In Bryce you can make an object any size at all, and then alter it so as to fit the rest of your work. So a good example of size for the original object should have round numbers.
Each side of the octagon has a lenght of 10. So to start you should create a cube, and give it 10,10,10 proportions.
The second step is to change the lenght of the cube in the y direction.
But what leght should it be?
Although you do not need to know why,
Spoiler:
the y size should be 24. This is because the cosine of 45 degrees (each side of a perfect octagon is turned 45 degrees from the previous one, since all 8 give 360 degrees) is the square root of 2, divided by 2, and by it you can calculate just how far away from the starting point in y of your cube should be the middle of its size.
Since the next side will have an equal lenght of 10, and the third side should reach half its size above the middle of the y size of the cube, it follows that the middle would be in 10/2+ X, with cosθ= square root of 2/ 2 = x/b. And the square root of 2 / 2 is a little bit over 0,7, so x/10= 0,7, and x =7. So the middle in y should be 7+5=12, therefore the entire y should be 24
you can observe that once you have a 10,24,10 former cube, and after you complete the following moves, you will have a regular octagon.
The next move is to copy your altered to 10,24,10 object, and paste it. Now change the new object's y rotation to 90 degrees.
You now have a cross.
You should copy both objects that make it, and paste them, grouping them together. Now change their y rotation to 45 degrees.
This should give you this shape, which is the final result!
ahhhh, I always new Math was involved, just never new where. While I'm on it, does any one know of a program that gives you graphs of the integrals of functions once rotated about a certain line? That would be pretty handy to just input the function then get a nice 3d figure as the output...
ahhhh, I always new Math was involved, just never new where. While I'm on it, does any one know of a program that gives you graphs of the integrals of functions once rotated about a certain line? That would be pretty handy to just input the function then get a nice 3d figure as the output...
This is a flawed program. I enjoy it. I use it. But it is basically broken.
It can not reliably export a mesh, since it does not export 3d objects but grouped 2d objects.
One of these is a grouped 2d object one of these is a 3d object. Both were made exactly the same way.
Also, with exported meshes, B6 can not be counted on to import them correctly again.
The blue object with the holes and the stray polys is a simple example.
Boolean collapse does not actually collapse the boolean it only hides the parts. It can take hours and is quite useless since it actually increases your poly count and memory useage.
Finally, it is missing texture keyframing. It is there, it just does not do anything. Thus it is not suitable at all for unit creation.
Reccommendation:
The free Bryce 5 or the minor update of Bryce 5.5c.
The modeler is exactly the same (but more reliable). The render engine is exactly the same except it lacks HDRI / IBL which will not be used at civ scale except for wonder splashes, leaderhead backgrounds and similar large static images.
The math involved in Bryce should not be intimidating to you smart lads (and lasses?). It is just 9th grade geometry. And, you can always eyeball it if that seems too much like work. Just bear in mind that math makes it more precise. More precise leads to higher quality results (all things being equal).
Great thread! I'll be keeping an eye on it! I assume Bryce 6 is not too different from Bryce 5?
BTW can anyone do a quick tutorial in this thread on how to make body parts for a humanoid in Bryce 5? I'm looking at Takayama's uploaded example of one of his humanoid figures and I get the gist of it except how to shape the body parts.
Great thread! I'll be keeping an eye on it! I assume Bryce 6 is not too different from Bryce 5?
BTW can anyone do a quick tutorial in this thread on how to make body parts for a humanoid in Bryce 5? I'm looking at Takayama's uploaded example of one of his humanoid figures and I get the gist of it except how to shape the body parts.
There is very little difference between Bryce 5 and 6.
Bryce 5 is pretty basic, it all works.
Bryce 5.5 adds some new openGL view modes which made it easier (although very slow) to work with certain types of complex models. But, it did not change how the models were constructed nor rendered.
Bryce 6 adds some new rendering modes. In particular it adds Image Based Lighting, and not as caustics but as a form of HDRI. It also adds support for dual-core processors (even works on 8core machines). But it introduces a few new bugs and a couple of broken features. It does add one thing which is kinda cool. You can sort of collapse a boolean (not really). It takes ages once your model is a little more complex. But it displays quickly and long term it is faster. I just wish it could actually collapse the boolean correctly and quickly.
On making human body parts within Bryce. Don't.
It would simply take too long and the models would be difficult to work with due to poly count.
Consider this image:
The two nasty arms are made in Bryce with about as much detail as you could afford (polygon wise) to spend per bicep. Each one is 800polys. It looks a little rough, but would work "ok" at civ scale. The colorful one is so you could see the parts.
Next consider the more detailed arm. It is less than 500 polys and looks much better.
Bryce is great at importing stuff. Some things are fine to make (or modify) in Bryce. Some things are best to import in. If you like Bryce style booleans, Truespace 3.2 is free and is ok at booleans.
A Quickie on Using Grayscale Images in Terrain Editing
Ever wonder how I made those East Asian style roofs? I actually did not use basic shapes or boolean tricks to make them. Instead, I used two of Bryce's most powerful features - Terrain and Lattice editing.
What is "Terrain" and "Lattice" editing? In the main Bryce interface, you will see two mountain-shaped icons. The one with a regular mountain is the "Terrain" editor and the one with the double mountains is the "Terrain Lattice" editor. "Terrain lattices" have double sides so if you produce an object through this editor, it will be double-sided. In both the "Terrain Lattice" and "Terrain" editor, there are a number of buttons that can affect the "erosion" or weathering of the terrain shape; this editor was intended to make landscapes, after all. For the purpose of making unique shapes, we can ignore these options.
First, make a 100x100 pixel grayscale image with a black background in an image editor (PSP, Photoshop 7, or even just plain MS Paint). In the center, use white or gray to draw an object with the desired shape. Keep in mind that if you are doing a "Terrain Lattice" the object will be symmetrical with the general shape reflected on the other side and that if you are doing a "Terrain" the object will form the "terrain" face. Save this image as a BMP. Do NOT save it as a JPEG since a transition to JPEG tends to blur things and disrupt the patterning.
After you have finished making the desired shape through the image editor, open up Bryce and go to the "Terrain" or "Terrain Lattice" editor. An object should appear in the center of the Bryce scene. Click on the "E" button while the object is selected. While you are in the "Elevation" tab, click on "New" to erase the grayscale terrain image. Then click on "Picture" and load your grayscale BMP. You can do this through the "Picture" tab, but your results will be less desirable because Bryce has a wierd way of applying blurs even if your image did not have any. Once you've loaded up your grayscale image, click on apply and your object should take the shape of the BMP image.
Be warned that there is one major downside to terrain and lattice editing - Terrains and Lattices consist of thousands of polygons since they are highly detailed. Unless your computer is strong enough and you have Bryce 6, you can make just about any shape.
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