Bryce 5 for FREE!

[polyphemus]

BTW: @wyrm: congrats, exactly 3,000 posts

 

[TopGun]

OK... let's try this again. I have a - however crude and preliminary - model of a Bf 109E (the one with the square wing tips). I'd like to match my size and default altitude (a.k.a. Y coordinate) to Wyrm's aircraft. Don't be tickled pink, now! Just kidding... but would you divulge what your screen settings are (do you go with 640x640?), whether you have your camera set the way HT describes it in his tutorial, how long your Bf 109 is and how high above the ground plane you place your aircraft.
If you, Wyrm, or anybody who has modelled aircraft in Bryce could help me out... that'd be sweet. Thx.

 

[Wyrmshadow]

These are my settings.

 

[Spacer One]

Ok...after a day of trying...is there any way to generate/create shapes other than the standards(Sphere/cylender/tauros/cube/cone/pyramid)...for example a pentagon or dodecahedron...or even better..."organic" shapes...

I understand that any shape can be constructed using negative space, so I CAN make the shapes I need...just wondering if there was a quicker way to get some of the standard shapes(like a 3 sided pyramid)

 

[Ogedei_the_Mad]

Terrain lattices or terrain editing for complex shapes that can't be made through boolean operations. That's how I made the Korean-style roofs.

If you click on the arrow besides the "Create" tab, there might be additional shapes included. Also, some basic shapes are vailable for download.

 

[TopGun]

These are my settings.

Thank you... it is greatly appreciated!

 

[Bjornlo]

Ok...after a day of trying...is there any way to generate/create shapes other than the standards(Sphere/cylender/tauros/cube/cone/pyramid)...for example a pentagon or dodecahedron...or even better..."organic" shapes...

I understand that any shape can be constructed using negative space, so I CAN make the shapes I need...just wondering if there was a quicker way to get some of the standard shapes(like a 3 sided pyramid)

The "best" way to make complex shapes is in an external modeler.
A simple and free modeler with an interface similar to Bryce is Truespace 3.2. You can get it from download.com. Just like Daz3d, you have to go to the offical site to get your serial number. The advantage of this modeler is that the UI is reasonably similar to Bryce. The disadvantage is that it is limited and only can export COB files (which Bryce can thankfully read).

Quick and simple shapes are often best made with booleans within Bryce. This is super fast and very easy. But, has the disadvantage of not being exportable (until version 6 comes out). This is the method you used to make that cannon.

The other method to use Terrain or Double Sided Lattice (the thingy that looks like two mountains glued together top-to-bottom). This works by adding a terrain or DSL to your scene. You then click Edit, This takes you to the screen where you either make something within Bryce or load an image you prepared before hand. One guy noticed that some star trek ship was almost entirely formed of symetrical shapes. So he got busy with photoshop. Painted a bunch of height maps and created a bunch of meshes. With a terrain mesh, this creates a single sided mesh. Perhaps the roof of a building like Ogedei did... or the hull of a boat.. etc. With a DSL it creates a symetrical 3d mesh. This can be used to create organic shapes fairly easily.

Another, and far more popular, way to create organic ships is with meta-balls. Metaballs are basicaly generic items, but they act a little like black holes and suck material away from each other and so form a single object. I've seen some very good space aliens created this way.

 

[TopGun]

I agree... external 3d programs like Truespace are less cumbersome than Bryce for model generation. On another note, model quality. When I render the model I have, I get a very coarse looking object. What is the best way to get a decent looking rendered object? Render settings, or building it with a large screen resolution, then scale it down? Any pointers?

 

[Bjornlo]

I agree... external 3d programs like Truespace are less cumbersome than Bryce for model generation. On another note, model quality. When I render the model I have, I get a very coarse looking object. What is the best way to get a decent looking rendered object? Render settings, or building it with a large screen resolution, then scale it down? Any pointers?

Could you post a screen shot of the wires and the render?

 

[Spacer One]

Hmmm...I should have gotten truespace when it was suggested earlier, but I figured "one program at a time"...truespace time

 

[Bjornlo]

Hmmm...I should have gotten truespace when it was suggested earlier, but I figured "one program at a time"...truespace time

It is a simple little program. But it won't hurt to just learn Bryce for now. However, you will eventually need a full fledged modeler.
And Truespace allows very simple boolean style modeling, just like Bryce. It is not the only modeler that allows this, and has its limits. But version 3.2 is stable, cheap (free) and works alot like Bryce and the out put files are compatible with Bryce.

That said, I found it easier to play with Bryce for a while before I started with a modeler. It depends on your time and so on.

 

[TopGun]

Could you post a screen shot of the wires and the render?

here's the render and the wire model:

 

[Bjornlo]

here's the render and the wire model:

Aargh.

I hate you, I'll help you.


The problems with your post.
1. A BMP??? show some courtesy. Post screen shots in JPG or GIF so they are easily viewable online.
2. Your post does not show the problem you described, and as such is of no use in helping you.
If you want me to help, make it easy. I could just guess and say your meshes are too low in poly count and just increase the polys and add smoothing. But that would just be me talking out my butt without actually looking at the problem.

 

[Wyrmshadow]

Yes, you can't do ANYTHING with a single object like that in bryce. I can tell its only 1 object.

 

[TopGun]

Bjornlo, sorry if bmp's are no good. I actually chose bmp because it doesn't blur the edges.. all the pixels are just as they were in Bryce. So, when you zoom in on the render, you 'll see what I saw in Bryce.
Now, Wyrm, you are bringing up an interesting point... as you can see I went the "quick-and-dirty" route, with a simple model I had. I kinda "knew" it was too simple (that's why I asked you for your basic Bf 109 model in the first place). Anyway... now how many different groups or objects would you recommend? Here's what I think to be a minimum: Fuselage (w/o engine), Engine, Canopy, Propeller, wings, tail s/ ailerons, 2 light sources for muzzle flash of cowl-mounted MG's, 2 light sources for muzzle flash of wing-mounted MG's. As I begin to see it.... there will be no way around building a model from scratch.

 

[Wyrmshadow]

here are some simple models
http://perso.orange.fr/vincent.moyet-amalthea3d/html/3dmodels.html

 

[BadKharma]

Yes, you can't do ANYTHING with a single object like that in bryce. I can tell its only 1 object.

Well you could IF you have full bmp textures of the top side etc so you can change colors markings etc in a 2D paint program. However if all you have is that model with no UV mapped textures Wyrm is correct.

 

[Bjornlo]

Well you could IF you have full bmp textures of the top side etc so you can change colors markings etc in a 2D paint program. However if all you have is that model with no UV mapped textures Wyrm is correct.

well, been there, done that... low quality models with high quality maps = so-so units at best.
Compare my serbian units (low poly meshes with high quality textures) to my Centauro, Stryker or JS-3m

 

[Bjornlo]

Bjornlo, sorry if bmp's are no good. I actually chose bmp because it doesn't blur the edges.. all the pixels are just as they were in Bryce. So, when you zoom in on the render, you 'll see what I saw in Bryce.
Now, Wyrm, you are bringing up an interesting point... as you can see I went the "quick-and-dirty" route, with a simple model I had. I kinda "knew" it was too simple (that's why I asked you for your basic Bf 109 model in the first place). Anyway... now how many different groups or objects would you recommend? Here's what I think to be a minimum: Fuselage (w/o engine), Engine, Canopy, Propeller, wings, tail s/ ailerons, 2 light sources for muzzle flash of cowl-mounted MG's, 2 light sources for muzzle flash of wing-mounted MG's. As I begin to see it.... there will be no way around building a model from scratch.

In general you need at least seperate props, a so-so cockpit. a well formed main mesh.
Your target mesh should be in the 10,000 to 2million level depending on the unit. In general, the higher the better. But, accuracy and good grouping is ultimately more important.
ailerons, engine, and many other items don't matter.
Just a good basic model, with details in the important areas.
The only unit I've made with an engine is the Avenger. Did it really add alot to the unit to have the hood blow off and the motor burn during the death.. nope. But then again, I had alot of fun modeling the motor.
simple details like MGs and muzzle flash are easy to add within Bryce. Don't concern yourself with that stuff. Focus on good basic forms with reasonable accuracy, detailing, etc

 

[BadKharma]

well, been there, done that... low quality models with high quality maps = so-so units at best.
Compare my serbian units (low poly meshes with high quality textures) to my Centauro, Stryker or JS-3m

I know I was just pointing out a way to use the low quality models.