Has anyone ever met a person who just cannot "get" Bryce. If not, let me introduce myself. I have done the tutorial in Bryce3 manual so many times and still cannot grasp the concept of 3d. I've looked at the pic of the sandunes, beach blanket, umbrella and ball from the directors chair, camera,top and whatever angles there are. I've tried to make a scene with mountains in the background and just grass in the foreground and cannot get them in the place where they belong. I've tried all the angles and still don't see them. The only thing I can do with Bryce at this time is to make a sky and water and this is so frustrating. I find the manual overwhelming and have looked for a tutorial on line that will hold my hand while I make mountains in the background and grass in the foreground with no success. On the advice of friends, I tried "playing" with it and all I get is a mess. Had no problems with Poser when I got the program but after 2 and half months with Bryce I'm ready to give up. Is there any way anyone can help me with "getting" it. Thanks for letting me vent!

Rita, I have just looked through all my tutes and don't find anything that will help you with basics so I am going to try. First click the little triangle under the nano view (the little screen) and make sure director's view is checked. Got to File/document setup and when that opens, type in 600 x 450 (this will make it easier to see). Click on Create and click on the flat brownish square (plane). Then go to the list of letters on the right, click on M. In the material lab, click on the triangle on the top right of the small pic. A drop down of materials opens up-click on planes and terrains. Click on spring wildflowers-you may have to click through them to find it--its bright green (to help). Click the check and that will close and you will see the little screen on the left show that material. Click the check on this screen at the bottom right. When you return to the big window, you will see the nano pic show the plane with this material. continued below

continued- You can do control/R and the big window will render or you can click on the big button on the left-the smaller buttons pause it, fast render, etc. When you place your mouse over them, their purpose shows at the bottom left of the screen. Now--go up to create and click on the terrain (the mountain). It will bring a mountain into the window. Go over to the right to the list of 'letters' and choose E which will take you into the terrain lab where you will get the default. The picture on the right basically works like a .bmp map--white is 'high' and black is 'low'. (To learn how this works, look in the section of the manual starting on page 174. Just play with those features later). Okay, now click on the triangle beside 'fractal'. Choose rolling hills and then click on 'fractal' You will see your 'mountain' below as well as the .bmp in the window. Now--go over to smoothing and click on it 3 times. You will see your rough mountains smooth down. Let's click on 'square edges'. You can experiment with the others later. You now have one mountain to work with--click the check in the bottom right corner for okay. continued

If Diane's tutorial doesn't help, drop me a line (either here or at pa_foster@hotmail.com) and I'll give you whatever assistance I can Paul

cont. 3-- You will see your mountain 'hovering'. Click on the little down arrow in the list of letters. (These only show when the particular mesh--the terrain or the plane or whatever you choose---is selected and is red--that is the default color for 'selection'). Now the mountain went down to the 'ground'. Now click on your #2 (using 1,2,3,4 and tilde, you will get different views--easier than other way of selecting). With 2 you have a view from above. Now you can move your mountain to the back of the plane (or grass). Simply take your mouse and move it towards the camera or triangle in the back. You will see it move in the nano pic. It really isn't high enough, so go up to edit, to the second control and pass your mouse over the top 'stick' with your left button held down. You will see the moutain grow up or in the "Y" direction. You can now go back to 2 and move it around to suit you in the nano pic. You can also either duplicate this (using your edit menu or cntrl/D) and move the second one to make a mountain range). You can size either of them by using that same 'size' control--just play with it to see what happens. If you do rightbutton/mouse in the center, it grows in all directions. IF it goes below the plane, you can bring it up with your mouse or use the little 'up' arrow on the right of the selected piece. Continued

cont 4 You may want a slightly different camera angle. Go to the big ball with the 4 arrows and push on the top arrow with your left mouse button clicke (I may have said right button above--I mean LEFT--sorry). Then you can go to the small right hand cross control-in the left bottom screen it will say 'control XY camera'--and 'raise the whole scene. The use the big trackball again and 'tilt' it toward you. I duplicated my mountains 2 more times and moved one to the right, one to the left so that I got a 'range'. You can go to the bottom of your screen and see a sort of duplication of the 'create' menu above with the terrains, water, etc. IF--you don't, move over the far right and you will see a sort of whitish 'grid' button that you can click--it will toggle between the animation stuff and selection palette. Click on the terrain button and a pop up menu will show-click on 'select all of type' (you can also select one by one of the terrains to edit, change material or whatever--EVERYTHING works like this). Now with ALL the mountains selected, hit M and go to materials, select Verdant HIlls. Continued

Continued--Now you have a mountain range with meadows below with spring wildflowers. You can change your sky, change your material, alter each of your moutains by selecting each one and then chooseing E and going back to the terrain editor and playing with them there, etc. You can change your camera viewpoint. At this point, Rita, I'd just play with it. If you have any questions, ask. This is as basic as I can think of doing it. There is SO much more that can be done, but I understand if you are frustrated with it, you just don't know where to begin. The manual is 'bassackward's in my opinion. OFten it talks about something that is way back in the manual that you haven't come to--pain in the you know what. After you get a little feel for how to at least make mountains and grass, then you will start to play with it and see all the possibilities. Other materials may work better--sometimes the same on the low land AND the mountains works better. I also like to take my mountains and lower the edges just a bit below the 'plane' to make them 'merge' better. You might not want to 'smooth' your mountains at all in the beginning either. Try that. (I'm posting my pic above so you can see what I got with exactly the same directions--I worked as I wrote). Diane

Thanks Diane I was too embarassed to ask anyone personally, and truthfully, I had given up with Bryce. (I never gave up on anything before especially a graphics program) I feel so terribly stupid but did screen captures and will try to follow all your directions. I was so tired of doing nothing else but sky and water. It feels a little better when someone can hold your hand.Will let you all know how I did when I do. Thanks to you and Paul who hopefully, I won't have to call on.

Peter Sharp has a good amount of easy to follow tutrials for Bryce3D. www.petersharpe.com/ I learned a lot from his tuts. There are many good tutrials for Bryce at some of the links here as well. Your friend was right about playing with Bryce but you first need a grasp of the very basics. If you follow through with picnic's tutorial here you'll have the basics. picnic seems to have covered them very well. DM aka Nite Miner

Thanks. I had them all bookmarked already. Diane was a big help. I already learned a few things. Not much but it's a start. I can't get to Carnegie Hall by practicing but maybe I'll learn a little Bryce now!! ;^p

Rita, I know what you mean, I was the EXACT same way when I started with Bryce, all my first pics were just water and skies with some balls or something thrown in. Then I started adding mountains and progressed from there. Now it is going to take a little time to get where you can do some of the more fancy things but don't give up, it will all come to you. Diane has given you a real good start there, and also check out some of the tutorials. As DM said, Peter Sharpe has some real good ones and so does Ed Baumgarten. I learned ALOT from those two, you can find their websites on the right side of this page under the web resources section. And another great place to learn things is right here at Renderosity. Don't be afraid to come here and ask questions, you will find that 99% of the people here will go out of there way to help you out. And one more thing, just remember that the only dumb question is the one that you never ask. ~grin~ Good luck. Autoloader

Thanks much. I did a pic with some water,mountains and a poser model. I'd post it here if I knew how. It didn't come out too bad,

Rita, to post you must start a new thread (unless you're handy with HTML). Go to 'post a new message' at top of forum page, then fill it out and down where it says 'browse', just find your .jpeg file on your harddrive (just like we post on the ngs). However, at least in my browser, it will come up with HTML extensions and you have to scroll down in the image extensions in your dialog box to 'all files' or 'all other files', something like that. Then the .jpeg files show up, you just 'attach', hit 'create new message' (I think--whatever is down at the bottom of the message). It takes just a few seconds generally for the file/message to be loaded and then it will show up with the image. Anxious to see it. Diane B