New to Bryce, like its terrain features and rendering options but prefer to model in TrueSpace. I finished this model in TS and exported it as an .obj file with the Luuv plugin then imported it to Bryce. The model itself had some sharp edges which Bryce smoothed out. That wasn't my intent but in this case its alright, I kind of like the look. The main problem is the textures on the four containers which make up the mid ship.  They were made using TS mirror and boolean tools and mapped with UV Mapper Classic. In TS they look OK (top image) but in Bryce they have an odd sort of shadow (bottom image).  I also tried to export/import as a .3ds which keeps the sharp edges but you loose textures on anything that was mapped with UV Mapper.

As I get more familiar with materials in Bryce I may just do all my texturing in it, but for the moment I'd like to stick with TS.

Anyway, I'm just fooling around here and sort of learning Bryce as I go so I'm not looking for any concrete answers to any of these issues, but if any of you do your modeling in another app and render in Bryce and have any general suggestions I'd like to hear them. Other comments/crits welcome too.

Thanks,

John

Greetings!  I do my serious modeling in SolidWorks. Importing to Bryce isn't easy. I bring it to Rhino then have that save to .obj. So I don't do any texturing until I get into Bryce.

Is that the Truespace image or the Bryce one?

 

I do most of my modeling in Wings3D and have done most of my renders in Bryce. I often will "harden" edges that I want to look crisp or sharp after import into Bryce. I especially do this with windows on buildings, or ships because otherwise they will often look like Stay-Puft marshmallows due to Bryce's smoothing,lol. I always export as an .obj because it's easier to UVmap, and it has been the most trouble-free format in my experience. I have quite often imported models into Bryce without UVmapping them first. While I build the model in Wings I'll select  groups of faces and assign them with different materials. After I import the model it's a simple matter to assign Bryce mats to these different material groups using Object Cubic, or Cylindrical mapping etc.

Oh nevermind. top image = truespace, bottom = bryce.

In my experience those shadows can be sorted using Bryce's mesh edit tool - Its the furthest to the right on the Edit palette.  Pressing 'unsmooth' gives you the raw model, so to speak.  I find that adjusting the slider to 22 or 28 degrees will usually get an imported model how I want it to look. 

I've recently discovered that textures can be blended using the material editor which has led to me half UV mapping models, and blending with object cubic applied textures.  This is good for putting logos over panelling, and is how I textured the shuttle in my 'Golden Age' image.]

Nice ship btw - I only seem to be able to model small things.

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions.

D at M: When you export from Solid Works what file format do you use?

Alex: Thanks for the compliment on the ship. I worked on it on and off for quite awhile. (Way longer than I'd like to admit.) I made some mistakes in modeling and texturing but its good enough for the back ground of a scene at any rate.

 

Thanks again!

@ Alexclark: Interesting method about combining uvmapped logos and the Bryce DTE. I must try that some day.

@ j3d_cg: Exporting from CAD program like Solidworks to an art program like Bryce is not fun. Usually I'll use Rhino3D as the middleman and export to some format Rhino likes. This would be either .STEP files for most models, to .IGES for the seriously complex ones. There are other formas Solidworks can do, but the others I don't have programs. It imports far more than it exports, though.

In Rhino I may group or ungroup some objects. Then from there I'll export to .OBJ or .3DS. But the .OBJ seems to give more control.

Solidworks does save to .WRL (VRML) which Bryce does import, but I'll use this for only single models, not ones with many distinct parts. Solidworks will fuse all the parts together and export as one model. For example, if there's a screw, washer, and nut, they will be fused as one mesh and I won't be able to separate them. So I only use .WRL for simple quick things, like the glass cylinder of a vacuum tube. Then it's straight to Bryce.

I don't uvmap anything, yet. Want to learn to because there's lots of power in that. Too much time, though, something which I don't have at the moment. If someone knows of a simple simple tutorial for uvmapper or that new one posted in the forum some months ago, please pass it along. But anyway, there are many good textures that comes with Bryce and many good ones for free, and it takes a bit of practice but the Bryce Deep Texture Editor (DTE) is powerful. There hasn't been the need to do logo's or anything like that, so I use strictly Bryce textures. If I can, the model itself is designed so that i can separate that one mesh to texture differently than the rest.

Hope this helps! :-)   As you can see, I enjoy talking about Solidworks!

I am modeling a plane in Rhino and would like to "paint" it. Perhaps camouflage or put a scene on it as they did in WW2. I am assuming, but not sure, that I could use Photoshop. But...then what?
I have no idea about how the process works.

Any direction? tutorials? There is some good info in this thread but I am still confused.
TIA

Jim Barbieri
jim1245@comcast.net

Hello Speed. I would recommend that you check out the UVmapper forum here at R'osity. The Forum Mod is UVDan, who is also the Rhino Forum Mod. He can provide information on all the steps in exporting your model from Rhino and then UVmapping and texturing it in an image/editor or paint program. He loves building and texturing planes, among other things.

Thanks, I will check it out.....

@Death_at_Midnight: The only problem with the blending method I described is that its naturally altitude dependant. I work around this by shifting the whole scene several Bryce units upwards, which means if I want fog I have to use volumetrics. Like danamo said to save myself hassle I separate models into material zones in Wings, but UV mapping is powerful and certainly worth learning. UV Mapper classic is very easy to learn, and best of all FREE. The walker you see was the first fully UV mapped model I ever made (and my first Wings model too).