You knew I would be back, huh? LOL!! Well, I downloaded the cute snowcapped cabin with a separate door. I got the cabin to my liking, and imported the door. I put it by my doorframe, but the door wants to go BEHIND the cabin( cant see it), and not the front. So now, how do I get it in front where it can be seen?

Go to the edit toolbar and position it where you want it to go using the x, y and z positioning tool.

Thank you Boomer. hugs

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

No problem, Ardiva. Check out this link for Brycetech. Great site with a lot of good tutorials and other information. Definetly worth putting into favorites.

Thanks Boomer..got it pegged!

Ardiva, it's also a good idea to view your scene from the top and position your object in relation to the camera POV using the same positioning tool.

Thanks,Quest..you're a doll in suggesting this way as well. Will try it. :-)

Here is my WIP, so far. I didn't concentrate on materials as much as learning to position. Any comments will be appreciated.

LOL...I think that's really cute! this is starting to shape up into something. Now tell me, how did you manage to get the snowman's shadow all the way over there?

Beats the H*** outta me, Quest! LOL!

Is this any better?

Well yes, it looks better but somehow the sleigh seems to be floating off the ground. Hummmm, I think you need to determine where all your shadows are originating from, whats the main light source. And work your way from there. You may even have to turn off the "link sun to view" option in the sky and fog menu under that last triangle in the menu and add your own "sun" source to gain better control over the scene. This way you can place the lighting as you want it. If you have other lights in the scene, try disabling the shadow options and see what it does for the scene. You may have a fill light that may be giving off a displaced shadow. I say this because of the prior screen grab and the snowmans shadow placement But I dont know if you have other lights in the scene. Also, make sure all your objects are laying flat on the ground. In case you didn't know, and I'm being presumptuous here so please forgive me, if when you select an object, if you see a little down pointing arrow next to the highlighted wireframe model, it means that the object is hovering over the ground and not in contact with it. Of course, if the arrow is pointing the other way, then, the object is partly buried in the ground and needs to come up out of the ground. In fact, try that first before messing with the lighting. Either way, youre onto something here.

Looks good, Ardiva. A couple of suggestions, though. You're getting that shadow, i'm guessing, because you are using either the camera view or the directors view and didn't move around too much and you are working on a diagonal view. Using the controls, move around and center your objects. Use the shadows themselves as guides to line objects up with each other. Use this screenshot for reference.

Ardiva: It looks to me like all your objects are floating in the air. (Thus the oddly placed shadows) You just need to select your objects, go to the Edit icons, just to the right of the Align icon is a down triangle that will give you a menu with several aligning choices. Choose "snap to ground" or if your ground plane is not at "ground level", you can "snap to land". Then you can use the "front" camera view to determine if any of the objects need to be moved further to make full contact with the ground. John

I made a quick screenshot. The big ball at #2 and the arrows are all for the view controls. Up, down, left and right and round and round. The view controls are essential. Practice using them. You'll also notice that when you open you scene and select your snowman, you hace a little E next to it. This is to edit the mesh as in, to either smooth it out or roughen it up. Play around with it and you'll see what I mean. Not sure how new you are to Bryce, but I suggest picking up a book called "Real World Bryce" by Susan Kitchens. It was written for Bryce 4 but everything it applies to Bryce 5, with the exceptions of the light lab and the tree lab. I would wager that a LARGE number of our family here in this forum have that book not too far from their computer. Anymore questions, just fire away. The only stupid question is the one not asked. BOOM

P.S. Make sure the objects which are made up of several smaller objects (like the snowman) are grouped before snapping to ground.

Good point tjohn, otherwise all the pieces of the same model that aren't grouped, will hit the ground at the same time as individual objects. But not to worry, if this should happen, don't panic, just hit "undo".

Yeah, Quest, I had that problem a lot when I thought you had to ungroup the objects to texture them individually, before I discovered the magic of control-left click. :^)

Oh, and Ardiva...You may want to spin the sled around about 180 degrees. Unless you want your snowman to face the wrong end of the sled. :^)

Sorry about the 'wrong end' of the Tobaggon. Turned it around. :-) Anyways, am I making any headway in the latest here?

Much better, Ardiva. Everything is on the ground and no shadows. Now, we have to smooth out that snowman. First, ungroup the snowman and select the lower sphere. You see the little "E" next to it? Click on that to edit that mesh. I made you a qucik screenshot tut to help you with it. Anytime that the little "E" pops up, you can edit that mesh. Take it from here and see what you come up with. Any other questions, just ask.

Ok..thanks and did that. I thought I had previosly, but I didn't remember to hold down my mouse until it was done. Keep thinking that if I just hit the checkmark it will do it all by itself. LOL!! Any other suggestions? I really feel the terrain is too smooth and needs some real snowy bumps. Any ideas? Thanks for all your help here..I am learning more and more each day..and sent a note out to Santa in hoping to get that book by Susan Kitchen. I think I've been a pretty good girl all year, so keeping my fingers crossed. ;-)

Oh yes, excellent book Ardiva, it's our bible. You needn't have to hold the mouse button. When the edit mesh icon comes up, it's actually 2 buttons. You click on the smooth button to smooth and unsmooth to well, unsmooth.

AhHA...Got it, Quest. Thanks a million for your help. Thank you all! I have learned alot from you. :-)

For the terrain, click on the mountain up top to create a terrain. Then go into the terrain editor by clicking the small "E" next to the terrain and you'll get something that looks like this screenshot. (not my screenshot. found it on the web) Click the drop arrow at #1 and you will get a little drop menu. These are the different sized windows for the terrain canvas. I find that 512X512 works good for me. See what is best for you. When you click on #2, you will get a menu of different terrains to use, choose the one called "rounded dunes". The menu will close. Now, click on the button to the left of the word fractal, #3. There are endless terrains that are generated, but find one that is relatively flat that you like. Once you do that, go to the terrain resolution button, #4, and choose the terrain resolution. The higher the number, the more detail there will be. Click the check mark in the corner to save and close it. Now, go to the edit materials menu and go to plains and terrains and choose the ice looking one called "Roches and Ices" and select it. It makes for a good snow field when you don't have a lot of height in your terrains. If the terrain itself is too large, as in height wise, reduce the height of it until it is almost flat with the resize Y tool. Now, you can resize the terrian on the X and Z axis if you want it bigger and then place your objects on top. Try this and let me know how it works for you.

My gosh, Boomer...thank you ever so much for this one as well. Your a doll! :-)

Boomer...here is the result of your help. Hope it turned out ok.

That's what I'm talking about. Much better. Look at your first image and then at this one. Night and day I would say. And I bet it's got your creative juices flowing now to do more. Now, just place your objects into the scene where you think they look good and you're done.

Thanks Boomer..I've the bug now and having more fun. Will be better when my book gets here as well. :-) hugs

Not a problem. Check out these sites. They'll keep you busy until your book arrives: http://www.bsmooth.de/BSolutions/ http://hinchu.tripod.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/BryceTuts/BryceClasses/ The last one has quite a bit information on it. It goes from learning the interface to modeling. (no, not that kind of modeling. Modeling in Bryce, silly) Enjoy John

Thanks again Boomer. :-) I'm into the Robin Wood one...and have some of my wagon done. I know with the help I've had here I can do a better job with it. The other tuts I'll check out asap.

Ok my sweeties...here is the one I just did per Boomers explicit instructions. I added some more objects to it and it now resides on my gallery page. Not perfect mind you, but still ok I guess. Thanks for looking..