Unfortunately the bats are entirely postwork, and I suck at hand-drawing things completely from scratch. I did try to have one resting on the wall, but I couldn't get it the way I wanted it and so I scrapped it. In other words, it was both SNAFU and FUBAR lol EDIT: BTW I've submitted a tutorial that describes in depth my method of fire-creating. Assuming of course it gets approved by the mods.

Message edited on: 05/03/2005 19:14

Yeah, DTE is excellent. Very useful indeed. But it would have been nice to be able to create your own, especially since Bryce comes with some procedural textures that you don't have immediate access to (but have to save them through the DTE), almost seems like it's a big secret or something. Personally I think that no one remembers how to make them =) Oo, something else for Bryce6.

Hehe no they're supposed to be bats. They were entirely postwork, literally thrown in at the last moment for no real reason. This is another part of the image that falls under the "Augh! What was I thinking?!?!" category (all modifications for the better version were made in postwork). So, no, they're not aircraft, lol =) Cheers

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=947846&Start=1&Sectionid=2&filter_genre_id=0&

Okay, here it is. I don't usually do reposts, but since you asked so nicely... =) I also fixed a few other things besides the fire. Thanks to the Storm Dragon for his excellent advice. Cheers

BTW, did they say anything about potential prices? DAZ usually offers good deals on things (which is one of the reasons why I have issues with the pricing of 5.5), but their other software that they have actually made themselves is priced significantly higher than Bryce.

Well said. Bryce6 could have a lot of potential, particularly if they provide support for direct vertex and face manipulation (i.e. a better modeler) along with their current boolean operations and metaballs. This would tend to end up making Bryce6 a conglomerate of several other programs. Also if they had a dynamics system attached for animation. Bryce's current animating capabilities are quite limited IMO. Although I have seen some amazing things done with it, you just can't beat equations! =) Cheers

Hold it. I never said I didn't like DAZ studio, nor did I say that I didn't like Bryce5.5 I just don't like the pricing for the upgrade, that's all. They don't provide a very large number of improvements, and they are asking very nearly the entire retail price. Admittedly this is not much, but honestly, they seem to be giving even less. My point is that it's not worth it to buy Bryce5.5 when all of the improvements will (presumably) be in Bryce6, and Bryce6 will have still MORE improvements. Funny thing, I've never had any trouble importing figures from Poser. Both Bryce4 and 5 have automatically imported the models correctly and applied the textures properly, only thing I had to do was point it to the cleverly hidden default textures. The only thing I can't do is import dynamic hair, and I personally dislike Poser5's dynamic hair, finding it much much easier to just draw my own (and then I can use Bryce's better renderer!). And you can get DAZ|Studio for free right now, which lets you import dynamic hair anyway. So essentially you are paying $79 for lots of new models and mats. After DAZ's promotion you won't even get those, as I understand it. Peace shinyary

Attached Link: http://www.petersharpe.com

This looks pretty good to me. I think you should change the texture on the tree on the left. This link is to a place where you can get some REALLY great tutorials. Peter Sharpe is an excellent artist in my opinion (too bad he's not on Rend..). Specifically you should check out the one on creating mist textures. I use a modified version of Peter Sharpe's mist textures to create all of my mist effects and my explosion effects. Cheers and good luck

hmm that makes sense. If you are using the camera (and not director's), you know you can use ctrl-Z to get the camera back where you want it. That what I usually do when I make that mistake (which happens ALL the time for me, usually at around 1a.m. lol). Cheers

Never mind, found myself in there, under the name "Oleth Saelu". I'm page 41 lol. Seems this is a popular subject. I wonder why? <--essence of sarcasm Cheers

Attached Link: http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=5296&highlight=bryce6

Sorry. I didn't expect anyone to want to check up after it, silly me =) If you look anything like your namesake AS then a few grey hairs shouldn't trouble you lol =P This topic is on suggestions for Bryce6. I thought I posted something on there, but I don't see it now. Maybe it's just taking a while to get posted, or on another page, or something. The part I was refering to is there, however, in the very first post (the one that introduces the topic). It sounds like they're talking about Bryce5.5, hope they are it would be a real bummer if DAZ decided to release an expensive (but ultimately not terribly useful--yes I know people disagree with me on that, and that's fine, but I still maintain that they have uncharacteristically overpriced this new "version") new version of Bryce, and then do exactly the same thing over again. Bryce6 should have some MAJOR improvements over Bryce5 or 5.5 in my opinion. Sorry again

Just out of curiosity, how did you end up with those values changed in the first place? Seems like I don't ever end up with anything other than zero in there.

Exactly! I don't think it is. And as I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong) but it actually ends up being $70 not $50. Personally I'm waiting for Bryce6, but I read on the forums on DAZ that Bryce6 isn't going to have many major improvements either (yet another reason save my money and wait). Though maybe they were really talking about 5.5, having changed the title after the forum was started? I dunno, but I think that DAZ needs to reduce the prices of their upgrades in the Bryce area if they are going to offer so few real improvements.

BTW (help! I can't shut up!!) I think that the lines are caused by intersections of the volume textures. Since you can see through the fire texture, and Bryce doesn't let you put two volume textures in the same "space". This means that you can see a "hole" where both object intersect. Correct me if I'm wrong (although I know this occurs, it just might not be the cause of your lines), and if ANYBODY has a good way to correct without postwork, I will have died and gone to heaven. Okay, I'm done. Really!

My suggestion (on getting rid of the lines) would be to smooth them over in postwork... it's a messup that Bryce has, particularly with volumetric textures... LOL not sure if there are mesas in Australia (probably not). Personally, though, I avoid using the traditional Ambience features of Bryce. If you do use them, I would suggest setting the lower Ambience channel (the one labeled "Value"). This of course gives you detail in the shadows, as opposed to a solid color, which looks unrealistic IMHO. Of course the ideal situation is to do a Premium render and turn on True Ambience, along with soft shadows and any other options you care to have, but this only works properly if you have several days to spend rendering, especially with the volumetric fire! =P On the shadows: Yep, that's what I meant... you're right it looks much much better with shadows enabled. Uh... no comment. =P Good luck IMHO this looks roughly 300% better than it did at first! Oh, yeah, and sorry about the length of this, I talk too much =P