Okay, now I can see where this _could_ be useful, but I still can't get the colours right. When my last thread was moved to the Bryce forum I got answers but the didn't work, or I didn't know HOW to use them... maybe there will be some more answers soon, we'll see. But now I've been playing with the opacity as suggested by jroulin, and well... now I have this in the image above:^^^ A Ghost Dragon. Is this right? Is that what "Opacity" is for? Fran

Yes opacity means you can see through the object. You found a very nice application with your ghost dragon. The main use will be glasses, bottles, water... and ghosts. For your colour when importing in Bryce you should add lights in Daz to be as close as possible to the some in Bryce. Adjust your colours settings also by playing with the diffuse strength in Daz. By clicking in the Bryce icon you will get back to Bryce where you can made a quick render on a small part of your figure using the spray can. If the results are still not fine you can click on the Daz Studio icon that will let you come back to Daz for other adjustments. When you go back to Bryce the figure will be updated whit the new settings. Hope this will help Jacques

Opacity is also used for hair and clothing - for that, a map is created where the strands of hair or visible areas of clothing are white, the gaps are black and the inbetween sections are grey, and the map is then used for Opacity (if you were makuing your own you'd click the triangle next to Opacity and select Browse for image...): D|S would apply the set opacity to the white areas, make the black areas 0% opaque and set intermediate values for teh grey areas. You can see this in action if you load hair or a texture set for some clothing that cuts part of the original shape away and look at the Surfaces settings.

jroulin,

"For your colour when importing in Bryce you should add lights in Daz to be as close as possible to the some in Bryce."

But I don't want the dragon to look the same in Daz as it does in Bryce, I want it to look the same in BRYCE as it does in DAZ!

"Adjust your colours settings also by playing with the diffuse strength in Daz"

Oh in DAZ, right. I was using the diffuse setting in Bryce, no wonder it wasn't working.

Fran P.S. In any case I have no idea how to add lights in Daz to simulate the light in Bryce... come to that, I have no idea how to add lights in Daz period! (didn't even know Daz HAD lights!)

Message edited on: 05/30/2005 06:43

RHaseltine, You are talking about "TransMaps" yes? The things you can never find in Poser when you are trying to get Michael's eyelashes and eyebrows to look non-plastic in Bryce... hate the things! Come to that, hate Poser deeply.

Okay, so "opacity" is not solving my dragon colours problem... and I really, REALLY liked the idea of a dragon done in colours I like rather than the default it comes with... (sigh)

No opacity will not solve your colours problem and now it start to be more complicated to explain but I will try. First of all to add some lights you can click on the tool distant lights (1). You can move it to the direction you want in the parameter window on the x, y and z axis. You also can set the intensity there. Set the direction and the intensity as close as possible to Bryce so that the dragon will get the same colour than in Bryce. The first step after would be that you try to alter the diffuse colour in the surface window (2) you need to alter all the different sections you want to change to get a nice result. For the second step If you still do not get the results you want you will need to alter the body map below the diffuse colour. The map is already a picture file that is stored in your computer. To find it you can perform a search in your system simply type in the name you can read below the diffuse colour. Some body part can also have different body maps and is you want to change them also you will need to find, and open them in your photo manager software to. You can use the paint program that comes with windows but it will be very limitated. If you have preferred software you can use this one ( maybe Phtoshop). As soon as you have the colour you want you can save it to the same directory but do not use the same name!!! At this point you will need to load your new picture file in Daz Studio. To do so you will have to click on the name below the diffuse colour. Choose the browse for image and load your newly saved picture. I know it is complicated and I spend lot of time learning all this myself but at the end it is very useful if you want to have some different render than everibody. Good luck and feel free to ask again if you need help. Jacques

I think that the main problem you're having is trying to combine a diffuse map with a diffuse colour when transferring to bryce (diffuse map/texture map are considered the same to bryce for this purpose). What you can try is, in Bryce's Material Editor (the "M" button when you have a figure selected) and experiment with the values in different columns. My knowledge of Bryce itself is limited. I don't know the hows or whys or even how to fix things. (I can make things shiney. That's about it.) MS

jroulin, "Set the direction and the intensity as close as possible to Bryce" This is just what I can't do - I have absolutely no idea how to replicate the light in Bryce... (see message no 4 above) "The first step after would be that you try to alter the diffuse colour in the surface window (2) you need to alter all the different sections you want to change to get a nice result." Yup... did all that last week. I just don't understand why they (Daz) let you do that if it doesn't show up in Bryce... pretty pointless really. (P.S. I think all that about PhotoShop sounds pretty frightening, I don't know how to use it) (PPS, I've used PaintShop though and it sounds fairly impossible in that too, I just wouldn't know where to even start - oh, and I have absolutely no idea how the Windows Paint program works) Thanks for trying.

MorriganShadow, "What you can try is, in Bryce's Material Editor (the "M" button when you have a figure selected) and experiment with the values in different columns. " No. Tried that, but all that does is gives you a wing (for instance, but applies to all parts of Dragon) with a flat colour, you loose all the scales details. See Image above

MorriganShadow, "What you can try is, in Bryce's Material Editor (the "M" button when you have a figure selected) and experiment with the values in different columns. " No. Tried that, but all that does is gives you a wing (for instance, but applies to all parts of Dragon) with a flat colour, you loose all the scales details. See Image above

I'm fiddling in the Material settings in Bryce...give me a little while. I may have some sort of a workaround for you ;) MS

I'd love it if you did find a workaround. If not, is there a tutorial somewhere for doing things to texture maps in PaintShop?... or at a pinch in PhotoShop if no PaintShop tuts are available? From that I may be able to adapt the tut to use for the dragon... if the original tut is simple enough for a "nutbucket" like me to follow.

Fran, yes you are right I also tried to play with the diffuse settings in Daz and nothing happened in Bryce. Seems this is a bug and we should report it. The workaround I found was to play with the diffuse strength % in Daz Studio By lowering them from 100% to around 50 you can have your body part a lot darker. Lets wait some time if Morrigan can find a workaround in Bryce but we should fill in a bug report at DAZ telling them that the diffuse strength is not passed to Bryce. To alter the picture file in PaintShop you can try to play with the filters. If you want to change the colours and mace it darker only I would use the Contrast and Brightness settings you also do not need to applied the new texture on all the body part of the dragon and can select only some parts. Jacques

jroulin, "The workaround I found was to play with the diffuse strength % in Daz Studio By lowering them from 100% to around 50 you can have your body part a lot darker." So does this mean you CAN transfer the coloured dragon from Daz to Bryce? If yes, can you explain what you just said in more detail so I can follow the procedure? If you just mean it gives you a darker dragon in Bryce, then it won't help me. By the way, I have no idea how to "fill in a bug report at DAZ". Nor do I know how to "in PaintShop you can try to play with the filters" I don't even know how to get a dragon into PaintShop... I know how to use Brightness and Contrast with a photo I've taken but that's because I know where my photos are and have done it many times. This mapping thing is not something I've ever tried, UV Mapping has always baffled me completely. Isn't the fact that the colour changes made in Daz do not appear in Bryce a bug? Shouldn't THAT be reported? (since that's what I want to do).

Ok lets go slowly. 1) I have no idea how to "fill in a bug report at DAZ". I have filled a bug report at Daz for this. Lets wait what Daz will answer. I will keep you informed about that. 2) So does this mean you CAN transfer the coloured dragon from Daz to Bryce? Yes easily with Bryce 5.5 Simply click on the Daz icon at the top and it will open Daz Studio. At soon as you are in Daz Studio load your dragon and try to alter your colour with the diffuse strength %. It will still have the colour but darker. I know this is not exactly what you want but it is the best I could find in Daz actually. When you have finished this you can transfer in Bryce by clicking on the Bryce icon that is in the right corner of Daz Studio. You will find the Bryce icon in Daz Studio only if it was open using Bryce!! When you are in Bryce again you should try to render your Dragon and if the results need some adjustments you can switch back to Daz Studio by clicking the Studio icon again and start the process again. If you do not have Bryce 5.5 tell my how you are doing it now. It will help for the answer. 3) I know how to use Brightness and Contrast with a photo I've taken but that's because I know where my photos are. You do not need to do mapping! In my previous answer (no 7) I have explained how to find the name of this picture file. To get the location in your computer you need to go to the start menu and use the find option. Type in the name of the file you have in the bar below the diffuse colour (2 in my previous answer) Hope this will help Jacques

Ok, I did some fiddling ;). My tips are this: Leave the 1st 3 columns alone in the Bryce Material Editor. Click on an empty area (So far, it looks like the Specularity field works best for this), and edit the material that pops up in the "D" texture. You can choose from different effects. What I did for my image: I changed all the colours on the "D" Texture to 3 shades of Purple. Then, I added it to Specularity, Ambience, and Reflection. I also raised the bump height a lot. You can experiment with the bump height for various looks. Basically, it keeps the texture as an underlay, and uses the specularity node to add the texture that you want to use. I haven't gotten anything close to what you're wanting to do, but it is a start. Hopefully, I'll work more with that soon. Cheers, MS

It'll take me a while but I'm going to have to save this thread in a word prog, as I can no longer remember the steps to use... And my neck is killing me now, I'll have to stop computing for today. I'll get back to you on this...