Sun at my back
vindazi
Posts: 667
Usually a photographer want the sun behind the camera . All of the sky settings seem to place the sun in back of the subject. Is ther any way to use the sun in the sky and fog settings to light my subject or front light my scene?
Comments
@vindazi: When you first start Bryce, change your view to top view and you'll see the camera is at the upper left corner of the infinite plane. Think of the infinite plane in terms of the four points of the compass, top being north, bottom being south, right being east, and left being west. On the Sky & Fog Palette you'll see a roller ball on the right side of the palette, which also corresponds to the four points of the compass. Top being north, bottom being south, right being east, and left being west--and all points in between.
The sun is usually on the south/southeast side of the infinite plane, so you need to move the camera to the south side of the infinite plane to see your object/figure as it's lit by the sun. With the camera on the south side of the infinite plane, it's just a matter of moving the roller ball to set the sun in the position you want.
As GussNemo says. Place the camera to look north. Then all controls make sense: sun position, Starfield, HDRI. Set up a simple scene with everything in the position you want to start a project with, and save it as default.br7 in the folder where Bryce is.
Thanks guys. I am anxious to try this out. But before i get started, this approach assumes that I compose from the camera view. Philosophically:-), I am OK with this , but I have a hard time composing in camera view because I lose a lot of the controls of the scene available in the directors view. They are probably there but I can't find them.
Can this be done from the directors view or can you tell me how to get the same controls in camera view as I would have in directors view?
Thanks,
ljd
Well, if you can tell me what you can do with the Directors camera you cannot do with the free camera, I will learn something. You can move it, rotate it, tilt it, bank it, zoom-on and out.
I can select an object and rotate the scene around that object. Actually I lose all of the track ball controls except free camera and I can't make the free camera do those things. I am going to guess this is possible in the camera view but, I'll be darn if i can figure it out.
From this little arrow - image 1
You can select from this menu an option to move the camera to the director or the director to the camera, which ever you would rather. In this way you can position the camera where you want it in the wireframe and then send the director to that position with this control. Then you will have the director where the camera is but still have the alternative controls that are associated with that camera.
Great! Thanks. I figured there must be a way but I couldn't figure it out. Can I animate with these as well? I.e., select an object and have the camera do that kind of tracking? Any trick to doing it? Not planning to do it now, but it would open some future possibilities.
Not good in animation myself but what I hear from those who do, they prefer the directors camera.
Hi,
here is a nice Bryce easter egg, to directly position the SUN/MOON in your scene without using the Sun Control globe.
In Edit (wireframe) view:
- Select "Sky&Fog;" palette.
- Press CTRL ALT keys, keep them pressed and double click the Sun Control globe.
- A YELLOW asterisk will appear to indicate the Sun´s position. (A BLUE asterisk will indicate the Moon).
- Press CTRL ALT keys, keep them pressed and single click into the wireframe view, where you want the Sun. The asterisk will get positioned exactly there. - - - If you cannot see it in the lower half of the edit window, consider to switch off the Underground. (With its according Icon at the right window border.)
- If CTRL SHIFT ALT keys are pressed, then the Moon will be placed there.
- To toggle between Sun/Moon: Click that little yellow dot at the upper left of the Sun Control globe (i.e. "Day/Night").
- To switch off that feature, simply press CTRL ALT keys, keep them pressed and double click the Sun Control globe again.
Hubert
Thank you for that, Hubert. Though this is a well known easter egg, Easter is ahead, so it fits. There are a lot of easter eggs in Bryce. Even if risking to come up with one everybody seems to know already, there's always the chance to come up with a new one. Keep it up.
Don't know if this might also be of recommendation, Vindazi, but I tend to like the wider Fov of 80 degrees - as opposed to the 60 Fov Bryce default - as it takes in more scenery etc.
Jay
FOV in Bryce is diagonal for an aspect ratio of 4:3, not horizontal. The default Bryce FOV at 60° is actually only 48° horizontal (for a 4:3 aspect ratio). 80° FOV would give you 64° horizontal. Depending on what you do, using a higher FOV can be an advantage.
vindazi, you can also save your camera position(s) by using the small buttons on the left side of the preview pane. This way you can put your camera in the final position but also go to other positions to view the scene.