Hi all, I have a few wip problems, one is the terrible fire. I mean this is dreadfull, it's dull looking and the shape is pretty naff too, you can easily tell it's a symetrical lattice. I tried putting a radial light in there, and it's sort of improved the light in the scene, but it's way too fierce. And this is Bryce 4 I'm talking about, and I don't know how to turn the brilliance down. Plus the fire is not improved at all, it's still dull and naff looking. I fancied a rounder thing, I was thinking blue and reddish flames, sort of not a globe but more towards that shape, but how do I get the flames to look hotter, brighter, and to cast a pale light on the figure holding/conjuring the flames? Naff image of flames included... (sigh) I've been working (on and off) on this wip for a long time, and I'd like to feel I'm getting somewhere again. Help? Fran

Problem 2. Invloves creeping allopeshia (can't spell it, I mean hair loss), as you can see the figure arrived in Bryce4 with hair, but it's falling off the back of his head, and I swear it looked okay in Poser... Help? What can I do... if anything. Do I have to go back to using a baldy guy again? Fran

Problem 3 involes the odd sort of cracks/scars on his face, this just appeared when I added the radial light, but even if I can turn down the brilliance of this light, the cracks/scars may still be visible. So what's causing it, and thus how do I fix it? Fran - Oh, picture of craggy face included.

Problem 4 and the last one for the moment, involves feet. I've managed to get Michael into Bryce4 with the robe on, but whenI tried adding the sandals to his feet, all sorts of things went wrong, culminating in - I can't do it. Help? Fran

Hi Fran, want to zip the file and send it to me so i can get a good look at the issues? Richard

the hair, I think, can be fixed in Poser by increasing the scale of the hair, possibly moving it forward on the head (you can scale on the axis the heads' on, etc).
The 'cracks' could be the hair bleeding through on the head..mebbe..
as for the fire, go to Freebies and look for Menno's fire (regular and blue)..right handy materials, and does pretty well. Hope all this helps.

I had some of these problems(hair, face) on direct from Poser into Bryce figures, brought them into DAZ Studio and exported again and they cleared up.

The cracks are probably a combination of mesh and diffuse/ambient settings. If you have all diffuse and no ambient light then the facets of you mesh show up. It has to do with the number of diffuse rays hitting the surface. Say your light has a density of 100 rays per square unit (inch, centimeter, whatever) If you have a square object turned directly toward the light then 100 rays hit. Rotate the object 45 degrees and only half the light or 50 rays hit. Less light rays = darker object. Your poser guy is not smooth. He's made up of little flat triangles. When you get close the individual triangles become noticable. Ambient light comes from the whole object. Turn your ambient all the way up and your object looses the shadow side. Turn it up a little and it adds in with the diffuse to even out those little cracks.

pakled, Hmmm, I'll have to think about going into Poser again I see... I'll take a look for that Menno's fire, thanks. Zhann, DAZ....Hmmm... I wonder if I try Daz one more time, it might work for this? electroglyph, "Your poser guy is not smooth." I did try smoothing, but it didn't seem to make any difference. As for turning up the ambient light - I don't know how to - the lights in Bryce 4 are very primative - see image, and I can't figure out how to lower either the ambience or the intensity (if they ARE different...?) Fran

To turn up or down the intensity click and hold in the upper left box and drag the mouse to change the settings. Same with the edge softness (box below the intensity). Ambience settings are in the material lab and/or sky lab.

Message edited on: 02/27/2005 14:22

Aldaron, That's absolutely wonderful, thank you SO MUCH! It works! Fran (happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happyhappyhappyhappy!) (g)

You know, I was just thinking, those "cracks" might turn out to be caused by the symetrical lattice..., since I placed the radial light INSIDE the lattice... Hmmm... I hadn't thought of that before. Fran

Fran, the 'cracks' extend onto the hair. I think they're shadows cast by the 'fire'. There are some pretty good tips on a frire material here. You might want to think about a different shape. (metaballs, or more lattices) If the hair was positioned right in poser, and you exported it with the guy, then you might have nudged it in Bryce. I suggest that whenever you select an item you use ctrl-click to aviod bumping anything out of place. You can carefully move it back into place easiest if you use OpenGL and solo mode with the hair and head. (may require some scaling).

xenic101, Hah! Great minds think alike! I'd just come to a similar conclusion about the 'cracks'. And yes, I definitely want a different shape, I was thinking more ball like. I've heard a lot of people mentioning 'metaballs' what on earth are they? Is it just another word for the spheres in Bryce4? I know the effect I'd LIKE, but it's a bit hard to explain... Sort of as if the blue fire is 'dripping' UPWARDS around an invisible globe shape - as well as burning inside it... a glowing hot looking fire. Dunno if this is possible or not. "I suggest that whenever you select an item you use ctrl-click to aviod bumping anything out of place." Yes, I always do, I don't ungroup things either, I just control click to select them while they are still in the group. So it must have happened in poser, probably while I was getting the figure clothed. I tried adding hair, and maybe I just thought it hadn't worked, when actually the hair was there, just slipped back off his head during clothing... Poser is a rotten program! Doesn't even work with it's own things! "You can carefully move it back into place easiest if you use OpenGL and solo mode with the hair and head. (may require some scaling)." Sorry, I don't understand that. Is it chinese? (g) What program are you talking about, and where is this "Open GL" and "Solo" and how do you use them? And what's scaling? I've used scaling in Wings, but I don't see how it applies here... Sorry, lost me. Fran

Actually Fran, try doing the hair positioning in the Top, Front and Side views with final tweaks in director. I find this manner of working best for me.

Sorry Fran, forgot you had Bryce4. Metaballs are in Bryce 5, interacting blobs is a simple description. Had to check to make sure Bryce4 had OpenGL, it does, just click and hold the little cube off on the side that normally rotates between wireframe/both/rendered view. OpenGL is a fast and dirty 3d shaded veiw. And by scaling I mean resizing, the little cube with the axis with the boxed ends. click and drag on the center to scale along all axis, click and drag on the end of the axis to scale that end of the object, alt-click and drag to scale both ends of the axis.

You know, I'm with Fran... I've seen remarks about 'Open GL' before, and I also don't know what that means.