Hello Brycer chums,

Any of you who may have seen my pictures know that I love a good old lens flare.  

Has anyone tried the lens flare option in B7?   It seems to want an image or procedual, which seems a slightly odd way to go, but hey, I'm open to try anything.   I'm going to play around, but wondered what luck any of you have had.

Please post tips and examples of your Bryce lens flares.   Specifically using the option under Radial lights.

Phil

B7 has lens flare?

heck, I've been using the Gimp to do mine...

It says it right in the specs, so it must be true.   Where we used to have Surface and Volume under the light settings, we now have Flare too.

AND on a related note, the new light options in the Create bar, such as dome... do they work?  I can't seem to click on them.

And why does the help go to Bryce 6 rather than Bryce 7 help? 

That's not very helpful.

You will find a directory that says:

Here's how I'm doing flares:
create a radial light
edit in light lab
select Visible, lens flare then image
select import and load one of these lens flare images.

I've highlighted the available flare image to show it's a mixture of White and clear with an alpha blend. Not tried it yet but this is the info available.

grrr, I don't have that folder.  Maybe my Bryce is out of date.....

mmm, PLE doesn't have that folder.   Is it a separate resource?

Anyway, I've kinda moved on from that.  Now I'm trying to get the distant lights to work.  Clicking on it does nothing.

Ah, the fancy lights are a PRO feature.   Not sure I ever got the pro version.  I've switched systems since then anyway.

It ain't fancy yet, but it does work, and yes not a lot of controls for it as well, like exclusion when the flare intersects with an object etc, will be a new feature enhancement in the future of fixes.

Also if you notice on the flares...you can make multiple suns using this option and they will also actually produce light:-)

And another side note, sorry my mind is running in 20 million directions at once latley, in photoshop make your lens flare, or any other paint program, but what you want to do is after you make the flare ( I use a 512x512 aspectratio ) make your flare black, then invert it to white, select all, save selection to get the alpha channel, then flatten against a white background otherwise the flare will have a greyish haze around it. then in bryce you can also color the flare using the mat lab and the lighting lab.

'EDIT'

...thought I didn't but searched[in Win7] Lens Flare and found it in......

Users>Public>Public Documents>DAZ 3D>Bryce...see screen grab

I had a lot of trouble with the Windows Vista install. It wanted to break up the install and put some folders in the Program Data folder because I told it to install Bryce for a single user. I gave my daughter an account on the machine so she could install WOW and Fallout. It wouldn't find the materials lab untill I re-installed it for all users. I know it breaks the eula but she's never going to try Bryce. I even deleted the shortcuts from her account. If DAZ wants different they can fix the install and fix the bug report so I can log in.

When I installed the extra pro content the root directory was wrong. I had to manually type the path to the Presets directory. There are thousands of the old image textures and billboard tiffs from bryce 3d , 4, etc in contenttextureslegacy.

You can do a search for the Clay Hagebusch directory to see if your install mis-filed the extra content. If you find it I'd try re-installing the content and edit the path so it goes to your presets directory.

Having had access to a proper lens flare in Imagine3D all these years I will probably never use this work around/approximation of a lens flare [add one in post with PSCS if I really need the artifact present to make an image jump].. ... but it's good to know where this stuff is winding up. Had I paid attention when I selected All Users on the install I sorta recall it sayin it was puttin that stuf in Users which is why I did the search and it turned up straight away.. ...

Frankly, I'm getting very disappointed in Bryce and Studio both.  I have pro versions of both and it seems that 'pro' means more bugs, crashes, promises, non-working features, etc...

Even the installer stuff that electroglyph is speaking of.  Why install content into user files anyway?  C: drive keeps getting bigger and bigger and I wonder why.  Why not give the end user the option to put program files in C: with a path pointer to data such as presets and content in other volumes if the user desired?  That would make life a lot simpler when upgrading, or more likely, having to re-install because of corrupted files.  If executables only were in C: then operating system upgrades would take a quatum leap from "oh crap, there goes my weekend!"

(steps off soap box)

... and, another thing...   You may think I'm stupid but I built a PC for graphics only work.  It is not hooked to internet, does not have anti-virus software, and runs lean, clean and fast.  Sounds good so far?  Well, nowadays all the manuals are wikis viewable on net only because it is in a constant state of flux or you get referred to a youtube tutorial.  My word, DAZ, I'll pay $50 for a book.  Kitchen's "Real World Bryce" was an outstanding investment.  I wonder if no one tackles writing a manual for the same reason I stated above, "can't write a book about bugs, crashes and promises for a non-working feature"

... (steps down again, runs away, dodgeing stones and bricks)

On the note of installation: we found the issue with that (most recently actually) there was a bug in the installer software and what it was is that it installs duplicates in 2 different places hence the bulkiness of file overload, it is going to be addressed as well as a lot of other issues. Right now Daz is working on getting their other software programs updated for new releases so Bryce for the moment is kinda on the backburner so our job for the moment is disecting everything we can and get it logged to the bug reports in Major to minor priorities.

As far as Susan's book: LOL I helped on that 85 pound thing LMAO!! It took a loooooong time to get it written and be accurate, that book still applies to even the latest version minus the new features, and don't ask Susan if she would add the new stuff in or she would go bolistic, by the time we got the book done I don't think she ever wanted to use Bryce again LOL!.

Okay, so this is not really brycian.. but when i think of cool lense flares.. i cant help but think of this little gem:

http://www.videocopilot.net/products/opticalflares/

Its sooo friggin sweeeet, my inner lensflare geek just cant resist it.. lol

Attached Link: axion page

Attached Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmzzbeQLHHo

I've always used Knolls light factory for flares for post product in AE and such, the key here though is that the lens flares in Bryce will actullay emit Light like the sun, so you can have multiple suns etc. It still needs tweaking for sure, but we have a wish list of having a lab for it, but there's so much to absorb and to get done, its a daunting task but it will come in time.

I like the GIMP lens flare, very good tools, I would also note I have a love of the LUCE photoshop plug in - works very well in GIMP with PMSP.

Edit: Adding the link -  http://amicoperry.altervista.org/luce/index.html

So here's a thing..... why do we need lens flare anyway?

cuz they're cool..

Cause they are great fun to play with??  

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2012037

:)
Hubert

because an image without lens flare is like a kiss without a moustache...

:-D

@Gog, I'm glad my girlfriend doesnt have a moustache :P I wish she came with realtime-adjustable lensflares though.... hahaha

@Rayraz, I didn't specify who needed the moustache :-D

Moustache.. I haz it!

And a very cool beard..never let mine do the Z Z Top thing myself....apparently my eye brows are scary enuff..LOL.. ...

Quote - Okay, so this is not really brycian.. but when i think of cool lense flares.. i cant help but think of this little gem:

http://www.videocopilot.net/products/opticalflares/

Its sooo friggin sweeeet, my inner lensflare geek just cant resist it.. lol

Wow those are some pricey lens flares!

Quote -
Moustache.. I haz it!

OMG!  You have crossed over to the dark side.  Welcome home we are glad to have you.

Quote - Wow those are some pricey lens flares!

Well its not just a few preset static lensflares, its an entire "make your own photoreal lensflares"-kit with flares that integrate with light sources in 3d space, including occlusion by other objects and picking up coloration from the lightsources they're associated with. Its pretty spiffy.

Quote - OMG!  You have crossed over to the dark side.  Welcome home we are glad to have you.

Where are the cookies?

Mods, Could someone remove the spammer please?

All right already RR...I'm going as fast as I can...LOL.. ...thy did a number of threads in Bryce and who knows whatever other forums I don't see. All on replies and never a new thread. Guess they're hoping we can't delete from the middle of a thread but they are mistaken

Thnx for removin the spam bobby :)

Quote - Yup, and I quote from DAZ "Lens Flare - Often, powerful light sources such as the sun will interact with the camera lens or human cornea resulting in a Flaring Effect. Bryce 7 provides an elegant means of producing Lens Flares that will make your distant sunlight and other light effects look better than ever."

 

It says it right in the specs, so it must be true.   Where we used to have Surface and Volume under the light settings, we now have Flare too.

I need to crack open my copy of Bryce 7 Pro more often! :blink:

Yay! I got the len flare directory! Took a while to find it b/c I don't have a standard Bryce install.

rashad Carter have a method for using flares in b7 over at the DAZ forum. Should be a bit down on the first page, or maybe on the second. He's usually quite good at the things he do