Can someone please point out to me ways to create a crowd scene without additional polys. I would like to create a surreal render with crowds like on a subway platform but without the additional polys ... 2 Ds would suffice. Like billboard for trees except these are people?
Oh did I mention, I would like it to be free (limited income and budget at the moment is zero).

Thanks.

You could use the free DAZ Studio from DAZ3D, and render maybe 10 or 15 characters in different poses, and then add them as 2Ds in Bryce.
A simpler way is the enter 'crowds' into an image search engine, there are thousands to choose from.

you probably then already know how to make the billboard polygon, and are just looking for ways to make images of additional people.

do you live someone with places where crowds gather, like a football stadium? train station? take a camera and take pics. .... got a cell phone with a 2 MP cam?

You could also use a demo version of Quidam to create some variants of people and screenshot it. If there is a demo available these days. You probably won't notice the watermakrs on the people if you render them highres screenish and then resample down for the crowd size.

Whatever the origin of the people picture is, you'll want to grab a program to paint multiple instances of it in random sizes, color tints and other params,.... to plaster them into a crowd. Use the free Dogwaffle 1.2 to load an image into brush and paint it onto your composition.

Dogwaffle is on sale for renderosity members: www.thebest3d.com/renderosity

-Philip
thebest3d.com - beyond digital painting

cut paste from 2d images..do a search on google.. ask for xtra large images. and cut paste.
If you printing billboard size..resample images before you cut paste. good idea to resample images to 300dpi and reduce the pix physical size.
Or use daz.. free..and all the poser chaps you can use.. good idea..then you can render it to the dpi and size you require..and then cut paste in photoshop.or do it in daz completely.
Billboards are not fun to do... curious question... are u using a vector based program..ie..illustrator or corel draw or indesign? makes life lots easier with one of these...

Thanks for the suggestions and tips...  for now I think I'll just go with 3 or 4 in a scene and make them stand close together and let the camera view make it looks more crowded than it actually is.

I did it with Woodie one time... Not going to go there...:lol:

I did what dhama is suggesting just the other day except I used the figures that came with free Poser5.  I just changed some poses, varied the mats, and copy pasted in a paint program.  The only drawback I found was when 2d faces are rendered in a volumetric environment, I could see the outlines of the billboards but it was easily brushed out in post work.

You might get a good effect if you remember to stagger the billboards, some at the front, some in the middle, some behind.

Just remember to turn off cast shadows and receive shadows, otherwise you'll probably get the shadows of the front billboards showing up on all the rest.  Ditto middle etc, depending on where the lights are.

Thanks, Fran, I'll keep that in mind.

This is one of the best tuts on making a crowd..It does require Photohop..Also, be sure to visit the downloads as there are some free people billboards and textures..

http://vyonyx.com/index.php/down/tuts/tutorials-creating-a-realstic-crowd-in-photoshop

Quote - This is one of the best tuts on making a crowd..It does require Photohop..Also, be sure to visit the downloads as there are some free people billboards and textures..

http://vyonyx.com/index.php/down/tuts/tutorials-creating-a-realstic-crowd-in-photoshop

Thanks for the tip... I think I know now what else I can use to create a realistic crowd... You have given me an idea. I'll let you know what I came up.

Thanks again for the link.