Got a question from MadDog31, after seeing the tutorial I did making shapes in Photoshop for Bryce, he was asking if it was possible to make a handrail for a staircase in Bryce. "I want to create a gradual bend in my handrail (kinda like an elegant staircase in a ballroom, etc)" Trying to make a handrail even in Photoshop for Bryce would be difficult, to say the least. To try and control the curve to the main shape AND to try and affect the way the height would later pan out, would be, well, hard. I tried playing around with terrains to try and make this work ever since I got his I.M., but with no real success, thought maybe someone else here would have other ideas, etc. AgentSmith

Attached Link: Spiralizer

I'm anyone. I want one, please.

Yes please Rochr, your audience awaits. 8)

By all means, everyone can use this info...

using Agent Smiths idea you might make a spiral with an outie convex rail and neg bool it with an innie concave rail. The hard part for me would be figuring out how to keep the gradient of the rail constant.

My quess is to use the multireplicator. Should be quite easy really. I'd like to see rochrs method though.

err rather than replicated = rather than cylinders, replicated

Agent Smith, I'd kind of like to know how to do the smooth gradient in photoshop that you used in your example - I think that's really neat. - TJ

The Gradient Designer in Kai's Power Tools is pretty useful for such things. It's an add-on set of filters for Photoshop, I"m sure that one could produce similar effects in Photoshop alone with a little practice or "talent"!

Quest, you never have to ask whether to put it in freestuff, you can never have too many models...8]

Wow thanks AgentSmith for working on trying to figure out my predicament (sp) and also posting the question, I had no idea you were working on it! haha...thanks to everyone coming up with ideas also. They are all great ideas and I'm kinda sorta waiting on what Rochr has in store for us in the form of a tut. I'm gonna delay this image idea at least a week til I find out what his tut has to say. I think even, I was sorta looking for more of a gradual curve, not necessarily a spiral. I was very close with a filter in Photoshop (not the one AS used) but it just didn't have the right curve. It's moreless a straight staircase but I wanted it to kinda curve outwards with the larger opening at the bottom...I'll see if I can draw a quick freehand sample in PS and upload it. MD

How do you place an origin handle? I can't tell you the number of times I've wanted one!!! Thanks!

Select an object/group, and press the small "A", and the option is on the meny that pops up!

D'OH! Thanks again!

Also check this link (mouse click here).

Hmmm, I would love to try this out! I have some added objects, Downloaded from the web, full spiral tubes and half spiral tubes. Got to find that link again! Also got twisted wires, I-beams, rounded 2x4's and currogated panels.

I hope your not thinking of Lannies 3D World frndofyaweh 'cos it's now closed. It's a real shame, they had such great models. Catlin

Bikermouse, Looks great! Is it possible to get a screenshot of the settings used for the multirep? Never could get it to work... :)

Don't think it was Lannies 3D world, But I can't find it anymore. I typed: "Grey scale", in the search window and found a link in the list, that had grey scale images to import to bryce terrains. They also had a bunch of obj. files. The creators name was John Spirit, I think?

Notes: I grouped the whole stair rail together and moved it up numerically so I could get rid of the foreGround, so the Y settings are way high The group 4 position X doesn't look right I thought it was originally zero but you could try it both ways. remember to subtract the values in the second position XYZs from those in the first to get your values for the multirep. and just use the -5 degrees in the y rotation

err second origin XYYs not second position XYZs

Thanx man, for the trouble! Multirep has always been chinese for me. :) But with the guidence from your settings, perhaps i can finally learn! Ill do some experimenting! :)

Oh great, Rochr just learned something in new Bryce?!? Now his images are gonna make me insanely more jealous...heheh :) This turned out to be a very informative thread! Multireplication has always been Chinese to me too (maybe Latin...which I think is worse...hehe) but I'm going to have to keep this thread handy. I wish there were a page where thread URLs are listed per the topic. Of course, one prob exists, I'm just not seeing it. Anyways, great thread everyone! MD

Rochr and all, Something to keep in mind when multireplicating: start at 0 Y 0 for the basis of the object where y is the y height. Also so you can visualize it better your camera should be in the south pointing north (ie 0 Y -100.) since in this case I wanted a spiral I offset the Z axis of the original by 20 and set the Z and X handles to zero before multireplicating. (Group 1 illustration doesn't show this because I only set the duplicate to zero before manually moving it but z position should be 0) once you're done you can group it all and save it as a created object and place it in another scene. That way the creative process doesn't get too complicated. The torus method by frndofyaweh looks like it will work well too and provide a smoother rail, but it would be harder to get to follow a complex path if you wanted the spiral to unwind or follow a path such as in MadDog's illustration. cheers, - TJ

Zhann, assume you are looking north(+z direction.) in your illustration. You could try making your "solid wall" cubes long enough so at the top they just enter the ground and on the bottom they would be sunken into it. Booleanianing other shapes(something like rjs thingy comes to mind) with the wall using the same path only lower in the Y and perhaps offset in the X directions could add some neat effects. The hardest part is to keep your steps from poking out of the wall. Unless you know the mathmatical percentages for the X axis on your steps you might have to do each step manually or create a boolean negative based on the path to erase the step extrusions if you use a path. Love to see it when you've got it done. - TJ

Addendum: or you could make the steps first and create a path based on yhe steps. amd multirep along the path. see the link in post 33 for details on how to create the path.

22 not 33 (my typing is getting lame - my appologies.)

I see your point about extending the stair itself back along the z, however, the one I'm doing is curved and when I extend along the z (back towards the upper area) it distorts the curve face, hmmmm, may have to boolean the sides with a sweeping curve and create a wall with the same curve and weld it to the steps, can use the same curve to do the handrails and baluster placement....I'll work on it....;]

I'm terrible at drawing and worse with a mouse, but the illustration as poor as it is makes the point.

cheers,
-TJ

I don't think PSP has the 'fade brush' altho I'll check it out, still workin' on it... Ooops, I see why you said that, actually the 'treads'(and risers) are curved, the stair itself is straight with a broader bottom tread and side wall that curves up to a narrower top tread, (like the photo) sorry for the confusion...:} thanks, Zhann

Yeah, that's what I did in post #3 (basically). I used a spiral shape that comes with Photoshop, I created it, turned it into a selection, filled it with grey. With another layer I kept the spiral selction and created a circular gradient, this made the middle dark, and the outer edges lighter. That's it. Anything with thin eged, tends to need to be bigger in dimension, to come out looking better as a finished terrain. I went ahead and made mine 2048x2048. Oh, I also hit "smoothing" about 10 times in the terrain editor. AS

Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/~bryce/spiral_1.jpg

BTW, AS, do you put things like the sreyscale in the Bryce Backroom? Haven't been there lately but it seems like a good, accessible place to have these kinds of things...just curious..:]

Agent Smith, I was wondering how you did that! I can visualize how that works now! I'm gonna have to put all this to work in a bryce scene sometime - I just hope I can do it justice the way I'm sure Zhann will in hers. Thanks, - TJ

Bikermouse, flattery will get you everywhere, you rascal you...;]

Yeah, these things are all in the Backroom. I've been throwing things back there with no thumbnails or anything, its past time to clean house back there, lol. AS