Avin Trail (WIP)
WsCG
Posts: 391
Hello everyone,
Though I started another thread where I posted the first of my in-progress screenshots, I thought it would be more appropriate to start a thread specifically for that purpose (the other thread was more to ask a question).
This render is what I would really just call a basic "block-in" shot for what will (eventually) become a narrow, winding mountain path leading up to the city of an elusive race, known as the Avin, from a fantasy world I've been working on for some time. As I'm just starting out with learning Bryce seriously, and do my best learning when I have a specific context to do it in, I figured taking locations from around that fantasy world would be the perfect approach.
As I said above, at this point I'm just more or less blocking the scene out, to get relative scale, basic lighting and everything more or less how I want it (though I suspect some things will change radically by the time it's done). From there I can refine and work on more permanent assets. The large floating rock on the left represents where the entrance to the city, with some buildings and such, will be. It will be a floating city, so I wanted to get something in there representing that.
I find I'm able to visualize things and remain much more motivated about a project if I have some kind of visual feedback to work and build from. So, this early setup helps a lot to that end, as well. I can look at this early render and "see" the final result much more clearly than if I were just imagining it - if that makes any sense.
At this point, per some good advice provided in my other thread, I think I'm going to do the brunt of the modeling in Blender and then bring the objects into Bryce for texturing, lighting, rendering, etc. There's a rather specific look and level of detail I'm looking for with different parts of it, and I can't seem to get that level of precision using the height-map method in Bryce (though it comes close!). I could achieve it quite nicely in Blender, so I think that's the way to go there.
I'm going to be learning how to wrangle the material lab more (waiting on the 'Real World Bryce 4' book, which should hopefully get here sooner than later) so I can get the look I'm after in the texturing dept. as well.
Anyway! Just wanted to create this first post and get the ball rolling... Should be fun to see it come together.
Thanks!
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Comments
It will be interesting to see your final results. My only comment is that I like the look of the right side of the scene, but I question what the thing on the left is. To me, it really distracts from the entire scene, since I can't determine what it is. Oh, and welcome to the Bryce forum.
@miketvogel - while you wait for Susan Kitchen's Bryce 4 book, you can already have a look at this 84 page document covering the DTE: http://www.horo.ch/docs/mine/pdf/DTE.pdf (23 MB). There are a few documents and resources on my website (see sig) too. Look under Bryce Documents and Raytracing.
Thanks!
Yeah, the right side is where I've spent most of the time so far. I mention the boulder thingy on the left briefly in the original post, but it's a "placeholder" for what will eventually be the city, or the entrance to the city that the path leads to. I have it there just for reference, to get positioning of the land areas, the sun, etc. It's not final or permanent by any means.
Awesome! Thanks a bunch! I'll definitely give that a look. Any kind of reading material I can find is a bonus, especially with the USPS sending me the book. They've given me a nearly 2.5 week window for when the book will be delivered. I suppose they need to do that, because they tend to bounce packages all over the country before finally getting it where it needs to go. No idea why, but that's what the USPS does here. Crazy.
Thanks again!
Your more than welcome. Delivery - ha! I have subscribed to a weekly journal. It used to come from New York via Amsterdam to Switzerland. Now they found a shorter way via New Zealand ...
Guess I missed that part of your post.
Ah it's fine. It's like, one sentence mixed in with a lot of rambling. I miss stuff like that all the time lol.
So... I was expecting a book about Bryce.
What I received in the mail is a bludgeoning weapon disguised as a book about Bryce.
Good grief this thing is huge!
Now it's time to dig in....
And it covers only up to version 4. With what has come afterwards, another such book could be written. It may look a bit daunting but it is easy read and afterwards a great reference book.
And it covers only up to version 4. With what has come afterwards, another such book could be written. It may look a bit daunting but it is easy read and afterwards a great reference book.
Wow.
Is anyone working on another book for it? Or is it all down to community contributions, now?
@Mike - Susan was asked at the time for a Bryce 5 book but she declined. We have a new Bryce 7.1 doc here http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/bryce/start but it is still a WIP. And yes, a lot was contributed by forumites here and those parts are quite complete. DAZ 3D and documentation are as opposite as love and hate.
I think Susan gave up when it was obvious that MetaCreations were going to sell all their software products on. After all she was employed by them to help write the Original manuals as well.
Like Horo stated, the WIP PDF on Bryce can be very helpful as I saved a copy to my desktop for quick reference. But I also love Susan's Bryce 4 - Yes it is huge, but a great book and very handy to have close by ( Mine was used as I assume yours was and now sits on my desk next to my computer. Lots of neat information to have at your fingertips.)
Bruce