The aboveis something I read about recently, so of course it's currently my favourite:-)

To create Waves:
What I did was load a terrain then edit it. In the editor I hit "new" to delete the default terrain, then used the elevation brush to create some roughly vertical rows (by "vertical" I mean as viewed in the editor, not in the 3D sebse).
They were deliberately slighly wavy (no pun intended).
I increased the terrain resolution to 512 (I think - may have been 1024).
Applied a bit of erosion.
Smoothed and decreased height.

Out of the terrain editor and in the main view, I selected the terrain, rotated it in Z (looking from the front) to approx 15-20 degrees, then squished it in Y and finally rotated back in Z to be level again.
(I think this is known as "skewing". It took me a couple of goes to get the amount of rotate and squish more-or-less right)

Then I stretched the terrain in X & Z.

Into the Materials Lab and added Foamy Seawater, twiddled it a bit in the DTE, and edited it to a larger size (to make the texture smaller...)

The above was the result.

Not great and I wouldn't publish it as anything except a "sort-of how-to", but it's a start..:-)

Cheers,
Diolma

Feel free to crit, add suggestions, post any other tips/tricks not even related to waves...:-))

Son of a Diddley!  You've done what I'd been trying to wrap my brain around for a while.  The only drawback I see is doing curved shores, and possibly adding foam (unless you go heavy post render.  I did something similar for church benches, but didn't think to apply it to water terrains.  (slaps forehead).  Gonna have to figure out  how to use this soon.  Hmmmmm ideas percolating.  Now you've done it. ;c)

MDB

Save early, save often, save sequentially.

I think that'd be my most valuable one :)

Use save as, start with filename 01, and it will do the sequentailly bit for you automatically.

Attached Link: http://excalibur.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1252461

You load a simple b/w overhead type image of a boat hull cross section into terrain editor by 1)create terrain 2) click the "E" to go into terrain editor 3) click new 4) load the image described above then exit editor to return to main screen.

Lower the new terrain.  Duplicate, resize the copy on the X and Z axis smaller slightly, stack it on top of orignal terrain and repeat the process several times.

This image shows the original B/W image fm paint program, a simple stack of resulting terrains, and a simple shrimp boat model using this system.

Link is to an image where I used a more refined version of this model

I forgot to mention the nets on the boat are terrains created within the editor also.

I like to use multiple terrains interlocked to create swells at sea, and then make the texture sleightly transparent, and put a opaque water texture under it to give more depth to the water.  Takes a heck of a long time to render, but it can be so worth it.

Tip:Using the Plop render when checking lighting of a scene or model details is your best time saver. For some reason I don't see many new to Bryce, use this, but thats just me.

Plop render is also great for alterations without a complete re-render, also have used it to render an entire scene, larger swatches for less stressed areas and small bites for more intense areas, while saving the file after every run. I miss that while learning other Apps.

Don't forget using Spray render to help quick render simple sections of a composition and then let the regular render chug along working on only the hard spots.  I often use the plop render to slice renders up into thin sections so you can do hard spots quicker too.  Very helpful in complex compositions when you don't have enough RAM to really blast through.

Many thanks all for the replies. Exactly what I was hoping for!

@skillwigee: I'd never thought of that approach for building boat hulls. I can also see that coming in useful for stone steps and possibly dry-stone walls (or garden-bed retaining walls)..

And any tips on speeding up renders are always welcome! (unless they interfere with my all too regular tea/ciggie breaks)..:-)

Cheers,
Diolma

Speed up render time.....

I had one particular file quite some time ago. A fairly simple scene except the was this hair trans-map on a poser that would make my white line come to a screetching drag!! So, I turn off the appearance of the hair in the attributes of that part of the model, let the entire scene render. Afterward I could plop render small segments of the hair. This works great when you're planning on going somewhere, open the file, let-her rip, come home, Voila!! Save it and do thia all over again until the difficult area is complete.

Another thing to remember too, when you're building a scene...and let's say the front of the building isn't visible in your scene, don't build the entire building.......Only what is going to show.

After time you can also determine when an effect like distance blur and motion blur are easier done with a distance map and Postwork--VS--a long render with DOF set up in Bryce. This saves tons of time.

ICM

Using photos to drive terrains:-)

(my typing is gong probably to go AWOL, 'cos I've drunk too much alcohol, but I'll try anyway...)

The above is an axample photo. The photo is one I took myself for the architectural detail.
(Next  post is how it gets applied..)

The result is seen above. Slightly rotated in X and the cam has been rotated too look down somewhat..

It's not intended as foreground, just as background. Need more background? Create another terrain an do the same with a different pic:-))

What I like about this approach is that by using real-life photosyou can get a very realistic combination of "random" versus "regular" (something not easily achievable using functin/fractals)

BTW, the above image is in no way intended to be any sort of a finished image. Just food for thought, and a possible technique

DRAT! Now I've got hiccups! hope I can manage to to post this before I have to go to bed...

Regrets if the above isn't clear enough. I'm now in no condition to explain in detail....

Will be back tomorrow..

Cheers,
Diolma

Oh, and apologies to anyone who thinks I'm trying to teach Grandma to suck eggs! I still haven't worked out how to do a "holed egg" in Bryce, let alone a Grandma...

and she says she 's a newbie. huh. don't believe her. :blink:
:rolleyes: she just drank too much! :tongue2:
save. save. save.
don't render glass unless you want your comp to die.
spray render to save time when working.

holed egg? can we have a tut on that? i think the negatives sort of get me confused..i mean.. metaphysical speaking.

This is a great thread - everyone has a different way of working and so different tips to offer. I reckon we should have a special tips/tricks section or back room for Bryce or something since this doesn't quite fit into the tutorials section (or maybe there should be a part of the tutorials section devoted to tips/tricks? ). It would be a great learning resource for new Brycers (well old ones too - you never stop learning;)), especially now that there are probably more of them around due to the recent Daz giveaway.  

My tip is as already mentioned - save often!

"and she says she 's a newbie. huh. don't believe her."

erosiaart: Actually I never said I was a newbie, except to B5. I've had B3 for several years and both my little tricks work in B3. It was only the "skewing" trick that was new to me, and I'm still trying to work out how to get foam on the dropping-over bit.

Also  whisper  don't tell anyone else, this "she" is actually a he....

Cheera,
Diolma

(aka John)

IO4: Thanks for your interest. I agree (in priciple) about a special tips/tricks section, but I suspect that the PTB may have other priorities and a new section is not likely to be coming in the near future.

Sigh

Meanwhile, this is all you get.

Unless, of course AS could be pressured into setting up a sticky for "tips'n'tricks"...

Thanks to all who have participated. I have learned something new in here, and hopefully others will too.:-)) I also hope that more tips'n'tricks will be forthcoming..:-)

Cheers,
Diolma

I use the terrain editor for modeling, - but when I build house structures (re. you photo reference) I use latices... :) It's usable on both sides.

Also, to make a thick forest, I don't use a lot of trees. I use either cylinders or trunk freebies. Then I use bryce trees (if any) as brances. Unless you render the wood from a brid's eye, your visual isn't whole trees. When you walk there, you will see undercover, and brances. So I stick bryce trees into the trunks to show an occational branch. Other than that it's smart to use undercover, made up by 2d faces with leaf textures (with alpha channel) this takes a lot off the render time.

Britt

Another trick I use with clouds.  Use rock latices, never spheres or other primatives.  The rough edges allow for more interesting shapes.  I like to create a pile of them, then use the 3d scatter to change their size, location and orientation, cull out the smallest ones that interfere with the scene's flow, move some that don't look right, and light it accordingly.  Works really well for those big thunderheads.

Of course, in post work with photoshop, if you have sharp edges on a cloud that look fake, use the smudge tool at say 30% and smear the edges of the clouds till it looks fluffy.

MDB

Quote - Plop render is also great for alterations without a complete re-render, also have used it to render an entire scene, larger swatches for less stressed areas and small bites for more intense areas, while saving the file after every run. I miss that while learning other Apps.

3dsmax has it! :biggrin:

For faster render times...

Tip #2: Don't use the Visible Object under Renders Options in the light lab with soft shadows. Fake a small sphere and use transparency for the light(or light bulb). Your soft shadows will look fine and your render times will be cut by 500% or more.

Tip #3: --->B5.5 only.  Run a small MP3 program or similiar small program active in the background while using Bryce. Most systems with little or no background programs running, will see their CPU usage go from 80% or so to 98% for Bryce (I used task manager and render tests to confirm), decreasing render times. Bryce 5.5 was setup with room in mind to allow other programs to run in background. And for OS reasons or Bryce code,... Bryce will get more CPU time(don't use the priority in task manager, it is not the same).

"Tip #3: --->B5.5 only.  Run a small MP3 program or similiar small program active in the background while using Bryce. Most systems with little or no background programs running, will see their CPU usage go from 80% or so to 98% for Bryce (I used task manager and render tests to confirm), decreasing render times. Bryce 5.5 was setup with room in mind to allow other programs to run in background. And for OS reasons or Bryce code,... Bryce will get more CPU time(don't use the priority in task manager, it is not the same)."

Now  THAT'S sneaky! I can (vaguely) understand the why/how of it, but I'd never have thought of that solution.
Not that I have to, since I don't have B5.5 (just the free B5.0), but I'm sure others will appreciate it:-)

Cheers,
Diolma

Tip #4: Use a programmable mouse such as gaming mice, Razer Diamondback or Copperhead, or any of  new Logitech programable mice etc..., whichever fits your budget or hand(40$-100$). Make sure they have at least 6 or more buttons, and a high DPI scan rate(800 or higher). You can then program the middle mouse button and any side buttons to quickly do Bryce functions(remember the middle mouse button isn't even used in Bryce, unless you get a programable mouse, or tech). Programmable Tablets work also. Its a good time saver.

Gog's No 1 tip, when you hit render you probably have time for a coffee....

Gog's No 2 tip hang around at the renderosity bryce forum....

"Gog's No 1 tip, when you hit render you probably have time for a coffee...."

Some of my renders I've had time enough for a night out at the pub, plus time to sleep the effects off afterwards:-)

As for No 2 - I'm hangin' man, I'm hangin'...

Cheers,
Diolma

My No1 tip:

Alway be creative! It really doesnt matter if your solutions to problems are weird, unorthodox, experimental, or if the ingredients seem to be totally unrelated to the end result. Whatever works, works!

For instance:

I just made this design/artist impression today for a promotional campaign. I needed a texture of a shoeprint for it. Googling didnt help me much, so a creative solution was needed. I had to get a custom made shoeprint.

So i called a friend, asked if he had a digital camera, paper, and some sneakers and if he could make a photo of a shoeprint on the piece of paper (white paper would make it easy to cut out in photoshop).

So... the guy puts his shoe on the paper, and no real visual mark is left. Bummer...
But not to worry! The creative solution was soon found in the form of every computernerds best friend: Coffee!
My friend decided to take some coffee beans, grind them, put them in a bit of water, step in it with his sneakers, and make a footprint with the resulting brown coffee-mess under his shoe. And behold! It worked! Perfect shoe print, great contrast, easy to cut out in photoshop. Problem solved!

In the end result u dont even notice that there's any coffee involved, but that really doesnt matter. It worked and that's all that matters.

heh, there are more and more frequent renders that not only give me time for coffee, but also, to go to bed, get up go to work a 10 hour shift, come home, have dinner,  watch tv or a movie for a few hours, work on my fantasy football league (2nd place baby!) and then check to see if I'm anti-aliasing yet.  Oh yeah, and that's on NORMAL resolution.... dammit!  And my computer only a

1. 33 ghz machine, but killed with only 256 meg of ram.

LOL

MDB

Neat, Rayraz!

Hmm... floodfill the grey bits to white (would need several attempts with a very low tolerence), convert to grey-scale, tweak contrast/tone-balance, and apply to terrain..:-)) Instant footprint, lit any way you wanted it...

(I've just realised that this is the 1st ever thread I've started that has run to more than 1 page -- I think...)

Cheers,
Diolma

(Who is still hangin'...)

Actually it's easier. The print is in a seperate layer ;) all i'd need to do is locking layer transparency and fill it with maximum tolerance.

• For distant forested hills and mtns......create your terrain and go into the terrain editor and add alot of  noise...then apply a forest texture.

• creating a 3d mesh from a texture....I do this alot with fencing and brick walls.....take the texture into Photoshop (etc) and turn it into a greyscale where the lighter color is higher....darker lower.....use this pic in the terrain editor to create a terrain...smooth and adjust height to suit, then apply the color texture.

• when doing rivers make a bed layer with the gravel tex or moss tex...whatever you like...then add the water layer above and make it slightly transparent so the bottom shows a bit.

• for emphatic lighting...create a cone...enlarge and stretch it and apply the lit rays texture......go into the mat lab and make it more transparent to suit....slant that ray....looks like soft light......light streaming in a window etc

• If you are working on a complex pic for a long time...because I have read that Bryce uses Ram and doesnt release it...save and reboot.....and render

• for good textures of building materials......do a websearch for the materiasl you need...say brick.....some manufacturers websites have excellent pictures of their materials......take these into bryce and render.

*the sun...play with the sun alot.....when you set up a scene dont just offhand take the sky that you select as is....take the sun in the sun circle and move it around to see what effect it has...sometimes you can get some very nice lighting and shadow.

• clouds...the above mentioned about using greyscale images of textures can work really well in making clouds.

• and when you get freebies and buy meshes remember that if you can ungroup them you can save out the pieces and recombine them with other pieces from other meshes....for example if you have a japanese temple with a really nice tile roof that you can save on its own then you can use it to build your own temples.....

Dimeolas

Don't use bryce much these days other than for sky backgrounds in other programs.

Best tips i can give anyone new to the program is

1. don't rush things when setting up a scene, take your time things will look better in the end.

2. don't go trying to do something along the lines of an image you have seen posted in the bryce gallery that was done by someone thats been using bryce for a few years now.

3. This is the most important one, ask questions no matter how stupid you think it might be. If you need help don't takle it by yourself you'll just get frustrated and end up deleting your project(wip)...no question is stupid and the replies are all helpful.

4. Do at least one image of a reflective sphere floating over water, just to annoy old brycers

Quote - Use save as, start with filename 01, and it will do the sequentailly bit for you automatically.

Ahhhh - I could have used that yesterday.  Was working on a scene and was just saving it by one name.  I now wish I could get back into an earlier version of the file (since I added an element which now makes the file hang when I try and open it) I'm going to have to start from scratch on this project and I'll be using your tip as I go ;)

For me, the [ctrl] + [tab] to toggle quickly to/from full screen is my best tip I could offer anyone! Love that feature. I'm sad to hear it's not available in Bryce 5.01. Corel's Bryce 5 has it. Then switching editing views using the number keys would be the next tip I use. Love keyboard commands!! Woohoo! ;-)

Good Grief! This thread has resurfaced!

(Maybe, just maybe it'll go on to page 3...)

OK - to keep things going, another favourite tip of mine is:.....

Make much use of the "Solo Selection" button.
(That's the one at the bottom-right of the screen, in the middle of the "Video-style" controls...)

In the normal view, select what you want to concentrate on (one or more objects).
Hit the "Solo Selection" button.
Everything else gets hidden, allowing you to concentrate on just the selected objects. You can render from there too, to check results..
The "Solo Mode" works in exactly the same way as the "full" mode, except you are only working with the selected objects (you can tab through the selected stuff to get to a specific part, or ungroup if you want. But you'll have to regroup if it's necessary..)

Hit the same button again to return to "full" mode....

Well, that's what I do (when I remember), and it seems to help me a lot:-))

Cheers,
Diolma

My offerings:

I.  Patience.  Rendering is just about the most frustrating thing on earth. Patience.

II. Don't stop modelling the details.  Those are what make people gasp at an image, even if the image is supposed to look clean.

III. Texture with object cubic mapping.

IV. Patience.

V. When not doing III, use photo textures and height maps extensively.

Cheers,
-MG

So you don't spend a lot of time trying To keep those unexpected spots and dots out of your renders...Clean your screen off now and then..It really helps..Don't ask how I know...

LOL! ellocolobo:-))

I always clean my screen at least every .... ohh, ... errrm,... six months or so (if I remember, or if I can't see through the grime).

Sometimes I find that a pic that liked looks worse, once I've cleaned the screen (bummer!)..

But I admit your point. You need to be able to see your image as others (with clean screens) can..:-))

Cheers,
Diolma

I dunno if this really belongs here, but a few people suggested this website in one of the threads that I started as a good texture making resource, and I'm delighted with it. Maybe if I put it here more people will see it:

http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/ww_overview.htm
Wonderful free wood texture maker, "Wood Workshop" and some beautiful free textures.
Powerful texture making program too (costs some money though).

And... I just found a freeware version texture maker:
http://www.texturemaker.com/gallery.php

(I have a sneaky suspicion I'm the last one to know about these) LOL

Anyone insterested in a thread with links to resources and tutorials?  Perhaps It could be made sticky too.... Then maybe when our Bryce community page is up, they can be transferred over? Just a thought :)

Use the Alt key for small movements

When you render hollow glass or a voulmetric objeck, got see a movie or read a book, it will be a while.