David and Horo I need your help sorting my cart

LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
edited September 2012 in Bryce Discussion

Okay well I was excited to see your stores on sale today, I have a problem though. If I didn't have to worry about money I could buy all 36 of the items in my wish list at almost $500 but alas, I do have to worry about money, I worry about it quite a bit in fact. As it turns out though I came into a bit of money recently and so I do have some ability to buy somethings. Which is good because the deal on the Mentoring DVD is just too good to pass up. Now I could just stop there but as you know in working on some of David's tutorials I've been frustrated by the fact that I don't own some of the items David uses things from in some of the tutorials. Since my intention is to try to do as many tutorials as I can and/or are relevent to me as well as try to make the most of the DVD I figured I should try to fill some of the holes those missing items represent in my plans. So based on that I've whittled the list down to 11 items that I feel like I gotta have. It was tough but you gotta do what you gotta do.

So here is where I need your help and fairly quickly because I think I need to purchase these things before midnight 9/16/12 if I want it at the sale price. I've attached a list of the 11 items I have left in my cart. I would like you to look at it and tell me if there is anything there that is kind of duplicating things. If I had to I could handle the price now which is just under $140 but if I can shave off a little more that would ultimately be a little better. So based on my intentions of focusing on the DVD and tutorials do you have any suggestions on changes I might make to this list. Also is there anything missing that might frustrate my attempts to follow the tutorials? Thanks in advance for your input.

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Post edited by LordHardDriven on
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Comments

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,628
    edited December 1969

    @LordHardDriven - Sorry for being late to answer. The world is round and we do sleep sometimes. I cannot see that any of your items has any duplicates. We try hard to have no redundancy in our products. At the time of writing, the store is still on 50% sale.

  • Rashad CarterRashad Carter Posts: 1,799
    edited December 1969

    If you don't have the Spherical Mapper then I suggest picking that up immediately. I am really impressed with what they've done with this ideal. I can already imagine a thousand uses for this item. Very affordable just now as well.

  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    Hi Mark, aye I was napping too...

    OK, let us see...

    You have "conceptual" duplication in terms of the Bryce Pro Material Showcases, I know each one is not the same content, but the concept behind them is very similar, so if you want to make savings, select just one.

    By the same token,

    The gritty, ground and tillable high resolution terrains are also conceptually similar. The gritty one is quite "narrow" in that it is only gravel. The ground is perhaps the most flexible. The high resolution terrains, is probably the most advanced in some respect, but again, is more focused to solving particular challenges. So if you had to choose one, I'd say go for Ground textures.

    Bryce Pro DTE Terrain 4 - you have some of these already I know, so this is really more of the same conceptually. Yes you do get new terrains shapes, scene set ups and materials, but you already have examples of this approach.

    If you are going to use HDRI, then you can't have too many HDRI to play with. The flexibility of IBL is down to the user though, not the content. Given time, I will - without any doubt - be calling on Horo's HDRI in future tutorials. I don't know which yet, so both is a safe bet.

    Night Clouds is not like other cloudscapes, the approach is different, so while this may seem an obvious duplication, it is not - but also, by the same token, it also is really only for night scenes - so somewhat limited.

    The Spherical Mapper , as endorsed by Rashad is very handy, but is something of an advanced tool. But if you had added it to this list, I would not be encouraging you to remove it.

    Hope that answers your questions?

    Cheers,

    David.

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    Horo said:
    @LordHardDriven - Sorry for being late to answer. The world is round and we do sleep sometimes. I cannot see that any of your items has any duplicates. We try hard to have no redundancy in our products. At the time of writing, the store is still on 50% sale.

    You're not late, I was hoping to hear from you today because usually these one day sales go for more then a day if they fall on a weekend. :) I guess duplicates was the wrong word choice? Your choice of redundant is probably a better fit. I was mainly wondering if say like the DVD had the same HDRI's as some of the HDRI sets? Then perhaps I could get rid of one of those since they're the most expensive item after the DVD. I really hate to though because I feel like when it comes to actually purchasing items I've shown alot more attention to David. I guess though that's because more of his products are in areas I'm familiar with. I've known of HDRI for some time but it's still something pretty new to me. So I've been more inclined to buy terrains, cloudscapes and materials.

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    If you don't have the Spherical Mapper then I suggest picking that up immediately. I am really impressed with what they've done with this ideal. I can already imagine a thousand uses for this item. Very affordable just now as well.

    I had it in the cart originally but then I started paying attention to the description where it said if you weren't advanced maybe don't get that now but rather get the Mentor DVD. All the cuts were tough, the only easy choice was the abstract backgrounds because I'm not really into abstracts. Next easiest was the new one for doing the anaglyphs, because that effect never works out well for me because I have a condition called "lazy eye syndrome" which kind of leaves my eyes unbalanced as far as combining the red and blue sides into a single 3D image.

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited September 2012

    Hi Mark, aye I was napping too...

    OK, let us see...

    You have "conceptual" duplication in terms of the Bryce Pro Material Showcases, I know each one is not the same content, but the concept behind them is very similar, so if you want to make savings, select just one.

    By the same token,

    The gritty, ground and tillable high resolution terrains are also conceptually similar. The gritty one is quite "narrow" in that it is only gravel. The ground is perhaps the most flexible. The high resolution terrains, is probably the most advanced in some respect, but again, is more focused to solving particular challenges. So if you had to choose one, I'd say go for Ground textures.

    Bryce Pro DTE Terrain 4 - you have some of these already I know, so this is really more of the same conceptually. Yes you do get new terrains shapes, scene set ups and materials, but you already have examples of this approach.

    If you are going to use HDRI, then you can't have too many HDRI to play with. The flexibility of IBL is down to the user though, not the content. Given time, I will - without any doubt - be calling on Horo's HDRI in future tutorials. I don't know which yet, so both is a safe bet.

    Night Clouds is not like other cloudscapes, the approach is different, so while this may seem an obvious duplication, it is not - but also, by the same token, it also is really only for night scenes - so somewhat limited.

    The Spherical Mapper , as endorsed by Rashad is very handy, but is something of an advanced tool. But if you had added it to this list, I would not be encouraging you to remove it.

    Hope that answers your questions?

    Cheers,

    David.

    Actually it made it tougher because I can see in the future where I might find the spherical mapper and/or the scene converter to be very useful tools to have but I figure I'm a good few months away from actually being ready to play with them. It's okay though because I know I've not given you much to work with here. All the scene files and the tile terrains and the DTE terrains are more still there because they're a good bit cheaper and so easier to hold onto. I'm reluctant to let any of those items go but I don't really have a good reason why other then I want to get as much stuff as I can. :) It's days like these when you wish you could hit the lottery and have unlimited wealth. :) The cloudscapes I think we were on the same page though, I initially had cloudscapes 4 and the layer skies item in there but since I have cloudscapes 1-3 I figured I could let those go but nightclouds was different. I've tried a little to make my own nightclouds but it hasn't been going well since I don't really understand how to manipulate cloud slabs to get a desired result yet. So I felt I really needed those if I want to do any scenes that would need night clouds in the short term. In the long term hopefully I'll learn how to manipulate volume clouds to get what I want on my own and not need pre-made cloud slabs?

    Post edited by LordHardDriven on
  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,628
    edited December 1969

    You're not late, I was hoping to hear from you today because usually these one day sales go for more then a day if they fall on a weekend. :) I guess duplicates was the wrong word choice? Your choice of redundant is probably a better fit. I was mainly wondering if say like the DVD had the same HDRI's as some of the HDRI sets? Then perhaps I could get rid of one of those since they're the most expensive item after the DVD. I really hate to though because I feel like when it comes to actually purchasing items I've shown alot more attention to David. I guess though that's because more of his products are in areas I'm familiar with. I've known of HDRI for some time but it's still something pretty new to me. So I've been more inclined to buy terrains, cloudscapes and materials.

    Thank you Mark. There were some duplicates of HDRIs once as I later discovered to my horror, but luckily they duplicated lower resolution ones. Since I have a database of the over 200 light probes, this doesn't happen anymore.

    David gave you a very good rundown about what you can expect. He has published many products I don't know intimately.

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,628
    edited December 1969

    If you don't have the Spherical Mapper then I suggest picking that up immediately. I am really impressed with what they've done with this ideal. I can already imagine a thousand uses for this item. Very affordable just now as well.

    Thank you for your kind words about this product.
  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    Horo said:
    You're not late, I was hoping to hear from you today because usually these one day sales go for more then a day if they fall on a weekend. :) I guess duplicates was the wrong word choice? Your choice of redundant is probably a better fit. I was mainly wondering if say like the DVD had the same HDRI's as some of the HDRI sets? Then perhaps I could get rid of one of those since they're the most expensive item after the DVD. I really hate to though because I feel like when it comes to actually purchasing items I've shown alot more attention to David. I guess though that's because more of his products are in areas I'm familiar with. I've known of HDRI for some time but it's still something pretty new to me. So I've been more inclined to buy terrains, cloudscapes and materials.

    Thank you Mark. There were some duplicates of HDRIs once as I later discovered to my horror, but luckily they duplicated lower resolution ones. Since I have a database of the over 200 light probes, this doesn't happen anymore.

    David gave you a very good rundown about what you can expect. He has published many products I don't know intimately.

    Well I went and got everything in the list above plus I went back and added in the spherical mapper and scene converter. I mean so what that I can't afford food now, that's what soup kitchens are for, besides, food is overrated. :)

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,628
    edited December 1969

    Thank you Mark. You'll master the Spherical and the Scene Converter in no time. Otherwise, we're here to help. I just hope you won't starve in front of the computer.

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited September 2012

    Horo said:
    Thank you Mark. You'll master the Spherical and the Scene Converter in no time. Otherwise, we're here to help. I just hope you won't starve in front of the computer.

    Oh no, that won't happen. Eventually I'll get to weak to work the keyboard and I'll go starve somewhere else. :)

    Post edited by LordHardDriven on
  • Dave SavageDave Savage Posts: 2,433
    edited December 1969

    Well I went and got everything in the list above plus I went back and added in the spherical mapper and scene converter. I mean so what that I can't afford food now, that's what soup kitchens are for, besides, food is overrated. :)

    There's sausage and egg in the Bryce content library... render yourself a sandwich. :cheese:
  • GussNemoGussNemo Posts: 1,855
    edited December 1969

    I took a look at what was on sale for Bryce and decided to see if my financial advisor, aka wife, would mind if I ordered a couple. So, Spherical Mapper and the Mentoring DVD are now purchased.

    I viewed one of the videos that came with Spherical Mapper, which right away led me to play with it. Only to realize I need to watch the rest of the videos in order to learn how to use it efficiently. Seeing the regular price of the Mentoring DVD and the sale price I just couldn't pass up this one.

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    GussNemo said:
    Seeing the regular price of the Mentoring DVD and the sale price I just couldn't pass up this one.

    Yeah, that one was a no brainer, at $80 it was a bit difficult to manage but at $40 it's a steal to good to pass up.

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    Well I went and got everything in the list above plus I went back and added in the spherical mapper and scene converter. I mean so what that I can't afford food now, that's what soup kitchens are for, besides, food is overrated. :)

    There's sausage and egg in the Bryce content library... render yourself a sandwich. :cheese:

    There is? I don't recall seeing it. Maybe I could fashion a boolean version of my stomach when it's full and just render me a full stomach whenever I feel hungry?

  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    Free cake material http://www.bryce5.com/details.php?image_id=1246

    "Let them eat cake" as (someone or other) famously didn't say.

  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    Gentle folk, kind purchases of the DVD, if it is not too much trouble can you let me know when your DVD's arrive by sending me an email to that effect?

    I am curious about a couple of things, one being how long it takes for you to get your DVD's and the other, well, I will tell you when your emails and DVD's arrive.

    Cheers,

    David.

  • Dave SavageDave Savage Posts: 2,433
    edited September 2012

    Well I went and got everything in the list above plus I went back and added in the spherical mapper and scene converter. I mean so what that I can't afford food now, that's what soup kitchens are for, besides, food is overrated. :)

    There's sausage and egg in the Bryce content library... render yourself a sandwich. :cheese:

    There is? I don't recall seeing it. Maybe I could fashion a boolean version of my stomach when it's full and just render me a full stomach whenever I feel hungry?

    Mmmm :-S... Well there is in mine. It came with the extra content as far as I remember. :)
    I picked up the coffee cup and plate from somewhere else.

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    Post edited by Dave Savage on
  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    Gentle folk, kind purchases of the DVD, if it is not too much trouble can you let me know when your DVD's arrive by sending me an email to that effect?

    I am curious about a couple of things, one being how long it takes for you to get your DVD's and the other, well, I will tell you when your emails and DVD's arrive.

    Cheers,

    David.

    You do know that customers are given several options with the more expensive ones being the quickest, right?

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    Well I went and got everything in the list above plus I went back and added in the spherical mapper and scene converter. I mean so what that I can't afford food now, that's what soup kitchens are for, besides, food is overrated. :)

    There's sausage and egg in the Bryce content library... render yourself a sandwich. :cheese:

    There is? I don't recall seeing it. Maybe I could fashion a boolean version of my stomach when it's full and just render me a full stomach whenever I feel hungry?

    Mmmm :-S... Well there is in mine. It came with the extra content as far as I remember. :)
    I picked up the coffee cup and plate from somewhere else.


    I'll have to check, I have my own way of doing things though so it's probably not exactly where it was initially.

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,628
    edited December 1969

    @TheSavage64 - this is a very nice still life of a breakfast.

  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    Gentle folk, kind purchases of the DVD, if it is not too much trouble can you let me know when your DVD's arrive by sending me an email to that effect?

    I am curious about a couple of things, one being how long it takes for you to get your DVD's and the other, well, I will tell you when your emails and DVD's arrive.

    Cheers,

    David.

    You do know that customers are given several options with the more expensive ones being the quickest, right?

    No I didn't that's news to me. I have not ordered the DVD. Perhaps I should when it was on offer to test the system? Never the less, do let me know - I'm curious if it is to be days or weeks.

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969


    No I didn't that's news to me. I have not ordered the DVD. Perhaps I should when it was on offer to test the system? Never the less, do let me know - I'm curious if it is to be days or weeks.

    Will do. Being that I'm relatively poor (inspite of my recent Bryce splurge) I went with the cheapest option which was UPS Ground. Here in the states, unless you live in an extremely remote area or off the continental mainland, that usually ends up being in the 3-5 day range. I fully expect for me it'll be closer to 3 so I should have it here Thursday. Being that I ordered on Sunday and so they couldn't have shipped it until yesterday at the earliest.

  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969


    No I didn't that's news to me. I have not ordered the DVD. Perhaps I should when it was on offer to test the system? Never the less, do let me know - I'm curious if it is to be days or weeks.

    Will do. Being that I'm relatively poor (inspite of my recent Bryce splurge) I went with the cheapest option which was UPS Ground. Here in the states, unless you live in an extremely remote area or off the continental mainland, that usually ends up being in the 3-5 day range. I fully expect for me it'll be closer to 3 so I should have it here Thursday. Being that I ordered on Sunday and so they couldn't have shipped it until yesterday at the earliest.

    I can sympathise entirely - I live in a rural place where post just vanishes... I have had to make quite a few claims over the years. The PO always says that they are making a gesture of good will - no one will take responsibility for nothing these days.

  • GussNemoGussNemo Posts: 1,855
    edited December 1969


    No I didn't that's news to me. I have not ordered the DVD. Perhaps I should when it was on offer to test the system? Never the less, do let me know - I'm curious if it is to be days or weeks.

    Will do. Being that I'm relatively poor (inspite of my recent Bryce splurge) I went with the cheapest option which was UPS Ground. Here in the states, unless you live in an extremely remote area or off the continental mainland, that usually ends up being in the 3-5 day range. I fully expect for me it'll be closer to 3 so I should have it here Thursday. Being that I ordered on Sunday and so they couldn't have shipped it until yesterday at the earliest.

    I chose the least expensive also, $12.40 US. Had I gone with next day, the most expensive, the two items I purchased plus shipping would have been well over $100 US.

    Doesn't anyone use pigeons anymore?

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    GussNemo said:

    No I didn't that's news to me. I have not ordered the DVD. Perhaps I should when it was on offer to test the system? Never the less, do let me know - I'm curious if it is to be days or weeks.

    Will do. Being that I'm relatively poor (inspite of my recent Bryce splurge) I went with the cheapest option which was UPS Ground. Here in the states, unless you live in an extremely remote area or off the continental mainland, that usually ends up being in the 3-5 day range. I fully expect for me it'll be closer to 3 so I should have it here Thursday. Being that I ordered on Sunday and so they couldn't have shipped it until yesterday at the earliest.

    I chose the least expensive also, $12.40 US. Had I gone with next day, the most expensive, the two items I purchased plus shipping would have been well over $100 US.

    Doesn't anyone use pigeons anymore?

    What I don't understand is why that flat rate shipping with the postal office isn't an option?.....Oh wait, I know, because with that it's harder to hide the completely bogus handling fee. :)

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    Mmmm :-S... Well there is in mine. It came with the extra content as far as I remember. :)
    I picked up the coffee cup and plate from somewhere else.


    Yes it did come with the content as part of the Bryce 4 Obp's. Which is sweet because now I can eat like a king! :) Although it'll have to be by candlelight.

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  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,628
    edited December 1969

    GussNemo and LordHardDriven does that mean that the shipping was not included in the price for the DVD? Shipping was included in the beginning - though the cheapest option.

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,628
    edited December 1969

    Yes it did come with the content as part of the Bryce 4 Obp's. Which is sweet because now I can eat like a king! :) Although it'll have to be by candlelight.

    Candle light is more romantic. Put on a mirror in the middle of the table and you have company :)

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    Horo said:
    GussNemo and LordHardDriven does that mean that the shipping was not included in the price for the DVD? Shipping was included in the beginning - though the cheapest option.

    Well when you check out it presents you with the various shipping options. Like I said I chose the cheapest which for me was $13 plus change. This amount was added into the total as a seperate item called shipping and handling. Now as far as it being included originally, I know nothing about that. My guess though, having dealt with Daz for around a decade now is that they didn't include shipping on the sale price because the sales price cuts too far into thier margin.

    What I'm really not happy with though is I see nothing indicating when it'll ship or providing me a way to track it when it does/has shipped.

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