How to Make Units With Bryce 5

[Bjornlo]

I have had very good luck with just the numbers posted here:
http://www.brycetech.com/tutor/bryce/fire_n_ice.html#Fire
I vary the ambience, quality and density a bit as suits me, but the basic numbers are good.
the only thing it does not do right in v5.x is that you can not layer volumetrics.. this includes having them overlap but not touch. There are work arounds, but they are time consuming. Best idea is just 1 volumetric per image or if you need multiples, make sure they do not touch nor overlap (ie 1 behind the other visually). If you must over lap them, you are better off making the unsual shape in Truespace. If you dont wanna do that, then try making all the fire positive and grouping them and applying the fire material only on the parent group.

 

[odintheking]

Hmm, i seems too "thin" to me. When I see your units, the fire is full, and mostly red, when I do it, it looks...weird. I'll experiment.

 

[Bjornlo]

You can make it redder by dropping the ambience down. You can play with the texture transformation settings. I move them up and down over the course of a units death to create part of the pulsing buring effect.
Also, make the volume color redder. Try dropping the green and blue frmo 255 to 160. Dropping the quality settings down is also interesting. It renders faster and sometimes gives a better effect Try a quality setting of 35 for a completely different look.
Also have an object at the center of the fire, or close to the surface even which is not volumetric and is not transparent but fuzzy and a darker (perhaps red) shade. Transparencies give odd results when mixed with volumetrics.
You can experiment with additional volumetric and/or transparent objects. Sometimes the way they erase each other creates interesting effects. Just be patient if you do so. Because you will probably have to do it over a few times and render times can climb fast.

 

[Bjornlo]

btw: the bug I describe, and the work arounds are all fixed in Bryce 6.0
If you act fast, you can get Bryce 6.0 for 6.00 if you are a platinum club member. Or 36.00 if you are not (6.00 plus 30.00 for 30day membership)
---edit---
Ok in little more testing, the bug is nearly gone. I can still reproduce it, but it took allot more objects. It is basically useable. Meaning you can use multiple volumetrics and mix them and transparencies better than before.... just not perfectly. There might be a work around, I haven't had much time to test it.

 

[Spacer One]

question...is it possible to make a "rock" cause a negative space?...

What Im trying to do is:

use a rock(in negative) to create a "blown out" hole in a building...If it can be done, can someone explain the basic steps to make it happen?...Ive tried and tried, and it just isnt happening...

 

[Quinzy]

i've just tried and it works perfectly.

remember to make the wall positive and the rock negative and group them together

 

[Spacer One]

Ok thanks...Im having trouble getting it to work...

To be sure Im doing it right:

The building must be ungrouped from anything else
The Building must be positive and the rock negative
once both are in desired positions, I just group them for the "hole" to appear"

right??

[edit] do textures make any difference?...should I take the texture off the building?

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Spacer: Try using Terrains for the holes... Just create your building, then create some terrains (hilly bumpy things), rotate them, and have the bumpy parts sticking through the buildings... The resulting holes (and divots from the other secondary ridges of the terrain) will, IMO look more realistic for war damage.

Other than that, do what you've been doing with the rocks.

 

[Spacer One]

Hmmm...I shall try that as well...

 

[Quinzy]

the texture of the rock will derermine the texture of the inside of the hole (the thickness of the wall)

 

[Bjornlo]

the texture of the rock will derermine the texture of the inside of the hole (the thickness of the wall)

The texture of the rock can determine the texture of the inside of the hole.
This is useful for painted surfaces. But for solid color surfaces (bricks, logs, concrete, etc) you just set the negative object to NOT transfer its texture.

 

[Spacer One]

oh jeez...how do I do that?...

but if I want to, it CAN transfer the texture?...so If I have a blue rock, the hole will be blue...?...how do I set that to not happen?? seems useful both ways...

 

[Quinzy]

i think there's a clicky button in the texture selector..

 

[Bjornlo]

i think there's a clicky button in the texture selector..

Actually the clicky is where you set an object to positive or negative. The object attributes. CTRL + A (or click on the A gadget).

There is a check box that says "transfer material of negative boolean".

If you leave this checked (the default). And you use a blue square to drill a hole into a red square you get a blue blue square with a red dent.

If you unchecked this. And you use a blue square to drill a hole into a red square you get a blue blue square with a blue dent.

 

[D'Artagnan59]

When I change the barrel pin to 10 in Frame 4 and back to 0 in frame 8, it goes back to 0 in frame 4.

 

[Quinzy]

add a keyframe in frame 4

 

[D'Artagnan59]

Still not working.

 

[flamescreen]

Hey anyone transfered to Bryce 6.0 yet?
I'd like the setup file for that if anyone of you did.

 

[D'Artagnan59]

How do you add multiple keyframes?

 

[Quinzy]

Go to whatever frame and click the wee key so it goes yellow.