Bryce has a few hidden objects and resources that are not easy to find if you are starting out and haven't yet explored the folders that have been installed. These short tutorials show you where to find them and how to use them, and in the process will also take you through using some of the Bryce labs.
Additional Trees
As you may have discovered by now if you click on the tree icon in the Create Palette you can put a tree in your scene, and by selecting the 'E' on the object menu you can access the Tree Lab and make changes to it or choose from a list of trees:
However, there are a whole lot more trees to choose from: instead of just clicking the tree icon as we did above, press ALT + left-mouse click on the icon and the following window will open showing you a list of other trees not available in the list we saw above in the tree lab:
Just select one and hit 'Open' to load it into your scene. You can edit it in the same way as other trees if you want , by selecting 'E' to enter the Tree Lab.
2D Picture Objects
2D picture objects can be useful in replacing 3D objects if used carefully, for example as buildings in the backgrounds, especially if you need quite a few in your scene. They are less resource intensive than 3d models.
1. In the create palette click the icon that looks like a man, the 2D picture object icon (we call him Leo...):
This will open the image picture library:
As we can see the 2d picture object icon image is pre-loaded - it consists of two parts:
1. The picture component
2. The Alpha Image component
These two combined give the final result which is just the image of the man - the black background is transparent because anything that is black in the Alpha Image component becomes transparent in the final output.
2. Click the check mark to exit, which will take us to our Bryce scene and a 2D plane will be loaded, BUT, we haven't quite finished...
3.Click on the 'M' of the object menu to enter the materials lab and ensure 'Transparency' has a button checked in the first position:
4. Exit the lab and render your scene you will see not a square plane, but the image of the man:
Okay, so Leo isn't very useful perhaps...so lets see what other images there are...follow the same instructions, i.e. click on the Leo icon to enter the picture library. This time do the following:
1. Select the first empty image slot which will open the browse window...
2. Browse to the location where you installed Bryce when the browse window appears.Find the folder called '
Billboard'. It should be in
\Content\Textures\Legacy\. In 'Billboard' you'll see the following folders, each of which has an assortment of images which can be used for 2D picture objects:
Architectural
Household
Insects
Misc
Plants
3. Select an image from one of them and it will load just like the Leo image above.
4.Again, make sure Transparency is checked in the materials lab and you'll have a 2D picture image ready to use in your scene.
In the image below you can see I've selected a picture of an old building. You can see this rendered with a watering can (I said there was a variety...) in the image below that...doesn't look very exciting as I'm just showing you the basics...I'm sure you'll experiment and find some useful ways to use 2D picture objects.
Textures
Bryce comes with a number of textures that you can use for your objects and scenes - these are not found in the Materials Library, but are in .tif format and located in a folder called '
Tiling'.
1. Load an object into your scene.
2. Enter the Materials lab by clicking the 'M' on the object menu.
3. Click in the first slot of the diffuse texture setting as shown below labelled 1. in the screen shot
4. Click on the 'P' button (this is the image texture button) labelled 2 in the screen shot
5. Click the button on the right at the top of the texture window (the texture source button) labelled 3 in the screen shot:
This will take you into the picture library.
5. Select an empty image slot then browse to the location Bryce is installed on your computer.
6. Find the folder called '
Tiling' which will be in
\Content\Textures\Legacy\
As you can see in the image above there are a number of folders with textures for you to use.
6. Open one, select an image. I've selected the first texture in the 'Marble' folder: It will load, with the image in the first component, nothing in the second - it will be empty (white).
Note: To have a bump value on your object, to give it a more realistic feel, we can add the image as an alpha image in the second component instead of leaving it empty by doing the following (you can skip this part if you prefer):
1. Under the first component select 'copy'
2. Under the second component select 'paste' then 'delete'
7. Exit the picture library and enter a value in the bump setting in the materials lab, (you may need to experiment here depending on your chosen material).
8.Exit the materials lab to see your chosen texture on your object.
There are some great textures so do have a good browse through the folder!
Objects
Bryce comes with a variety of objects in the Objects Library, but there are quite a few more available that are not in the library. Here's how to find them:
1. Open the Objects library by clicking on the small arrow next to 'Create' on the create palette.
We can create a new category to put our newly found objects when we load them. If you don't Bryce will load them underneath the objects of the category that you have open ('Additional Primitives' by default). Let's add a category by clicking on the '+' sign at the bottom of the library window and giving the category a name. I've called mine 'New Bryce Objects'. Click the check mark to apply the name.
2. Click on 'Import' at the bottom of the objects library window.
3. Browse to the location Bryce is installed on your computer. You need to find the folder called ' Legacy' which is in
\Content\Models\. In the Legacy folder is one called
'Bryce O4 OBPs' . The object files are called
Architecture.obp, Food.obp and
Gas Station.obp.
4. Click on one and hit 'Open' and a bunch of models will load into the library. These will now be accessible to you in the object library along with the default Bryce ones.
5. To load an object into your scene click on it's image in the library and hit the check mark on the lower right of the library window.
Scene Files
A number of ready made scenes are provided with Bryce. These can be very useful in learning about light and camera settings, composition etc.
1. Go to File>Open then browse to wherever you have installed Bryce on your computer.
2. Go to the folders
\Content\Scenes Files\ and within that are some folders containing ready made scenes.
3. Select 'All files' from the 'Files of type' 'to ensure you see all the files available within them, as the Bryce 6 files may not show if you doing this in Bryce 7. My screen shot shows the files listed in the HDRI Samples folder.
4. Select a scene i.e. a file with the
.br6 or
.br7 file extension and it will load into Bryce (Bryce 6 scene files do work with Bryce 7. If you save it in Bryce 7 it will take on the Bryce 7 file extension .br7).
You can also find more Bryce 6 scenes here:
\Content\Models\Legacy\Misc
Tutorials
There are some more learning resources (yes more!) located in the 'Tutorials' folder. In here you'll find some folders containing more Bryce scenes and .html files containing tutorials for you to read. Both types are found in the folders in
\Content\Tutorials\. You can of course access the scene files using the method in the Scene Files section above. There are tutorials on such things as how to make breaking glass and HDRI.
I hope you find these short tutorials helpful and have fun exploring some of these hidden goodies!
