Digital Art Zone

electro-elvis - 06 October 2012 11:27 AM

I played a bit around with abstract backgrounds. All bryce 7.1 Pro except the writing, that’s photoshop and the woman of course (that’s DAZ)

Good work here. The backdrop fits nicely. I like how the lady i lit. Very good looking.

GussNemo - 06 October 2012 10:57 PM

Someone on another site I visit asked if background in a Bryce image can be rendered transparent.  Kind of hard to shrug ones shoulders online, but I did.  Not knowing whether or not it could I went into the MatLab and beginning playing around.  I never got a transparent background but I did get this rather interesting render.  Looks like I’ve something else to experiment on.

No the background can’t be rendered as transparent as far as I know.
What you can do however is render using the ‘Object Mask’ setting in the render options drop down menu. This can then be imported into an Alpha Channel in which ever picture editing software you do any post work in. That then effectively gives you the transparent background.

GussNemo - 06 October 2012 10:57 PM

Someone on another site I visit asked if background in a Bryce image can be rendered transparent.  Kind of hard to shrug ones shoulders online, but I did.  Not knowing whether or not it could I went into the MatLab and beginning playing around.  I never got a transparent background but I did get this rather interesting render.  Looks like I’ve something else to experiment on.

What do you exactly mean by a transparent background? You can render a mask of the objects and use it eliminate the background and add in another background in a graphics application.

Thank’s TheSavage64 and Horo.
I do appreciate any comments.

@Dave:  Thank you for the information.

@Horo:  I’m not exactly sure what a transparent background is, Horo.  The lady who asked me the question, showed me an image of my pull toy without any background applied.  All that was displayed was the pull toy against the default posting window.  It was as though she had taken a pair of scissors and cut out the pull toy image.  She did all this using PhotoShop, but also noted that when a background is removed through PhotoShop the edges have to be cleaned up.

She was wondering if an image could be rendered in Bryce so that when it’s taken into PhotoShop less work would be required removing the background and cleaning up the edges.  A mask sound like it might work for what she wants, but I’ve never done this so I’m not sure of all the what/when/how/etc. of making one.  I also question how it should be saved so it can be used by others using other graphic programs.

On another note…

Thank you all very much for your kind and generous comments!  There are so many incredible renders in this thread that there is no way I can possibly keep up and comment on every one, but rest assured I do see and appreciate them all!

@Ken Gilliland

thank you for the compliment suggesting that the pink afternoon of pelicans in flight would be a suitable candidate for your contest. It looks very interesting and the prizes are very tempting. I plan to practise more!

Thank you all for looking at my renders and for encouraging respones. I had downloaded an Adobe uprgrade that thoroughly messed up my internet and graphics situation so as to be unuseable.I lost track of the dicussion threads.  Thankfully my “inhouse guru” was able to restore my system. I tried something completely off topic Friday and Saturday between acrylic painting class and a workshop in sewing a book together. So I had to get back to the birds. Here is a Brown pelican,one of Ken Gilliland’s birds and pose. Oops, editied to add the artist’s name for the “Wooden River Bridge” by Sergiy Dobrovolskyy/1971s/Rendo.

Just had an idea for doing broken objects. This is only a rough image and not very accurate
but it’s not posted to be assessed. Just made it quick and simple.
The broken ashtray object was made with the grooves for the cigarettes as negative cylinders on
a positive cylinder. Then a negative mountainous terrain turned on it’s side was used to make the break.
When grouping them together the terrain makes the jagged edge.
Doing it this way meant using 2 ashtrays, 1 for the large part and one for the smaller broken off part.
The 2 parts don’t match completely accurately but I’ve only just started using this method.
The mug was done the same way. I just need to work out a way to create the little broken shards
that would naturally fall off during the break.

GussNemo - 07 October 2012 04:27 PM

She was wondering if an image could be rendered in Bryce so that when it’s taken into PhotoShop less work would be required removing the background and cleaning up the edges.  A mask sound like it might work for what she wants, but I’ve never done this so I’m not sure of all the what/when/how/etc. of making one.  I also question how it should be saved so it can be used by others using other graphic programs.

What you’d have to do is do a regular render of the object, then select just the object and choose ‘Object Mask’ in the render options and render again. This time you’ll see a black and white render with the background black and the object white.
Save the Object Mask render in which ever file format you prefer really (I use .tif) and save it with the real render.

Then open the real render up in Photoshop and you have several choices;
Using the ‘Channels’ tab, create a new channel and then import the Object Mask render into it. This will then enable you to save the picture in a format that supports alpha channels or alternatively in the top menu under ‘Select’ there is an option to ‘Load Selection’. Set the ‘Source’ to alpha channel it will put a selection around the object for you (because it uses the Object mask render to know where the edges of the object are). You can then reverse the selection and hit delete to erase the background in the real render, or turn the selection into a path (in the ‘Paths’ tab. Then save the Path and make it a ‘Clipping Path’. This enables the picture to be saved in several formats for use in other graphic and page makeup applications (In Design, Quark Express etc.) with a transparent background.

Alternatively, you can create a layer mask and import the Object Mask render into that, this will make the background transparent without having to actually delete it. Then you can place a different background picture on another layer beneath it.

Cleaning up edges is unnecessary, if it’s a bit pixelated, you can feather the edges of the object mask.

If you choose creating an Alpha Channel in Photoshop, you can then save the picture out as a .gif along with it’s alpha channel and when displayed on the internet, it will have a transparent background like you described when the other person posted it.

@Ice:  I really like the image.  Nice job.

@Stuart:  That is a very interesting process.  Even though it’s still a WIP what you’ve done is really good.  Since you’re using terrains to make the breaks, could you also use terrains to make the broken pieces of the mug?  For the small pieces from the mug make mounds that are eroded and resized.  As for the large piece, duplicate that area then make it positive or neutral?  Just some thoughts I had looking at your post and the image.

@Dave:  Thanks for all that information, Dave.  I personally don’t use PhotoShop, but if she’s used it for any length of time she should be able to do what you’ve described with the image and mask.  I did get a mask created, twice in fact.  I’m still getting used to black being transparent.  I was trying to use GIMP to make my own transparency, but I haven’t learned enough about GIMP to get it done.

@Gussnemo - Thanks for the reply and suggestions. I will have a go and see what I can do with it.

@iceScribe - Nice to sea a see bird near the sea, the one’s I see most are seagulls flying around urban areas, following ploughing tractors or scavenging around rubbish tips.

Just a short question, is there any way to change the time to the correct UK time on the forum.
I noticed it says I posted this at 2:34 A.M. but it was actually 9:34 A.M.

Thanks TheSavage64 to explain it to GussNemo, That is, what I meant. The mask can also be slightly blurred so you don’t have to feather. I use calculate option in HDRShop for adding 2 images with a mask. I think it is the easiest way to do it.

IceScribe - 07 October 2012 07:40 PM

Thank you all for looking at my renders and for encouraging respones. I had downloaded an Adobe uprgrade that thoroughly messed up my internet and graphics situation so as to be unuseable.I lost track of the dicussion threads.  Thankfully my “inhouse guru” was able to restore my system. I tried something completely off topic Friday and Saturday between acrylic painting class and a workshop in sewing a book together. So I had to get back to the birds. Here is a Brown pelican,one of Ken Gilliland’s birds and pose. Oops, editied to add the artist’s name for the “Wooden River Bridge” by Sergiy Dobrovolskyy/1971s/Rendo.

The pelican and the bridge look really good, composition as well. I’m not so enthusiastic about the water.

StuartB4 - 07 October 2012 08:34 PM

Just had an idea for doing broken objects. This is only a rough image and not very accurate
but it’s not posted to be assessed. Just made it quick and simple.
The broken ashtray object was made with the grooves for the cigarettes as negative cylinders on
a positive cylinder. Then a negative mountainous terrain turned on it’s side was used to make the break.
When grouping them together the terrain makes the jagged edge.
Doing it this way meant using 2 ashtrays, 1 for the large part and one for the smaller broken off part.
The 2 parts don’t match completely accurately but I’ve only just started using this method.
The mug was done the same way. I just need to work out a way to create the little broken shards
that would naturally fall off during the break.

Not sure, it’s a while ago since I experimented with this. I would try to copy the broken object and in the copy, swap positive and negative parts.