i want to do a shot of an army, standing on top of a hill ready for battle, i carnt import and replicate hurndeds of dfx or obj models. i have heard that you can maybe do it with 2d pics,but i realy iam kinda lost here so any help you guys could give would be great,,,,,,

Simply render the object in any position or pose you want, render and save the picture. do any editing you want in your paint program. reenter Bryce create a 2d plane apply your picture as the texture and replicate it as many times as you need to. Oh it also helps to link the picture to the camera so it is always facing it.

You'll have to create a mask for the transparant portions of the 2d planes. Use the Mask Render feature in Bryce.
This technique of using 2d planes has been used in major films (Gladiator, Phantom Menace) to create large crowds. Except they use AVIs of people rather than still images.

Rubycon

thank for all your help but still not quite getting it, i have rendered it, saved as a pic broudht it back into bryce , but i still have the figure and the background i only need the figure, ????? i know iam being a bit slow but please help

No no.. render it with a mask in Bryce (using the mask render option) and use that or render it in Poser and save it as a tiff or PSD file. In either case, a tiff or PSD will save an alpha channel that can be used as a mask for importing onto a 2D pict object in Bryce. You MUST render the objects from the position that you intend to use in the picture. Obviously, you can't rotate 2D pict objects like you can full 3D objects, so careful scene planning is important. It would be best to make your scene and do the 2D picts last.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=138354

In the image linked above, the trees, ground, castle, and sky are all Bryce objects. The people are a 2D pict object. I rendered them in Poser, saved it as a tiff, and then imported that as a 2D pict object in Bryce. With a bit of postwork, the 2D pict method works quite well to speed up render times.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=134324

Or this... All the people are 2d objects. I second what Kieraw says; you've got to know in advance how you want your figures to look, or they'll decidedly look wrong. Good luck!

i think i have got it at last thanks a lot guys, this is just a test run,

Looks pretty good! But now you probably see the need to vary some of the poses a little.

If you use 2d pictures for your army, what about shadows? They might look funny. Another thing to consider is where is your camera/viewpoint? Is it right up to the soldiers or is it looking at them from a distance? You might be better off making 3d models for the soldiers near the camera and using 2d pictures for the further stuff. You might also want the vary the height too.

The shadow issue is why it's important to compose the image in your mind before you create the 2D figures. If properly oriented and coordinated with the available light, 2D figures will cast correct shadows. But your suggestion of using 3D figures up close is a very good one.