Attached Link: http://www.handspanstudios.com/links.html

What I have done is increase the number of branches per segment, maybe to 3 or more, then increase the branch starting angle. First, though, you need to select an evergreen species and matching leaf type. Lowering that angle is what begins to show the more recognizable shape. This is my experimentation, because I tend not to read docs like I should. You can also check some sites for freebies, such as Handspan Studios. There are a bunch of Poser links there, many containing freebies, but also some models that can be brought into Bryce. Check them for plants and trees. I know the 3D Cafe has some free trees, including some pines, so it might be a good thing to check those out.

As to your question, my work doesn't seem to reflect my mood for some reason. Looking at your image up there, I'd say that molar was giving you lots of problems. Lol. But no, my mood doesn't so much reflect the subject matter as much as it affects the speed at which I work. I find that if I'm on a downer, taking walks on high bridges or sitting on window sills over five stories up, I sit at the computer less, giving an image a much shorter creation time. Also, I work in shorter spurts when things like the Shuttle disaster occur. I also watch the news heavily, taking care to catch all I can concerning the world situation. My mind being occupied thusly, my 3D work tends to take a back seat for a spell. Walt "Mike"

Not sure what happened there, but I would take Bryce back to the original settings. Then, like for the Mil Dragon, or any other Poser character, bring the ambience to zero or almost zero, lower the diffusion some, toy with specularity (using the least on humans)and see how that does. I render exclusively in Bryce 5, bringing Poser characters into my scenes. I rarely mess with the settings, however, except for an occasional clicking in or out. I know many like to use other settings, and some of those can occupy your computer's time enough for you to take a short vacation. Many are quite good, too. But you can make some really nice stuff using the default settings, which saves time and a lot of frustration. For other parts of figures, such as hair and anything added on in Poser, you need to treat separately in Bryce, making sure you bring in bump maps and trans maps as necessary. Grouper is a great tool, of course, and I use it all the time now. But you might still need to bring in a few things after you are asked for some upon importing. Grouper doesn't always set your imports up with everything. It is useful in the naming of parts, which is a really nice feature. Bump maps and trans maps must be applied by you once you import anything from Poser, which is why things look goofy if you try to render them right away. The terrains can look simple and cheap or rich and loaded with forms and features, depending upon what you do with the terrain maps. Collect them wherever you can find them, then mix them, alter them, fool around in the deep texture editor, until you get stuff you really like. Mountains should never look like cardboard cutouts. That almost sounds like a strange setting you have there. Good luck. Not sure what's happening to you, but I hope this little bit helped some.

Yep, backwards compatible for 5, but not forward compatible for earlier versions. (It has to do with hindsight being more accurate than foresight, probably).

Try the "Object space" settings in the Materials Lab. I'd test your mat with object front or side, or some other one there. It's the lower right button, in case you haven't used that before. Walt

I always scale down in x and z on most body parts, and y and z on the arm sections. If most of the body is bare, try the clothing. It's often easier to adjust clothing scaling if you don't conform them, but simply move them around to fit right. My strappy girls all use the catsuit with my own maps. It is standard procedure for me to fatten the lower arms and calf sections if the suit, which tend to show skin quite often.

It's true that creating photorealistic scenery isn't happening in Bryce, and my purpose in generating scenery isn't to do that at all. Actually, I want my images to look more like paintings. For me, it's artwork. The argument concerning photorealistic scenery might be that if you cannot tell the difference, why not use photos worked into the image? There are digital cameras and 3D graphics programs. They can work together, of course. And even though the super high-end stuff at ILM and other professional outfits proves that you can do about anything digital, they still utilize actual scenery shots while adding in the digital characters, such as what was done in Jurassic Park. I read where they duplicate scenery, including ungulating waters, only where necessary when looking for stark realism. AgentSmith, I usually do one or two images per day, but go off line for vacations or when I'm working on a batch of images for other purposes, such as when I was loading up at the Fine Arts department of the Marketplace here. I sometimes work with writers or supply some work to schools (supplying material for role playing games), etc., all upon request. Not much money in it yet, but there's always a little hope for that down the road apiece. My work flows quickly, as I have never read the manuals fully (which seems to be a hinderance) and learned by experimentation or an occasional tutorial by people who, like me, discovered things in their own way. Poser and Bryce work together fine for me, plus my rendering times are very, very short. Each image you see took from ten to twenty minutes, with an occasional one that took over a half hour. Because of that, the only time taken is the design of the image itself. I then post them here and at the 3D Commune, where the comments come in larger numbers. I post there under my real name, using WMBagley for the spelling and case. From my perspective, my work shows here a bit sharper than at the Commune. It's fairly obvious to me on this computer. There is another site, although I haven't posted there in many moons, which showed them as sharp as they are on my own screen before posting. It's not in this country, so I have totally forgotten the site URL. I posted there as a guest artist.

I do that, too. I will make one tree become maybe five, by rotating and doing slight angle and size changes on the duplicates. I've never used such a quantity, though. It must be a hunger for as much realism as possible. Possibly hidden under that canopy are millions of tiny, digital caterpillers munching on the leaves. There are nematodes in the soil and cicadas humming from trunks and branches. They cannot be seen, but they are probably down there, working to add realism to the scene. Off the subject, but I once did an image of a man on a islet with about four palm trees. It was a simple image, but I wrote that just off to the right, just out of sight, I had a four-masted schooner, highly detailed, with a crew of thirty-five different characters. It slowed down the render, I said, but I put it all there so the man you COULD see would be looking at it in a realistic way. I sometimes forget my Poser characters aren't living actors.

Check some of my images, Clyde. Of course, I have a 2.2 gig machine, pushing over a gig of RAM. I also have a 120 gig drive, so I can keep everything right where I want them. I have a large gallery, and some of the images show what can be done with terrains and lighting, just through experimentation and using things in different ways from what is expected. For instance, the sun can be used for ambience and a global light, with linear dropoff and other limations removed, can become the new sun, using much lower intensities than you would with normal lighting. My images are all sharper than you will see posted. However, they show sharper here than they do at some other places, but grainier than at still others. Even a jpeg, going off at 100%, can appear just about as good as a bitmapped image, but it won't show that way at these galleries. To get a sharper image, just make sure you lower the haze some, leaving enough to show distances, get good light right on your important characters, moving it around until you show just what you want to see, constantly doing test renders to check on your work. Having a strong system does help in that department, though. If and when you see my images, remember that each one took from ten minutes to twenty minutes rendering. That's all. Because of that, I can do a lot of little renders, using a few passes, just to be sure I get the light right and there is a balance. Fooling around with lighting especially can be the difference between creating a grainy image and a much sharper one. My terrains are made by mixing and matching various texture maps. The busier the better, I always say. You'll see that in my images, where a few maps tossed around can make a simple terrain mesh look like it's full of cracks, crevices, gravel, little bits of this and that. Who knows what's there? It's important to keep a check on the level assigned to the busy texturing, though, so you don't go overboard and make a flat, uninteresting sandpile, or, on the other hand, an ugly closeup of goofy shapes that look like gobs of wet, colored goo. I play in the deep texture editor, too, in order to alter whatever I see, then I test the results in the staging area. Good luck in your quest. Walt

I wish you could export objects besides terrains and lattices. I just make things in Bryce and export them as obp files, for use in Bryce as preset imports, which is nice. Anything you import, of course, and is added to your presets can be exported as such. I wish Bryce had a converter for obp files, to make them objects for use in other programs.

What I might do with this would be to let the stairs climb much higher, possibly causing them to curve, maybe doing an 'S' curve, as it goes off into the hazy distance. Using Edit/Multi-replicate feature will bring up the window for just that sort of work. Besides, it's fun to test different values here, to make objects spiral off in any direction. Just add a number of repeats and small degree numbers for X, Y and Z changes, using from one to three of these values in different ways. The resulting numbers of repeated objects might not look right as you experiment, but they will be highlighted after enacting them. That way, if you don't like what you get, just delete them. The original shape will not be highlighted and will remain where it was.

This is an intersting idea, so I just entered my story. I saw that it passed 2000 words by only a few, so I hope they won't castigate me too harshly for it. Good luck, all! Walt "Mike"

This certainly looks like the program to wait for. As I always render in B5, but utilize Poser in every image --- to supply the actors, I hope the new way of doing things will still create objects that are just as compatible. My interest, of course, would be creating the characters with the new tools provided by Poser, then working them into my Bryce scenes. I hope the transmaps work as well with these more improved tools when turned on in Bryce. Can't wait for this one.

I just use Poser to make my thumbs, importing the finished image, postwork and sig all taken care of, as a background. I let it be full sized, bring it down to 845x610, or something like that, and save it as a jpeg at 95% for the full image for posting. Then I pull in a pre-made thumbnail, made in Poser the first time I used it, allow the image size to change according to the smaller image, then ask for an import of another image. I call in the new one, but when it wants to change the size to fit, I say "No." My new image now appears at the smaller size. I then save that as a jpeg at 85%, to keep the overall size down for posting. I always differentiate my images by using a "2" at the end of the title for the larger one and a "tn" at the end of the thumbs, so they will not be confused in moving them around. The only problem will be a slight border on some images, which doesn't bother me. I could crop them out, but don't bother taking the time. Because I have things set up how I want them, this process is quick and painless for me. Once I finish an image, it takes about two minutes to get both images for posting, which I promptly take to the galleries for the pleasure of all mankind (just in case all mankind might decide to visit our galleries as a means to escape the realities of the real world).

Yes, use a glass texture for the outer sphere, or simply go to the editor and eliminate everything but a nice specular setting, for that little glint when the light is right, and full transparency. Try a color to the transparency setting for fun. It would be like using colored glass over the eye. I also take the inner sphere, which already has a the eye texture applied, and hype the specularity and ambience just a bit. There are other characters, such as the Bloodsong's Heavy Horse, that requre the eye work in Bryce. On that, I believe number 9 is the outer and 7 is the inner with the map. Walt "Mike"