Quote - Theories? Baloney shamoney! Who cares!?! I just want to learn how to move the objects around in virtual 3D world and create those same objects, regardless of the price tag.  Theories are for those going for their PH. D. and research. (which is fine and dandy).
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On the contrary, theory is just about the most useful general knowledge you can ever have about 3d graphics! Once you know why tools do what they do, which real-life effects are simulated by which channels in which materials? What does this mean for the general end result, how to keep the most control of seperate visual effects, how to work your way to matching a real-life material, or how to recreate that illusive visual effect thats in ur minds eye.

Which methods of interpolation are used on your subdivision mesh (does it force the object to stay inside the low-poly cage or not? how many vertexes does it utilize to calculate a single curvature? this can be very signficant to how your mesh will react under the subdivision algorithm, eventually allowing you to much easier anticipate the way the subdivided mesh will look, reducing time spent tweaking stuff)

How does your render solution, roughly, go about calculating occlusion and/or indirect light? what are the pro's and cons? the technical difficulties? strenghts and weaknesses? knowing this kind of information will allow you to construct the optimal combination of parameters to balance out speed and efficiency against quality.
It's all thigns we dont really have to worry about much in bryce, but can make your life SO much easier in more complex applications.

Me myself, I've been making sure i know theory and terminology and general technical workings of many 3d tools in general, regardless which software package offers them. When I finally got my hands on 3dsmax in school my teacher could hardly believe i had no experience with the program as i already seemed to know what tools did, where to find them or how to utilize them efficiently.
This was all really just because the tools connected directly to the background knowledge i already had. I read words, names, in the interface, recognize the terminology, realize the idea behind it, and before even touching or usin it, the general concept of the tool is already clear to me, thus easing the learning curve considerably.
Within 3 lesons the tables were turned and the teacher had to ask me how i made the things I made. Even thou the basic material channels in the material editor were just about the only things that resembled bryce.

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