This is it, and after careful discussion and deliberation, the challenge is 'The DTE Blues' or 'Zhann's Folly', take your pick, at this point, I don't even know if I'm up to it, but here it is...

-Create and use your own 5 DTE materials in a render, each members DTE materials will have to be made available for download after the Challenge.

-Can't hack the DTE? Use Zhann's pic textures.

-Or, if you can, create and use 5 DTE materials of your own AND Zhann's pic textures.

Subject matter is up to the individual Artist.

Get the images HERE
Get the mini tutorial HERE

and no throwing fruits or vegetables please...:p

Zhann

(I didn't realize picking a subject would be so hard)

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

Right then Game On. No idea what id pick if i won (not much chance of that that tho) Cheers for the Mini tut Zhann Stash ;0)

Definitely not gonna do this one...heh

I don't even know what a DTE Material is. :)

fine. game on.

btw, i hope you have the bandwith for us all downloading that zip file :)

I'm game. I have to learn the DTE at some point, and being forced to learn it will make it even more appealing. I hope I can muster this. I'm gonna try making my own. Game on! MD

How are we to judge the winner when there is no subject manner? - or am I missing something vitally important here

A word to those who have no idea about the DTE, Ask here at the forum and there are lots of people willing to put up screen shots and explainations. Thats how I've learned a lot of stuff. I suspect that judging will be difficult as usual. But in the end most of the time my vote goes to what I find pleasing, not so much how closely it related to the subject matter.

Tried fiddling with Noise Phase filters, picking materials from the dialog. Sometimes it does something, sometimes not. It seems to be completely random. If there is a way to actually learn DTE and anticipate the results I'd like to know about it. Right now I'm sort of painting with a sledge hammer. I am tired of picking rocky hills for my grass and avoiding slopes because I can't change how the material applies. If its possible to learn I'll try it!

lol.... I think that this challenge needs to be judged on how well the participants incorporate their textures. Or in other words, who can make a decent image without using presets, or photo textures. I like this because you can make any image you want,,,,anything at all. It's the time you spend learning the DTE, and tweaking your textures to make your image a-okay... Very challenging and the perfect way to learn something in Bryce that you would have never otherwise tried to learn. I'm positive everyone who participates will improve their future images by 100%. Excellent choice for a new CHALLENGE

Wait a second, DTE means Deep Texture Editor...right? Anyway, I don't really understand the challenge....we're just using terrains to do....something....and....thats it? Um...if you say so...

Sparr: No...we create textures and apply them to objects....doesn't have to be applied to terrains.........

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All the Woes of a World by Jonathan Icknield aka The Bryster

And in my final hours - I would cling rather to the tattooed hand of kindness - than the unblemished hand of hate...

I've got a decent idea on what I'm doing for this challenge, just gotta figure out how to model it all up. After it's modeled, then I think I'll think about what to texture with the DTE and what to texture with bumps and photos. I think also, in your challenge submission, you have to list what you made w/ the DTE and/or with Zhann's images. I for one know that amazing stuff can be made, AgentSmith made a great metal texture in the DTE that I've used in a couple of pictures (Forgotten Ruins...the metal texture on the light poles are his, just modified to match the pole's specs.) So it's possible everyone, and I agree with brholte...make ANYTHING you want, just incorporate what you learned in the DTE into it...and I think everyone's pics will be improved 100% also! MD

"Then the game is on..."

For anyone who truly wishes to learn the DTE I suggest reading Real World Bryce. It explais in detail the formulas, and buttons. As for the noise phase, it's only useful in some situations. If you are talking about the noise filter, bring up the filter then click the little green corner in the upper left (works on noise phase too). Then you'll see a whole bunch of options to use. If you don't know about the DTE and what things do you are going to have a very frustrating time getting what you want out of it.

Well, considering this is what I've been struggling with on those seashells lately, maybe this'll be just what I need. :o) This challenge is running for, what, three months this time? I figure it'll take that long for me just to run through the combinations of 1 add/average/blend/difference/etc. 2 and see what they do! lol

Damn!! The dreaded and enigmatic DTE. I usually go there with high hopes and leave 6 hrs. later completely destroyed and in need of a tranquilizer. Thank god for digital cameras and texture web sites.

Groingrinder...I hear you on that one, one reason why I've been using my digi...I like being able to apply my textures in Photoshop and then use the bumps in Bryce. But learning some DTE I think will help me in some situations where I don't exactly NEED to use an outside-bump/texture. I think this will be a positive experience...it's just the fact that my image may take longer to make. Also, I like the idea of altitude-based textures...those are sometimes hard to get in a regular photo texture/mat. (At least getting that effect w/o using the DTE at some point.) MD

Ok, I will press the randomize button in the DTE until it shows something decent (even if it takes hours) and will concentrate on modelling this time. ;) J.

Okay,*gulp!*Count me in on this one!

It's not just a challenge, it's an adventure... Ahh, the fun never ends.

Okay, so it's basically just roll the dice and the random combination wins? where do the images in basic, clouds, bump, psycadelic, etc. come from? Are they real images or just filter settings? How come the user.brt was never implemented so I can't add my own images to the DTE? How do I get ahold of Andrea G. Pessino and what is the CCmF - Universal - Axiom - AGP - Composite File Management System? Talk! I want to know.. I'm ready to kick butt!! I need more tutorials! I need... to stop drinking 6 cups of coffee a DAYYY!!! Sorry, I'm okay now.

Excellent challenge, Bryce's procedural textures are by far the most complex procedural textures I've ever work with in a 3D program. Sense the whole idea behind the challenges is to expand our working knowledge of Bryce, this should be a good one.

Stephen Ray

Lol...that's gonna be a LOT of .mat's available for free after this! Game on, indeed! AS

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

I will be eating DTE for breakfast for a while, it seems! Great topic, Zhann...

WHAT THE DTE! DANG! and i was one of those that reaaaaaaaly relied on bitmaps when making textures... well what can i say? it'll get me sooner or later... mmmmm maybe i'll make one of those rusty textures and stufffff......

Ok guys, we're not expecting Doc Mojo materials here, and if 5 is too many then at least 2 good ones, and it's up to 'you' what you put them on, obiviously keep your scene modest (time constraints), HAVE FUN in the DTE, if that means ramdomizing the h*ll out of it, so be it, but pay attention to what happens when you do things, that way you'll know what to expect next time you do it... In answer to the question what are the images that pop up in the boxes in the channels, they are textures from Bryces texture library, a starting point, so to speak... MG, I didn't know half the stuff about the DTE I know now, because everyone started talking, I stayed up an extra 3 hours just to do the mini tut, so at least everyone knows 'where' the Deep Texture Editor is, and how to get there... Migraine, I'm going to my room and hiding in the closet now....

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

YES!! I've already made 3 decent DTE materials! For when the contest's over, I need a decent webspace, though...8^(

BTW, since I've been a member of the Bryce forum, I've seen it's members take a modest 3d software and do absolutely extraordinary things with it, more than probably the originators of the program thought were possible, you are the most talented group of people on Renderosity, in my opinion, and that's not BS either, I know you are up to this, this is your chosen software, wring every drop out of potential out of it... now I'm going to my room... Zhann

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

Attached Link: http://users.pandora.be/walter.vandijck/DTEtutorial1.htm

Too late Zahnn, you let the Genie out of the bottle. For those of you who missed it in the previous thread, the tutorial AgentSmith pointed to is excellent. Here it is again linked.

To boldly go where no Brycer has gone before..... HEY! Maybe I could use this on the 'Bum & Titty Grader' I never finished before! What a concept, kill two challenges in one go! My ego is gonna love this!

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All the Woes of a World by Jonathan Icknield aka The Bryster

And in my final hours - I would cling rather to the tattooed hand of kindness - than the unblemished hand of hate...

That tutorial is a great learning tool! and how to save out your material, courtesy rjoo1 'export' option in material editor will send your material out in *.mat format for others to 'import', just remember where you saved it to.

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

Remember also, you can select more than one .mat and save it to a single file on your hard drive.

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

Wow that is so weird I was just thinking of dusting off the DTE for some imaging. Ok so are heavily modified Bryce textures OK? Oh and by the way "All ye newbies listen up cause I'm only gonna say it once! Da search function in the forums works extremely well! I suggest using it B4 asking redundant questions!" Do some of the work your selves then when you get really stuck and cant find the answers post a help wanted. Then even I would be happy to help ya!

So other than the 5 DTEs, anything goes?

Vile...thank you for the good heads up on searching before asking! Biker...I'm thinking so...I'm still going to use photo mats and stuff in mine along with my 5 DTEs...(although I may use more if I get really ambitious..................ok maybe not...heheh) MD

Hehe hope I don't offend just an observation and a peave. Ocourse right after I say this I will be posting a real whopper of question, that has been asked about a zillion timesyou just watch me.

So do we need to have webspace to post our .MATs in order to enter the challenge, or should I just worry about that later?

A few tuts including Walter Vandijck's -http://users.pandora.be/walter.vandijck/DTEtutorial1.htm this is also a download http://www.j.b.allen.btinternet.co.uk/fracttut/disfractut.html, good for those using the images http://3dtoday.com/tutorials/2002/December/BryceRS/default.asp, making reptile skin I'll look for more...

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

Question...I will most likely make my textures, but if I use Zhann's, can I change their color? Diane

model imports yes/no? postwork yes/no? AgentSmith

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

models/imports = yes postwork = try to keep it minimal changing colors on dl textures = no webspace for posting mats = they will be uplaoded to Bryce's backroom, courtesy of Agent Smith subject of render = your choice

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

Thanks Zhann! Yeah, anyone that goes the DTE route will later just e-mail me the file. (agentsmith@renderosity.com) This info will also be on the Challenge upload area, which will be up in an hour or so. I've got a little picture tutorial somewhere on exporting .mat's out of Bryce and onto your hard drive, I'll find it, post it up. AgentSmith

Contact Me | Gallery | Freestuff | IMDB Credits | Personal Site
"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

Well, chosing a challenge has certainly been a learning experience, glad to see everyone stepping up to the plate, and I bet there will be some amazing mats and renders too!

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

Puts on her bryce .mat camoflauge outfit and ties on her red headband Bring it on! Lin Maybe I can get the darn thing done this time!

What does this mean? ( changing colors on dl textures = no ) Not sure what is meant by this, please explain...

Stephen Ray

Let's see what Dictionary.com says about No 1. Used to express refusal, denial, disbelief, emphasis, or disagreement: No, I'm not going. No, you're wrong. 2. Not at all; not by any degree. Often used with the comparative: no better; no more. 3. Not: whether or no. I think that cleared it up for me. JK lol Does this mean you cannot change colors on Downloaded textures?

I think it means that if you choose to download Zhann's texture for the challenge, you're not allowed to change the colours of those textures.

Right. From question on post #41

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

Zhann you are sooooooooo wicked, but as you know I'm always game for a laugh. So let the challenge roll....................8) Catlin

Please clarify....................this has to take place in the DTE, you cannot make textures using 2d images? Catlin

Well, Im willing to give this one a go...I just wish that the requirment was nil! Nadda! I would really like to see what people can actually do without bringing a bunch of props in from somewhere else for a change. Doug in Houston

Dou, we had a "pure Bryce" challenge earlier this year. Or was it last year? Time flies so quick. J.

That's right, Catlin... Must've been this year, derjimi, I'm pretty sure I remember it, and I wasn't here last year(interested in programming back then- my hobbies change a lot)

Catlin, yes everything takes place in the DTE, but if you're unsure of how to go about it checkout any post that says Official..... there's help everywhere. If you are still hesitant, there are textures I'm suppling (see the first post) for you to use any way you like (except for changing their color) above. Actually, I think you would have a real knack for the DTE...give it a shot....

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

Yeah, I actually found it fairly intuitive to a certain degree(more than I would've thought, anyway), and I can get things to look more or less how I want, after having practiced.

I'm just being a wimp Zhann. I've made some nice textures by manipulating some 2d images but I guess all textures should be new for the challenge. OK I'm of to start twiddling dials and sliders and stuff......8) Catlin

You'll find after awhile it's adictive, I did, I must have 20 materials, and I've been studing nature photos and trying to get something similar from the DTE, ooo, that's a nice one...;]

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

The annoying thing about this is that Bryce doesn't do large specular areas, just a little dot. I was trying to do that unsanded black metal with rainbow specularity, but... Bryce don't do that.... 8^(

change the specular halo value

Aye, there's an answer to everything..............lol 8)

I was crying until I saw the pandora link to a dte tute above - now I'm going to go home and isolate myself from the rest of society for a day or eight and learn this dang thing!

Cool. I've got tons of DTE textures I made. Any special kind of textures needed?

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As long as they're good ones Rayraz that's all that matters.

I thought DTE was a drink related thing when you flew to long I will have to go lock myself in for a week or three and read the tut here goes bm.

Good thing I used the DTE since I first started using bryce years ago. That's 5 years of DTE experience. I've already created 7 textures made 100% in the DTE. A rocky planet texture, a cloudy atmosphere texture, a volume atmosphere texture, a startrek 2 style volume genesis-effect texture (that actually looks really good), a volume energy-wave texture, a starfield and a soft nebula-gas volume. And there's lot's more comming :)

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Wowee Rayraz! your back and hard at work already...........lol 8D I can only think of a couple of others here who are as devoted in time and energy to Bryce and quite mad with it, ie. Ornlu (mad meta man) for one, and Flak (crazy crowd controller) for another. 8) Catlin

Attached Link: Time Squad lighting test

Rayraz, I always loved the texture you had on your figure in your "Time Squad lighting test" in your gallery. Cool pic. It's on the Renderosity DVD, btw. Can't wait to see your mats. AgentSmith

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

That solves the mystery of what made it onto the DVD. I can put that one in with the free textures. I've got 2 versions of the texture. It's one of those textures that always needs tweaking with mapping and stuff to look perfect.

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D'oh! Sorry...didn't mean to spoil anything. AS

Contact Me | Gallery | Freestuff | IMDB Credits | Personal Site
"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

Don't worry about it. Now I don't have to wait for the last 6 or so people to say that the DVD may be sold to the artists her on 'Rosity.

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What is meant by "keep postwork minimal". Its in the rules. Sorry, this is probably a stupid question. Im new to Renderosity and the whole graphic game :)

D_Barr: It means if you want to add your name to your piece in Photoshop or PSP and do tiny tweeks that's ok, but if you want to add filters, effects, or major brushwork then that's a no-no.....

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All the Woes of a World by Jonathan Icknield aka The Bryster

And in my final hours - I would cling rather to the tattooed hand of kindness - than the unblemished hand of hate...

It means postwork is allowed, but if you can use as little as possible you should. So taking a render of a mountain landscape and then drawing 300 trees on it in Photoshop would be a bit to much, but dodging some SFX or adjusting brightness and contrast is allowed. There's no real rules on what 'minimal' is and it's a matter of taste. If the community decides that there's too much postwork to call 'minimal' they will say they think the entry can do with a little less postwork. But usually every entry can enter the contest. I have used some simple compositing in my (maybe still WIP) entry for instance to avoid artefacts where the volume atmosphere and the genesis effect interesect. I rendered the atmosphere seperate and added it as a new layer with adjusted contrast in PSP. Those are minor adjustments.

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oops, crosspost. Sorry B

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Cheers, I get it. So putting a huge picture of my mother and in the corner a small picture of my entry is out of the question. :)

Unless you made the picture of your mother in bryce :)

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good call! :D Iv just ready the mini tutorial, its very good and easy to follow, I have a much better understanding of how DTE works know.

Sorry! No Mothers or Mother's-in-law allowed....;-)

Available on Amazon for the Kindle E-Reader

All the Woes of a World by Jonathan Icknield aka The Bryster

And in my final hours - I would cling rather to the tattooed hand of kindness - than the unblemished hand of hate...

Not even if they're babes like Bill's stepmom in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure"?

Learned some things about the dte but not nearly enough - I'm out :o(

FirstBlueMoon, There's some great tut's out there. check the spotlight link in the forum header.

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looks like I got around to looking at this forum to late again. But decided this time to leave a thought since this seems rare to find tutorials on... The animation features of Bryce, it would be a great challenge to for all the artists to incorporate a object or two. just a idea. Good work to ya all on the enteries ;) Deep textures aren't as hard if you play with it every now and then instead of importing every time.