FF textures to Bryce?

Hi guys,
I just got the Bryce 5.0 free program and I'm not sure how to install the FF textures into it. Does anyone know? Ro?
Will they even work in Bryce?
Thanks,
Mickey the Dunce

Wow! Thanks, I'll let you know if it works.
Donna

You have to render them as Jpegs or tiffs. Then load the resulting jpegs or tiffs into bryce.

Hi

I have also just downloaded Bryce free so thanks for the info CFandM

Re the Pictures.
Have you seen this?
http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html

It’s a very handy free screen grabber that will save any area of the screen to a file.


Ken.

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Whitedove wrote: Does anyone know? Ro?

Hello there, Donna. Sorry, I've been offline these days (more time in the dentist's chair than in front of a computer.)
I'm glad to see that your doubts have been cleared up. (thanks CFandM)
Good thing too, 'coz Bryce is not one of my favourites and I found the materials part very confusing.

Curently I am using Poser (procedural materials), Carrara and Vue.

Just a few general words about textures for anyone who is starting out:
1) The bigger the better. If you want excellent quality 3D renders then think about textures 4096 x 4096 TIFF. However, if the object to be textured is smaller, or nobody is going to be looking too close (and you don't want to wait all night to render just one image) then by all means use a smaller map for faster renders.
2) FF has two types of output: Simple Filter and Surface. The Simple filter will give you a "flat" 2D image, which - although it can be useful for 3D stuff - is not the most interesting part.

Take a "Surface" filter - you know it's a surface 'coz the "Lighting" tab appears.
The preview will be showing you a rough idea of how it will look in 3D. It is not exact, sometimes it will end up better, sometimes worse.
In the FF menu bar select Filter>Render Maps and a whole bunch of things appear.
Here you can see that FF is actually preparing a number of different images which compose the 3D texture.
The important ones are:
Diffuse Map: These are the colours that are gong to be painted onto your 3D surface;
Bump Map: This is a way to make texture bumps on your flat 3D surface;
Alpha Map: If the filter has transparent areas (like Mike Blackney's barbed wire) then this will decide where the 3D image will show or not.

Do not use the preview image.
Do not use just the diffuse image - render and save both the diffuse and bump maps (and alpha where applicable).

Now in your 3D application.....
- Diffuse map plugs into the Diffuse component;
- Bump map plugs into the Bump or, better, Displacement component (you will have to adjust the height - black is low, white is high, but how high?);
- Alpha goes to the transparency component.

Think that's enough for now.

Rô

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byRo wrote: Just a few general words about textures for anyone who is starting out:

Some valuable info there also. It would seem that this will also help the users and future users of FF. Thanks for that byRo

very good and useful, although is a pity that the CFandM tutorials are NOT available as the link is dead

why, what format does bryce use?

Thanks for the link to that tutorial, is interesting and useful, although this tutorial is for just for adding your own 2D images to the materials, and using them in the models, but there is no reference on how to use bump maps and displacement maps for making the textures look like 3D textures.

I mean to be able to make something like these examples below in Bryce that are using FF render maps









or is it that Bryce does not have this feature and should I use another 3D software?

Will search for more Bryce tutorials for adding materials to Bryce

Thanks for your information, this is waht I have now thought after seeing many tutorials of Bryce and NONE of them is possible to have displacement mapping and the bump map support is poor and little as usual with normal bump map as the real bump maps shown above are really modification of the geometry of the original shape and not really a bump map.

I have Carrara 7 Pro (came free with a magazine) but have never used it, although I have seen many tutorials and it looks good although complex.

I wonder WHICH 3D software would be good to have similar results to the 4 examples shown above here that are done with the 3D Previewer Displacement map of ThreeDee.

Of course that I can do it in FF if I want a sphere, but what happens if I want to have a cube, a box, a cone, or another shape that could have this same 3D simulated effects ?

Carrara is perfectly valid for doing what you want to achieve. http://www.photosculpt.net/dump/2011/...carra.html

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I wonder WHICH 3D software would be good to have similar results to the 4 examples shown above here that are done with the 3D Previewer Displacement map of ThreeDee.

Displacement mapping can be achieved in many high-end 3D products. Displacement comes both as function of a render engine and also as a part of the 3D modeling tool set. This basically means there are many ways of achieving the result. And it also means you can use pretty much any high end 3D program and achieve the same effect. Of course, you'll have to set it up yourself. Depending on the program you use, it can be easy to pretty complex.

For example, displacements in Maya can be handled by both Maya software render as well as MentalRay. If anything, MentalRay's nice render engine can create you beautiful looking final results, but it takes a couple steps and involves slightly irritating things like the Approximation editor and stuff.

Then in Cinema4D, you can turn displacement mapping on via a couple buttons, again requiring some steps along the way but not difficult as MentalRay.

Indigo Renderer can achieve you nice displacement maps, but this program doesn't do modeling, it only renders so it's like a huge waste to just own that.

So I mean I'm giving you a rundown of some of the coolest things out there, but you really have to start somewhere. It's not as tricky as you think it is. Make sure you follow the steps one by one, don't assume steps, just follow them and you can assume things later. If you can't follow the steps, you should look for a newer version of that tutorial because most often you'll find stuff that's completely out of date.

Also... try Blender. Just try it. It's better than Carrara in many ways.

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Skybase wrote: Carrara is perfectly valid for doing what you want to achieve.

Very good and interesting link, this is exactly what I want to do and be able to apply this kind of real 3D simulated textures. Thanks very much.

Also I have seen that Carrara 8 is MUCH better than Carrara 7 as it supports many new feautures, specially 64 bit support and faster rendering and other things. And I can try it for 30 days.

MentalRay for SpaceRay? I do not think it will be compatible Same as VRay

I have seen some tutorials about Cinema4D but seems more complex too, although much more powerful and lots of features.

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Skybase Indigo Renderer can achieve you nice displacement maps, but this program doesn't do modeling, it only renders so it's like a huge waste to just own that.

Yes, there are many external render engines that make lovely and beautiful textures and displacement maps but needs to be done first in another 3D software compatible with it.

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Skybase It's not as tricky as you think it is. Make sure you follow the steps one by one, don't assume steps, just follow them and you can assume things later. If you can't follow the steps, you should look for a newer version of that tutorial because most often you'll find stuff that's completely out of date.

Yes, I know that it´s not as tricky as it looks and when you start to learn and use it it can become easier. Is like beginning to use Photoshop that would look a great learning curve but I have learnt how to use it many years ago, and now is very easy for me.

It is true that is very good to follow steps and do not want to go faster and miss steps in the way.

Yes is true that is much better if possible to see the newest version of the tutorial software and as it could be better or easier or done in another way.

I have seen that there are some very good and free tutorials for Carrara 8 available here Infinite Skills - Learning Carrara 8

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Skybase Also... try Blender. Just try it. It's better than Carrara in many ways.

I have heard lots of times about it (good for 3D rendering and to make juice fruits ) but also never tried it.

Why is better than carrara ?

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Skybase It's your first time looking at Carrara. You'd feel intimidated. Anything you do will be hard because it's your first shot at things.

Well I think this happens with any new software that involves a learning curve and that has lots of features and specially if it is for making professional and complex things.

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Skybase I'll honestly recommend you try the basic stuff out, learn the basic idea of modeling and texturing, and then give some displacements a shot. It'll help you and you'll be able to understand the basic concepts of 3D in the long run, which makes it easy to transfer to larger programs

YES, this is true, is like beginning to make learn Photography, you start with the basics and the normal things and the go up learning more and more and try more complex things or different environments and ways to do it, and understand the basic concepts and then you will be able to apply this knowdledge to any photo camera that you could buy, even going from a compact camera to a large DSLR.

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Skybase Promise you that after learning all the really core level stuff, you'll be able to use any 3D program no problem. It's just that the first BASIC part that will take you a while. I can't emphasize that any further.

Yes, I know this is true, and I believe you because I have been already 5 years since I has been interested in making things in 3D, and have seen lots of things and softwares, but really for whatever reasons I have never entered the water to wet myself, I have been looking how all the others enjoy the bath and not do it myself, well now is time for me to do it.

THANKS VERY MUCH FOR ALL THIS HELPFUL AND USEFUL INFORMATION much appreciated and specially coming from an expert and experienced skilled person like you.

lol and now for me to show off. I rendered a quick displacement material in Cinema4D.

WOW !!! This looks really GREAT and excellent and is exactly what I was asking.

It looks very well and beautiful, although from this two examples, I like MUCH better the one made in Cinema 4D, as it looks much more closer to the examples made in Filter Forge.

Could you show how this was done if possible and is not long and if it easy to explain?

Thanks for making this great examples

Thanks for your answer, is true that some of the features of Cinema 4D are only available in the higher and very expensive versions, and is only for the ones that make a business and get paid to make things in this software and not for a hobby unless you are rich

I will see better Blender or Carrara that are much more affordable, well Blender is free

Testing the textures on low poly object in Carrara gave rather nice results...