After programming for quite some time in Java and other web-based languages I found the desire to do something more artisitic. I looked at POV-ray and found it to be a little too tedious and its learning curve a little too high. I then found Bryce, and after looking into it and what it was capable of, decided that I had learn how to use it. So my question is now, how do I learn to use it. I've read tutorials and baught a large book on the use of Bryce3D 4.0, yet feel that this hasen't supplied me with information enough to express my visions and artistically render my thoughts. Does anyone know of a good way to get started and any semi-fast ways to create good-looking art. I'm not a very artistic person when it comes to drawing, will that lack of artistic ability disable me in making 3D computer rendered art? Thanks for the info, really appreciate it.

Well, honestly speaking, anybody can do a nice landscape crack out of the box without even trying... You don't have to know how to draw, just click on different things and move them around till you get something satisfying.. I remember many moons ago when I first got Bryce 3, I was amazed at how without reading the manual, I was creating some very nice scenes right off the bat... So, I would recommend look at the different pictures in the gallery, find out who made them and ask questions... People here are very helpful.. Also, a lot of the objects that you see in these scenes and the people are created in other programs and imported into bryce... there are plenty of free objects out there, and if you want people, the program Poser is pretty cheap... You can definitely get some very nice art without having a lot of technique, just an eye for composition and color... Anyway, hope this helps and I hope you start doing stuff in bryce soon... Get some pictures so others can get an idea of the kind of art yo uwant to make...

Lack of traditional art skills shouldn't really hinder you in something like Bryce. Once you have the basics of how the program works, what you need is imagination and a good eye. Both of these improve with practice, and reinforce each other. Your imagination provides you with a story, one 'frame' of which will become your image. Your eye comes into it as you look at the world around you and notice how things are made, how they fit together, how they look with other things. Then, when your work is in progress, your eye should tell you how the different elements of your image look together - are they out of scale, does the arrangement of objects lead the viewer's eye through the picture? etc. Looking closely at everything is the main skill for any artist, and it starts your imagination running.

Hey there & welcome aboard! Well,first of all, you dont need to be artistic to learn Bryce. Being able to draw can be helpfull, but not always. Its an application and like every other app, most people can learn to use it. Tutorials are great. However, you must have some imagination, a great deal of patience AND most of all, have fun! And thats the hard part, cause it cant be thought out. The best way of learning for me, was to try, try, & try again, sometimes with the help from tutorials. Also, dont create to please other people. If youre satisfied with your work, than it IS good-looking art. Try out Bryce, and if you need help, Renderosity is the best place to ask for it. Good Luck

Welcome two885! I am not the greatest artist in the world myself, yet I have found Bryce to be one of the most immed- iately gratifying and intuitive apps out there, 3D, or other wise. Instead of pouring myself a tall-one at the end of a hard day, I turn to Bryce as my stress relief( it's my Zen pixel-garden!) I know that a lot of programmers are very analytical and tend to "edit" their artistic impulses as not being good enough, which can defeat their purpose of wanting to be creative. One way to approach Bryce is to take a lesson from a child at play. I have learned a lot just by saving often and seeing what all the neat filters in the terrain and symetrical lattice greyscale editor would do. No worries, no risk, if you don't like the result you can always undo. There are so many great tutorials on myriad sites on the web. Most of these are easy to follow, and it is usually fairly simple to replicate their results. Just type "Bryce" into your browser and see how many results you get. Oh, and the Bryce manual is great too. I wish more soft ware had a manual as well-written.

Attached Link: http://annsartgallery.com/eric.htm

Bryce is one of the easiest programs to start with and one of the most challenging once you think you know it all. Just have fun and let us see some of your stuff from time to time.

Well if you come at Bryce as a playset instead of an art program you might feel a little less intimidated by not knowing art. Think of the models you create as "toys", sorta like Licoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Legos, etc. And Bryce as your photographer's studio. As someone said above a lot of models are created in other programs though Bryce can create many wonderful models itself once you learn all the in and outs, but it just takes practice and experimentation. If you have an idea for something you want to do and aren't sure on how to do it then come here and I'm sure someone will help. Take it one step at a time. Download some models so you don't have to worry about making them and practice adding textures to them, then place them in a scene with some lighting. When you are comfortable with that then tackle actually creating your own models. This is a boat that I'm working on, it's completely boolean using a cylinder as the main hull then using cubes as negatives and spheres as intersect and negatives I came up with this. One thing I can't figure out is the cube I used to cut out the depression also cut slots into the sides though the cube is narrower than the ship. Needless to say it was a surprise because that is exactly what I was planning on doing anyway and thought I'd need other cubes to cut the slots, instead it was done all in one step. Bottom line take Bryce World 4 and play around with all the neat stuff in Bryce. If you have an idea for a composition you'd like to do then take certain parts of it and build it separately until you get what you want ( so you can experiment to see what works and what doesn't work) then when you have most of the things you want for the pic then put it all in one scene and work from there. Whew! Didn't mean to be so long-winded. LOL Welcome to the boards.

When Bryce 1.0 came out about 10 years ago (Where has the time gone?!?), the manual was thin and not very detailed, because the original minds behind it decided that the best way to learn how to use it was NOT to read a manual, but to simply dive in and play with it! Have fun and be amazed at what you'll be able to do in a short time!

Attached Link: http://www.lvsonline.com/index.shtml

If you want to get up and running, there is an on-line course for Bryce at LVS on-line. Great class - I took it, and did more in 6 weeks than I did in six months playing. Courses only cost $20, $15 for returning students. Each class lasts six weeks. The instructor posts a lesson and homework - you post your pictures to your web site for review. You can also post questions on a group list. I got a lot of help from other students as well as the instructor. It is a very well done class. They are offering a class in Poser this time, I'll be taking that this time.

Peggy and I were classmates in that course (Hi Peggy! Say hi to Sylvia for me when you start the Poser class.), and I can vouch for the incredible value I got. Peggy's work is a lot more advanced than mine, but I can honestly tell you I'd still be piddling around if I hadn't taken the class. BTW, I'm taking an LVS class in PSP7 right now, and it's terrific too. Of course everyone has their own learning styles. There was a time when I used to teach myself any app I wanted to learn, but lately (maybe it's because I'm getting old ;-) I find I need more than a manual and tutorials. Now that I've got a grounding in Bryce, tutorials and the help in this forum are keeping me moving forward. Anyway, welcome here, and I hope you have lots of fun!

what kinda stuff do they (LVS) go through ? is it just basics or do they go into some advanced things ? thanks and regards, bob

At the moment, the only Bryce class being offered is for beginners. But I understand that the plan is for there to be an intermediate class in September. And, I would presume, an advanced one further down the road. Many of the other classes offered already run the gamut from beginner to advanced.

I hate to disagree with everyone, but . . I'd say "yes", you DO have to be an artist if you want to do good work in Bryce. By that do I mean be able to draw or paint? No, but it doesn't hurt. What I mean is that success in Bryce requires the same set of inner tools that ANY artistic medium requires. The most important, I believe, is an artistic eye . . a unique way of seeing. If this is present, and you are willing to spend the time neccessary to master the tools of your craft, you'll be successful. 3D programs (especially Bryce, IMHO) can be deceptive, make a person feel like an "artist" right out of the gates. Load up the program . . throw in some objects . . load a sky, and render. Voila! An image. But is it art? The other thing I disagree with is the assessment that the Bryce manual is worth the paper it's written on. It's really not. It's Bryce kindergarten. If you want advanced education , buy and read (a million times, you should see MY tattered copy) Susan Kitchen's amazing "Real World Bryce 4". You won't regret it. That's not to say I don't think that you shouldn't read the manual if that's as far as you're willing to go with your Bryce bookwork. Personally, the very LEAST you should do is read the manual. I get the feeling (visiting the many Bryce message boards) that some people don't even do this. Some of the problems that new users come across could be avoided if they had just read the manual. Okay, rant over. Sorry to take up your time. -Otis

I've been 'playing' with Bryce for about 6 months now - and I've come to the conclusion that no course, set of instructions, or manual can tell you how to use it 'artistically' - that has to come from within - you have to have a vision of what you're trying to produce, and then fiddle with the various elements of Bryce until you come close to what you intended. I think there's a natural progression in learning how to use the software - first, you just position objects, then you discover Booleans, then you start playing with skies and lighting, then materials - and of course you find all those wonderful downloadable objects to add to your scenes... However, nothing you can find online or in a book will give you the capacity to create Bryce pics that have a 'soul' - that's where the talent bit comes in. If you look through the galleries here, you'll find many, many pics that are technically competent, but which leave you cold. Then again, you'll find pics that have technical flaws, but which speak to your heart - and those are the ones to emulate! I find the Bryce Hot 20 the best tutor there is - trying to analyse why a pic works, what the creator has done, how they manage to overcome the limits of the software to create something unique - something that doesn't scream 'I made this in Bryce' at you - that's the secret. Ahem. That was a bit of a ramble. Sorry about that ;)) Hope it helped a bit, though.

Bryce was my very first 3d program - after one night of playing I was hooked. I didn't post images until I'd played for two years LOL and I see stuff now that puts my attemps to use it to shame...but! the best advice I can give you is first go with what's in your head, you have stuff you want to do, want to see as an image, and do it.... then use the same principles that are used in all art, the composition of the scene, the lighting ( very important ), the camera angle...what do you want people to focus on when they see your work, what idea did you have to portray.... Seeing what others have in mind when they work is a good tool but it's what YOU want to say that's most important.... I can also recommend you spend time on Bryce textures, download heaps, play with them, save the ones you like, a model is plain grey until you add the texture and that can make or break an image...you see this in some of the comments left by others but it can't be stressed enough, texture creates scale, mood, depth. Think of the artistic principles used in photography - the 3x3 rule for example, you divide your image into six quandrants, there are diagonal lines to follow, no centre, each major piece of work the viewer concentrates on is on a dissecting point of those lines or in a quandrant, create depth by changing the focus from one quandrant to another in a smooth and flowing line..... ramble ramble...sorry Use Bryce!

Do you have to be an artist to use Bryce? I don't think so. You do have to want to creat art. I am a frustrated artist. Oil paints, water color, pastel, drawing - no way! I've tried, I've taken lessons - it was not for lack of desire, just some people can draw, some can't. Now 3D offers those of us who want to do art a means of doing so. Anyway, just do it. You will find the more you do, the more you learn, and the more art you will create. Bryce won't make you an artist, but it will help you create the art that is in you. Good luck, welcome to the formums, and happy rendering! Peggy

Peggy, thanks for the link to the online course. I've been looking for one of those! :-)

And if you needed to be an artist before attempting to learn Bryce, then this newbie is in a heck of a lot of trouble, LOL!!! :-D Although I do feel an overall sense of color, placement, etc., do help, I also feel that anyone with patience and a desire to learn can do well with Bryce. I know I will never be the greatest Bryce renderer there ever was, but I can at least strive to be the best I can be. The hard part for me is in being patient. I am so new at this point in time, that I constantly find myself getting frustrated beyond belief. Especially when I try to do or learn too much all at once.

Bryce does afford newbies like myself a chance to just jump in and start rendering. As you progress though, you begin to understand just how much more this appy can and does do. And if I learn more about artistic concepts as I progress - so much the better! But I don't think anyone should not try just because they didn't attend art classes. Everyone's artistic aptitude lies in different places. Just give yourself a chance....and some time, and see what happens. You might be amazed at what you can come up with! ;-)

Attached Link: http://newreality.hypermart.net

Thanks everyone, appreciate the input. I've got some ideas and hopefully in a few months or so I'll have some images to post. I'll look into that online course too, thx for the link. Once again, thx soo much for all the info. PS. The link above is a website I made(a long time ago) to host 3D images and those that are already there are ones I made in terragen(easier then bryce even, but lacks countless # of functions and options in comparison). Tell me whatcha think of those images.

Those are some good terain pics. IMO once you learn Bryce you'll be making some great pics.

Thx, I surely hope so =)

Well, This is oen I must say my thought, just can't be silent, I myselve am not a great artist although I did draw a lot when I was small, and I did once vollow a drawing course (a verry long time ago) But whatever I try, I practise a lot but what I make might be nice in my oppinion But when I then looks at works of people like Hobbit I almost start to feel desperate, I become better but I now allreaddy know I will naver reach that level! There are some true artists here that got skills, that isn't bryce anymore. They don't create nice looking images but rocking pieces of art... I think bryce can enable everyone woth a bit of patience to draw verry nice images, but for the true great stuff, you definately need more then practise and that is an artistic eye. Thanks, Johannes