Are there any good models of Avater-style floating islands for Poser?  I haven't found any.  I've foiund lots of rocks/asteroids, but I want islands.  I'd like to do some renders in the style of Roger Deanm actually. 

Transpond did some several years back.  I think the package was "Heavenly" or something of that nature.

Traveller did some simple ones for his late, lamented Prop Club, too.

Transpond and Traveller are currently vendors at RDNA.

I think the Heavenly set is on a permanant markdown (Freeze?) there.

Traveller's Islands may be available in the RDNA freestuff, if I recall correctly.

Good Rendering.

Jerry

leather-guy

Thanks for taking the time to let me know about this.  I'll have to look tomorrow.

Update - The Transpond/Judith set is called Heaven, and it's under $7 now - I can't find the Traveler props in freestuff there, but quite a few of his old Props Club items have appeared in the RDNA Newsletters as Newsletter Freebies.

http://www.runtimedna.com/TransPond-s-Heaven.html

I did Floating Islands ten years ago. It's an old Bryce gag, later on Vue kicked in for the higher quality. It's just a simple (but high resolution!) mountain height-map upside down, and the square base plane cut off. That's why there aren't that many around.

In Poser, just take a grey-scale hight map and apply it as extreme displacement mapping. Or use a simple 3D package (or Bryce itself?) to export the displacement map as OBJ. Might get big though, given the resolution.

Can't find anything in Poser... but in searching I found the following Vue tutorial:

http://www.geekatplay.com/tutorials/island/

Maybe I should try making an envsphere spherical panorama on this theme...

aRtBee... do you know by chance, if I was to have the Exporter Module for Vue... and, say I made an island in Vue along these lines, would I be permitted to distribute the model on either a commercial or non-commercial basis? (personally, at present it would be the latter)

Cheers ;-)

Flying Rocks at DAZ?

http://www.daz3d.com/shop/flying-rocks/

monkeycloud,

yeah fun. Here http://bloodsong.warped.com/abs/pagemc3.htm is a single page tut from 1997, using Bryce 2 and RayDream (now: Carrara). That was one of the insider jokes in Avatar, bringing something that everyone was doing in those early days on the big screen now. The helicopters are a similar gag, they exist about as long.

Or have a look at http://www.daz3d.com/shop/bryce-masters-series-cloud-city/ It's free, as is Bryce 7. Can save to image or 3D mesh as well.

I'm not a layer but my guess is that you can distribute anything on any basis in any format as long as you're the owner / creator of the composition as well as the elements in it.

Since you will be drawing up the island / mountain yourself that won't be a big issue, there are so many other programs able to do that, but you'll have to do your own plants and rocks as well I think. If these are part of the intended export. You can't make freebies out of Vue standard libary contents, you know.
You can export height map terrains only, not the procedural ones as these are infinite.

For mountains, the best way of distribution is to make the heightfield map image (16-bit TIFF) from the terrain editor. The Exporter module allows you to export in 3D format from the File menu, but the simple 256x256 heightfield mountain made a 19Mb OBJ file (I just tried, the 16bit tiff took 95kb only!!), so be aware what to expect from a decent 4096x4096 terrain file, let alone when you're adding rocks and plants.

You can export the mountain from the Terrain Editor itself, textures included, I'm not sure whether you need the Exporter module for that. According to the Vue Manual one needs the Export module for the options in the File menu.

I guess you must be very, very good to make something commercially interesting, when it takes me 5 mins and a few free tools to do the same. Your call :)

Many thanks aRtBee. He he... no, my interest is not commercial at all for anything I am thinking about just now...

...but I wondered if I got the Vue Export Module, if  could share stuff produced by it in freestuff really.

It is some of Rodney Matthews artwork I think of when I consider this theme... although I'm not sure if he ever actually did a floating island per se, or not, now I go to look for an example... can't find an actual example in his online gallery... this was the closest:

From his own gallery site.

this set has been very useful  :)  comes with ocean plane and skydome, too.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/pacific-point--island-cafe/79921

monkeycloud:

IMO its far better to share the tiff's, or a high-res plane with the displacement tiff etc applied with the proper settings etc in materials room, than sharing any objs. And you can use the Terrain editor export for that, no need for a separate module.

On top of that, it would be worthwhile for large terrains if the tiff''s were tiling (in multiple ways). For instance, I'm working with the African Village now which ground comes as a non-tiling prop. This hampers me from making a huge desert plane with animals and stuff. just an idea.

Quote - monkeycloud:

IMO its far better to share the tiff's, or a high-res plane with the displacement tiff etc applied with the proper settings etc in materials room, than sharing any objs. And you can use the Terrain editor export for that, no need for a separate module.

On top of that, it would be worthwhile for large terrains if the tiff''s were tiling (in multiple ways). For instance, I'm working with the African Village now which ground comes as a non-tiling prop. This hampers me from making a huge desert plane with animals and stuff. just an idea.

Cool... okay that sounds good, will look into that option some more then in due course...I guess, ultimately I'm contemplating how to make ground planes in vue for Poser, to go with the envsphere's I've been playing around with, perhaps?

Many thanks

In terms of making something like a floating island, its occured to me I could use ZBrush perhaps just to sculpt the actual obj as something more organic looking...

...but anyway there are plenty good suggestions here for the OP I think?

Wow.  I'm so thankful to all of you for replying.  Let's see, answers in some vague order...

I found Transpond's Heaven and put it on ly (too long) wishlist.

I have Vue, zBrush and Blender, but don't really know how to use them.  zBrush is much more than I need, so I don't tinker with it.  I used to use Bryce, but it won't load on my systemm no matter what I try.  So I bought Vue, but the interface is confusing since I'm so used to Bryce's quirky little interface.  And I've loaded Blender and opened it, once. 

I'm such an end-user.

I have seen and wishlisted the Flying Rocks at Daz, eben though they aren't quite what I'm after.

I'd forgotten about Rodney Matthews.  I kind of remember his work. and I dimly remember image you probebly referring to. 

I've also seen the Pacific Island at Daz, and it wouldn't work for what I want to do. 

As for the rest:  I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV, so I have no idea.  ;-)

Again thanks to all of you for taking the time and trouble to give me so much information.  It looks like I'll have to break down and figure out how to use Vue or zBrush to get what's in my head into Poser - or the Poser figure into Vue.

Shawn

Hi everyone!

Floating Islands are still at Rdna though a little difficult to find. They placed them in forum thread instead and not in free Poser Props downloads.

Free "Floating Island 1" and "Floating Island 2" (Poser) by maestro Traveler.
They're freebies from famous SHOCKtober 2009. Link here:
http://www.runtimedna.com/forum/showthread.php?47775-SHOCKtober-2009-is-HERE

Here you can find free "Floating Islands" for Bryce. Link:
http://www.pmedig.com/3D_downloads4bryce.html

I hope you'll enjoy those nice free Floating Islands a little longer now.
Sending warm greetings from summer cold Sweden - Teresa Tyllo

tyllo

Thank you so much for taking the time to post this link.

I searched  2 hours over at RDNA last night but never found this!

Guess I'm not as familliar with how to search effectively over there as I used to be.

Glad to help you, Leather-guy and ShawnAllen!
Searching at Rdna (even if it takes 2 hours) is a piece of cake compairing to DAZ new site.

I use those Floating Islands a lot, one of my favs among Traveler's freebies. They always look great in fantasy or scifi renders and after adding trees or techno buildings or water - you get different look in every pic. Those are awesome freebies!

Apropo's searching -I used Google, typed: "rdna Floating Islands Shocktober" (no quots).
I've got only 2 threads, so it was easy..LOL..
Have a nice weekend everybody!

• Teresa Tyllo

tyllo, thanks!  Must admit I d/l'd more than just the islands!

I am glad to see that I'm not the only one who isn't fond of Daz's new site.  yuck.  I can handle the layout changes, even though I prefer the old site, but they took out a lot of functional little things.  What up widdatt?

Thanks everybody.  I am grateful for all the feedback!

Could you use this from DAZ and just not have the water?

http://www.daz3d.com/shop/software/bryce/bryce-7-pro-islands/