WIP THREAD FOR NEW USERS CONTEST, February 2013.

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  • frank0314frank0314 Posts: 13,380
    edited December 1969

    Sasje, that looks great

  • Tramp GraphicsTramp Graphics Posts: 2,404
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    WIP THREAD FOR NEW USERS CONTEST, February 2013.
    Sponsored by DAZ 3D and David Brinnen & Horo

    "Designing a landscape"

    This thread is intended to be used to share your progress or possible final submissions with the members of the community as well as those running the contest. Please feel free to post your images for advice and tips, to get feedback, or to even just simply show off your hard work! :) Throughout the month myself and others will be popping in to give help and advice as you work to make your creative visions for the contest come to life.

    We are concentrating on using Bryce this month, as it is the program in the DAZ 3D stable of programs most often used for creating terrains and landscapes. Many of you will have downloaded it when it was free, and now we will help you get to grips with using it. Intent: To produce an environment that can be used as it is in Bryce or rendered out to use as a background image for use in Daz Studio or Poser.We will also talk about transferring it from Bryce to Daz Studio using the built in bridge.
    We have people standing by to give you hints and tips varying from how to get your orignal terrain into the working panel to how to edit it to a lesser or greater degree, depending on what you wish to acheive.
    Bryce is very simple to use to produce a simple terrain, but we will try and guide you through how to customise it and add other features so that you can produce a useful and useable background for your scene, and eventually maybe even a landscape that is complete in itself. Most important thing to remember is that we want you to have fun and learn at the same time.
    David Brinnen has made a tutorial video to help you in getting started Bryce 20 minute beginners project - simple landscape - a tutorial by David Brinnen

    "We would like to thank David Brinnen and Horowho have graciously decided to sponsor this month’s contest" They will be awarding a special prize to the winners of this month’s contest. To view some of David Brinnen and Horo items please see their store fronts here David Brinnen's Store & Horo's Store
    This is less a question about the contest and more about a statement made in the contest rules, namely: "We will also talk about transferring it from Bryce to Daz Studio using the built in bridge" It was my understanding that you couldn't send a Bryce scene into Daz Studio 4 over the bridge, only from DS to Bryce. Has this somehow changed? I have Daz Studio 4.0 Pro and Bryce 7 on a 1.83 GHz Mac Mini. It's this limitation which has kept me from delving into Bryce in the first place.
  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Some elements will transfer over, and some won't. Some will need quite a bit of tweaking, hence why I said we will talk about it, if anyone brings the subject up, as you have just done.

  • kittenwyldekittenwylde Posts: 151
    edited December 1969

    That's something I'm very interested in, too. Think I've gotten things to transfer properly between Studio and Bryce all of once. Well, it might have been twice, but I know for sure it happened once.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Yeah, I need to read up on it myself, or find someone who knows, as I don't actually use DS myself :red:

  • foleyprofoleypro Posts: 458
    edited December 1969

    I have been saying for awhile now even in Beta it was Broken...I just tried again with this animated Tree scene,Which the tree's rigs were done in Poser5 and redone in DS4...The Tree's are animated here in Bryce7Pro and when going from Bryce to DS4.5 I crash Bryce everytime...I am thinking that the formats in DS4.5 that have been changed in the saving part from .dsa to .duf might be the problem...But the tree's were animated in DS3 and DS4...These Tree's will be in The Bryce 7 Content Bundle 2 as Bryce scene's since we cant save animated data to an obp format yet...

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  • IanTPIanTP Posts: 1,326
    edited December 1969

    Sasje said:
    Thank you David. :)
    I boost the light to 250% I used the moon and put a ship in the water.
    W.I.P. so far

    Comments are welcome.

    one comment, very very nice :)

  • IanTPIanTP Posts: 1,326
    edited December 1969

    That's something I'm very interested in, too. Think I've gotten things to transfer properly between Studio and Bryce all of once. Well, it might have been twice, but I know for sure it happened once.

    hehe, that's once more than it's happened here then :)

  • foleyprofoleypro Posts: 458
    edited February 2013

    BUT...There are work arounds on getting your scene's into DS4.5...

    For terrain its easy just export option and a New menu to export the terrain at what ever Resolution you want...For the textures I just export the Bump map @ 4096x4096...

    Then I go to top Camera and Render the terrain texture Out at 4096x4096 and apply that in DS4.5(I do Photoshop the texture to fit the terrain if really High Mountains)...

    Tree's that I use are Lowpoly and using alpha mapped leaves...Upclose I use a combination of Bryce Tree's and Lowpoly Add on Trunks(these also will be in the B7CB2) to encompass the Bryce Trunks then I apply the same Bark texture to both Bryce Tree and Low Poly Trunk...In Bryce only...I cant seem to get a bryce tree to cross over...

    In DS4.5 I apply the new Terrain map and then apply the bump...Then I use a contrasted version of the Bump as Displacement and I get close to what I can achieve in Bryce...

    Now the nice thing about Bryce is the ability to use Height maps or even .dem files that will closely Resemble the USA height maps from the Goverment.....In This pic I used the North face of Mount Rainier here in Wa and then I took actual Photo's of Mt Rainier and then I photoshopped the textures together and threw them onto the terrain in Bryce...

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    Post edited by foleypro on
  • IanTPIanTP Posts: 1,326
    edited February 2013

    NOT contest entries, just a couple of renders done in the limited time i have been using Bryce, I would suggest everyone takes a look at David's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/davidbrinnen and also the tutorial section at http://www.bryce-tutorials.info/ :)

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    Post edited by IanTP on
  • srieschsriesch Posts: 4,241
    edited December 1969

    Here is another thread that might also have some useful information concerning transferring things from Bryce to DAZ Studio:
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/13506/

    I believe there are a few more threads, but don't recall where they are at the moment.

  • foleyprofoleypro Posts: 458
    edited December 1969

    NOT contest entries, just a couple of renders done in the limited time i have been using Bryce, I would suggest everyone takes a look at David's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/davidbrinnen and also the tutorial section at http://www.bryce-tutorials.info/ :)

    Very nice waters...reminds me of "Hobbits" Pictures when he was still active...Great Bryce artist...

    Andy Simmons AKA Hobbit...Awesome work

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Always one of my fave artists, whatever medium he was working in, but obviously his Bryce ones are my real faves.

  • IanTPIanTP Posts: 1,326
    edited December 1969

    foleypro said:
    NOT contest entries, just a couple of renders done in the limited time i have been using Bryce, I would suggest everyone takes a look at David's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/davidbrinnen and also the tutorial section at http://www.bryce-tutorials.info/ :)

    Very nice waters...reminds me of "Hobbits" Pictures when he was still active...Great Bryce artist...

    Andy Simmons AKA Hobbit...Awesome work

    Thank you foleypro, it is wonderful art indeed, and I feel privileged to be mentioned in the same post, have bookmarked him for later viewing :)

  • IanTPIanTP Posts: 1,326
    edited December 1969

    Ok, so here we are, had a bash at David's tutorial, what do I do with it now?

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  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Ok, so here we are, had a bash at David's tutorial, what do I do with it now?

    Now you decide if you want to do anything more with it, and if so waht, then you start playing around adding things to it to try turning it into a real image.

  • Jeanval LabJeanval Lab Posts: 13
    edited February 2013

    I've downloaded Bryce when it was free, but i have not really used it at the beginning. Since a few months, i'm learning it more seriously. After a lot of experiments, this is the landscape which i'm working on.

    This contest is an opportunity for me to practice what i've learned and, in particular, to get critics from experts and improve myself.

    But, am i still a "new user" in the term of rules of this contest ?

    In my landscape, there is 4 terrains and a slab for the lake. the terrain's material is one of the library that i've modified, more or less. I've put a image from cgtexture.com for the rock of the mountains and pebbles (procedural material) for the lake shore with the change of the blend mode ("basic altitude" instead of "slope").
    The trees and bushes (we don't see them a lot) are made with the tree lab.

    (I hope that my english isn't too bad. If it is, i apologize for that)

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  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    Impressive scene Jivhet, there is a lot of potential here, you have already composed a nice image, my recommendation would be to concentrate your experiments on improving your lighting and skies. If you are experimenting you may wish to temporarily get rid of the trees because they do tend to slow down the rendering process rather a lot and also having a scene with many objects in can make the entire Bryce interface rather sluggish - particularly so in the later versions of Bryce (after Bryce 5).

    To get around the rendering issues you can "hide" the trees - or simply delete them and then copy and paste them back in from your original scene.

    For example, if this is scene 1.

    You delete them and work on your lighting... scenes 2,3,4,5,6 - let us say you are happy with your light now.

    You load scene 1. Edit > copy (with all your trees selected).

    Open Scene 6 (don't save scene 1 - you will be asked).

    Then Edit > paste and your trees will appear where they were in scene 1 (a handy trick Horo came up with). Them save this as scene 7.

    Don't delete any scenes until you have finished your project.

    Use "anyfilename" with a number on the end and Bryce will automatically increment this number if you use "save as".

    "Save as" regularly!

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    That is looking good.

  • Jeanval LabJeanval Lab Posts: 13
    edited December 1969

    Thank you for comments and for the tip about the incremental save. I always saved with a different name to keep my previous work (this is a good habit with all sort of files).

    So, i've got a save of my scene without the trees which, indeed, make Bryce sluggish. I suppose if i experiment the lightning and sky with this previous scene and save it into the library, i will be able to load it into the "final" scene with the same rendering ?

  • gp139gp139 Posts: 0
    edited February 2013

    I would like to know if this can be entered as terrain or landscape, if not just tell me what you think and I will try again
    title reflections (the last of her kind)

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    Post edited by gp139 on
  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    Jivhet said:
    Thank you for comments and for the tip about the incremental save. I always saved with a different name to keep my previous work (this is a good habit with all sort of files).

    So, i've got a save of my scene without the trees which, indeed, make Bryce sluggish. I suppose if i experiment the lightning and sky with this previous scene and save it into the library, i will be able to load it into the "final" scene with the same rendering ?

    Well... saving the sky to the library is an option... but going about it the other way allows you to be more adventurous with your lighting experiments. The "copy and paste trick" is worth learning and I now use it all the time. Load your scene you want to copy from. Edit > copy your selected objects (or ctrl + c) then File > Open your scene you want to paste in. Then when you paste the objects drop into the opened scene exactly where they were copied from in the previous scene. (note - this does not happen when things are saved to the object library - indeed getting things out of the object library exactly where you want them is indeed quite tricky)

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited February 2013

    I use the incremental saves all the time, every time. OK you may end up with a lot of files in your byce folder whilst the work is in progress, but on the other hand, you tweak a WIP, hit the save as button, then maybe change it back and do it a different way, then save as again. You then have three versions to compare. If you don't like the tweak it is far easier to go back to the previous save than to try duplicating what you had in the first place. Plus of course, if you do happen to manage to crash Bryce, you haven't lost much when you go back to the last save.

    And of course, once you have finalised your scene you can always then delete the step versions, to free up sapce, if that is at a premium with you.

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    Here I've made a short tutorial demonstrating the copy and paste trick and how it could be useful.

    Bryce "Nuts and Bolts" - a useful copy and paste trick - a tutorial by David Brinnen

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  • BlumBlumShubBlumBlumShub Posts: 1,108
    edited December 1969

    I am working on a piece for this contest and I want to make some realistic 'craggy' rocks for foreground, but I'm really struggling with getting a decent material. I've tried the built in ones and they aren't cutting the mustard. All I want is a nice grey rock with some cracks! Any ideas?

  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    I am working on a piece for this contest and I want to make some realistic 'craggy' rocks for foreground, but I'm really struggling with getting a decent material. I've tried the built in ones and they aren't cutting the mustard. All I want is a nice grey rock with some cracks! Any ideas?

    That's quite vague, if you could put up a photo of the effect you are after, I might be able to help.

  • BlumBlumShubBlumBlumShub Posts: 1,108
    edited December 1969

    I am working on a piece for this contest and I want to make some realistic 'craggy' rocks for foreground, but I'm really struggling with getting a decent material. I've tried the built in ones and they aren't cutting the mustard. All I want is a nice grey rock with some cracks! Any ideas?

    That's quite vague, if you could put up a photo of the effect you are after, I might be able to help.
    Apologies for the vagueness, I was multitasking and didn't really know how to explain, but here's a pic similar to what I want to achieve.

    I'm definitely getting better with the procedural nature of materials in Bryce, but any help would be much appreciated.

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  • Dave SavageDave Savage Posts: 2,433
    edited December 1969

    You could create your own mini terrain object and use the terrain editor to literally paint the cracks and other textures where you want them?
    Then you're not depending too much on a texture applied to a smooth surface which in close up can (as you've found out) look less than realistic.

  • BlumBlumShubBlumBlumShub Posts: 1,108
    edited December 1969

    You could create your own mini terrain object and use the terrain editor to literally paint the cracks and other textures where you want them?
    Then you're not depending too much on a texture applied to a smooth surface which in close up can (as you've found out) look less than realistic.


    Thought about that but I'm not competent with Bryce at all, which is why this contest has piqued my interest. I've already learned quite a lot about the materials.

    Am struggling with terrain too. Want to make a nice reasonably flat terrain (but not a ground plane) for close up view but I'm really not having any luck. Will be playing with this a lot!

  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    You could create your own mini terrain object and use the terrain editor to literally paint the cracks and other textures where you want them?
    Then you're not depending too much on a texture applied to a smooth surface which in close up can (as you've found out) look less than realistic.


    Thought about that but I'm not competent with Bryce at all, which is why this contest has piqued my interest. I've already learned quite a lot about the materials.

    Am struggling with terrain too. Want to make a nice reasonably flat terrain (but not a ground plane) for close up view but I'm really not having any luck. Will be playing with this a lot!

    OK well I'd say this was a bit beyond what I'd expect to confront a beginner with but since you said you have already leaned quite a lot about materials you can maybe get more from this than most.

    Bryce 10 minute material project - grey rock with some cracks - a tutorial by David Brinnen

    I've tried to keep it short, but expect in your own experiments to spend at least an hour faffing around with the DTE components. That's what happens to me anyway.

    Let us know how you get on.

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