I was watching Floyd Around The Med the other day and he ended up at some monestaries in Greece (Meteora I believe) and it gave me some ideas for a Bryce creation.  The problem is the more I think about the cliffs the less and less I have any idea how to build them.  I've done a quick look around for photo's of the type of thing I'm trying to build so for reference...

and

The problem is how do you get overhanging rock formations, etc.  The buildings on the top are not a problem but I can't work out how to get the rocks looking like that.  My only thought so far would be to try and map a terrain side on but that means I'd have to work out my camera angles before I start which isn't nomally the way I work.

Any advice, as ever, gratefully recieved.

Attached Link: Orbital's Rockstack Tutorial

Enjoy!

If you make sure all the rocks are Positive in the 'A'tributes when they arrive you can then group them, then collapse them, and then you can export the mesh to say Wings3D and poke and prod at it in there until you get exactly the shape you want.

(I used 17 rocks here)

Dude, you rock.

Thanks.  I'll have a go and let you know how I get on.

Ehem! Uncle, I think you should know that Fran is actually a Lady, she doesn't rock, and she's not a 'dude'.  She is in fact a highly skilled Brycer, camel-rider and head-banger. ;-)

Nice picsBTW !

Hey isnt that the rock/scene from 007's  "For your Eyes Only".  St. Cyrils i think.

:blink:

I do so rock!  But I'm definitely not a dude... not last time I looked anyway...

Heavy Metal rules!!!  Yay!!

P.S. Never ridden a camel though.  Seen lots!  Usually when trying to avoid running them over on desert roads, but never ridden one.

Uncle_Riotous,
I'll be interested to see what you come up with.

You can also model rocks pretty easily in Wings3D, a freeware modeling program that's really easy to use (Sorry Bryster, I had to say it!).  There's a link to download it in the header of the Wings forum.

Fran, nice texture on your rockpile - "it rocks!"

Quote - You can also model rocks pretty easily in Wings3D, a freeware modeling program that's really easy to use (Sorry Bryster, I had to say it!).  There's a link to download it in the header of the Wings forum.

Fran, nice texture on your rockpile - "it rocks!"

Thanks, but it was just a Bryce6 preset. Not one of mine.  I liked the way it was height dependant and thus looked wetter at the bottom.

And did you know you can now export such a rockpile from Bryce and work on it in Wings3D?

(or almost any other modeller actually)

I may have a play with it later in the week, though I have a couple of projects to finish first...

I did not know that- Johnny Carson..;) Oh, Bryce 6...well, that's a different kettle of fish..;)

Nope .... that's Varlaam Monastery in Meteora.

The Agia Triada was used for the 007 movie .... same area, different monastery.

And there was I, wondering about whether making a tall, thin terrain solid and booleaning it out with other shapes might work?

Probably just as much (if not more) work as using lots'a'rocks....

Cheers,
Diolma

why not use several terrains just like the  rock  method .rotate , angle out,group and texture.Little more control than the rocks.

I tend to use a combination of symmetrical latices and terains tilted on their sides in conjunction with bryce rocks to make weird rock formations.

You could also make Hoodoos in the terrain editor, there' a tutorial about them in the tuts section of this site, or look in RealWorldBryce for the tut.

Isn't it amazing how many different ways there are to do one thing, and all in Bryce?!

Well, I've managed to build something I quite like but I'm not happy with the rendering.  Before I spend 18 hours playing with it can I ask for any suggestions on what I've got wrong.  I'm not sure about the materials but I don't know what to do to them in order to get them better.  I'm fairly sure that the haze doesn't look quite right but again I'm not sure how to change it.  Some people get the most incredible photo realistic stuff out of Bryce and I'd love some tips on this one as to how to get closer to that.

Click the sky & Fog pallette. Run along the icons till you see the HAZE icon and adjust by dragging the bar beneath the icon.......................

I can't get the height of the haze anywhere higher than it is in that.  It might be because the model is so high/large.  I can make the haze thicker but that just disguises the picture.

Try shrinking the whole thing and moving the camera closer. The haze won't have as much effect.

I'll try that, thanks.

Everytime I play with the materials on the mountains (rather than the rocks) I feel that I'm just not looking at something real, scaling them down might help that as well.  Any suggestions.

If it was me I'd totally get rid of the haze while working on everything else and only re-introduce the haze once everything else was working okay, that'll cut down the time when you need to do a test render to check the textures.

I don't often use haze anyway, and when I do I only use a very little, same with fog.