Bryce Cameras
tdrd
Posts: 0
I have a few questions about Bryce 7 cameras - so here they all are in one place...
1. Does Bryce only have one camera?
2. Why is the camera at the back of the worldscape when I am trying to model it from the front?
3. Why can you not rotate the scene as in Daz Studio?
4. Can additional cameras be added to use just part of a model?
(I am planning to create a small part of a world whereby I can zoom into three or four areas for illustrative purposes)
... thats all for now...
I've looked everywhere for more features in Daz but can only think I need to purchase these. I guess I have the basic implementation at the moment.
What else do I need?
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Comments
1. Bryce has the perspective camera and the directors camera. I find I use the perspective camera exclusively.
2. I never felt the default position for the perspective camera was very helpful - you can move it to where you want it and save "default.br7" into the folder where the Bryce.exe resides and it will pick this file up and run it on launch. That way you can have a scene - or set of scenes which reflect your preferences.
3. If you group everything together you can rotate everything. This however, I wonder consider an odd thing to do, just because it is an unintuitive way to treat the environment. Normally, it is the camera and lights which get moved around and the scene stays where it is put.
4. See image. The little dots on the left can be used to store camera positions by clicking on them. Then clicking on them again, restores the stored position. They can be cleared down holding down the "alt" key and clicking on them again.
Please feel free to rephrase you questions if I have not provided the answer you were looking for.
You have everything you need essentially. By default bryce has the camera you see when you open a new scene, another refered to as the director's view, one called top view, one called bottom view, and ones for front, back, left side, rightside views. So that's 8 different camera views by default whenever you create a new scene. Plus there are 7 camera views you can save from anywhere in the scene that you specify. All you need do now is learn Bryce well enough to access these camera views and/or program the programable ones.
Okay - I am including a couple of pictures here - (not sure if the moderator will allow them but here goes)
One is a sketch of the map of the world I am creating - it contains arrows where I want to create views.
Then there are two scans of preliminary sketches of the scene I want to create.
Am I forced to generate seperate scenes rather than a whole map?
Well I am not sure this moderator is going to allow those images, cos this moderator is highly envious of your sketching skills. :roll: :coolsmirk:
Seriously why should we not allow images in an art orientated site ? The more the merrier, we love pretty pictures,
Looking forward to seeing how you manage to get this concept transferred into Bryce.
The approach that offers the greatest flexibility would be to build each scene individually. If you try to create the entire landscape you will be making a lot of work for yourself without really gaining anything in the process. If you need components from other scenes you can always bring them over in the various libraries Bryce provides for objects, materials and skies.
Bryce images are built up more like paintings, even though it is a 3D environment, it is not like a video game where you build your world and change your viewpoint. More often, you fix your viewpoint and change your world. If that makes any sense?
Well it looks like it might be possible to create one scene that encompasses and area roughly the size of the first sketch but depending on how well populated that area is with plant life and such and the level of realism you want to strive for you might be creating a challenge for your computer to be able to render it all in one shot.
On the good side though I'm thinking that as good as your drawing skills seem to be you might be able to adapt your sketches to be used as an elevation map. Although I'm just speculating on that and someone with more knowledge of such things would need to confirm or disavow that.
You can open the camera dialog and set the camera precisely where you want it. If you look down (camera from top), you look on a map: above is north, right is east. You can put an object, e.g. a cylinder at the place you want the camera. Read the X/Y/Z parameters from the object and enter them into the camera dialog. Delete the object.
Looking at your sketches, you could put a grid on them and if you make your terrain that size, the grid will help you position the camera. A terrain can be as large as 102,400.000 Bryce Units (BU), it comes in the default size of 81.920 BU, which is much too small.
Well - i've spent 6 hours on this in Bryce - had 2 crashes and something that resembles a scorched pancake.
I have managed (once before a crash) to get something nice and bumpy but could not get a road or a stream laid down and then it decided to go belly up and resembed a resher of bacon.
OK - so from the sketches provided can anyone come up with something I can work with?
I WILL NOT USE THIS COMMERCIALLY - JUST WOULD LIKE TO SEE IF IT IS POSSIBLE before I throw something strong and bulky at the screen!
Guys & Gals - I need some help starting this
Any offers?
what I've done was used a sketch I did (very low-res version, optimized in PhotoShop) no larger than 256x256 pixels with only 2 colors; off-white (gray) background with clear blue or red outlines (actual sketch) and saved it as a .jpg file then open Bryce and create a cube (or 2D face) click that first and then click materials (M), then up top click first defuse till it shows a nob on first position, then to the right click (P) Picture and then click load (or empty available space) to load an image (browse location of your sketch, then copy/paste/delete (i know that sounds confusing, hard to explain but anyway) to copy that along the three image panes... so anyway that sketch got placed on the cube (or 2D face). Then I lowered it down until it was just a fraction above the ground plane and sized it, stretched it , rotated it until I was happy with the layout.
I have used sketches as a guide to precisely position all elements directly on top of the sketch. But I also then position the camera so that I be looking at the scene from slightly above (whatever perspective for best view, this can be changed at will) so I can see the sketch/guide much better as I constructed the scene literally piece by piece. Then once the scene was closer to completion I reposition the camera perspective precisely where I wanted it and presto, I didn't even spill a drop of paint!
In another simpler example; I used a sketch of a 12 sided hexagon (an outline sketch - 2 colors as explained above) and used that to create a room (the ceiling was the last thing added) that way I could toggle to Top-View to see how it wlll came together, for more precise positioning of all the walls. Once all the walls were in place I added the ceiling and floor. Honestly I got that room setup very quickly and painlessly, then spent the next several days working with the custom made materials using PhotoShop. If you don't have Photoshop? any similar program will do, simply save it as; *jpg file.
Sketches are cool and can be used as a template guides directly in Bryce as I explained. This is not a bad concept and I will definitely use that workflow again.
This is where the invaluable 'camera to director' and 'director to camera' options come into their own.
You use Perspective Camera, so your scene is set and you just want to have one final look all around it.
Select 'director to camera' and then change view to director (it's now in exactly the same place as the perspective camera), with the advantage of having the 'rotate around selected' option. So all you need to do is to create a sphere at world center and set it to 'hide', make sure it's selected and you can use the big ball control to spin around your whole scene.
Then when you get fed up or dizzy, you can re select 'perspective camera' to go back to your original chosen view.
If you find a view that's slightly better whilst in director view, you can use the 'camera to director' option to move the perspective camera to that exact position.
Using this technique along with the camera memory dots, really speeds up navigating around your scene.
Note: I realise I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know here, just using your post to demonstrate an alternative way. :)
tdrd, love the sketches. I should be so lucky to draw a straight line. The tutorial here, http://www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/bryce/keyframe-animation.php may be what you need to help do your zooming. I haven't read the entire tutorial but it talks about Keyframes in Bryce. And, if possible, it may also be a way you can display different portions of your maps.
You maps would have to be made using a terrain, and modified using the Terrain Editor (TE). You could use the TE to modify a terrain or create a new one that suits your needs. There are tutorials at the above site and on You Tube that tell how to create, and modify, a terrain. Also, while in the TE you could create the path you want for the streams, rivers, or whatever you want then add a water plain and place it into your terrain so only that portion of water shows withing the stream paths created. It would mean you'd have to have a good elevation on your terrain map, or fairly deep stream paths, or you'd have water showing where no water should be.
The aerial maps I've seen aren't very detailed unless you zoom in on them, so any vegetation, rocks, etc. wouldn't have to be detailed but more a representation of what they're suppose to look like. If, and I say if, keyframes works like I've seen in another program, you could zoom into any location by setting keyframs at each focal point until you actually got into the village, town, etc. Just before you entered the village, town, etc. you could blur the image and have the next image the actual village, town, etc.
I'm also guessing you know how to make, or import, the objects you'll want in you images and on your maps. If you don't know how any of this is done the above link, and You Tube, can help. Please keep in mind, I've never done Keyframes in Bryce, or watched any tutorials dealing with the subject, so it might be a good idea to look for tutorials at the above link and You Tube to see if it indeed will work for your project.