Hey Uguel,
Thanks for the tutoral about the terrain editor,... (excellent info, and thank you for your time to prepare and post this)

I will admit, my main problem with creating landscapes, or any model, is creating textures to make some realism. If there are any tips from you as to the creation of textures from within Bryce, these would be more than welcome. I can see the basics of this within Bryce, but there is little explanation, and no real example from the help files.
I have, from use of other 3D applications, had the abilty to "lay" textures, one on top of another using masks,... I see from Bryce, I can add 4 textures, but the layering of this (to me) seems limited, as for example, I would like to add one texture, then overlay with another using a mask, so that certian areas are cover with one texture, and a masked area with another. (I hope you can understand my explanation, and question)

Keep up the good work you are doing on this,

Best regards,

Steve

Hey, you're welcome Sem!

there are many ways to create texture within Bryce but the thing is how to create a specific texture
for a specific object? I daresay that you can create all the textures you want in Bryce but one has to play
a lot to find the right setting. Sometimes if you're lucky, you can find a tutorial that will show you
how to create the texture you want or if you can't you google for .jpgs and import them in the Texture Editor,
(not the Texture Lab which is different) that can save you lots of time!

you wrote
I have, from use of other 3D applications, had the abilty to "lay" textures, one on top of another using masks,... I see from Bryce, I can add 4 textures, but the layering of this (to me) seems limited, as for example, I would like to add one texture, then overlay with another using a mask, so that certian areas are cover with one texture, and a masked area with another. (I hope you can understand my explanation, and question)


Ok, I think that you talk of UV mapping here. Yes, you can do that in Bryce. Here's a good tutorial to start with.

UV Mapping

One thing though, you will need either Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop to do the colour and the bump map. When you're done with your 2d program, let say Photoshop you save the complete image as a .psd or .tif file which will retain the bump map as an alpha channel or selection so that everything outside the alpha channel (or selection) will remain transparent and only what is in black (or another colour) will cover the object. I did the tutorial a couple of weeks ago and it worked fine. If you need explanations on Alpha Channels, just let me know. It sounds a bit complicated but it is not. This is a very good technique to develop when creating and mapping objects.


Also, if you want to really explore the Sky Lab and the Texture Editor in Bryce, here's an excellent and very complete tutorial. Thanks to that tutorial, I know how to create realistic skies and, I discovered many hidden components in the material lab. You'll be amazed with all the things you can do with the texture Editor!

walktrough tutorial

The difficulty is when a shape requires a specific mapping. For instance the head of a toy,
from which you want to map the eyes, the mouth and so on. If the eyes are different objects
it is not so hard because we apply one of Bryce texture on one eye and then duplicate it. But if we
want simply apply a map on a rounded surface of a sphere (the head of the toy) at the right level
to represent the eyes, it is more complicated but not impossible. The calculation differs for each
shape we deal with. Some objects are harder to map than the others because of their complexity.
And what I want to learn soon is how to map a toy for instance!


TTFN!

Peter Sharpe was not very explicite about the emplacement of the mask options.
Here's the arrow icon you have to tick on to get to the mask options! If there's
something that you can't find, just let me know!

Thanks Uguel,

I do have a copy of PS_5 (limited). I will need to look at this.

What I was trying to explain was that in the other 3d software program I used, I was able to load a texture, then load a bump and/or opacity mask onto this,.. then repeat this with as many layers as I wanted. The UV mapping is for how the textures are applied/mapped to the model which I understand.

Ok, I see what you mean. No, I don't think that we can do that with Bryce.
Sounds like a good way to create textures though.

I was trying Peter Sharpe's tutorial and I don't really follow what he is saying.

( Thanks for pointing out the mask options Uguel )

When he says, " Create a new channel for the image, " this must be for Photoshop, what is the equivalent in Paint Shop ? Is this a 'mask' layer for the alpha channel ? When I do save the image in psd or tif they don't work in Bryce after.

I've been trying some different things that give similar results to his tutorial.

I made a mask of the spaceship in Bryce, then I used Photofiltre to make two files from that mask, one colored jpg for the material and one black and white tif for the bump. I saved these in both jpg and tif and they both worked, although the tif seemed to be better.

I loaded both files into the editor,


Turned up the bump values a small ammount, so I didn't get too much effect,


And got an ugly spaceship, LOL. ( the bump was just blurred noise for this one )