On Monday, I purchased Bryce 7 Pro to be able to create my own scenes and backgrounds to be used primarily with my Poser models. But there is one specific kind of scene I want to make, for it will be the centerpiece of my domain's new banner.

I attached a picture that I've had sitting on my hard-drive for ages - I do not claim to have made this picture, so no offense intended towards the original creator - but it illustrates perfectly what sort of look I'm after with a night-time sky and moonlight with some clouds. There will be more I want to do to the basic image in post-work, but this basic idea is what I want.

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to create this kind of night-time scene in Bryce? Will I need to purchase any of the extra add-ons that are available on DAZ? Can anyone recommend any tutorials and alike that would be a good place to get started with the settings?

I had a bit of a play in Bryce and I was overwhelmed with how much there is to learn, and the available settings.

Thanks!

Konstantine.

You can do that scene in Bryce  (and much more) without buying any extras.  Bryce is capable of almost anything...have a look at the Bryce gallery here and you'll see what I mean.

Ask any questions you have and someone here will be glad to jump in and show you the answers...or teach you how to do something.  There are tutorials here also...everything is available from the menu at the top of each  page.

I'm totally convinced you can almost perfectly replicate this scene using 7 Pro. The new volumetric cloud improvements, self-generation of Bryce sky HDRIs, lens flares, and light lab enhancements would let you do this fairly easily now.

 I like the look of the water too. You probably could get this look by taking a good Bryce water material and then adding to it a custom tiling bump map, whether a texture or a procedural. Terrains are easily accomplished with Bryce's terrain editor. 

 If you do any postwork to your clouds from the native Bryce render, I recommend Flaming Pear's Cumulus plug-in. It's a PhotoShop plug but I think it works with several image editors. I know it worked with PhotoShop ver. 7, but I don't know if it works with the CS later ver.  I wonder if AgentSmith still has the file handy. It was freeware that he had permission to distribute among Bryce Forum members. It's not just for clouds either; it makes great steam and rapids, or wave crests, wakes etc.

This is GREAT news!!!!

I really had my heart set on making an image like this, being able to replicate the basic idea, I'm so pleased to know that Bryce will be able to do it without any extras. (I'm still a little miffed with Bryce- I had to format my brand new PC because Bryce had an argument with something Alienware put on my machine) but if I can make this image, I will forgive it.

I have taken your advice and I've checked out the tutorial section - ignored the errors that are being generated by a script - and I have a few things to be getting on with, to hopefully learn a bit more about Bryce and how to get the results I want.

If I have any questions, or problems, this forum will be my next stop after good ol' trusty Google.

What is this Cumulus plug-in you speak of? I do have Photoshop (Photoshop CS3 to be exact) and I'm always interested in getting handy plug-ins. Who would I have to message to find out if it is still available?

Thanks so much for the speedy reply guys. It is greatly appreciated.

You should have no real problems doing a scene like this, although getting the moon to show can be tricky. Bryce has all the tools in house and this is the kind of scene it was created to produce.

I hope you can post your results here. Good luck. ;-)

As soon as I have something to show, I will most certainly be sharing it with you all.

But I will probably be showing it even sooner, and in segments if I have any trouble with getting the effects I want and need some advice on the settings.

I'm really looking forward to finally getting my feet wet with 3D!

Attached Link: Tutorials on youtube

As they are on youtube I recommend downloading youtube Downloader at

http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/

and haing them on your computer so even offline you can view them...That's what I did and have a DVD full

Thankyou very much for the links! I'll check out those Bryce vids right now.

I've been using keepvid.com for downloading and saving youtube videos, but I think I like your downloader idea much more. Is the Downloader compatiable with Windows 7 64-bit? I had a look in FAQ and Help but there is nothing listed about operating systems.

I use Win7 Home Premium and it runs fine...installs to the x86 Program Files ...saves as mp4..I read some where all flavours from Win2k to Win7.. ...

That's good to know.

There seems to be an issue with my Windows 7 and the system restore points don't work, so if something goes wrong with installing this program, there's not much I can do to fix it.

Thats a good link, bobbystahr. Really like that program.

You're most welcome D@M.. ...