I've already got Cyclorama and Environment from DAZ but I've been looking at the IC3 from RDNA and it looks pretty good. Has anyone got any experience with both Cyclorama and IC3 and if so can you give me your honest opinions on both please! I don't know if I really need IC3 as well!

I see the DAZ Cyclorama as obsolescent -- OK as a base for your own background images, but a bit limited in other support. Still, it's Platinum Club price. I don't know the Infinity Cove 3 and what potential it has. I'd look at the textures available more than anything else.

Thanx AntoniaTyger, RDNA seems to have a substantial amount of stuff for IC3 and it's mainly being supported by LinWhite and it does look kind of good with morphing terrain, something that Cyclorama doesn't have! Kind of answering my own questionreally aren't I! ;-(

Tou're tempting me now... The meshes are simple enough that you could make your own, even morphs. It is the textures which make the difference.

I would have to agree about the morphing terrain. The Mil Environment from DAZ has a bit of a morph capability but every time I try to use it I end up getting horribly lost between the ground texture and the background, and the flow of image isn't as good as I would wish. I haven't played with the IC3 yet but, if RDNA's advertising copy is to be believed, the ground plain is highly moprhable. If DAZ and their content creators would work on making terrain morphs to go with those beautiful background sets, it'd be a truly brilliant bit of work instead of just darned good, IMHO.

Yes, cedarwolf it's the advertising copy that's making me think really hard about getting it. It really does look like you could do a lot with it! Ahh decisions, decisions!! [and funds ;-(].

Just shifting slightly to the Millenium Environment, I'd agree that it can be a fiddle to set up. All the ground-cover plants can need tweaking to look right for the camera angle, and the ground/background transition needs to be handled carefully. A lot of that can be true for any of these environment props. You're promting me to make a terrain morph. If I get something that still looks OK with the textures I have, I'll maybe pop it into freestuff here. I think a less even ridge-line around the back is one possibility. Any other ideas? Something like a rough roadway would need some texture support. Small note -- motor vehicles just leave wheel ruts. A horse and cart has the horse wearing a strip up the middle as well.

One of the biggest differences in IC3 is that it is two planes, background and the morphing foreground. It will take all of the MicroCosm textures, another DNA product. Igohigh has also made a free texture pack for IC3. I have all of the afore mentioned packages and it all depends on the complexity of the scene which one I use. If I have multiple figures I'm more apt to use IC3 because I can move the background farther back thus giving more ground to play with. IMHO it's a good package and has a place in my arsenal.

I think the "goat/cow trail" for a group of adventurers, the cart ruts, perhaps even a cobblestone or dust/gravel roadway would be exceptional. Could'nt that concept be done as a texture map applied to the ground plain along with the morph?

It occurs to me that, for Poser 5, it could be made so that the textures for the track surface could be blended with the ground-area texture. The Blender node lets you use a texturemap to blend two others. Rather like a transmap, only one of the textures is shown where the controlling map is black, the other where the map is white, and a mix for the greys. I suspect that you'd have to use displacement maps, though a bump map would be OK for some traffic wear.

I love IC3. That would be my choice, or use VUE.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=833999&Start=13&Artist=FlyByNight&ByArtist=Yes

I am partial to IC3 as well. I like being able to adjust both the background distance or closeness and morphing the ground plane to suit the image or work with whatever architecture I may be using. Link above is to one of my images using IC3.

Infinity Cove 3 with its high quality art work is, I feel, the better option with more flexibility in useage.

Attached Link: http://www.oddditty.biz/

The IC3 can also be nicely enhanced with the MicroCosms set and the IC3 ground will even take the MC textures. There is now an IC3.1 that adds a new ground plane to be used for water sets. As for IC3 it takes standard photos very easily too, no 'notches' in the corners to fit etc. I have some digital photos available for it free over at Odd Ditty Foundation, some of the photos are (with permission) by my friend AnnieReb and some by my brother and some by myself (Washington, Oregon, Califoria locations): [Odd Ditty Foundation](http://www.oddditty.biz/) they have both P4 and P5 MAT files too ;p

But not to diss Cyclorama either, I've used it and MilEnvironment but have had it bog my puny system down and usually have to do my renders in three or four rounds and put everything together in Photoshop; but that's nothing new for me as many of my stuff is done that way even without any of these new, fancey backgrounds simply do to how much crude I try to pack into a scene ;p

As for compairing the two; I'd say IC3/IC3.1 is more friendly to customizing and easier on the system recourses then Cyclorama/MilEnvironment and more flexable if you wish to expand on using your own ground planes and/or MC where Cyclorama and MilEnvironment are fantastic with their pre-made sets if you have the recourses to handle it all but all in all they both add much variety.

Oh, and when I can find the time I have more photos to prep for IC3 from the LA Arboretum coming soon too ;p

Message edited on: 02/27/2005 12:10

Thanx for the replies everyone, much appreciated. Looks like I'll have to try and find some more dosh to spend :-( Nice image FlyByNight.

I'm partial to IC 3 too. But like those above it depends upon the complexity of the image.

Generally, if it boils down to Daz vs. RDNA, I choose RDNA.

I like IC3 more than Daz environment.Because distinction beetween Back and foreground.Because morphing ground.I am not so happy with the serie of mappings for it (dreams of infiny).I would prefer more maps made by photos

I'd actually prefer more terrains as props. If I have a real figure standing on a deformed mesh, the shadows will fall right. Otherwise, it looks like a person in a 1880's photo studio standing in a costume in front of an exotic and very fake painting. This may explain why too many gallery pictures have the model's feet in water or just crop the scene at her ankles. ;^) Carolly

Could you distort the Cyclorama floor with a wave without the texture being to distorted? Put a ground mesh in front of a cyclo background? I got Cyclorama which I think is terrific after shelling out big for Microcosm. I love Traveler but I really regret that purchase, more than any other - I have never gotten one render from it and I have no money to waste :( I got Cyclorama because of the many backgounds available for it (do interiors for cyclorama exist?). I just got the Nerd Backdrop but I have not been able to make my own backgrounds for it... I have a wide angle lense but not nearly wide enough... I got it for the several backgrounds that exist for it though... with my aweful computer these backdrops are terrific since any additional mesh I put in a scene invites a hanging render. I wish I understood how to place the camera to render figures against an image imported as Poser background.

I just looked at IC3 and IC2... IC2 actually looks better for me but too late for me to shell out for it now :(

I like Cyclorama textures and IC3 morphing terrain so I've chopped up some of the cyclorama textures and used them on IC3. I think these two work well together for what I want. One thing the Cyclorama has always lacked was a texturized ground. There's also many free Microcosm textures at RDNA that can be used on IC3. I too don't care much for the current line of IC3 backdrops, although I did get a few of them.

hauksdottir: I have this resting on my hard drive doing nothing. Started it for a now shelved project - so the painting would need finishing. Works good in Poser5 with a procedural texture too. If interested I will set up a download link for you.

Forgot the picture!

That would be great Becco. Thanks Jim

That has some nice possiblities for secret valleys with hanging waterfalls or for rustlers to hide out in or for napping dragons. I like the Japanese garden feeling that there is more to see around the corner. What I'm most in need of is a sand dune area such as is found in the Nambian Desert or White Sands (the archtypal sinuous wave usually seen with a line of camels). I've found some nice photos with no or limited usage restrictions, but I'm going to put a boat in the scene and getting the shadows right on a photo would be as much work as painting the image from scratch. I have Bryce 4, and Vue 4, which I haven't installed yet, but will have to learn the terrain editor to get it right. I photographed some local sand with the rippling texture, but haven't found time to build dunes. I do have the desert props by Inyerface and they will be good for other scenes, but this one really needs a wave shape. Actually, looking at your terrain again, I could see some gryphons up there with a nest. Thank you! Carolly

hauksdottir: My maths are not very good but do you mean something like this rough and ready example? It's only using 4 control points to control the 'wave' pattern, with more a greater variation could be formed. What you see is pretty much all definable including for instance - a camel rolling down the 'sand' and leaving a trail behind - just an example. The nice thing with the mesh is that if the size is increased the software automatically adjust the mesh to retain a constant density. Fun doing that - I only usually do fluid type wave patterns with it, so I learnt something new!

That's a promising start! The tops of the dunes are knife-edged, and would curl over if it wasn't for erosion. getting that edge and making the lines more sinuous and a bit more variable would be my recommendations.

The dunes really are very wavelike under the influence of the prevailing winds. I'm surprised that with all of the biblical, bedouin, camel, Egyptian etc. props and clothing and figures that we don't have a good Saharan or Namibian desert setting for them. We have some deserts from the US, suitable for pioneer scenes, but no rolling dunes. The camel is how many years old?

I've included a few links to images, but also found a couple of top-down shots which might be helpful. If you can build a good dune-filled desert, a lot of people should enjoy pulling out their sphinxes and camels and arabian horses... or drop a pyramid-shaped alien spaceship... or any number of neat things.

Thanks for tackling this!

Carolly

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This is the sort of landscape I have in mind:

• http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=63509

And this is the sort of treatment I'll be doing to it (as though the ocean had dried up and was blowing away):

• http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=247911

These aren't bad as reference:

http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=212933

http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=95692

and from Googling on Namib:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/aventures.voyages/voyages/afrique/Namibie/Namib-grande_dune.jpg

http://www.mackoo.com/fonds/namib.jpg

http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~nori/boom/namib_dune_birds.jpg

http://www.etendues-sauvages.com/namibie/nam_25_300.jpg

http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/msmyth/Africa/Elephants_Meeting/Namib_Aerial/NAMIB_DUNE_AERIAL.jpg

gorgeous landsat view:

http://www.solarviews.com/huge/earth/namib.jpg

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Moroccan dunes:

http://www.maion.com/photography/morocco/dunes_p17.html

knife-edged... except for camel tracks:

www.globalgayz.com/ Morocco/19_JPG.html

http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/04/bradley/Morocco/dune.jpg

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://weecheng.com/morocco/merzouga/postcard-dune.gif&imgrefurl=http://weecheng.com/morocco/merzouga/merzouga.htm&h=597&w=825&sz=356& tbnid=4FRL_RE_04MJ:&tbnh=103&tbnw=142&start=10&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmorocco%2Bdune%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D

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Algerian dunes:

www.marcosanti.it/.../ Algeria/Algeria_Dune3.htm

www.didaweb.net/mediatori/ articolo.php?id_vol=86

I think those are the Atlas Mountains behind:

http://www.siciliain4x4.it/Aquile%20dell'etna/Aquile%20WEB/Aquile%20Deserto/Desertoimage/deserto+dune4.jpg

top view of Erg Chech dunes from space:

danmarlou.free.fr/ vuedu8.htm

Message edited on: 03/01/2005 20:28

I broke the link of the merzouga dune image to save the sideways scroll. :sigh: