries comply with the general standards for selection of items – both in Windows and Macintosh environments. In other words the Ctrl and Shift keys (Windows) and the Command and Shift keys (Macintosh) Using the Ctrl and Shift keys and clicking on the first and then the last preset in a list will select all the presets between the first and the last presets, whereas the Ctrl key (or Command in Macintosh) used alone with clicking will select individual items here and there. Personally I prefer the latter method as it gives me more control to choose.

As each preset is selected a thin red line outline appears around it – an important visual clue. If you inadvertently select a preset that you do not want to include, do not panic! Just keep the Ctrl key pressed in and click on the unwanted preset again and it will be deselected.

Now with the presets selected you can click on the Export text button at the bottom of the Material Library window. A standard save dialog box will appear and you can now browse to the directory where you want to save your exported materials to, and name the file.

(Do not save the exported preset library directly into the Bryce 5.5 directory at this stage. It can lead to complications. However, it is important to name the saved preset library file meaningfully, because it will appear in the new library list EXACTLY as you have named it. In this example I have named it B5-Miscellaneous. Do not give it a long file name as Bryce 5.5 will truncate the name in the Library lists. It truncates after about 20 characters.

Continue to go to each and every library (including your custom and your User libraries) and export all your preset libraries. I decided to categorize my presets into broad libraries like Metals, Glasses, Rocks, Clouds etc. keeping the names short yet understandable and appropriate.

Step 4 - Importing into Bryce 5.5

You are faced now with 2 possible methods to get the Bryce 5 material presets imported into Bryce 5.5. The first method entails a simple copy/paste procedure, the second uses the Import function built into the Material Library window.

If you have already named the exported preset libraries in a meaningful way, you can now use the Copy and Paste function of your operating system to transfer the libraries from the exported folder to the new Bryce folders. I rarely use the 'Cut' function (Ctrl+X) as sometimes things go wrong and you might want to keep a backup of the exported files.

Just ensure that your file names are not longer than 20 characters as long file names will be truncated in the display. It seems that you can have spaces and characters like '&' in your file names, but I always am cautious, preferring to use names like 'OldMetals' (Using Capital Letters to separate the words) or the old 'underscore' trick – 'Old_Metals'. I hope you'remember to keep the .mat extensions after the names. In Windows 2000 or XP, if these file extensions don't appear you might not have them set to display. (which is the default for Windows XP)

In order to display them, double-click the 'My Computer' icon on your desktop to open it up. Select the Tools > Folder Options menu and then click on the View tab. Under the Advanced Settings ensure that the radio button of 'Show hidden files and folders' is on, and that the tick is removed from the 'Hide extensions of known file types'. OK your changes and the .mat extensions should now appear.

The 2nd method requires the Import function, but you will need to have predefined libraries set up to import into. In other words, if you have a set of metallic presets to import you will have to have a metallic library folder to import into. Currently there is no way to create a new library from within Bryce itself. You have to use your operating system's file manager to do this.

Select the library you want to import into and click on the Import text button on the bottom of the window. Browse to the folder where you have stored the exported .mat files and select the library you want to import and click on the OK button. Your library will now be imported.

Now here is a very interesting bit of behavior I have discovered with Bryce 5 and also with Bryce 5.5. If you import a set of presets into an existing library with no particular preset selected, the library will append itself after that last material in the existing list. However if you select (highlight) a preset before you start the import will insert itself in front of that pre-selected preset. Here is a simplified graphic to explain what I have discovered.

What possible use could this 'feature' have you might be asking? I have found it useful in organizing the Sky presets for the very fact that the Sky Preset do not have or support categories within the library. So I was able to use this 'eccentricity' to my advantage later when dealing with the Bryce 5.5 Sky presets!

Step 5 - Organizing and Accessing the Texture Directory

In Step 2, I mentioned the 'lost child' of Bryce, the Texture Library. Although it can be managed the same way as The Material Presets, accessing it is quite a mission. The Texture library was always intended to be a repository of basic textures that could be pulled into the Deep Texture Editor and combined in the various channels to create a Material preset. It resides in a separate directory from the Material Libraries.

Accessing it is only possible if you have an object selected with a texture assigned to it. A default grey colored Bryce object does not have a texture assigned to it but you can assign one by clicking in the A column of the Materials Lab grid. Now to access the Texture Libraries makes use of the Shift Key.

Normally clicking on the small triangle to the right of the Texture name will bring up a popup menu with all the texture names listed in their various categories. This is pretty useless unless you know exactly what a texture look like, so Bryce has an added functionality to access the Texture Libraries and show you them visually. Hold down the Shift key and click on the same small triangle next to the name of the texture. All the textures in their various categories will now appear.

The Standard Library controls of Add, Delete, Import, Export and the Cancel and OK (the cross and tick at the lower right) are there at the bottom of the window and work exactly the same as the Material Presets. You can now Import your texture libraries exported from Bryce 5.5 or you can copy them into the Program Files\DAZ\Bryce 5.5\Presets\Textures folder from your Export folder.

If you haven't exported the Textures from Bryce yet, you can return to Steps 3 and 4 and follow the instructions there, remembering to use the Shift key to access the Texture Library from the Materials Lab.

Step 6 - Organizing the Bryce Object Library

Most of the ground work has been covered already in this tutorial in organizing the Material preset, so I will not repeat myself except to explain a few of the limitations of the Object Libraries. (They also apply to the Materials and Texture libraries.)

There cannot be more than 14 directories under the Program Files\DAZ\Bryce 5.5\Presets\Objects folder, and within those subdirectories try to limit your libraries to not more than 40 or you will have your libraries list overshooting the top and the bottom of your screen as I have shown in this example screen grab. This same problem manifests itself in Poser 4, and believe me, using the auto-scrolling function can be a real drag (pardon the pun!)

Also keep the length of your directory names down to about 20 characters or you will get this display 'bug' happening.

Bryce Objects can be organized in simple categories. I have opted to categorize them into Primitives and other General categories, but again it is all a matter of personal preference.

Step 7 - Organizing the Sky Presets

My sky presets are by far the largest library that I have yet the limitations of Bryce in this area do not allow me to create categories, instead I am forced to jam everything into one group making browsing very difficult and clumsy. I mentioned in Step 4 that the Sky Presets library does not reside in a nice directory structure like the Material Presets, but is a single file on its own. It still has the ability to import individual presets however!

It might be a good idea to Export 'categories' of sky presets from Bryce 5 as follows:

Clear Skies

Cloudy Skies

Mist and Fogs

Sunsets/Sunrises

Bizarre Skies

Volumetric Skies

This way I can control the order in which these sky preset appear in the preset list, by importing them in this order and clicking on a place on the preset list before using the import function so that the skies in that category can be 'inserted' in the correct order – all the 'cloudless' skies at the top of the list and the really complicated skies at the bottom.

The screen captures below explain my method, firstly with the Import tool with the selected 'marker' sky preset highlighted in red. Below that is the result with the imported 'Clear Skies' library now in place and all highlighted in red. Simply put, if I want to place the 'Clear Skies' group at the top of the list I would click on the first preset in the library (top left) and then click on the Import tool, then select the exported 'Clear Skies' preset file and when I click the OK button the 'Clear Skies' would be inserted just in front of the first preset and therefore at the top of the list.

Step 8 - Conclusion

You have reached the end of this tutorial. In it you have learned how the directory structures of Bryce 5 and 5.5 look. You have been shown how to prepare Bryce 5.5 for accepting the old Bryce 5 presets, and you have been shown how to Export and Import Bryce Materials, Textures, Objects and Skies. Although this tutorial isn't a very creative one, I am sure that it has given you a better idea of how to organize your libraries in the new Bryce and how to make the migration from 5 to 5.5 (and into the future) easier and less confusing.

If there are parts that you find confusing, or if I have made some mistakes, feel free to contact me. I am always open to constructive criticism! My contact details are listed on my personal website at http://hamfast.bryce-alive.net.

Keep on Brycin'

David Wiles

Murky Water

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Murky Water

Author: Bknox

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

Create great underwater scenes in just a couple of minutes!

Step 1 - Cloud Cover

Firstly, go into the skylab and click on cloud cover.

Set everything to 0, this'll let more sunlight get into your underwater scene.

Step 2 - The ground and water

Go back to the create window and insert water and ground planes. Align them up like in the image above. Select the water plane and press M on the side menu, this'll bring up the Materials lab window,

then choose which texture you want for the water plane, I chose backyard pool because it's the most transparent. Then click on the ground plane, and then click on the M, this'll bring up the Materials lab. Choose what you want for the texture

I chose mediterranian hills.

Step 3 - Atmosphere

Go into the skylab and click on atmosphere.

Fog:

Color-Gray

Density-72

Thickness-85

Base Height-11

Haze:

Color-Brown

Density-100

Thickness-50

Bacse Height-0

Step 4 - Some Terrain and a Sun

Lastly go into the create window and insert a radial light, if you want you may click on the E in the menu and enter the light lab and mess around but that is not nessecary here. Move the light around till you like it, then slap in some terrain and your done!

Using Family Color and Grouping Organization in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using Family Color and Grouping Organization in Bryce

Author: thedanman

Tools Needed

* Bryce 6 or earlier

Introduction

Have you ever created a complex Bryce scene just to find it a mess to select your objects and to keep things organized? This tutorial will hopefully give you some important pointers to object organization via the family colors and groups within Bryce that has helped me through many complex projects.

Step 1 - Toggling between wireframe and shaded view modes

To benefit from this tutorial it is imperative that you'realize that Bryce has various view modes as specified by clicking on the shaded bound box to the lower right of the interface - just above the zoom icons. As you can see OpenGL, Sree3D, and Direct3D will give you shaded previews. These will not however display family colors and thus won't help you visualize your object groupings very well. Toggle to the Default Wireframe mode to assign and view families, you can always switch to a shaded view through this shaded box icon.

Step 2 - Assigning and labeling families

The Family icon is located directly under the attribute icon any time an object is selected. Bryce allows you to label up to 25 different families and gives you a color to visually represent them. You can rename the family names to help you organize your collection better. Here I have renamed “Default Family” to “3D Clouds.”

Step 3 - Using grouping for selection organization

Again the benefit of using families is mainly for organization and visualization - but even with families assigned it is sometimes difficult to get a handle on say all my 3D clouds in the scene. I suggest grouping objects in the same family. This is especially helping if what you want to one object you want to do to the entire family of objects. To group, select all objects that you wish to associate into a group (say all your family members) and click the “G” icon or use Control+G. To ungroup at any time click the “U” icon or use Control+U when the group is selected.

Step 4 - The left control click trick

As you use these techniques more, as your scene starts to get cluttered even your family and groups sometimes overlap. Perhaps one of the shortcomings of Bryce is a lack of a 4 pane view - nevertheless Bryce's authors thought of an innovative and simple object selection mechanism by allow you to select objects within your click if you use Left Control+Left Click on your object. A window will appear as shown, asking you to select what your selection is to be. So long as you have named your objects clearly, or have a notion what is what this will help you immensely in getting what you are looking for without changing views.

Step 5 - Conclusion

Bryce is a powerful tool, built by artists for artists. It may not be as technical as many suites out there, but that is one of its fortes. If you have found yourself struggling through working with Bryce, keep at it because it's learning curve is low - requiring mainly the help of a few simple tutorials like this one to get you on your feet. Enjoy and render away!

Using Multi-Replicate in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using Multi-Replicate in Bryce

Author: thedanman

Tools Needed

Bryce (5)

Support Files

MultiReplicate.zip

Introduction

Who says Bryce doesn't have a modeler? Perhaps one of the most unique and lesser known features of Bryce is the multi-replicate feature. This feature allow users to replicate any object in Bryce, X number of times offset by rotation, location, and even size! Here's a simple demonstration of how we can use this simple to to create complex object from simple primitive. Ultimately this tool will have to be experimentally used and this tutorial just serves to familiarize the reader with the existence of such an option!

Step 1 - Create any scene or use a pre-existing scene

For this tutorial we have simply used a torus primitive from Bryce's object library

Step 2 - Select an object to multi-replicate

Select an object that you wish to multi-replicate and go to “edit” (at the top of the window - the file bar remains hidden until you hover over it) and down to “multi-replicate” The window in the image should appear.

Adjust the settings using Quantity to describe how any replications you wish to havem offset by the x, y, z displacement you wish, rotate by the x, y, z, rotation angles of the duplicates, and finally size, % in x, y, z of the original object.

Step 3 - Test multi-replicate

Using parameters of Quantity: 200, Offset -0.01, 0.01, -0.01, Rotate of 30, 30, 30, and Size of 101%, 101%, 101% I yeilded the following toroid ball

Step 4 - New object created!

Using the multi-replicate feature I have created a new object in a matter of seconds! This feature can be used as a pseduo particale system too! In fact its uses are only truly yours to explore. Good Luck!

99 Red Balloons

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

99 Red Balloons

Author: moonrancher

Tools Needed

Poser 5 or 6
Bryce 5 or 5.5
Particles 2 from PoseWorks
An OBJ file to use for your balloon

Introduction

I want 99 red balloons to fly up into the air all at once in Bryce. This is an easy job for Poser with Particles 2 from PoseWorks. In this tutorial, I'll show you how it's done. When I have my cloud of balloons the way I want them, I'll export the entire group from Poser and import it into Bryce for a balloon texture and my final render.

Step 1 - Start the Particles 2 Generator in Poser

I start the Particles Generator. I name my cloud of balloons 99RedBalloons, and I click on Custom geometry and navigate to your balloon object file.

I need 99 particles (balloons in this case.) I don't want them to be different general shapes, but the size can vary from 100% to 400%. I think they may rotate a little as each one lofts into the sky, so I set the rotation to vary from 0 to .3 on X and Z. (I don't set a y rotation because in this case it wouldn't show anyway.)

Using the Range Editor, I set the distribution is to the Easy Trig: Sine Wave.

Step 2 - Set a Solid White in the Materials Editor

I don't plan to texture the balloons in Poser, but I do want to be able to see them easily, and maybe move a few if they are too close together. This is most easily done if I set them all to be 100% opaque and solid color (white.) After assigning these in the Materials Editor, they are produced and I'm ready to export them.

Step 3 - Preview Placement of Balloons

At this point, the cloud of balloons is ready for export to Bryce. If a few balloons are too close together, it's easy to move a few of the single balloons by clicking on them and moving them as desired now. Of course, they can also be rescaled or rotated at this point.

Step 4 - Export Geometry for 99 Balloons

To export the objects as a single group, I choose Export Wavefront Object, and Single Frame. At the Hierarchy Selection, I uncheck the Universe checkbox, and, since I didn't want to have to check every object individually, I check-marked the figure, which automatically puts a check next to each of the particles/balloons. I name this geometry object 99redballoons.obj.

Step 5 - Import Geometry into Bryce, Texture and Render

In Bryce, I choose a sky that I like and go File) Import) Object and navigate to the 99redballoons.obj. After positioning the camera and changing the material for the balloons to a variation of red glass that I like, I render the final scene.

Cartoon rendering in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Cartoon rendering in Bryce

Author:

ruckage

Tools Needed

* Bryce

Introduction

Thought cell shaded cartoon or comic style renders were impossible in Bryce? Think again, and it's surprisingly easy. The image you see below was rendered completely in Bryce without any post-processing. Read on to find out how it's done.

Step 1 - Create or load an object

To begin we need to either create or load an object that we will use to make our cartoon shading material. This rendering trick in Bryce is dependent on material settings and is not applied to a whole scene. This means you could have a mix of realistic and cartoon elements in a scene.

Step 2 - Change the material properties of the object

Select the object and go to the material settings page and make sure all the settings are the same as in the image above. Diffusion, ambience, metalicity, and bump height should all be set to zero. Specularity needs to be set at 100.

Step 3 - Change the specular halo

The next step will create the toon shading effect. Click the color selector for 'specular halo' and on the grayscale bar click on the very brightest white. If done correctly the preview should look like this.

Step 4 - Change the color of the object.

Finally we need to pick a color for our object. we do this by changing the 'Specular' color component. You could also use a texture in the specular component if your object needed to be more than one color.

Step 5 - Material complete.

You've now completed a basic toon material. It's best to position the sun so that its coming from directly behind the viewer and you can add more lights to create various effects. You can also get some nice effects by playing around with bump maps, the ink stroke shading on the intro picture was created in this way. Below are some more renders I've made using this technique, all that's left for you to do now is experiment and see what effects you can create.

Making the Massive

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making the Massive

Author: Flak

Tools Needed

Bryce
Image editor

Introduction

Ever wanted to put a huge number of figures into a scene in Bryce? Or build a city? A while ago, I received a challenge to make an image of an army in Bryce. Being on a PIII 450 with 320MB of ram at the time, it was obvious that this could not be put together in one single scene file. Hence I worked on the idea of building the scene in sections, rendering each part of the scene separately, and then joining all of the renders together afterwards in an image editor to form the entire image.

Step 1 - Setting the scene.

Once you've worked out what you want your image to be about, you need to divide all the elements in the scene into two parts - the environment and the fine details.

By environment, I mean the ground, buildings, the sky, the lighting rig you may be using, any volumetric fogs and hazes you may want in the scene, large trees that may cast shadows over a large part of the final scene - i.e. the big detail…. the setting for the scene… the basic things that everything else in your scene will be placed around or have their locations determined by. For an image of an army marching though a field, the environment would be the field, while for an aerial shot of a massive city, the environment may just be the ground the city sits on with the roads shown.

The fine detail would be the small stuff - for example it would include small shrubs and plants that cast shadows on only a small area of the scene, people, small rocks.. Or in the case of the city mentioned above, the fine detail may be the buildings and individual city blocks.

For this tutorial, I'll use one of my images in which I made a battle scene in a field as an example of this process.

Figure 1 shows an example of the environment for the image. As you can see, it basically is the bare bones of the scene - i.e. the field, most of the distant grass, the sky backdrop, background ruins, lighting, and a couple of volumetric smoke clouds to help with depth. Also, at this point, choose your camera location that you'll use for your point of view and save it in one of the memory dots on the top left of the Bryce GUI.

Now save this environment scene to a file and name it something obvious like environment.br5.

In general, when you're making a scene like this, keep everything to the same scale if you can. Also, once you've made your basic scene, make a screen grab of the empty scene from a top down view - this will come in useful when you start putting things together later on.

Step 2 - Dividing your scene up.

The next step involves a bit of planning and requires you to work out how to divide your scene up into regions. The basic idea behind doing this is that you will build the fine detail that is in each region separately, then render each region of the image separately. In effect you're breaking all the fine detail up into smaller sections which are individually less resource/memory hungry than the total would be.

For this particular image of the battle in the field, I divided the area where the combatants would be into several different regions. The first region was the immediate foreground, then there were several regions behind that, and several more behind that and so on going from the front of the scene to the back of the scene (Figure 2). The exact size of the regions can be varied once you start putting the detail into them - at the moment it's just a rough guide to help you keep track of things later on.

It's normally best, when dividing your scene up into regions, to make use of any existing structures in your environment as the boundaries of your regions. You mainly do this to limit the appearance of “seams” in your image that may occur at the boundaries between adjacent regions and to limit occurrences of when fine detail that's being added to one region may cast shadows/reflections onto the detail that's added in another region.

Also, you may want to vary the shape of your regions depending on what you want to do later for post processing of your image. For example, if you plan to add a lot of depth of field or haze effects in postwork, then you may consider making your regions into wide but not very deep shapes rather than the approximately circular shapes I've used in this example.

Step 3 - Making the detail.

Now that you've thought out how you want to make your scene, the next part is to pick a region, then fill it with the detail.

The best way I've found for doing this is to load the environment scene that was made in Step 1 into Bryce and then remove every bit of the environment scene that isn't in the region that you're about to detail. Once you've done this, group everything that's left into a single group (called the “base” group). Make sure you do not move this base group or the elements in it. If you do move it, then when it comes to merge the fine detail back into the environment scene later, things will be out of place in your scene. Once you've done this, you can load/import/add/position all of the detail/people/models/small plants/city blocks that will appear in this region onto this base group.

Using only a part of the environment for the base instead of the whole environment will save system resources/memory and thus make life easier. By using the camera point of view you stored in the memory dot in Step 1, you can also do quick renders just to see how the added fine detail fits into its part of the image. Once you're happy with how the detail of this first region looks, delete the “base” group and save all the detail/people/models/small plants into its own br5 file. Name it something obvious like region1_detail.br5 (Figure 3).

Then repeat this for the next region (i.e. load the environment scene, trim it down to only what's in the second region, detail the region, remove the base, save as region2_detail.br5) and so on until you've done all the regions. At this point you'll have one environment.br5 file along with a host of regionXX_detail.br5 files.

In general I tend to try and keep all the individual region .br5 files down to a size dictated by the following formula:

BR5 file size of one region's detail < (total ram - ram needed for OS)/2 - (file size of environment.br5 file)

So what this means is that, if you have 320MB of ram, and your OS takes about 60MB and the base environment br5 file is about 40MB, then you would limit your detail br5 file sizes to about 90MB or less. This is a result of the general rule of thumb that says that Bryce needs twice the size of the .br5 file of free ram to load a file. You can of course use BR5 files bigger than this for the detail of each region, but Bryce may end up becoming a little unstable and it may also have to use the hard disk to render with, which will result in a much slower render.

Another thing I've found useful is to get a screen grab of the top down view of the detail (when it's still on the base). You can then add this screen grab to your top down screen grab of the empty environment you took earlier and build up a top down map of all the regions you're making - this isn't essential, but it can really help with keeping track of things and visualizing where I'm up to and how things in the regions will relate to each other. This is shown for the battle scene in Figure 4 - the different coloured groups show where the different regions are - note that they are different to what I originally planned, yet still similar in overall layout.

Step 4 - Poser figure optimization.

This section mainly deals with scenes that use lots of Poser figures, but is easily adaptable to scenes using other textured objects.

When using Poser figures there are a couple of things you can do to minimize their drain on your computer's memory. The first is to simply use as low a resolution figure as you can (that still looks good) for figures that are a fair distance from the camera - use your Michaels and Vickies up close to the camera where all the detail will be seen, but for figures in the distant background, don't be afraid to go for the Poser 4 default figures or those really lo-res Poser 3 figures if you can. The lower the polygon counts for the figures then the more figures you can put into each region, thus reducing the number of regions you'll need to use (it's much easier dealing with only 3 groups of 50 soldier figures for a background mass of troops rather than 50 groups of 3 high detail soldier figures).

The other things you can do relate to the textures that the figures use. The first is to reduce textures to what you actually need - e.g. a 4000×4000 texture may look great up close, but when the figure is going to be a couple of hundred meters from the camera, a 500×500 texture may look exactly the same (and may take up to as little as 1/64th of the memory that the 4000×4000 texture would when loading).

The other thing you can do to reduce the hit on your computer is to go into your Bryce picture texture library and remove any duplicate textures from it. This is mainly useful if you're using lots of figures that use the same texture.

As an example of how to do this, consider Figure 5 where we have 5 similarly textured soldiers in the scene. In this case, going into the image library shows that the texture has been loaded 5 times (once for each soldier - these figures were all loaded into the scene from the Bryce object library where they had been stored). To remove the duplicate textures, go back into the main scene and select all the parts of the soldiers that share the same texture. In this case, the duplicated textures are those used to uniform the figures, so we select all the uniforms. Then we go into the picture library and select just one of the repeated textures as the one that shall be applied to all the figures, and delete the rest.

By doing this, you will get rid of the duplicate textures, thus reducing what Bryce saves and loads for the scene without affecting how your image looks. In this simple example there was a 25% saving in the size of the saved br5 file. On other scenes, depending on the number of duplicated textures and how large they are, the space saving can be much more, thus meaning that you can fit a lot more into each region of detail.

Step 5 - Rendering the scene.

Now it comes to the render stage. Basically what you do here is firstly load your environment scene from step 2, then use the “merge” command (Figure 6) to merge one of your region .br5 files into the environment file. Then you can click on the camera memory dot, which will move the point of view to your saved camera position (from step 2) and you can then render that region of the image. Once you've done this, select all of the detail that is in the region (all the fine detail you just merged, not the environment) then render an object mask render of that fine detail. This will give you a mask image in which everything you selected will be white and everything not selected will be black. You will use these object mask images later when it comes time to composite the final image together.

Repeat this render process for each region in the image (rendering only one region at a time). After this you should have a collection of rendered images (one for each region) and their masks as shown in Figure 7. It can also be a good idea to get a render of the empty environment.

Step 6 - Putting it all together.

In this part we go into our image editing program of choice. What follows in this step is for Photoshop, but it will work just as well (I presume) in most advanced paint programs that can handle layers and masks.

Open your environment render and then open the image of the rearmost region in your scene that you made. Add the image of the rearmost region as a new layer on top of the environment render. Then choose a layer mask option for that new layer and load the object mask render you made for that region into its mask channel.(Sometimes the object masks don't need to be used - this mainly applies to images where the individual region images don't overlap each other. For the case of the battle image where the region images are in front of and behind each other, I had to use the object masks.)

Then go to the image of the next-to-rearmost region and add it in the same way, but this time putting it on top of the layer that contains the most rear region's image and add its own layer mask. Continue adding the images of the various regions, working from the rearmost regions to the front-most regions so that your Photoshop image is composed of layers as shown in Figure 8. Compositing the layers in this fashion will ensure that the objects in the scene will appear in front of and behind everything they should.

At this point you have your rendered image… now it's up to you how you finish it with whatever post processing you may want to do.

Step 7 - Known Issues

There are two main issues that may need to be addressed in your image that result from the use of this rendering in layers (object mask) technique.

The first is that by using the render masks in the way described above, the shadows that the fine detail casts onto the ground and other parts of the “environment” will be lost - a result of the object mask render being a mask of only the detail objects in the scene and not their shadows. Thus the mask will in effect mask out the shadows that the figures would be casting on the ground (or on nearby walls in the environment, for example). Figure 9 gives an example of this problem as it affects the composite image of a group of soldiers moving over a paved surface. In this example, you can see how the shadows that the soldiers should be casting onto the ground aren't there as the black and white mask of the soldiers doesn't take them into account.

The simple fix to this problem is to alter the black/white mask for each particular region where this is a problem so that mask will no longer mask out the shadows as they fall onto the environment objects. This is done by painting a white section onto the mask in the position that would match up with where the shadows should fall. For the example in Figure 9, the mask was altered so that it included the ground underneath where the soldiers are standing in the scene. Thus, when the image is put together, the shadows now appear where they should.

The other main problem with the render in layers technique is that there is no interaction between the adjacent regions - i.e. shadows or reflections that would be cast from the added detail in one region onto the detail in another region won't appear. This is because the two regions aren't rendered at the same time.

The two ways around this involve either choosing your regions more optimally so that the detail in one region doesn't cast any shadows or reflection onto the detail in another, or to make the detail in the two regions where this is a problem overlap with each other by a little.

Figure 10 shows an example of this issue. The image is made up of two separate regions of Poser figures in close proximity to each other. The various figures cast shadows onto other figures in their own regions but not onto the figures in the other region which leads to the shadowless seam that you can see along the boundary between the two regions.

This can be easily fixed by having a small overlap in the two regions (in this case one column of figures). It's very important that the figures and detail in the overlap part are the same and in the same position relative to the environment in both regions. Then , the shadows will be taken care of when you render the two regions separately, make the object masks, and composite them together. The size of the “overlap” will be function of what sort of shadowing is happening in your scene and on what the objects are that are creating the shadow issues.

Similar overlaps to these may also be needed to make sure that reflections appear where they should, such as those that would appear on shiny armour or some such things.

Step 8 - The end .

Well that's it. Instant army. Or cityscape. Or crowded city streets. Needless to say, rendering a scene in layers can be used for many other things as well as just making scene construction easier, including lighting effects, depth of field effects, and atmospheric effects such as distance haze and so on.

To see this technique being used as just one part of the overall design process of an image, along with complete scene files, models, and walkthroughs for that image, see the Masters Series Tutorial written by Hamfast that's available in the DAZ Store.

If you have any questions concerning this tutorial, feel free to email me on wastelandd@hotmail.com (make sure you put the second “d” into it).

Dave L. (Flak)

Object masks

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Object masks

Author: - esha -

Tools Needed

* Bryce

* Photoshop (or a program like it)

Introduction

Sometimes you'll want to change the background of a rendered image in postwork. Poser can save its renders on transparent background (PNG format). Bryce unfortunately can't. However, it offers the possibility to render Object Masks which can be used in a 2D program such as Photoshop. In this tutorial I'm going to show you two methods for rendering object masks: the ~normal' method and my refined one. I'll also explain how you can use the object masks in Photoshop. I am using Bryce 5.5 and Photoshop 7, but it will work with older Bryce versions, too. And the Photoshop procedures may be similar in other 2D applications.

Step 1: The ~normal' method

Here we see one of the plants of the Xfrog-Samplers, rendered the normal way.

I saved the image as a file because I'm going to use it soon.

IMPORTANT for the next steps: The plant must be selected.

Now we set the render mode to 'Object Mask' and start the render.

And here is the result of the rendered mask.

The shape of the leaves seems to have changed.

Let's save this image, too, and check the whole thing in Photoshop.

Step 2: Working with layer masks in Photoshop

Start Photoshop and open the rendered image.

First, we have to convert the fixed background layer to a normal layer. This is done by double clicking the layer in the layer palette.

Next, we add a layer mask by clicking the symbol (on the bottom of the palette).

Then we switch to the 'Channels' palette. In addition to the four default channels there is now a new one for the mask. Switch on the eye symbol of this channel, otherwise it cannot be edited.

Now we need the rendered mask. Open the second file, select the whole image (Ctrl+A) and copy it (Ctrl+C).

Switch to the first file with the image. The mask channel should still be selected. Here we paste the mask (Ctrl+V). Switch off the eye symbol and look at the result.

It is obvious that there is something wrong. There still is a lot of background around the leaves.

The reason for this is: When rendering object masks, Bryce renders the shape of the 3D mesh. But the leaves of this plant get their shape by the texture with the transparency settings – which are simply ignored by Bryce.

Therefore we need a trick to render the transparencies, too.

Step 3: How to render a mask with transparencies

As we said: Transparencies are rendered in Bryce only the normal way and not with the masking mode. This means, we have to render the image the normal way and simulate the black-and-white of the mask.

Switch back to Bryce.

IMPORTANT: First thing we switch the render mode from 'Object Mask' back to normal (just uncheck it).

Hold down the Ctrl+key and click on the leaves of the plant. By this you can select single parts of the group without having to ungroup it.

Click on the small 'M' to open the material editor. Here we change the 'Diffuse' and 'Ambient' colors to pure white: just click in the oval field and choose the color. Set the intensity for both to 100. If there are any bump settings, switch them off. Only the transparency settings remain unchanged.

Repeat this for every part of the object.

Now we need a black background. There is a good preset in the Sky library.

Open the Sky editor by clicking on the little cloud with the rainbow.

Here we'll switch off the shadows. By this we avoid getting grey hues in our mask.

Then we drag the sun so that it shines on the object directly from the front. This reduces the risk of grey hues even further.

Finally we delete the ground plane.

Step 4: It works!

Let's render now. We get a perfect mask with all transparencies.

This mask can be used in Photoshop as described above. The result is perfect.

Note: When you have very complex objects (like Poser figures) it is a lot of work setting every single part to white. Here it makes sense to use a combination of both masking methods: the traditional mask render for all objects without transparencies, the new method for transparent parts (like hair or clothes with lace). I used this combination to put this dancer onto a new background.

Hint: It may be easier if the old background has a similar hue as the new one because sometimes there remain some pixels of the old color. In any case, higher resolutions produce better results.

I hope that this tutorial has shown you some new possibilities with Bryce. Just keep experimenting.

Happy rendering,

esha

QuickTime virtual tours with Bryce 5

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

QuickTime virtual tours with Bryce 5

Author: babio1946

Tools Needed

Bryce 5
GoCubic (Freeware)

Support Files

Introduction

Many 3D graphic programs can output a QTVR file; one of the most used among the shareware is Terragen.

Thus I developed a procedure to have the same files with Bryce 5. One of the methods to obtain a virtual tour starts with 6 renders each covering 90 degrees horizontal by 90 degrees vertical, oriented to the 6 faces of a cube; then continues turning those renders, by means of a suitable program, into a QTVR.

Programs like Terragen can be automated by a script that produces the 6 renders; the explained procedure gets over the drawback of Bryce, that is not scriptable; I used an animation instead, with 6 frames corresponding to the 6 needed positions of the camera.

Step 1 - SETUP THE SCENE

I suggest to download the support file TestAnim.br5, corresponding to the pictures of the following directions.

The 6 renders have to coincide with the 6 faces of an hypothetic cube, so they must be square. You can work on a window of 400 x 400 pixel, or 600 x 600 (menu File - > Document Setup…); for the first test I suggest to reduce the Render Resolution to 1 : 0.50 or 1 : 0.25, and to select Quality - > Default (No AA) in the menu Control - > Render Options. When all is correct, you can increase the Resolution and the Quality Mode. Be careful: the rendering times will increase more then proportionally!

Remember that we will use an animation only as a substitute of a script; so be careful to keep fixed all the elements of the scene (except the camera). A particular attention must be paid to the clouds, because by default they have a Cloud Motion value different from zero, and to the sun.

Therefore select the Sky and Fog Palette and unselect “Link Sun to View”; then click on Sky Lab… and select the Cloud Cover tab.

Set the Cloud Motion speed to 0; later, when the Animation is setted, verify that all the parameters be the same for all the 6 frames.

Now put the Camera in a suitable position among the points of interest of the scene, so that rotating it in all the 6 fundamental directions you can see them all.

Step 2 - SETUP OF THE ANIMATION

Because we must have 6 frames, from menu File - > Animation Setup set the Frames Per Second to 1 and the Duration to 05 seconds; select a Frame Count Display.

Click the Time/Selection Palette Toggle icon in the bottom right of the working area, and bring up the Time Palette.

Set the the animation to Frame 0, either clicking the To Start icon in the Animation Preview Controls, or dragging the Current Time Indicator Cursor in the Timeline.

Step 3 - SETUP OF THE CAMERA

From the Control View Options… select From Top view.

From the Select Options… select the camera.

Click the A icon to set the Camera attributes.

Step 4 - SETUP OF THE 6 FRAMES

A fundamental problem of Bryce is that the camera FOV (field of view) is not at all accurate, so setting a FOV of 90 makes a shot lesser than 90 degrees horizontal by 90 degrees vertical; in other words, the rendered view does not cover all the face of the cube, so that at the seams of the faces the details of the scene do not match.

The best setting that I found after many tries is a FOV of 112, 5 degrees.

Verifying to be at Frame 0, set the three Rotate parameters to 0, and FOV to 112, 50. Scale must be 100, Pan V and Pan H must be 0. The other parameters outside the red frame in the picture (Origin and Position) obviously are not to be changed, because they are the Absolute Coordinates that come from the position of the Camera, relative to the scene.

Jump to Frame 1, either clicking the Next Key Frame icon in the Animation Preview Controls, or dragging the Current Time Indicator Cursor in the Timeline, then click the A icon to set the Camera attributes, changing the Y Rotate to 90.

In the same manner jump to frames 2, 3,

4, 5, setting the parameters as shown.

At the end of this procedure you have set the rotation of the camera according to the following table:

Frame X Y Z View

0 0 0 0 Front

1 0 90 0 Right

2 0 180 0 Back

3 0 270 0 Left

4 -90 0 0 Top

5 90 0 0 Bottom

Step 5 - VERIFY THE ANIMATION

Select again the Sky and Fog Palette, click on Sky Lab, and select the Cloud Cover tab; switching from Frame 0 to the following ones, verify that all the parameters are the same for all 6 frames.

In the Control NanoPreview Options, select Camera View.

Reset the animation to Frame 0. Click the Play icon in the Animation Preview Controls: in the From Top View you must see the Camera switching from the first position (with the FOV pointing upwards) to the second, third, fourth, fith and sixth.

Reset the animation to Frame 0, and look at the NanoPreview. You must see the front image. Click subsequently the Next Key Frame icon in the Animation Preview Controls and verify that, switching to frames 1, 2, and so on, the Scene in the Nano Preview window changes according to the above table.

From the Control View Options, select Camera view.

Step 6 - RENDER THE ANIMATION

I suggest to reduce first the Render Resolution and Quality, as explained in Step 1; only if all is OK, increase the Resolution and the Quality Mode, and restart the rendering.

From the File menu, select Render Animation, and choose Output Module: BMP Sequence.

Then click the Set File Location button

and select a folder and a file name for the first BitMap. Bryce will save the subsequent 5 renders, incrementing the file name by 1. So, if the first filename is 10000BMP, the second will be 10001BMP, and the sixth will be 10005BMP.

Finally click the V shaped icon in the Render Animation Dialog; Bryce will render the 6 images in sequence.

When the the sixth image is completed, normally Bryce will open it in the default graphic application installed on the computer (for my computer, PaintShop8).

Now you can transform the sequence in a panoramic QTVR view.

Step 7 - SETUP THE PANORAMIC VIEW

Launch GoCubic and select the item Make Pano Movie from the Make Pano menu.

Go to the folder where the 6 bitmaps were created and select the first one. Click on Open,

then choose a name (default.mov, or another of your choice) and click on Save.

Step 8 - ENJOY THE PANORAMIC VIEW...

After a few seconds, the final QTVR Movie is ready. You can close GoCubic and reopen the movie file in QuickTime from the related folder.

Generally the results are acceptable; only in a few events (like building interiors) the details of the scene at the seams of the faces will not match. Better results are obtainable with landscapes, and when the camera is not too close to the nearest objects.

I hope that these directions will be useful; have a good work!

"Splitting renders"

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

"Splitting renders"

Author: Herodino

Tools Needed

Bryce
Any photo editing tool

Introduction

This tutorial explain how exactly split a render. Rendering high resolution image/video always take a lot of time. If you don't have a powerful machine the system will be completely busy during all this operation and you may absolutely avoid power shut-down; splitting the render allow you a best management of your machine work-time. From the opposite side you may have a powerful computer and noticed that Bryce use only 50% of your system resources (e.g. multi-core processor or gigs of RAM) and you cannot increase the render speed. You can split your render and open two or more session of Bryce in the same time, doubling (or more) you're rendering speed. NOTE: Obviously you must finish preparing your scene before split your render!

Step 1 - how many parts?

First you must decide how your render will go to be split.

If your problem is a slow machine you may decide the maximum amount of time you want to use your computer in one time. So try to estimate what's the max dimension of the image you can render in this time.

Example1:

You've prepared your scene without materials and you know that rendering with materials take quadruple time: you may decide to split your render in 4 parts.

Example2:

You've prepared your scene in 800×600 resolution and want to final render your image in 2048×1536: you may decide to split your render in 9 parts.

If you want to completely use your powerful system resources you must take the same choice.

You must control how the rendering operation busy your system (in windows simply start the task manager) to decide how many rendering sessions you can start at the same time.

Example3:

Your system: dual core processor, 3 GB RAM.

You notice that Bryce use only 50% of CPU and less than 1, 5 GB of RAM, so you can start two rendering session without loss of speed. You may decide to split your render in two parts.

NOTE: Both CPU and RAM must be unemployed or you may have a lower rendering speed. Doubling 50% CPU usage and 70% RAM usage make your system use 100% CPU (not a problem) and 140% of RAM (40-50% hard disk swap memory).

NOTE: you can split renders in every way you want, only assure the parts are equals. (e.g. 4 parts can be 2 rows and 2 columns, 4 rows or 4 columns)

Step 2 - document setup

Now you know how many parts your image will be split, so you must calculate the part dimensions and set the document.

You may choose chessboard o linear distribution.

Chessboard distribution means that you divide your image in a matrix of regular columns and rows proportional to the original image, this way allows you to use original proportion, but oblige you to scale the view.

The linear distribution force you to change the document proportion but you may not change the view scale.

Examples split for chessboard parts distribution (a) and linear parts distribution (b).

Example 4a:

Final image resolution 4000×3000, 4 parts 2 rows 2 columns.

Single part height: 3000/2=1500

Single part width: 4000/2=2000.

Example 4b:

Final image resolution 4000×3000, 4 parts 4 columns.

Single part height: 3000

Single part width: 4000/4=1000

Open file menu, than document setup. Assure that 'constrain proportion' checkbox is un-selected, and set the part resolution in 'document resolution'. Click OK.

Step 3 - set the camera scale (only for chessboard distribution)

If you want to split your image like a chessboard you must zoom the camera to enlarge the view of the single parts.

The zoom is equal to numbers of rows/columns: 2 rows/columns zoom 200%, 3 rows/columns zoom 300%, etc'

Click on the second from top arrow on the side of the view controls, than select 'edit current camera'. Set desired zoom in the 'scale' box.

Note that you must set the camera scale only for the first part because the settings still remain if you don't reset the view, so don't reset the view for every part, your work will be faster.

Step 4 - set camera pan

Now you must move the camera in the right position. The pan value in the 'edit current camera' window show the distance (in pixel) of the view's center from the real camera position (standard set is 0 both for vertical and horizontal pan and means that you are viewing from the center of the camera).

You must calculate the distance from the camera center and every single part (center) you must render.

Sketch a scheme of your image with dimension and calculate the distance (in pixel) from the center of the final complete image and the center of every single part (it will be an elementary subtraction, don't worry!).

Note the sign of the pan.

For the horizontal pan left is positive and right negative.

For the vertical pan up is positive and down negative.

The sign change at the center of the final view (0, 0).

If the sign is '+' you may not write it, in the tutorial is only to ease explication.

Example 5a

Easy to calculate for every part: final image resolution/2 – part resolution/2

Part1: pan h +1000 pan v +750

Part2: pan h –1000 pan v +750

Part3: pan h +1000 pan v –750

Part4: pan h –1000 pan v –750

Example 5b

Pan v is every time 0

Part1: pan h (final image resolution/2 – part resolution/2)= +1500

Part2: pan h (final image resolution/2 – (part resolution + part resolution/2))= +500

Part3: pan h – (final image resolution/2 – (part resolution + part resolution/2))= -500

Part4: pan h – (final image resolution/2 – part resolution/2)= -1500

You can set pan in the 'edit current camera' window.

Every time you set pan h and pan v for a view click OK and save the view in a memory dot.

Step 5 - save the document

Now save the document.

You may need to save many time if you need more than 7 memory dot to save your views, don't worry that's not a problem save the file with another name than empty the memory dot and use it!

Step 6 - start rendering

If you have a powerful machine start another Bryce session and open the file another time.

Start to render every single part and save it with different name.

If you opened other sessions, start a different part rendering for every sessions and save images with different name.

For best part management of 'super-fragged' images create a naming system for easy find every part position (e.g. name rows with letters from up to down 'a, b, c, d, etc' and columns with numbers from left to right '1, 2, 3, 4, etc').

Step 7 - joining images

After all images are rendered. You must join all the images with a photo editing program (e.g. Photoshop, corel PP, Ms paint).

Assure to use a SNAP system or something to exactly position your part quickly avoiding distance or overlaying of the parts.

SNAP is an option that automatically align object forcing contact from specific points (e.g. images margins) for different program it can be named in different way (like 'align'). The only thing you need is an help to quickly place every parts in the correct position.

Step 8 - saving final image

Now you have your final image.

Save it and make some post-production if you want.

Bye!

Let me know if you have some problem (pm in Bryce general discussion forum)

HERODINO

Bryce 3D Rainbows

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Bryce 3D Rainbows

Author: BryceContentCD

Tools Needed

Bryce 3D

Introduction

Due to changes in Bryce 3D, the original rainbow tutorial will not work. This tutorial shows how the new rainbow settings work.

Step 1 - Setting up the Rainbow

Pick Carribean Clear as the Sky preset. (You can use any sky, but Carribean clear makes it very easy to see what is going on.)

Click on the Sky and Fog title. (Not the drop down arrow to the right of it, click on the Sky and Fog title itself.)

Click on the cloud/rainbow icon that shows up.

Go to the Atmosphere tab.

Enable the Rainbow and set the Opacity to 100. (Again, this is for ease of use. Often you'll want a lower setting for realism.)

Go to the Sun Settings. Click on the number next to Azimuth and change it to 180. Change the Altitude to 20.

If you look at the preview screen, you'll be able to see the tips of the rainbow.

Step 2 - Controlling the Rainbow

Radius - that affects how thick the rainbow is. The larger the radius, the wider the rainbow is.

Opacity - how bright the rainbow is. The higher the number, the clearer it is.

Secondary Bow - some rainbows have a double bow. This activates it.

Link Sun to View - this means that no matter where you point the camera, the rainbow will show in the same position. This is great for static scenes because you won't need to adjust the rainbow settings if you move your camera, but it doesn't work well for animation because the rainbow shouldn't remain static if the scenery moves.

Azimuth - This controls the sun's horizontal position in the sky, and thus affects the rainbow. If you Link Sun to View and set the azimuth to 180, then the rainbow will be perfectly centered in your scene horizontally. If you don't link the sun to the view, then you'll have to play around with this setting so it is correct for your scene.

Altitude - This controls the vertical position of the rainbow. 20 is about the minimum setting to see the rainbow if you have it perfectly centered while 42 is about the maximum before it disappears into the horizon. (If you shift the rainbow so you only see one end, then the lower the Altitude, the steeper the rainbow curve while the higher the number, the rounder it is.)

Well, I hope this takes some of the mystery out of the new, improved Bryce 3D rainbows.

Bryce Tutorial - Position the moon on a desired spot

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Bryce Tutorial - Position the moon on a desired spot

Author: Ravenhair

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

This tutorial is going to help the ones who are new to Bryce to loose their fears when it comes to position the moon on a right spot without having to use the little trackball.

Step 1 - Setting up the scene

After you have opened Bryce, you need to set up the scene and the objects you want to use, for this tutorial, I made this gate, how I made it? Well, that's another tutorial, and I am using the Director's View in this case.

Now let's go back to the scene, set your camera to “Eye Level Camera” and drag the scene a bit down as shown on the image below.

To drag the scene, you need to use the little hand that you see in the green circle.

Step 2 - Opening the Sky Lab

Now we are going to open the Sky Lab, it is the little cloud with the little rainbow like indicates the image below.

Once at the Sky Lab, you will see that it appears just the sky, the little down arrow under the sky images gives you the option of “Render in Scene” and “Render Against Neutral”, you need to choose “Render In Scene” because you can take a better look at what you are doing.

Step 3 - Going from Day to Night and the Full Moon

Now, you need to change the day for the night, so, click on the little sun like the image below shows, and don't be afraid of not seeing the moon yet, she will come in a minute.

To position the moon on the right spot, go to where the Azimuth and Altitude are and set these numbers

Azimuth: 180

Altitude: -17

Just like the image above indicates, and there was the moon!

Step 4 - Let's "dress" the moon.

You probably notice that the moon looks with that little blue line around it, that is because there is no moon image set up yet.

Go to where it says Moon Phase, and click on the little dot there, it activates it, then drag the moon image under the dot that it already turned orange when you had it activated until you see the full moon, also click where it says “Moon Image” and place the Earthshine and Softness according to your taste, I did make like:

Earthshine: 100

Softness: 1

Then go to the Sun/Moon size, turn it on, and select the size you want, I used the default for this tutorial.

The image below shows you how to set these controls.

Step 5 - Changing the Sky mood

Now, that you have the moon positioned where you want it to be, I decided I wanted the moon to be right in the center of the gate, so, it will stay there, and, it is time to play with the sky a bit, just use Sky and Fog controls and set up the colors you want, this case, is your choice of colors, the image displayed here is just a sample.

And you are done, just render your image and see if you like it.

Step 6 - Final words.

When entering the moon position using numerical values, and using the Director's View, keep in mind this:

1- On the Azimuth, numbers bigger than 180 will move the moon to the right, numbers smaller than 180 will move it to the left.

2- On the Altitude, the smaller the number (we are working with negative numbers for this one), the higher the moon will show on the scene.

An example:

The image below shows a variation, noticed that the moon has moved to the right and it is a bit higher.

In that case, I set up the Azimuth at 182 and the Altitude to -20.

This other variation, I changed the moon back to Azimuth 180 and the Altitude to -5

I hope this tutorial helped you, and that the problems of setting up the Moon on the desired spot is already over.

If you think you need some extra help on that, email me at the_gypsy_witch@yahoo.com

Thanks for reading it.

Create a Rainbow by Numbers by Peter Sharpe

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create a Rainbow by Numbers by Peter Sharpe

Author: BryceContentCD

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

In this tutorial, we'll go over the rainbow settings so you can create the rainbow you want.

Step 1 - Set up the sky

Choose a sky preset. I chose the second of the presets called Midsummer afternoon. Check that the haze value is about 70. Drag on the cloud height to the right until the value is 100.

Click on the Edit Sky/Fog downward pointing triangle. Click on the Atmosphere Tab check the rainbow option and increase the Opacity to 100. Click on the Sun and Moon tab. At the bottom you will see Numeric Sun Values.

Step 2 - The Y settings

In the first three of these Numeric Sun Values labelled X, Y and Z enter the values shown in Figure 2. Increasing values of Y lower the rainbow towards the horizon. X and Z remain at 0 and -90 respectively.

Step 3 - The X Settings, pt I

To move the rainbow to the right enter increasing negative values for X as shown in Figure 3.

Step 4 - The X Settings, pt II

To move the rainbow to the left enter increasing positive values for X as shown in Figure 4.

Step 5 - Additional Notes

By using combinations of these numbers you can position the rainbow to your liking. Having positioned it you can try reducing the cloud height and notice that at zero you can't see your rainbow. Reduce the haze value and notice at zero you can't see the rainbow. Experiment with the Opacity of the rainbow and with the Radius which actually varies the width. Also note that if you change the sky preset the rainbow option becomes unchecked and so the rainbow disappears.

Moon and Stars by Peter Sharpe

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Moon and Stars by Peter Sharpe

Author: BryceContentCD

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

In this tutorial, we'll look at how to position the moon and how to get a nice, cloud-scattered sky.

Step 1 - The Moon Dialog Box

Select Sky and Fog.Click on the Sky Options inverted triangle and select Custom Sky. Change the sky colour to black. Drag over the Haze picture and reduce the value to zero.

Figure 1

The last two operations ensure that a starfield will render and not disappear when antialiasing.

Step 2 - The Sun and Moon Dialog Box

Double click on the Sun trackball to bring up the Environmental Attributes dialogue box. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

Enter the three numbers shown for Numeric Sun Values, X, Y and Z. Be sure not to miss the negative signs. Also check Horizon Illusion, Use Moon Image and Starfield. Exit the dialogue box.

If you render now you will see a large moon above the horizon and a starfield surrounding it.

Step 3 - The Moon Values

Use the values shown in Figure 3 and values in between to position your moon in the sky.

Figure 3

Step 4 - Adding to the scene

Add a terrain, a water material to the ground plane, a cloud plane (NOT a sky preset), and a large sphere with a volumetric cloud material applied and you get something like Figure 4. The cloud plane, placed high up will allow the stars to shine through. I always use spheres for volumetric clouds rather than those infinite slabs, the rendering time is reduced dramatically.

Figure 4

Step 5 - Experiment with the results

In Figure 5 you can see the cloud plane and large sphere in wireframe.

Figure 5

Experiment with the size of the moon (intensity value) and the phase which is changed by checking Moon Phase and dragging over the moon image, there are those rings of ice crystals to play with as well.

You can also position the sun in the same way - just omit the negative signs.

Positioning the sun and moon in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Positioning the sun and moon in Bryce

Author: rgagnon

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

Every now and then, there is a reason to precisely add the sun or the moon into a Bryce scene, but there is no easy way to normally do this other than to patiently rotate the sun with the sun position sphere on the Sky and Fog Palette. An undocumented feature in Bryce provides a much nicer point and click method to get the sun where it's wanted.

Step 1 - Double Click the sun position sphere

Go to the Sky and Fog Palette and press Ctrl and Alt together and double click the sun position sphere. This is a hidden keycode that now permits precisely placing the sun.

Step 2 - Click the sun into place inside the work area

Holding down Ctrl and Alt together again, click anywhere above the horizon line and an asterisk will be placed in the main work area to show where the sun will be seen in the rendered image. The nano preview screen will more dramatically depict the sun's effects on the Bryce scene.

Step 3 - Placing the moon

The sun can be changed into the moon by either clicking the day/night menu toggle or by clicking in the scene by holding down Ctrl+Alt-Shift. That's all there is to precisely positioning the sun or moon in an image. This is a nice feature to create sunsets and spooky images with a full or partial moon.

Setting Sun & Moon

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Setting Sun & Moon

Author: liquefusion

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

Render looking dull or a bit lifeless, need to place the sun or the moon at a certain point of the image to achieve the correct look, read on…

Step 1 - Flat and Lifeless

Here we have the scene set up with a standard preset Bryce sky, looks wrong and using the sun postion trackball is causing migraines.

Step 2 - Display Mode

Switch the display mode to mixed wireframe/render or pure wireframe mode using the “wireframe cube” by the side of the image window. The position of the sun/moon appears as a star * .

Step 3 - Sun Sphere

Select the Sky and Fog Palette and then hold down Ctrl+alt and double click the sky sphere.

Step 4 - Setting position

Hold down Ctrl+alt and click into your scene view to place the sun at the cursor position, or use Ctrl+alt+shift to place the moon. If the sun is already on screen this will repostion it.

Step 5 - Fine tuning

The sun is shown as a yellow star, the moon is now shown as a blue wire star. Play around until you achieve your desired result, alter disk size and glow etc. to fine tune your image.

A Path in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

A Path in Bryce

Author: - esha -

Tools Needed

Bryce 5 or 5.5
Photoshop or other 2D program

Introduction

With Bryce you can create beautiful landscapes. And paths are important scenic elements. In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to create a well-trodden path which follows the slopes of a terrain. For this tutorial you should know the basic functions of Bryce, e.g. how to create a terrain and how to assign materials to it.

Step 1: Creating A Terrain

Open Bryce and create a terrain. Click on the 'E' to open the Editor.

If you are planning to use the terrain in the foreground of your picture, I'd recommend increasing the resolution. Click on the grid symbol and choose a higher resolution from the menu. In my example I'll use 1024.

Because I didn't like the default terrain I used the fractal option to create a nicer terrain. If you click on the small arrow next to 'Fractal' you can choose the type of terrain from the list. I used 'Rolling Hills'.

Click on the blue round button next to 'Fractal'; click repeatedly until Bryce creates a terrain you like.

Step 2: Importing The Terrain Into Photoshop

For editing the terrain I'm using Adobe Photoshop, but I think it will work with other 2D programs in a similar way.

Of course you could use the painting tool to create a path directly in the terrain editor, but an image editing software like Photoshop offers many other tools which I find useful. So I import the picture into Photoshop:

In Bryce's terrain editor press Ctrl+C. The terrain's grayscale image is copied into the clipboard.

Open Photoshop and create a new file. Usually the file Photoshop creates is already the size of the copied image, in my case 1024×1024.

Press Ctrl+V to paste the grayscale image.

Step 3: Painting the path

Create a new layer. On this layer use the pencil tool to paint a path in dark grey (77%). I wanted a wide path, so I used quite a large brush size.

The path should follow the slopes of the terrain. To achieve this I reduced the layer's opacity to 50% (short key: 5) and set the blending mode to 'multiply'.

If you used this grayscale image to generate a terrain in Bryce it would look like this:

But in reality paths usually don't have sharp edges like these. So I decided to tweak them a bit.

Step 4: Softening The Edges

By double-clicking the layer in Photoshop's layer palette you can open the Layer Style Menu. I assigned a wide stroke to the path. Take a look at the screenshot to adjust the other settings.

For the stroke I used a gradient. If you click on the gradient symbol, you can edit the gradient.

The darkest color is the same hue of grey as the path, the lightest color is white. In between there is a medium grey which is placed a bit to the right so that the lighter hues are applied towards the end of the gradient. This will make the edges of the path slope more naturally.

Save this file and switch back to Bryce.

Step 5: Using The Grayscale Image In Bryce

In the terrain editor click on 'Picture' to load the file. Click on 'Smoothing' two or three times to blend the different hues of grey.

Rotate your terrain or move the camera until you find a good angle. Do a test render. The rendered terrain now looks like this:

To make it look really natural the path needs a different material than the grass around it. But this path is a part of the grassy terrain, so how can we assign a different material to it? To do this, I used a transparency map.

Step 6: Preparing A Transparency Map

Back to Photoshop.

Switch off the layer with the grayscale terrain.

Set the path layer's opacity back to 100% (shortcut 0).

Duplicate it twice.

Now the path is pitch black, but the gradient at the edges is still visible.

(Alternatively, I could have changed the path's color from grey to black, but then I would have had to re-adjust the gradient to make it darker. Copying the layer is quicker.)

This will be our transparency map, also called alpha map. Save the file under a new name.

Step 7: Assigning Materials

Back to Bryce.

Choose a good material for the grassy terrain. Personally, I like to use J. Allen's 'Seriously Real' materials, but you choose whatever you like.

Duplicate the terrain (Ctrl+D) and click on the small 'M' to open the material editor. Select a material for the path.

In a free channel click to set the blue button for the transparency (Number 1 in the screenshot below). Set the mode to 'Blend Transparency' (No. 2). In the channel's component switch to Picture mode (click on the 'P', No. 3). Then click on the small pink button above (No. 4).

Now you are in the picture editor.

Click on one of the empty grey boxes to load a picture. Select the file with the black path you've just made a few minutes ago.

Then click 'Copy' under the left preview. Click 'Paste' under the middle preview.

Then click the black-and-white symbol above the middle preview to invert the picture.

In the right preview you can see the result, the black path. The rest of the terrain will be invisible.

Close the picture editor by clicking OK. Close the material editor, too, with OK.

Step 8: Raising The Terrain

The path is not yet visible because both terrains are sitting on exactly the same coordinates.

We will change that now:

With the terrain with the path material still selected, click on the small 'A' to open the attributes box.

Change the y value of the origin a little bit.

In my example I changed it from 26, 93 to 26, 95.

If you render now, you'll get a nice natural-looking path.

Note:

This works best for relatively flat terrains. If your terrain includes very steep slopes and high peaks, be careful where you paint your path. In reality, paths do not cross the high peaks, they wind around them and usually run along less steep parts of the mountain. If you want your path to look natural, you should keep this in mind. ;)

Note 2: If you want to create a narrow path, the stroke layer style you apply to the path in Photoshop should be narrower, too. Just try and experiment!

Happy rendering,

esha

Adding complexity to terrains through layering

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Adding complexity to terrains through layering

Author: krickerd

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

This tutorial will explain how to achieve more realistic looking landscapes in Bryce through multi-replicating terrains, tweaking their characteristics, and changing their materials. This tutorial assumes the reader is acquainted with the terrain editor and material editor (but is not necessarily a pro).

Step 1 - CREATE A TERRAIN

a) Create a terrain and enter the terrain editor by clicking “E”.

b) Click the down arrow to the right of the Fractal generator and choose a fractal type (in this case I used Slickrock).

c) Click the Fractal button until you get something you like.

d) Change the terrain resolution from 128 - normal to 1024 - massive (this will increase detail).

e) Click the down arrow to the right of the Fractal generator again and shift + click on Random Extent. This will turn it and Random Position and Random Character off.

f) Click the Fractal button again. What this does is give you the same terrain but generates it at the higher resolution. This step is saved until last as it takes the PC longer to think, so better to do it when you have a fractal pattern you like.

g) At this point you can either leave this terrain the way it is and place the camera where you want it in the scene, or you can use Gaussian edges to make a central mountain. This is up to you. For simplicity's sake I used Gaussian edges to make a central mountain. Increase the terrain size. I doubled it 3 times by using the * key. The next series of steps involve duplicating this terrain, so it's important to get the basic shape how you want it.

h) Make sure to name this terrain. Just add 'Main' before 'Terrain 1'. Texture the terrain in the material editor. In the main image I used “Whole Mountain” from the 'Plains and Terrains' category. This looks pretty good right? Well it's not too bad but lacks realism. Let's see if we can fix that.

Step 2 - ADD ROCKS AND SNOW

a) Let's add some rocks which poke through the grass. Duplicate the terrain and re-name it Rocks. Lower it below the 1st terrain slightly. Change it's material to 'Shiny Red Plastic' from the 'Simple and Fast' category. This of course is temporary and will allow you to see exactly what is poking through the top terrain.

b) We are going to add some basic noise for the rocks. Enter the terrain editor. Turn on the Zoom Area so you can see the effect more easily. Now click and drag the Basic Noise button to the right - DO THIS SLOWLY as it is fairly powerful effect. Remember less is more - we're going for subtlety here. Even with the zoom window you should see very little change. If the noise is very visible the rocks will be abnormally spiky.

c) Once satisfied, accept the changes and exit the terrain editor. You should have something like this:

d) Now that the rocks can be seen let's make them LOOK like rocks. Change the material to something like 'Petrified Barnacles' from the 'Rocks and Stones' category. Great, now there's gravel covering the entire mountain! This can be controlled in two ways. Either clip the top and/ or bottom off using the clipping brackets in the terrain editor, or use the material editor (my preferred way). To do this simply select an unused hole in the material editor and use something like 'Basic Altitude' in the Transparency channel (MAKE SURE THE 'BLEND TRANSPARENCY' OPTION IS SELECTED UNDER MATERIAL OPTIONS!) In my example the rocks appear at the top and fade out toward the bottom. Feel free to experiment with any texture to control where the rocks appear. The thing to keep in mind is that the rocks appear only where the alpha of the transparent texture appear white and shades of gray.

e) Snow can be produced in a similar manner. Just repeat the steps above EXCEPT use Height noise instead of basic noise to put the snow on top. Or use basic noise but lower the terrain resolution while applying the noise, then change it back to 1024 when finished.

Step 3 - ADD TREES

This technique is similar to what we have already done. Duplicate the original terrain and rename it 'trees', lower the duplicate slightly, then edit it. Hold the spacebar down and click the 'spikes' button. Notice on the terrain canvas that the brush behavior changes from 'Elevation' to 'Paint Effect'. This means that when you paint on the canvas, the selected effect is applied. The 'spikes' option will look like distant trees. Use a soft brush and low flow. You can hold down the mouse button and paint in the trees where you want them, or use a series of clicks which will act as a 'dabbing' effect. I find that clicking and dragging can create taller spikes faster than I like, therefore I like to use multiple clicks. This will take some experimenting. You can always undo or delete the terrain and duplicate it again. Also experiment with terrain resolutions. The higher resolutions will create smaller trees when you paint, lending to a more 'distant' look. When you are done painting, switch to a higher resolution and hit the 'smoothing' button once, then switch back. You will need to lower the terrain more as smoothing makes the terrain larger. Texture this terrain using the 'Verdant Hills' material from the 'Planes and Terrains' library.

Step 4 - CONCLUSION

What I've attempted to demonstrate is that one way to more complex and realistic landscapes in Bryce is by terrain layering. Hopefully by now you can see how terrains and materials can interact and compliment one another. Feel free to experiment with other types of terrain effects such as 'Subplateaus' and 'Subcontours'. Layering terrains is one-half of the equation. The other half is in using good materials. One very good tutorial on material building by Mario Garza can be found here: “http://www.pinhead.robbes.com/tutorial/Mario/mg_CTATerrains.htm” I hope you found this tutorial useful. Here is a valley I made using these techniques:

Happy landscaping!

Bryce Summer by Jean La Pointe

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Bryce Summer by Jean La Pointe

Author: BryceContentCD

Support Files

Introduction

This tutorial is in downloadable .pdf format due to length. Please download Support File 1 for the .pdf and Support File 2 for the materials, etc., in this scene.

Step 1 - Download

Just download the files and enjoy the tutorial.

Creating Abstracts Using Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Abstracts Using Bryce

Author: guy_david

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

Creating abstract art using Bryce 5 have never been easier. Here is a quick tutorial about making instant abstract works, using nothing but bryce 5.

Step 1 - Preparing the scene

Open a new document. Make sure there's nothing in it. Erase any terrains, planes or anything else in it leaving only the camera. Insert a stone and a symmetrical lattice. Resize both, so that the stone would be smaller then the lattice. Use the Orthogonal views, to position the stone inside the lattice, and the camera inside the stone.

Here is what your scene should look like now:

Notice that the Nano Preview is completely gray.

Step 2 - Choosing materials for your stone and lattice

Next, you should choose materials for your stone and lattice objects. The materials you choose should be transparent, but should contain some colors. The texture of those materials would determine how your work would turn out eventually.

Step 3 - Coloring your scene

Now, you can add final coloring to your abstract, by using the environmental controls. On the Sky&Fog control, you can choose Custom Sky and give a combination of three colors:

Use the rest of the environmental controls for final color adjustments. Experiment until you get the result you want.

Good luck

Creating a River in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating a River in Bryce

Author: guy_david

Tools Needed

Bryce 5

Introduction

Making a river in Bryce is easy. The key is the use of a ground plane and a lattice, and the positive and negative charging of objects. In this tutorial I explain step by step the procedure of creating the river, as well of using family names for selecting objects.

Step 1 - Setting the Ground

First, create a new document in Bryce. By default. your new document would contain one Ground Plane. Choose a material for your plane. I'll use Mediterranean Hills for this tutorial. Here is a render of how this scene looks with only the Ground Plane:

Next, create a Symmetrical Lattice. Click on the small grey color square next to the plane and the lattice. Choose a color and give your object a family name:

I called my lattice “River Cut” and my plane “Ground”.

Step 2 - Positioning the Lattice

Now you can use the family names you gave on step 1 to choose objects in your scene as shown above. Choose your lattice. Once chosen, use the Edit controls to rotate, resize and position your lattice:

This is how your scene would look now rendered:

Step 3 - Negatives and Positives

Choose your plane and click the little “A” to open the Object Attributes box. Choose a positive charge as shown above. Now choose your lattice and give it a negative charge:

Next, choose both the plane and the lattice and group them. When you group a positive object with a negative one, the negative would punch a hole in the positive. That is why there is a crack in you plane, and the lattice disappeared.

Step 4 - Making the River

Now, create a Water Plane. Don't forget to give it a family color. I named mine “Water”. Use the Edit controls to change the position of your water alone the Y axis, until they are just below the ground (see above).

As you can see in my render, the river looks more like a pond. use the Families button to choose the lattice:

Now, play with the Edit controls until your river is proud and deep

Step 5 - Water That Runs Deeper

As you can see in the render from Step 4, the waters are very high and the river is about to overflow. Choose the water from the Families list. It looks like nothing is chosen:

The problem is that the waters are below ground lever. In order to see the Water Plane you need to see what's underground by clicking the Underground On/Off button:

Now you can lower the water a little using the Edit controls to get a deeper river.

Step 6 - Final Render and Final Tips

Above is the final render of this river.

Remember - you can always change the position of your river by selecting the lattice and using the Edit control to resize it, rotate it and reposition it.

Creating an Embossed Terrain Shield in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating an Embossed Terrain Shield in Bryce

Author: Theresa Ford

Tools Needed

* Bryce

* Adobe Photoshop (or other graphics program)

Support Files

* optional_photoshop_file.zip

Introduction

This tutorial creates an embossed shield from a low-contrast bitmap used as a terrain canvas. While the example is simple, this same method can be used to create patterned cement walkways, floor tiles, wall murals, and other surfaces where some depth is required yet complex lighting makes materials (painted on) seem too flat, or where a bump map doesn't have the desired effect. First, the low-contrast bitmap is created which will become the embossing. Next the bitmap is applied to a terrain in Bryce and adjusted. Finally, the terrain is rotated up to become a shield. You should already know how to use your graphics program to adjust images and how to save files and find where you saved them. This tutorial uses Adobe Photoshop and Ts Orbit fractal brush (free from http://www.cattail.nu/photoshop/brushes), but any graphics program and design will do.

Step 1 - Create the Image

In this step, a Photoshop brush is used to quickly create a nice design. A photograph or pattern can also be used, though the former is much harder to adjust.

Open Photoshop.

Install Classics brush set from http://www.cattail.nu/photoshop/brushes - Instructions are on the same page.

Tip: Use premade brushes and patterns (many free on the web) rather than spending a lot of time drawing something new for end-image details.

Create a 512×512 white document.

Choose the Brush Tool (B).

Show the Brushes Window (F5).

Select the Ts Orbit fractal brush.

Hide the Brushes Window.

Reset the colors to black and white (D).

Resize the brush smaller ([) so it fits on the image.

Center and click once. This creates the base shield image.

Step 2 - Adjust the Image: Reduce Contrast

In this step, the image contrast is reduced using Change Levels to make the whole image light, with very light grey in the dark areas. As dark areas will be sunk into the shield, only the slightest amount is necessary to create embossing.

Select Levels (Ctrl+L or Image/Adjustments/Levels).

Drag the middle grey triangle to the left. The image gets greyer. The exact amount is not important.

Drag the bottom black triangle to the right. The image lightens. The exact amount is not important.

Click OK to apply the changes.

Step 3 - Save the Image

In this step, the shield image is saved as a GIF. Use shield.gif as the name.

Save (Ctrl+S). Change the type to GIF.

Step 4 - Open Bryce, Create the Terrain

In this step, the shield's foundation is set up by adding a metallic material.

Open Bryce.

Create a Terrain.

Click M to open the Material Lab.

Open the preloaded materials.

Select metals and choose any one.

Click OK to apply the change.

Step 5 - Apply the Terrain Canvas and Adjust

In this step, the shield image (shield.gif) is applied as the terrain's canvas.

Click E to edit the Terrain Canvas.

Click Picture to load the shield.gif.

The shield image is loaded.

Step 6 - Round and Clip the Terrain

This step finalizes the shield by making it round.

Click Round. This causes the corners and edges to darken and become “lower”.

Drag the bottom of the clipping bracket upward just until the black part of the terrain canvas changes color. In the example, it has turned maroon. This causes the black to be excluded from the terrain.

Click OK to save the changes.

If there are too many shadows because the pattern is too deep, the contrast in the original image is too high. Make it more grey/white. Only the tiniest bit of grey is necessary. See the eagle below.

Step 7 - Rotate and Scale the Shield

Rotate and scale the shield.

The shield can now be saved in the object library or exported for use in other programs like DAZ Studio.

Additional Exercises:

Try using a photo (Hint: desaturate it (Shift+Ctrl+U) to make a black and white image).

Try creating the shield shape in the bitmap (hint: use black).

Try using a custom material to color parts of the embossing.

Try creating “canvas” and then applying a bump map and coloring to create a realistic painted canvas with visible paint thickness.

Creating Fabric Drapes in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Fabric Drapes in Bryce

Author: Zhan

Tools Needed

PaintShop Pro
Photoshop
Bryce

Introduction

Intro: This tutorial will take you through the steps necessary to create a 3D fabric drape in Bryce using terrains. This is the second in a series of easy to do terrain modification tutorials, to get an assortment of effects in Bryce. To prep for creating any type of fabric drape, I suggest studying how fabrics drape over and on different surfaces in everyday life.

Fabrics have different draping qualities depending on the fibers of which they are made, and how they are put together, woven or knit, i.e., cotton and linen weaves are mostly stiff because of the short fibers used, frailles are slinky because the fibers are crimped before weaving, silks can be either stiff or slinky depending on the 'weight' of the woven fiber, the list goes on but these are some examples. The image shows the finished drape that can be achieved with this tutorial…

Step 1 - Getting started in PSP

Open your paint program and create a new canvas on which to work, I choose to make mine 2272×1704 resolution, I like to work big. Although Bryce's terrain editor likes square images, i.e.512×512 up 2272×2272, I found the drape folds looked somewhat distorted after leaving the terrain editor then rendered. Make sure it is absolute black (0) as this will be removed when we get to the terrain editor later.

Select a small diameter 'paint' brush, and make your color absolute white (255). Now ou need to think about what your fabric is draped over and how it will look. I opted for the basic drape for this tutorial. With your brush make sweeping archs to define the outer folds, you can cross them, kink them, etc. but for a beginning drape keep it simple until you get the hang of it.

Step 2 - Define the folds in your drape...

Now that you have your drape shape established, you can start to work on building it up to where it actually looks like a fabric drape. With the 'airbrush' and white, go over the lines of the outer folds, increasing their size and density gradually, until the original lines are no longer visible but you still have space between them.

Step 3 - Creating the fold recesses

Now we'll start to add the recesses to the folds. Using a light gray, between your white areas, build up gradually, any sudden transistion will show when the drape becomes a terrain. Use a continous sweeping motion to keep the drape folds relaistic. When you have finished filling in go to the next step…

Step 4 - Building up the drape folds

Select a medium gray, be sure to stay away from very dark gray as the darker the gray the closer to black you get. You won't need to make it that dark to get the effect we are going after. Paint this between the very white folds to create the recessed folds. Remember, black will be eliminated in the terrain editor, so keep this gray towards the medium range, but darker than the light gray in the last step.

Step 5 - Refining the drape

Keep building the drape recesses, and outer folds, gradually defining it until you are satisfied with how your drape looks. You can add dips and creases if you want, if you find the white areas are starting to disappear, just go over them with long sweeping motions to increase their size and density. White areas will be the raised, or outward folds of your terrain drape.

Step 6 - Giving it a blur for the terrain editor

Once the drape looks the way you want it, it's time to give it a blur, Gaussian blur is what we will use for this drape. The blur helps the terrain editor create smoother transitions on the terrain. Save your drape 'with' and 'without' a blur (to make changes easier), as a bitmap or with the BMP suffix, somewhere you can find it again. This image is called a 'grayscale' image.

Step 7 - Starting in Bryce

Now we open up Bryce. Create a terrain, then go into the terrain editor. To do this, select the little 'E' in the Object Control icons to the right of the terrain. This will take us into the terrain editor.

Step 8 - Things to do in the Terrain Editor

Now that you are in the terrain editor, there are several things you need to do. First make sure the 'Picture' tab is selected. Then we increase the terrain resolution to gigantic (1) and make sure our terrain is solid(2).

Now you are ready to import your drape (grayscale) image. In the Pictures dialog box (3) select 'Load' and browse to your drape with the blur, click 'open', then copy (under the first box), and 'paste' (under the second box), and then hit 'apply'(4).

You should see your terrain in the upper preview window and in the editor window. It will have a black background which you will eliminate by moving the clipping bracket (5) up until the black is replaced by red. Note: do not click in the gradient bar. This does not eliminate the background, the bracket is to the outside of the gradient bar, grab the little end and move it upward until the black is replaced by red. Click 'Apply', wait for the change to be made, the terrain will be crisp white with a red background.

Now go to the 'Elevation' tab (6&7), click it, and next to 'smooth'(8) click the bead once, do not click too much, as it will flatten your drape folds and make them look unnatural. Now you are ready to go out to the work area and make adjustments to size. Click the check mark in the lower right corner…

Step 9 - Final Adjustments

You will probably want to make adjustments to the terrain drape as far as size (x, y, z) goes to fit into the image you are creating. Now is the time to do this.

Upright your terrain drape and position it so that you can see if the drape needs any other adjustments. Select the little 'M' in the Object Control icons to the right of the terrain. This will take you into the materials lab. In the mat lab click the 'diffuse', 'ambient'and 'specular' ovals to clear and reset OR select 'Simple and Fast' from the installed presets and choose the med gray. (The diffuse should be grey and the rest white, now the drape is a plain grey.) This will help you see where your drape may need work.

Step 10 - The Render

Go out to the main window and hit 'Render' to see how the drape looks in an environment. If everything is satisfactory you can choose to use a material from the installed mats in the Materials Lab, or bring in (import) a picture texture to apply to your drape. I took the picture texture option. Apply your material and go out to the main work area and render to see how it looks. If it needs work, or you don't like it, you can redo the drape in your paint program (the reason you saved an un-blurred version) or start over creating a new drape.

That's all there is to creating gorgeous fabric drapes using Bryce terrains…!

Creating Realistic Landscape Terrains in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:11+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Realistic Landscape Terrains in Bryce

Author: rt2007

Tools Needed

* Bryce (any version)

Step 1 - Choosing a Fractal for Your Terrain

To begin, open Bryce, create a new project, and create a terrain. Enter the Terrain Editor by clicking the letter E. Click the drop down arrow next to the button labeled “Fractal”.

Choose a fractal category from the right and click the Fractal button a few times until you get something interesting. Try “Slickrock”, “Mordor”, or “Rolling Hills” fractal categories for a start. Any other ones would work well. It depends on the kind of mountain that you're looking to create.

Step 2 - Giving the Terrain a Higher Resolution

In order to bring up the detail level on your terrain, we need to increase the resolution. This is done by clicking the small grid and selecting 1024 x 768.

However, this in itself won't really increase the resolution. You have to regenerate the terrain. But if you click the Fractal button again, your terrain will be lost. In order to keep the terrain, click the drop down arrow next to the Fractal button and Deselect Random Extent, Random Position, and Random Character.

Now click the Fractal button. Your terrain should stay the same, but it will be more detailed.

Step 3 - Bringing the Edges Down

If you were to exit the terrain editor right now, you would notice that the edges of the terrain don't touch the ground. We have to bring them down in the terrain editor. First raise the terrain using the Raise/Lower button until the top of the terrain almost flattens out. Then click and drag on the Gaussian Edges button until the edges are lowered to black. Don't drag too far or your terrain will be lost. Now use the Raise/Lower button again to raise the terrain until the tops flatten out.

Step 4 - Adding Realism to the Terrain

Now you have a pretty good looking terrain, but it's still not realistic yet. Right below the Fractal button is the Eroded button. NOT the Erode button, but the Eroded button. If you click the Erode button, you will end up with completely different results. Drag to the right until veins are slightly visible on the preview. Make sure you don't drag all the way to the right, or your terrain will lose its realism. Remember, you can always press Ctrl+Z if you make a mistake. Press the Slope Noise and Height Noise buttons 1 or 2 times to finish off your terrain.

Go ahead and exit the terrain editor and add an interesting texture, (I used a modified version of the “Classic Bryce Snow” preset.) and your realistic terrain is finished!

Creating Terrain Using a 2D Picture

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Terrain Using a 2D Picture

Author: SpookeeP

Tools Needed

Bryce 5.5
Any 2D image (jpg or bmp)

Introduction

So I was fooling around with Bryce one day and on a lark, I tried something out. I took an image that I had on my hard-drive (of German darkwave/synthpop band L'ame Immortelle) and wondered if it was possible to make a terrain out of it. What you see below you is the result of that. This tutorial will help you in making a unique terrain based off a 2-dimensional image.

Step 1 - Setting Up the Document

First, open up Bryce and change your document size to whatever you feel comfortable with. You can do this by clicking File/Document Setup or pressing Ctrl+Alt+N. The settings I use are the default settings for 'Max Recommended' (because I exist only to torment my computer).

Document Settings

Next, create a New Terrain Object. This is done by either clicking the 'Create Terrain Icon' or clicking the 'Create' triangle and selecting Terrains and Objects.

The silvery thing near the left is the terrain icon.

Create > Terrains and Objects

Finally, click on the terrain you just created and then click the small 'E' icon to bring up the terrain editor.

Step 2 - Terrain Editor and Loading the Image

Now we're in the Terrain Editor Room. You'll notice three windows here- two that have images and one that has a lot of buttons. The windows are your 'Preview Pane', 'Terrain Canvas' and 'Editing Tools' windows. They all have names so we can't forget which one is called what. In the Editing Tools window, click New, and then the Pictures Tab.

Terrain editor Room

Click New and then Picture Tab

Now that you have your Picture Tab open, take a look at it, you'll see three windows in the tab. The first two tabs can be used to insert pictures in (we'll touch on how this applies later) and the third window displays your picture. Since Bryce figures terrains similar to a bump-map or a displacement map (for those that are somewhat familiar with 3D) grey-scale images often work the best. This doesn't mean you can't use a color picture (I found that Bryce will convert it to grayscale for you)- you just run the slim risk of losing some of the detail if you do. Now that I touched on that, let's load our picture up. Click on the 'Load' above the first window and select your picture from the pop-up box.

'Load' your pic. I desaturated a colorized picture of L'ame Immortelle for this tutorial.

In the bottom left hand corner of the Picture Tab, you'll see a radio button marked 'Blend'. Click on the button and drag from left to right- you'll notice the image become darker as you drag to the left and lighter as you drag to the right' Pretty spiffy huh? Let's go ahead and drag all the way to the left- you'll know you're as far as you can go when your first and third picture look the same. Click 'Apply'. In the 3D Preview window, you'll see what your terrain looks like as a raw, untouched terrain and the Terrain Canvas window will have your picture in it.

Click on the Elevation Tab and now we move on to-

Step 3 - Fun with Elevation!

So I forgot something earlier during step 1. In the 3D Preview pane, click on the little downward pointing triangle, will ya? See the option that says 'Realtime Linking'? Do me a favor and Click that. You did it already? Good. Moving on. Click on the Elevation Tab in the Editing Tools Window. Ignore most of the options that are present (they only serve to scare you right now if you're brand new fresh out the package' believe me you'll have time to play with them later); we're only going to focus on 4 buttons- Raise/Lower, Smoothing, Undo and Eroded.

Elevation tools. We are primarily focused on Raise/Lower, Smooth and Eroded.

The Raise/Lower button is pretty self explanatory. Click and Drag right to lower, left to raise. Smoothing is not as self explanatory- it more or less equals out the height variations in the terrain to produce a somewhat more natural appearance. Eroded will do a massive smooth-over on the image and simulate roughly 10-20 years in the desert winds. Fool around with those, and if you don't like how something looks, just use Undo to take it back to the previous appearance. On the below picture, I 'scratched' in more terrain around certain high points (bare arms, exposed chest, faces) and then clicked and dragged on Eroded one time.

Note the amazing details that are still visible in the preview pane. Don't worry if yours doesn't turn out like this.

Step 4 - Finishing touches (Materials camera, etc)

This is the part that is actually the hardest- picking a material setting and camera position for your new terrain. I leave the ground plane in the image, and give it along the terrain a painted desert material setting.

Click on your terrain, select the Small 'M' and choose a material that you like best. After picking 'Painted Desert' for my terrain material and Desert Morning for my sky, not to mention a few hours of obsessive compulsive camera adjustment, this is what I came up with.

“Desert of L'ame Immortelle”

Step 5 - In conclusion

Let me wrap this up by saying two things:

1) Thanks for reading this. Hopefully it has helped you out in some way shape or form.

2) This is not the be all, end all method for what I am referring to as Terrain-facing. If you can find a quicker, simpler way, pass it along!

SpookeeP

Custom Valley Terrain With Custom Brushes

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Custom Valley Terrain With Custom Brushes

Author: thepipper

Tools Needed

* Bryce 6.0

* Paint

Introduction

Create a custom valley using a brush that you create.

Step 1 - CREATE THE BRUSHES

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.

Step 2 - IMPORT OUR BRUSH

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.

Step 3 - PREPARING THE TERRAIN

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

Step 4 - CREATING THE VALLEY

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.

Step 5 - MATCH THE TERRAIN MATERIALS

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.

Step 6 - POSITIONING OF LIGHTING

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.

Step 7 - CREATING AMBIANCE

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

Step 8 - READY TO TEST

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.

Grass in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Grass in Bryce

Author: - esha -

Tools Needed

Bryce 5 (works in Version 4 too)

Introduction

Have you ever made an outdoor scene, and your Bryce lawn looked more like some green flooring than real grass? Instead of importing grass objects, here is another method to create a nice lawn.

Step 1 - Create a Terrain

Open Bryce and click on the terrain icon (the mountain).

Click on the small 'E' to open the terrain editor.

Step 2 - Grow some grass

I find the real-time linking in the preview very useful, so I recommend turning it on (it is turned off by default):

In the top right corner of the preview window you can see a small arrow. Click it and choose 'Realtime Linking' from the menu.

To get a flat lawn first we have to get rid of the mountain. In the editing tools palette click once on the blue button next to 'New'.

The terrain canvas window will turn black, the preview is empty.

Now we want to 'grow' some grass: Click and hold the small green button next to 'Spikes' and drag slowly to the right.

In the preview you can see how the grass appears. When it is high enough release the mouse button.

HINT: One short click on the spikes button makes the grass grow to maximum height. But dragging slowly gives you more control.

You can repeat this one or two times more to make the lawn more dense.

Since you don't drag exactly the same distance every time, the grass will have slightly different height which will look very natural.

In the preview you can see the lawn you will get (if you can't see anything, turn up the brightness of your monitor; the lawn is short, therefore it looks very dark in the preview).

Click OK to leave the terrain editor.

A test render shows us what the lawn looks like. Of course, we'll need a good material now…

Step 3 - The right material

Click on the small 'M' to open the material editor.

Click on the arrow next to the preview to open the material library.

Click on the arrow in the lower left corner and choose 'Vegetation'. In the category 'Leaves' choose one of the mats, I prefer 'Default Leaf 8'.

Click OK to close the library.

Now we can optimize the mat for our lawn:

Switch off the specularity, it will not be visible on the single blades of grass.

Increase the ambience value to make the green lighter.

Click on OK to confirm.

Now we have a nice small piece of lawn.

Step 4 - Cover a larger area

Cover a larger area with lawn

Click on the small 'A' to open the attributes palette.

To make life easier I recommend to change the odd size value of 81, 92 to 80.

Click OK to close the attributes.

Press Ctrl+D to duplicate the terrain.

Click 'A' again to open the attributes.

For 'Origin X' set the size value, in this case 80.

Click OK.

Now there is a second piece of lawn exactly next to the first one.

Repeat the process (duplicate, open attributes etc.), but this time enter –80.

Now we have 3 terrains.

Hold down the shift key and select all three terrains. Click on the 'G' to group them together.

Press Ctrl+D to duplicate the group, open the attributes and set the 'Origin Y' value to 80.

Repeat this with the value –80.

Now we have quite a large lawn which consists of 9 terrains.

Of course you could group the groups and duplicate and translate them again. If you want to do this, you have to enter positive/negative values of 240 for the origin, because you are handling a group of 3 terrains(3 x 80).

But keep in mind that from a certain distance you won't see the single grass blades anyway, so there will be no need to encumber your system with dozens of terrains.

HINT: In some places the grey ground plane may look through, this is because the blades of grass are not as close as in a real lawn. Apply a green material to the ground plane, and you won't notice it anymore.

Step 5 - Additional details

For close-ups you may need a finer lawn. You can create it by increasing the resolution of the terrain in the terrain editor.

Click on the grid symbol in the terrain editor palette and choose a higher resolution.

If you now start creating spikes, you'll notice that they look much finer.

Of course you can use the spikes on hilly terrains, too.

Use the same method as described previously, but in the terrain editor do NOT click on 'New' but apply the spikes to the existing terrain.

Have fun,

esha

how to make a realistic waterfall

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

how to make a realistic waterfall

Author: Gruntshooter

Tools Needed

* Bryce:5

* A photo editing program

Step 1: creating the waterfall base

first we start with adding some terrain

now we open the terrain editor

Once in the editor click new:

now draw the shape that is shown in the picture

now click the check in the corner

now you can preview your base.

Step 2: adding the texture

open up the materials lab and click on the small arrow facing right

now select the planes and terrain category and select mossy rock

now you can preview your base.

Step 3: making the water (part 1)

click on the waterfall base and open up the terrain editor

Once in the editor press the print screen button on your keyboard

now exit out of the editor, now hold your cursor at the top of the screen for a few seconds, once the menu at the top of the screen pops up click on the underline

now open up Microsoft paint or any other photo editing program,

Step 4: making the water (part 2)

Once in the photo editing program click edit > paste

now select the crop square tool

and crop around the shape as shown in the picture

now click edit > cut

and now click file > new and then click edit > paste

Step 5: making the water (part 3)

now click file > save as

now choose jpg as the format and save the image to your desktop

now go back to Bryce and make a new terrain.

click on the new terrain and go to the terrain editor and click pictures

now find the image you just saved and click open

now click on the small arrow under the third image to the right and click pict. blend

Step 6: making the water (part 4)

now change the material of the newly edited object to oasis which can be found by clicking on the waters and liquids category and by clicking on the second one down to the left side

Step 7: adding the mist

first create a sphere

now stretch it to the left

now open up the material room

now click on the clouds and fogs category and select tea kettle steam

now drag the mist to where you want it

Step 8: VIOLA!

And now VIOLA! you have a perfect looking waterfall.

Let It Snow!

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Let It Snow!

Author: Kaedric

Tools Needed

* Bryce

Introduction

With winter approaching, at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere, there are bound to be lots of images showing off assorted Winter Wonderlands. But wouldn't it be great to actually see the snow falling? Read on and I'll show you one way to turn basic landscapes like this into realistic snow scenes using only Bryce.

Step 1 - When is the ground not the ground?

Yep, you guessed it. We're going to use the ground terrain to simulate falling snow. It's actually quite easy once you've seen how it's done. You'll be making your own Winter Wonderland in no time.

First, start by creating a terrain. We will make a few changes to it that will give us the look we want.

Now let's go to the Terrain Editor. Click the [E] button and we're off.

Step 2 - Generate the right terrain.

The default terrain sure looks nice, but it's not what we need for this effect. So click on the NEW button on the Editing Tools floating window to clear everything out. (#1)

Now to make the snow, click once on the Spikes button (#2) and then once on the Smoothing button (#3). This will give you somewhat randomly placed dots all over your terrain, and will end up being the snow when we're finished.

Step 3 - Clip a little off the bottom.

Since we want to see through the snow flakes, we need to get rid of the base of the terrain and only leave the peaks. Use the little icon to the left of the triangle on the Terrain Canvas window to show the clipping tool. Click and drag the bottom of the white tool (not the colored bar) up until you see most of the terrain turn red. The red portions will not be visible so all you will see is the grey dots. These are our snowflakes.

Step 4 - Position the terrain.

Click the check mark at the bottom of the window to leave the Terrain Editor. Now you can see your snowflakes in the wireframe window. But wait, something is not quite right here. The snow isn't falling from the sky is it? Okay, time to make one more adjustment and get things lined up. The easiest way is to open the Attributes window by clicking on the [A] icon. Now select the Linking tab.

As you can see, you will want to have the terrain track to the perspective camera, and do so in the Y+ direction. This forces the terrain to always present itself to the camera in the same head-on view no matter how you rotate the scene or reposition the camera. Of course if you move the camera too much, you'll want to move the terrain as well so that it fills the field of view for a more convincing effect.

Step 5 - Is that falling mud? We want SNOW!

The default texture applied to the terrain probably isn't very convincing for snow. Well, at least not on this planet anyway. So it's time to pick a texture that will work well. I'm choosing the Melting Ice texture, but there are many others that work equally as well, even the basic white texture.

It's all about how it looks to you as an artist. Be creative with your choices and everything will turn out fine.

Step 6 - Now for the Render

Putting everything together with the rest of your scene will give you an impressive snow scene. Feel free to experiment with duplicating the terrain, rotating it and repositioning it to create a larger depth of field. The sky is the limit here, so have a great time playing with the snow.

Organic Modeling by Kano

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Organic Modeling by Kano

Author: BryceContentCD

Introduction

If you are comfortable with painting, you can use the Terrain Editor to create items. This tutorial gives an overview of that process.

Step 1 - Page 1

Step 2 - Page 2

Step 3 - Page 3

Step 4 - Page 4

Path through trees in Bryce 6

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Path through trees in Bryce 6

Author: phil16

Tools Needed

* Bryce 6

Introduction

this tutorial shows how to make a dirt path through trees using only Bryce 6

Step 1 - creating the grass

If when you open Bryce 6 you do not have a ground plane add one. The first thing to do is change the material of the ground plane to look like grass. On the right side of the ground plane there should be five buttons the bottom one should be an “M”. click on the M to get you to the materials lab. In the materials lab go to the materials library.

In the materials library change the category in the bottom left to vegetation. in the categories of vegetation pick leaves then pick a leaf. I picked leaf 4. then click the checkmark in the bottom right of the materials lab and the materials library.

Step 2 - creating grass around the path

Create a terrain. Now for the terrain there should be six buttons to the right. click the “E”. there should be six buttons to the left of the terrain canvas. the second from the bottom should be a triangle. click and drag up the red dot in the middle of the triangle. when you move the cursor over the terrain canvas you should see a circle click and drag all over the terrain canvas making in completely white. click and drag to the right, the raise/lower button until the 3D preview looks like the second image. Now open up a paint program that can invert colors, without closing Bryce 6. I used MS Paint.

Step 3 - making the triangle

In your paint program make a black triangle. Then invert the colors. in MS Paint this can be done by first clicking edit > select all Then, Image > Invert colors. Then save your image. it should look like this.

Step 4 - cutting the path in the grass

in Bryce edit terrain. click the top of the buttons to the left of the terrain canvas. the category on the bottom left should say installed, change that to user. of the options to the right of user click on import. and import your triangle. when you click import you may need to change the files of type to all files. after you have it imported select it and click the checkmark. next the second button down, of the buttons to the left of the terrain canvas should be a circle. click and drag that to the left so that the circle is small. now in the middle of the terrain canvas at the top click and drag to the bottom until it is completely black. now on the third button from the bottom click and drag to the left so that there are only two dots. and click and drag to the bottom of the terrain canvas. but this time do it to the left and the right of where you just did and also on the far left and right sides. now click the checkmark and move the camera so that it looks close to the image in step 5.

Step 5 - changing the material and size of the terrain

now make the terrain a little wider and have it reach the horizon [the green line in the middle of the screen]. now change the terrains material to the same one as the ground plane.

Step 6 - making the path

Create a terrain. flatten it and lower it again but this time don't cut anything away from it. now put it in the middle of the other terrain and below the top of the other terrain like the picture. then stretch it to the horizon to. then change the material. in the materials library change the category to terrains and the other category to rocky. then select Rocky Road. then click the checkmarks.

Step 7 - Add trees

Add a tree to the right side of the road. Edit the tree how you like. then click on the tree and holding Ctrl press “C” then “V”. the from the tabs at the top click edit. and using the reposition tool move the tree right behind the other. the do this many more times until the trees reach the horizon then again on the left side of the road until the trees reach the horizon.

Precision Composite Lattices In Bryce Using Grayscale: Bleachers

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Precision Composite Lattices In Bryce Using Grayscale: Bleachers

Author: Theresa Ford

* A Graphics Program

* Bryce 6.0

Support Files

* optional_adobe_files.zip

Introduction

This tutorial creates bleachers from two carefully designed and grouped lattices with custom terrain canvases. While the example is simple, understanding the 10x10x10 grid and applicable grayscale values provides the freedom to create a variety of custom objects. First, the profile of the bleachers is designed, creating solid benches and walkways. Then a front view is designed to cut out under the benches and add decorative text. Finally, these terrain canvases are applied to lattices in Bryce, with the lattices rotated and grouped to create the 3D bleachers. You should already know how to use your graphics program to precisely color and paint and how to save files and find where you saved them.

Step 1 - The Temporary Guide Grid

Create a 10×10 temporary guide grid, with guidelines as shown. The black square needs to be 512×512 pixels. This temporary guide grid will not be part of the terrain canvas, but is used to measure the height of the side view as well as the depth of the cutout. The numbers are not necessary - just the lines, so it's OK to use a 512×512 pixel new document.

Tip: Use Layers or your graphic program's built-in guides to keep the guide grid separate from the terrain canvases.

Step 2 - The Solid Part

This graphic is a side view of the bleachers where white is the solid part (benches, walkways) and black is the air. Exactly match the measurements. These same measurements will be used for the cutout. Use only 100% black and 100% white for this image.

Step 3 - NO ANTI-ALIAS

Zoom in at 600% and make sure there is no fuzziness. It should be only black and white. Any other grays, used to soften and smooth transitions between edges will ruin the terrain canvas. Correct as necessary.

Step 4 - Save the Solid Terrain Canvas

Save the 512×512 black and white terrain canvas as a GIF, Palette Exact, Colors 2, Forced Black and White, No Transparency, No Matte, No Dither, named as bleachers_solid_side.gif.

Step 5 - The Cutout

This next graphic is a front view of the bleachers and will be used as the terrain canvas on a negative lattice to remove under the benches and to create text. Black will remain part of the bleachers, while anything else is removed. The lighter the shade of grey, the farther toward the back it will cut, with 100% white going all the way through the object.

The bottom rectangle, for example, is 30% Brightness in HSB (which may be translated by the software to 29%, but it's close enough). That rectangle will cut 30% of the way from the front to the back and make a hole under the first bench.

The second rectangle has a 50% Brightness in HSB, and cuts back 50% off the way into the solid bleachers, and thus under the second bench, and so on (70%, 90%). Use 92% for the text to engrave it in the bleachers' back panel. The text is backward because when the cutout is folded onto the front of the bleachers (the right edge of cutout comes to the left side of the bleachers), the text will reverse.

The width of the black on the sides and bottom is arbitrary and forms the bench legs.

Step 6 - NO ANTI-ALIAS

Zoom in at 600% and make sure there is no fuzziness. It should be only black and white, and the exact grey percents of Brightness. Any other grays, used to soften and smooth transitions between edges will ruin the terrain canvas. Correct as necessary. This includes around the text.

Step 7 - Save the Cutout Terrain Canvas

Save the 512×512 black and white terrain canvas as a GIF, Palette Exact, Colors 7, Forced Black and White, No Transparency, No Matte, No Dither, named as bleachers_cutout_front.gif.

Step 8 - Create a New Lattice in Bryce

Open Bryce. Create a new symmetrical lattice.

With the lattice selected, click on E for Edit.

Click New, then Picture.

Open bleachers_solid_side.gif.

Step 9 - Remove black area and make solid

Click on the triangle at the upper right of the terrain canvas and check Solid. Click the check mark to accept the changes.

Step 10 - Solid Attributes

With the lattice selected, click on the A for Attributes.

Change the Object Attributes as shown, and click check to accept it.

Step 11 - Duplicate Lattice and Modify

With the lattice selected, press Ctrl+D to duplicate the lattice. Then repeat the steps to change the terrain canvas and edit attributes on the new lattice, using bleachers_cutout_front.gif and these attributes.

This rotates the two lattices correctly, in relation to each other. Because lattices are mirrored, we are only using half the cutout lattice, so it needs to be twice as deep. The cutout lattice's position is offset to center the cutout middle over the solid lattice's front edge.

Step 12 - Group and Render

Select both lattices and group them. Change the material and/or resize the group.

Render. The bleachers can now be converted to a boolean and then added as an object to the library.

Some Additional Exercises:

Make stairs for the bleachers by altering the Cutout terrain canvas.

Create raised arms for chairs on the benches.

Create text that is raised on the back board, not cut through.

Experiment with anti-aliased (softened) text.

Make bleachers connected at an angle.

Try making bookshelves and other 3D objects that would normally be made using primitive shapes.

Raging Seas of the "The Summoning"

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Raging Seas of the "The Summoning"

Author: Zhan

Tools Needed

Bryce 4 or 5

Introduction

I combined all the techniques I learned in doing the image 'The Summoning into this tutorial, it will only deal with how the raging sea was created. I will try to be as explicit as possible so the beginner and seasoned users both can utilize the infomation.

Step 1 - Creating the water terrain...

Create you first terrain, this will be your water so name it 'waterterrain1' or something similar this is important to do. Give it a large resolution in the terrain editor,

I used 1024×1024…and smooth, smooth, smooth, also make sure your terrain is not 'solid', I explain why later…

Adjust the height of the terrain map down so that it looks like rolling waves, rather than a mountain of water….

Step 2 - Appling the Seawater Materials

Now go to the materials lab and from the 'water and liquids' menu select 'foamy seawater'. Tweak the color so that it is more towards the green cast.

Step 3 - Duplication and Organization

Duplicating the Terrain to create the foam. By stacking layers of cloud terrains on top of the water terrains, you can create the illusion of foaming water. Duplicate the first terrain, name it 'foamterrain1'. Make it slightly taller than the original, and slightly lower down so that the peaks we will create show through the original.

Step 4 - Creating the foam effect

NEXT, go to the materials lab and change the 'foam' terrain's material to a cloud preset, I used marbled clouds, you can use weekend clouds or something fluffy and white, but make sure it's somewhat dense.

By adding lots and lots of 'basic noise' to the terrain and then cropping the bottom of the terrain until only the noisy peaks of terrain remain you create your 'foam'.To add noise, go to the terrain editor, I used a lower resolution on the foam terrain because it gave a more irregular pattern when the noise was added. You can experiment with this to get the 'look' you're after. This is still a little spikey so smooth as needed, remember to crop the bottom of the terrain, and your 'foam terrain' should look something like this…

Step 5 - Positioning your sea

Now you have your water and foam time to position them to look the way you want. Drop the foam down into the water, so as little, or as much, as you need shows for the foamy water look, tweak the foam some if you need to. Select both the water and the foam terrains, group them, name the group the same as the terrain. This will help you keep track of what's where, should they become ungrouped, you'll know which two go together. I also saved them to my object preset library. I did about three different ones and saved them so I'd save time, when I needed a wave….make some smaller ones with the foam shifted to one edge of the water terrain and group, and a few small ones of just the 'foam' to scatter where needed. We will need them when we assemble the scene. And you get roughly the above pictured effect…

Step 6 - Assembling the scene

Background waves…Start a new scene, select your sky, this sets your mood. I used one that was similar in feel to the one in the finished image. Place your rocks, shoreline, building, whatever you had in mind for the waves to break upon. Give the ground plane the water material you're using for the waves, this disguises any spaces that may appear between terrains. Start in the background and work forward, placing a large terrain as the background water, depending on your image, this is not absolutely necessary, however my image required it.

Step 7 - Assembling the scene cont...

Middle ground waves…As you place your water-foam terrains tilt them slightly to form troughs between the wave swells…In the middle ground I needed the bubbly effect of water over hidden rocks and so that terrain was left more bumpy. Below I have added additional terrains, as I move to the foreground of the scene.

Note: on a larger scale, they could be radicaly titlted, in keeping with the scope of hurricanes (just make the ships tiny).

Step 8 - Foreground waves, crashing surf and lighting

Work forward placing terrains until you're ready to place your breaking waves. Waves crashing on rocks with spray may be done by placing the small grouped water-foam terrain against the rocks. Spin the small water-foam terrain around so that it is concave (the reason for not making the terrains solid), experiment tilting them against the rocks until you get the look you want. Mass them for effect if needed…the more you have the beter it will look; it will increase your render time though….

This is when I did my lighting, I have a radial under the waves near the rocks and one above the waves in the same spot, I used a pale champagne color and a setting of 15. I know some do their lighting first, that's okay too, I needed to know where to highlight, so I waited till the end. Just render, and postwork any minor flaws in the waves…

Step 9 - Additional Effects

Additional effects can be had by shifting and tilting the foam terrain around on your water terrain, extreme clipping produced a small enough foam to use as 'blowing foam'. You can also tilt your water terrain on the x until it's almost vertical, and then elongate on the y, then tilt it back horizonal again for wind driven water (which also makes terrific landscape terrains)….try it out and just have fun…

I hope this was helpful and I wasn't too confusing, this was harder to do than the sea…Comments, misspellings and general confusion, e-mail me, zhannsartwerx@msn.com or zhannsplace@msn.com.

Recipe for River Valleys by Jen de la Cruz

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Recipe for River Valleys by Jen de la Cruz

Author: BryceContentCD

Tools Needed

Bryce
An image program

Introduction

In this tutorial we'll go over creating a mountain valley with a river that runs through it.

Step 1 - Introduction

Jen's Recipe for River Valleys

This is for all of you Brycers out there who have tried to fit mountains together just right to make a nice valley. Or, it's for any of you who just plain like rivers… and hey, if you didn't like rivers, you wouldn't be here, right?

(Picture of end result of recipe, plus texture and clouds.)

Ingredients:

Bryce 3D or higher

Adobe Photoshop (or another image program)

I used a Windows oven for this, but it should work in a Mac oven too. Extra detail on how to prepare ingredients is provided for beginners. Some experienced chefs could probably figure it all out from the pictures alone.

Step 2 - Creating the Mountains, pt I

First, preheat Adobe Photoshop to 512 degrees Fahrenheit.

Fire up Photoshop and create a new file with dimensions appropriate for a Bryce terrain. I usually don't go below 512 x 512 pixels, since I think that gives me the nicest winding river. I could always scale it down later to 256 or 124, if I so desired. For these examples I'll show small halfsize versions of the results for each step. Like this! (ooh, aah, blank image. Big thrill eh?)

Step 3 - Creating the Mountains, pt II

Next, use a black and white linear gradient.

Set your key colors (is that what they're called? I have no idea), to black and white. You know, the two at the bottom of the Tools window. It doesn't matter which is which.

Then, select the Gradient tool. That's the little white, gray and black rectangle beneath the T (text tool), if you've never used it before.

Doubleclicking on the gradient tool will call up the options dialog box. You want settings of… Normal, Opacity 100%, Gradient: Foreground to Background, Linear. Other settings will give you some interestingly strange valleys – experiment!

Anyway, use the gradient tool to create a shading from black to white in your terrain image. Basically, you drag a line across the center of the picture horizontally, and that's the range of your gradient. A longer line will give you a wider gradient and a more winding river… a more narrow line will give you a straighter river. Here's two examples, the top has a wider gradient, the bottom one is more narrow:

Step 4 - Creating the Mountains, pt III

Filter using Difference Clouds.

This is the fun part. Go to Filter (one of the choices at the top of the screen…), then go down to Render, then select Difference Clouds. BAM! Suddenly this looks a whole lot like a grayscale to height map, now doesn't it? Heh heh. That black, wavy line will be the river once you get this terrain into Bryce where it belongs.

If you don't like how your river turned out, just use Undo (Control-Z in Windows) to get your original gradient back. Or, reload, or re-drag the gradient, or whatever. Then redo the filter (Control-F is the hot key for this).

You get a different river every time you filter it! Ooooh, aaaah, neat ain't it.

I usually try it a few different times till I get a river I like. Here's the two gradients from above, filtered:

Save your chosen grayscale-to-height map as a .BMP (if you're using Windows. Mac uses, uhhh… a TIF or something).

Step 5 - In Bryce

When in Bryce, do as the Brycers do.

Now, finally, leave Photoshop and go to Bryce!

Make a terrain. Now, edit the terrain. This should open the Terrain Editor (wow!). See that grayscale map of the existing mountain? We're going to replace it with your river valley. There's three tabs at the top of the screen: Elevation, Filtering, and Pictures. Go to Elevation (you might already be there).

Click Picture. It's one of the buttons on the left, for you newbies. Now go find your river grayscale and open it. Voila! There it is! You can now do whatever else you might like to the terrain. Erode it, paint in details, whatever. It might need some editing around the edges, particularly.

Click the checkmark to accept the changes to the terrain, and go look at your new creation. If you want a longer river, you could just stretch the terrain in that direction.

Here's a rendering of the scene so far, from a viewpoint I liked. The river area might not be too visible, except in the foreground. You'll really be able to see it later, when there's water, of course.

Step 6 - Just add water

Just Add Water.

Of course you could just wing it from here, add a water plane and then move it to whatever level looks best. For you detail-oriented people, however, here's a more precise way of setting your ideal water level.

Select the valley terrain and go back into the terrain editor. Use the clipping bracket (waaay on the right side of the screen. Looks like a bracket. Neat, huh?), and pull it up at the bottom bit by bit. Gradually you'll see your intended river fill with color to indicate the area being clipped. Tweak this until your river's about the width you want it to be, then hit the checkmark to accept the changes.

Now, back in Bryce proper, what you want to do is go to a side view of your valley terrain. Don't use the trackball to do this – select the new viewpoint, using the view selection doohickey (just under the nano preview window). Zoom in so you get a nice close-up of the terrain. Can you see the flat, clipped bottom-edge of the terrain? If not… maybe it's underground or something. Turn Underground off, or just drag the valley terrain up a bit so you can see.

If you rendered the side view right now, it'll look something like this (depending on which side view you picked):

NOW, finally, create the water plane. It'll pop into being, probably rather higher than you want it to be. Use the Edit controls (or the Attributes dialog box) to move it on down so it's at the SAME level as your clipped bottom edge of the terrain. This will make the river fill the exact area you indicated through the terrain clipping.

Now if you rendered it in side view, it'll look vaguely like this:

Okay, now. Select your terrain again, edit it. Once again you see the valley from above with the clipped area marked by color. Drag the clipping bracket back to the original location, so that the terrain is no longer clipped at all. This way you still have the riverbed beneath the water surface. Click the checkmark and get out of side view so you can see the valley more normally again.

Step 7 - A River Runs Through It

Here's a test render from the same viewpoint used before, but now there's water. Doesn't look too bad, does it?

That's all, folks! Now add texture to your terrain and weather and so on and so on.

You know how to do all THAT stuff…. riiight?

Of course I chose a more aerial viewpoint so you can better see the river, but I could have gone on down and taken some eye level pictures too. It all depends what you're looking for, really.

Step 8 - Texture

Add Texture to taste. Serve and enjoy!

So, here's my final render of this example with textures and clouds.

Skies and Planets by Bjorn Mitz

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Skies and Planets by Bjorn Mitz

Author: BryceContentCD

Tools Needed

Bryce

Introduction

In this tutorial, we'll look at the Terrain Editor in order to create a space background.

Step 1 - Method 1, pt I

There are several ways to create universes and star backgrounds, the following will show you a few ways to do so.

First you click on the ground plane and delete it from the image. Then you click on the 'Sky and Fog' menu. Below the Create Menu and Image you click on the little arrow and choose Custom Sky. There you change the sky color from blue to black by clicking and holding down the left mouse button, then choose black.

Now you go to the 'Sky and Fog' menu options below and to the right of the Sun Control and click on the little arrow and then select the 'Edit Sky Fog' option. You are now in the 'Environmental Attributes' window. Click on the Atmosphere tab and set the Fog and Haze values all to 0 (zero). Click on the check mark to keep the changes and return to the main window. Now the sky is black without a horizon.

Now you create a cube from the Creation menu. Then you click on the 'M' button attached to the cube. This will take you to the Materials Lab, where you can choose the texture you want as a space background.

I use [cosmic volume, supplied on the CD] most times when making a universe image or an image that needs a space background. Enter the Materials Lab and import the Cosmic Volume.mat file into the category you want, in Bryce. You can also use Galaxy Volume or Nebulae Volume, also on the CD.

Step 2 - Method 1, pt II

When you have imported the Cosmic Volume, choose it as the texture for your cube. Click on the check mark and return to the main image view. Now click on the 'A' button attached to the cube and the 'Object Attribute' window pops up. Now change the size (those in red) in the x, y and z fields from 20.48 to 2048, (just remove the decimal sign). This is to have the same proportions of the cube when you make it larger.

Bryce is using it's own 'units' of measurements, and it is easier to work with objects like spheres, cubes and stretched cubes. You can use the basic size of 20.48 and calculate if you want the cube a bit larger. I use 20.48+20.48/2=30.72 and so on. Now click the check mark and you will end up with a cube with the size of 2048 x 2048 x 2048 in size. Your view will now be almost in the center of this cube and since it is a volume texture you are using, you are in the middle of your little universe image with stars and gas clouds all around you.

You may be satisfied with your image at this point. If you are not, there are other ways to make a space image or a background.

Step 3 - Method 2

Start as you made the above image but choose a stretched cube instead. Click on the 'A' for the attribute window and change only the size for the y and z value y to 4096 and z to 2048, leave the x value as it is. Now change the rotate value for the y angle to 45'. Click on the check mark to get back to the main view window and render your image.

Now you have an image of a nebulae cloud with some stars and other smaller gas clouds. You can change it before you render the image by moving the stretched cube, by using the arrow keys on your keyboard and moving the cube further away from you. Experiment and you will finally have a large universe image with many different nebulae clouds and other gas clouds and stars.

Step 4 - Method 3

Now to the easier way to make a space background, but one that you can't change and experiment as with the above examples.

Click on the 'Sky and Fog' menu as mentioned earlier and choose the custom sky option. Make the sky a black. Click on the lower right arrow beneath the sun control and choose the 'Edit Sky' option. Click on the Atmosphere tab and give the haze value 0(zero). Then select the SkyLab, and select the Sun and Moon tab. You will see more options, choose the starfield and comets by clicking once on them and then click on the check mark to get back to the main view window. Render your image.

You can also add stratus or cumulus clouds from the SkyLab. I often use cumulus clouds only since the stratus clouds very easily block the view of the sky. You can also change the amplitude and frequency of the cumulus clouds to 150-250. Experiment with different settings to see what you find looks best for your image.

Step 5 - Options

Now you know a great deal about making space images and space backgrounds. But there are more things you can do to make a more complex space scene. You can copy and paste the cube and move it further back into the image. You will see the effect enhances the image and it's complexity.

Step 6 - Advanced Options

To make it more advanced, change the colors of the texture itself. Click on the 'M' button attached to the cube, sphere or stretched cube and the Material Lab window. Make sure the 'Procedural Texture' is marked and click on the round button to enter the 'Texture Source Editor'.

Step 7 - Changing Colors

In the 'Deep Texture Editor' you can see the colors used for the Cosmic Volume. Click on the colored buttons in the 'Deep Texture Editor' and hold down the left mouse button to get a color scheme and choose the color you want to use in the texture. When you are finished with your choice of colors, click on the lower right check mark to go back to the main view window.

Step 8 - Conclusion

If you are satisfied with your choice of colors you start rendering the image.

I hope this little tutorial can help you on your way to make universe and space backgrounds for your scenery. Experiment and have fun!

Using REAL Terrain In Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using REAL Terrain In Bryce

Author: Talon

Tools Needed

* Bryce 6.0

* 3DEM

* GeoTIFF4

* Internet Explorer

Support Files

*NED_32902575.zip

Step 1: Visit http://seamless.usgs.gov

This is the best place I have found to gather the information needed to generate unseamed terrain for use in your renders. There are other locations to get free data, and they require fewer steps to be able to use them in Bryce, but for this tutorial, I wanted to use the new feature of Bryce that allows an import of an image to create your terrain.

Step 2: United States or International

Select the geographical location of the terrain that you wish to use for your render.

I will be using United States for this example.

Step 3: Wait Patiently... (I said the site was slow)

Step 4: Selecting Your Area

Once that page loads, you are now ready to start selecting the area what you actually want. You can change the way that the maps are viewed, but I will not go into that with this tutorial. They have provided a nice tutorial on their site that will explain how to use their mapping system if you wish to read it. I read some of it, and the information found here is what I deemed as important to relay.

Using the navigation system on the left..

Window Zoom and create a window for the area to zoom into.. Get as close as you can to the area that you wish to capture. You can zoom to a point (by using longitude, latitude) by clicking on the little XY button under the ZOOM section. A simple and quick Google search with the right query will get you the information that you need. IE: “Mount Rainer Coordinates”

It is HIGHLY suggested that you go in as far as possible. downloading the state of Colorado ended up being just shy of 1GB. ;)

Step 5: Selecting Your Data To Download

Once you have zoomed in close enough, there is a section in the navigation area called “downloads”.

I suggest using the first option (pick download area).

After clicking the download area option, you will then be able to select the exact area that you will be downloading. select the area by clicking the top left corner of the area, then drag to the bottom left corner.

Wait…

Another window will come up with a summary of the area that you will be downloading.

Step 6: Modifying Data Request

From here you can change the format of the data that you wish to download. I will hold no responsibility from any “VEERING” from my directions :)

Find the section that is checked off on the left.

“National Elevation Dataset (NED) 1 Arc Second)”

It is my understanding that the 1 Arc Second is the resolution or the detail involved with the files we are about to retrieve. Below the option checked you will see 1/3 Arc Second and 1/9 Arc Second. all I have downloaded were the 1 Arc Second files, and I have found them to be plenty sufficient for my projects. Again - I hold no responsibility for “VEERING”.

The data format type that you will want to select is GeoTIFF. GeoTIFF is the only way I have found without having the higher end software packages, to perform this process for free. Leave the rest unless you want to deal with tar/gz files. I use ZIP for my retrieval process.

Once you have made the changes (data format to GeoTIFF) scroll to the bottom and click the button “Save Changes and Return to Summary”.

NOTE: If you have selected a larger area (Like the state of Colorado for example) you may wish to change the Maximum size (MB) per piece. But if you zoomed in closely like I suggested, your file size is fine by default.

Step 7: Finalizing Your Download

You should now be back to the summary page.

Notice the change in output format.

Click Download and a new window will pop up.

Wait… it is doing something, trust me.

Eventually (depending on the file size) you will get a windows save file dialog.

Save your file, and extract it. No tutorial for this part. :) If you don't know, RTM. ;)

Step 8: Examining The Download

Within my archive is a file called “NED_32902575.tif”. yours will be named differently as the server generates random numbers to give you. But the initial “NED_” and the file extension will be the same. This file will be the focus for the next parts of the tutorial.

You can close the USGS site now, it will just sit there and continue to gobble up resources if you don't.

Step 9: Download and Install 3DEM

Visit - http://www.visualizationsoftware.com/3Dem.html and download the software called “3DEM”. The version I have is 19.2. I don't foresee an update to the software soon, so you should be using the same software that I am.

Install and Launch 3DEM. (Again no tutorial - RTM)

Step 10: Using 3DEM To Prep Your Terrain

From 3DEM - click File - Load Terrain Model.

Select GeoTIFF DEM (Top Right option) Then click OK. Select the tif file mentioned earlier.

This will give you an overhead view of the map you saved.

Click on “Operation” - “Change Projection” - “Convert to UTM Projection”. I won't go into detail as to why - It's a LOOOOONG STORY. But trust me on this one.

Set it to NAD83. Again - I won't go into detail as to why - It's a LOOOOONG STORY. But trust me on this one.

This will change the proportions of the DEM you downloaded from the USGS website.

Click “File” - “Save GeoTIFF DEM” - Click OK on the warning message. We know what we are doing :)

Type the name of the file and Click save. I would not recommend overwriting the original file. You may need it just in case. DO NOT CLOSE 3DEM! We still need it open.

Click On “Operation” - “Show DEM Specs”

This information is needed to complete the process. If you choose to write it down somewhere, feel free. I find it was just easier with a dual monitor setup to keep it open and refer back to it later.

Step 11: Download and Install GEOTIFF4

Visit - http://www.terrainmap.com/

You will need an application called “GEOTIFF4”.

It is freely available by clicking on the link toward the top of the page. This is a nice site with a wealth of information if you are interested.

Install and Launch GEOTIFF4.

Step 12: Using GEOTIFF4 To Convert Your Terrain

Once the application is started you will see this screen.

Make sure “Generate ASTER Image” is checked. It is by default.

Click on “File” - “Open”. Select the new file you created with 3DEM. Click OK on the information screen. You will see the file is now loaded.

the information on the screen from 3DEM is what you will need in the boxes at the bottom of GEOTIFF4.

Elevation Posting (m) = Leave this alone

SW Corner Longitude (UTM (m)) = the first number in the East Coordinates.

SW Corner Latitude (UTM (m)) = the first number in the North Coordinates.

UTM Zone = The Coordinate Type (Number Only)

That is all you need to move forward.

Populate the information. (I'll wait for you)

Ok - I'm moving on.. you should be done by now.

Click “Run” - “Run GEOTIFF4”

Kind of odd.. I know.. but I'm not complaining. He made this process possible.

Wait Patiently… There is a progress bar at the right to let you know it's working.

A large grayscale image will pop up once this process is complete. Along with another dialog box. I ignore the dialog box it, because I don't need the information. I just need the generated “ASTER” image.

Click OK on the dialog box, and close the “ASTER Image” display window.

Click “File” - “Save Image” - “Save ASTER Image”

Change the filetype to Windows Bitmap Files.

Save your file.

Step 13: Ready For Bryce?

You can now close GEOTIFF4 and 3DEM.

Fire Up Bryce…

Create A New Terrain…

Modify Your Terrain…

Under your editing tools there is a button that is labeled “Picture”.

Click that button and load the bitmap that you just created.

Notice your terrain?

Apply your changes.

Step 14: In Bryce

If you have done everything correctly, you should see a 3D version of the terrain you found at the USGS website.

I know it's a lot of utilities needed to do this, but it is the BEST way that I have found.

Using Water Terrains in Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using Water Terrains in Bryce

Author: thedanman

Tools Needed

Bryce (5)

Support Files

WaterTerrains.zip

Introduction

Create realistic looking flowing water effects using terrains in Bryce. This is particularly useful to create a fountain effect of water coming out of a source.

Step 1 - Create a water terrain

Using whatever scene you wish (for simplicity sake this tutorial is illustrated from a cylinder primitive doubling as a fountain) create a terrain using the primitives option. This will wrap around your object as the water flowing from it.

Using the materials editor of the terrain, set the terrain's texture to any water that you wish to use.

Step 2 - Use the terrain editor to wrap your water terrain

Use the terrain editor to wrap your water terrain to the object of preference. Make height contrasts sharp and color in the height gradient according to your object's shape. Here I have filled in a white circle to wrap over the cylinder primitive in my scene. The 3D Preview will assist you in vizualizing your progress

Step 3 - Wrap your water terrain over your object

Wrap your water terrain that you have just created over your object. Note that you can keep the bottom edges visible as this will produce a bit of bubbling and frothing to look more realistic.

Step 4 - Render your image

Change any positioning / texture settings as need to tweak your water's appearance

Step 5 - Viola! Gushing Waters

And there you have it - gushing waters from a holeless well… okay, you can use something that looks more realistic, but the water that you created looks really good, and it was done very simply! Enjoy.

Your Conworld in 3D: A Bryce Tutorial

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Your Conworld in 3D: A Bryce Tutorial

Author: Kemp Sparky

Tools Needed

* Bryce

* Paint Program

* Map

Introduction

Have you ever gotten the urge to take that nice 2D map you made for your fantasy world and make it 3D? Or maybe you just want your Bryce landscape to follow those mountain ridges and shorelines you crafted so carefully. Maybe you even want to make a landscape from a book, like Tolkien's Middle Earth, or McCaffrey's Pern. Well, then, this is the tutorial for you!

Step 1 - Separating the Ocean from Landmasses

Step 1A: First, open the map in your paint program. I'll be using Aetherius, the Island of the Gods, from my own Conworld of Middangeard.

Step 1B: Select the part of your map that represents the ocean (yes, I realize that can be more easily said than done, depending on your map and your paint program). Turn that part of the map black. You'll also want to get rid of anything you won't need. That means the map key and the reef for this example.

Step1C: Invert your selection and copy. Paste this twice, you should have two layers of the map. Give your map's edges a wide enough berth that nothing will find itself cut short in the next step (and make sure it's square!).

Step 1D: Turn the top layer white copy this layer.

Step 1E: Blur it until you have a nice, gradual grayscale edge around the coastline, and paste the original white layer on top of it. Now, if you imported this into Bryce as a terrain map, you'd have your coasts. But we're after more than that.

Step 2 - Detailing your Terrain Map

Step 2A: Before we go any further, you'll need to decide what resolution you're using. Are you doing this for a bird's eye view 3D map, or a landscape. If you're using it for a landscape, you might want to use gigantic or planetary resolution depending on the square mileage of your map (watch out, these eat memory.) In that case, you might want to consider doing only a small portion of your map. For a 3D map, I like to use massive, but you could go smaller or larger, just depends on how much detail you want out of it. Resize what you've got so far to match the resolution you'll need.

Step 2B: Because mountains are going to be the highest features of the landscape, and water the lowest, we need to turn this base layer grey. Turn it to around 50%.

Step 2C: Now, remember that second landmass layer before the whiteness steps? Bring that back to the top. This is for reference as to where the features of the island are. You could paint over it to make the details, or if you're not that confident painting them yourself, you could open pre-made terrain maps and paste them in.

Step 2D: Now that you've got a few terrain maps and a guideline, begin to paste mountainous shapes over the mountains marked on your map. As you can see in the image below, I used mostly the same terrain map, and didn't take much care in placement–you should take your time! I'm trying to write a tutorial here! Regardless, your map should now look similar to mine at this time.

Step 2E: We've got mountains now, it's time for Bryce! Not quite yet. Remember your rivers and lakes? Well, you're going to need to paint your rivers (on a new layer), so bring your original landmass layer back to the top and paint your rivers and lakes black. Copy the layer with your lakes and rivers on it, and paste it, blur it for a nice Gaussian edge, and save your work. You're done in your paint program for now, but don't worry, we'll be coming back.

Step 3 - Into Bryce

Step 3A: Open a new document, I'd set it to max recommended resolution to begin with, create a new terrain, and a new water plane. Click the “E” that appears beside the selected terrain. Once the terrain editor has loaded, click the “pictures” tab in the editing tools window. Click the word “load” above the first square in the window that appears. Navigate to your recently saved terrain map, and open it. Now click the word “copy” beneath the square that now depicts a thumbnail of your map. Click “paste” under the second square. Under the third square, there is a triangle. Click the triangle and a list of functions appears. Choose one of these, I used “subtract, ” but you may wish to use a different function. Click “Apply” to see a preview of your work. You may wish to play around with the tools found under the elevation tab to improve your terrain. If anything goes wrong you can always go back to the “Pictures” tab and hit “Apply” to start anew. Click the big check mark to go back to the main preview screen. Reposition your terrain if necessary until only the areas you want above water can be seen above the water plane. Change the materials of your terrain and water plane if you want, I used “greenery” for my island, and hit the render button.

Step 3B: Hey, I've been gypped! I've got deserts, and scrubland, and rocky mountains… it's all green! Well, how do we remedy this? Back to the paint program. Put your original landmass layer back on top. Now, paint anything that isn't desert black. That's most of my map. Make the part that IS the desert, white. Save your transparency map as something like “DesertTrans.”

Step 3C: Back to Bryce. Duplicate the terrain (select terrain, Ctrl+D) select the new terrain and click the “M” to open the material editor. Pick a nice, desert material, I used Desert 1. Click on one of the empty circles next to “Transparency” in the material editor (#1). Now click on the triangle in the upper right corner (#2) and select “Blend Transparency.” Now go down to the box that appeared when you clicked the blue button for Transparency, it should be at the bottom of the list of boxes on the right. Click on the “P” on the bottom of the box (#3) and then hit the pink button above it. The pink button takes you to the picture editor. Click the black circle above the picture of the DaVinci guy, it'll ask you if you're sure you want to delete, click “delete.” Now, above the second box, click “Load, ” and navigate to your desert trans map. Click the check and the bottom right corner which takes you back to the material editor. click the check in the material editor to get back to the main preview window. Now you have to move the desert terrain above the base terrain, so you can see it. Click the “A” to get to Object Attributes, and change its position along the “Y” coordinates slightly. I changed mine from 29.70 to 29.72. Now when you render, you'll see the desert patch where you put it. Not exactly my ideal material, but you get the idea. Now do the same for all the other different areas of your map.

Step 4 - Final Touches

You can add a bit of shine to your map by adding buildings, cities, bridges, and extra details to the terrain map. Just have fun with it, and watch it evolve into a cool addition to your rpg, fansite, book, or whatever you want it for!

Your Conworld in 3D: City Maps in DAZ Studio and Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Your Conworld in 3D: City Maps in DAZ Studio and Bryce

Author: Kemp Sparky

Tools Needed

* Paint Program

* Bryce

* DAZ Studio

* Desired Building Models/Props

Introduction

After receiving several requests for a tutorial on the subject, I have decided to relent to popular demand, and write this tutorial, which will show you, in essence, how to create city maps for fantasy worlds in Bryce and/or DAZ Studio.

Step 1 - The Map

Open your map in your favorite paint program. This (fig.1) is mine, I know, it's a masterpiece, and it could never be improved upon. Make sure you've got your map centered on a square canvas and begin by painting the roads white, and all other areas black (fig. 2). Once this is done, copy it and save it separately, you'll need it later. Now turn the document negative, and even out the difference between your roads and your ground, so that the roads are slightly depressed (fig. 3). You could also paint darker lines around the roads for drainage ditches if you so desire. If your citadel has a moat around it, or a river running through it, paint the water black. You may also want to mark the locations of other features, such as buildings, trees, walls, or, as in my case, sewer access, to guide you when it is time to insert them, but keep in mind that these will only be temporary, so save a version with, and without them. I chose to have the land bulge a little bit for trees and walls and a slight indentation for the buildings and manholes. (fig. 3)

Step 2 - Into Bryce

In Bryce, create a new terrain, click the “E” to open the terrain editor. Apply the height map including your building placeholders to the terrain.

Step 3 - Adding the Buildings

If your buildings are poser props rather than Bryce Objects, you might find it easier to position them using DAZ Studio. If this is the case, export the new terrain to a Wavefront object (*OBJ), naming it something like “cityterraindummy.obj”. Click on the DAZ Studio icon to open DAZ Studio. Import the dummy terrain and begin to place your buildings in the indentations of the terrain, you may need to scale the buildings in order for them to fit into the spaces. This will help to vary the buildings if your models are limited. I used models from the Castle Creator and Medieval City by Faveral, and the Village Blacksmith and Courtyard by Redhouse Studios (all available at DAZ) foremost among others.

Step 4 - Back into Bryce

Import the models into Bryce. Replace the height map (which includes the placeholders for buildings and other features) on the terrain with the height map you saved earlier with only the roads and waterways (unless you like the effect of the previous map). Texture your terrain and duplicate it. In “Attributes, ” rename this new terrain “Roads, ” and move it slightly above the original terrain. Choose a new texture for this terrain, a nice cobbled or dirt road texture. We're not done in the material editor yet, click on a clear channel next to transparency. Click the little blue “P, ” and then the pink dot above that, to open the picture editor. Click the black circle above the picture of “Leo, ” it'll ask you if you're sure you want to delete, click “delete.” Now, above the second box, click “Load, ” and navigate to the road transparency map I told you to save at the very beginning. Click the check and the bottom right corner which takes you back to the material editor. Click the grey triangle that reads “Material Options” when you mouse over it and select “Blend Transparency.” You should now have a material preview similar to mine (fig. 5). That should take care of the roads. You may also want to make similar transparency maps for other differences in the terrain, for example, grassy areas and dusty, well trodden areas. Position your imported buildings, and insert and position your water planes, trees and so forth.

Step 5 - Alternatives and Tips

If you're having trouble importing your models into Bryce due to low memory, as I did, you should try importing only a few of the models at a time. Save the scene file that includes all of your props for later, then, depopulate your scene. Try deleting all models but those of a certain type, such as all wall segments, all vegetation, or all houses. Save a separate scene file for each group of props. Import each scene one at a time into Bryce.

If you aren't comfortable using Bryce for the final render, export the terrain as a Wavefront object in high resolution, with all applicable material settings. Import the object into DAZ Studio. In all probability, the exported texture maps will be less than satisfactory, but they will be useful as templates and resources for improvement. You can use this terrain for the road and any other necessary layers–apply your transparency maps and material settings as you would in Bryce, or paint it all directly on the texture map. I did a combination of both, painting everything on the base terrain, but having a separate layer for the roads. You may have to do several renders, each containing different models, try the same technique as above for importing models into Bryce, starting with the terrain layers, and rendering objects closest to the ground first, using the previous render as a backdrop; or you could render it in low quality, I could render my complete scene by using the OpenGL preview render setting.

Step 6 - Final Notes

My final map (low-res, unretouched version) is below (it looked better before resizing, I promise!), still a decided improvement over my former, elementary MS Paint map.

I fully expect you to put these techniques and tips to great use. Feel free to E-Mail me if you have any questions, and if you find these tutorials useful, I would love to see your work!

Your Conworld in 3D: Tunnel System Maps

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Your Conworld in 3D: Tunnel System Maps

Author: Kemp Sparky

Tools Needed

* Bryce

* Paint Program

Introduction

What's a quest without underground misadventures, or disused sewers full of unsavory beasts? I will show you how you can add these caverns or tunnels to your growing archive of maps. This tutorial follows my City Map tutorial, and follows my progress as I begin to create a tunnel system map to add to my last project, the Liath Barad city map.

Step 1 - The Map

As always, the first step is to create and prepare your map. If your tunnel system, as most do, lay beneath another structure, such as a city or mountain range, which it must follow and match, then you will want to open the maps that you did for that structure first. Thus, you lay (or paint) your tunnel map over this map on a new layer, and match each landmark in the tunnels to its corresponding landmark above. Once the basic layout for the tunnels is complete, you will need to refine the map. First things first: The tunnels will need to be painted in black, at least preliminarily. You can also have varying levels or heights of tunnels, by making some tunnels (the higher ones) lighter than the others. Tunnels come in two sorts: natural or roughly hewn, and man-made, well-crafted tunnels. They may also include pesky things called stairs and inclines connecting them or leading out of them. Each of these features (as well as a few more), for the sake of ease-of-use, will be divided into separate steps.

Step 2 - Man-made Tunnels

These are the easiest to make, Simply draw a crisply cut line where the tunnel appears. That should do it. Of course you could always add little extra details like alcoves and so on, by adding indentations of black.

Step 3 - Rough Tunnels

If your tunnels are rough hewn, or natural, I suggest making the tunnels less well-shaped, and the floor less distinguished. This is best taught by example, so, shall we skip the wordy explanation and get straight to the demonstrative image?

Step 4 - Stairs

Stairs are fairly simple. The hardest part is getting the shades (heights) right, but that is something that is best decided by trial and error, or mathematics (see further down the paragraph for approximations). You make stairs with rectangles. Copy a rectangle from your map, and make it white, size it to your preference. Copy and paste the same rectangle and move it down until its top edge touches the previous rectangle's bottom edge, repeat the process until your staircase has enough steps, this will vary depending on factors such as: how high is the ceiling of the tunnel? how steep is the staircase? and so on. When you are done, it will look like you have nothing more than a white line on your terrain map. Great. Now you have to change their brightness to create a gradient that will make your staircase rise in the height map. How? A good way to do it is mathematically. This is a formula that works for me: 100 ' number of stairs. My paint program's brightness scale is based on 100 to -100, with 0 as current. So, if I have 5 stairs, I would have my stairs get progressively darker as they go down by -20 (ex 0, -20, -40, -60, -80). But don't worry if they aren't exactly even, as long as they look good applied to the terrain, they'll serve their purpose.

Step 5 - Inclines

Inclines are simple. It is just a gradient going from your darkest color to your lightest color (black and white). Gradients are easy to achieve with most paint programs including all of the free ones I have used (excluding, of course, MS Paint). If you don't want your incline to go all the way to the top, say, instead of exiting the tunnel system you want to go from one lower tunnel to a slightly higher tunnel, just take the color of the higher tunnel's floor, and have that fade to black (or whatever color the lower tunnel's floor happens to be) instead of white.

Step 6 - Hidden Doorways

If you're like me, you have what we call hidden passages around your tunnel system. We can't just leave them open for all to confuse for regular passages. So, you build up an obstruction in the path where one of these hidden areas appear on the map. You can really do this any way you want. I chose to make the obstruction slightly darker than the white of the ceiling to depress it and make it distinguishable from the surrounding ceiling. I also left a tiny crack between the obstruction and the wall to denote its relative instability. You may also want to place these where there are doors in your tunnels, minus the space between it and the walls. Further instruction in step 7.

Step 7 - Into Bryce

This is the moment of truth. Create a new terrain and apply your map in the terrain editor. Play with the dials, I always like to add a little bit of extra noise and erosion to it, to help give it that rocky, sinister feel. Once you're happy with the result, exit the terrain editor and do a trial render. If you're not happy with it, first, try texturing it and then rendering it, a nice material really can do the trick. Be careful your material isn't too dark, you can lose all your terrain's detail in dark textures. However, this is the time to make any tweaks you need to, whether it is in the terrain editor, or in the paint program.

Step 8 - Bells and Whistles

After the model has been textured, you should add any extra models or props you need to give your map just the right touch of detail. I've added a few ladders, some spiral staircases, and furniture to the rooms therein that required it. I also scattered a few useless, but aesthetically pleasing or amusing touches, like the rusty, scattered armor; the bones; and the abandoned sword (several of which could even be made useful by a future Game Master). You may need to export your tunnel terrain as a Wavefront object for importing into DAZ Studio for some of your props, as I did.

Step 9 - Finite

The time has come for your final render. It may still need some work, but regardless, you'll be well on your way to having a tunnel map perfect for your uses, whatever they may be.

Step 10 - Tips and Alternatives

When I did my city map, I liked the way it came out better in DAZ Studio, and since my tunnel system map was complementary to my city map, I exported my tunnel terrain as an *OBJ and imported it to the same scene file as my city, lined up my new terrain with the old, and, deleting all the models of the previous scene, rendered my tunnel map to the same specifications as I had my city map, so that they would match perfectly.

If you need a lot of detail in your terrains, and your tunnel system is too big to keep detail in your terrain map, try doing it in pieces. It isn't easy to get them all locked in the right places, but it will look better in the end than it would have with just the one 1600×1600 px terrain map.

Bryce Tutorials

2011-11-01T17:42:12+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Bryce Tutorials

DAZ 3D encourages you to upload your tutorials here to the ArtZone Wiki so that they have a permanent home and are hosted on our servers. If you do upload your tutorials, please add them to the appropriate software category and create sub-pages/categories as needed. If, for some reason, you do not want to host your tutorials here, please add links to external tutorials in the appropriate categories as well.