Emerging Orbs

[Tami]

Emerging Orbs
By Adrasteia (nem)

Bryce Tutorial - Emerging Cages. This image was made in Bryce 5. Changes were made at the end of the tutorial to create this.

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Image and tutorial is copyright Adrasteia and KillaNet Technology Ltd. It is not to be reproduced without permission. If you are experienced in Bryce you may find the explanations here a little too detailed. I have written it for the beginner in what i hope to be a plain and easy to understand way. If you have any questions, comments or would simply like to show what you created by using this tutorial, please reply to this topic.


Step 1

When you open Bryce, this is what you should see:

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1. Adding Water I have selected the ground plane at the bottom of the screen which is why it is red. We are now going to turn it into water. You can see to the right that there are four little squares. Click on the bottom one labelled \'M\' This will then take you to the Materials palette. It looks like this:

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To the top left is a box with a grey 3D circle in it. to the top right of the box is a small grey arrowhead pointing right. Click on this. It will then present you with various choices. Read down the list on your left until you see \"Waters and Liquids\" This is the second option from the bottom. Click this and you will see the various images to the right change. Each box has a different circle in showing how the water will look should you select it. If you click on one a description of its
properties is displayed at the top. I chose \"Nice Water\" It is the second to last image you have. Once you have made your choice click the grey tick sign at the bottom right. This will take you back to the previous screen. Again, to confirm your choice and exit out of this menu click the grey tick to the bottom right. It will appear as though nothing has happened. The image you see in Bryce is called a wire frame and does not show the materials applied to it. However, if you look to the top left you will see a box. By now it should show the sky setting you currently have and now a mass of water.

2. Choosing Your Sky You can stick with the sky setting you currently have or can change it. If you wish to keep it skip ahead to step 3. At the very top of the area you are working in you should see three options: \"Create\", \"Edit\" and \"Sky and Fog\" Currently \"create\" should be highlighted in white and the others shown in grey. Click \"Sky and Fog\" Your screen should now present you with several options and look like this:

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To the far right is a large black/grey circle with several small grey buttons to its right. At the bottom of these buttons is a small grey arrowhead pointing down. Click this and select \"Sky Lab\" at the bottom. You should now see this:

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You are currently under the option of \"Sun & Moon\" Underneath this you will see many options for the sky you wish to create. Our image does not have a sun or moon in it so look to where it says \"Sun/Moon Visible\". Next to it is a small circle that is yellow. Click this so that it turns grey. This turns off the sun and moon setting so it will not be shown in our picture. Still in the same menu you will see to the far right a box that has a sky with a small grey circle hovering over a blue base. To the right of this box is a small grey arrowhead pointing right. Click this. This takes you to a pallette similar to the one you used to choose a material for the water. You many choose any sky combination you wish by simply clicking on the image and then clicking the tick to the bottom right of the screen to confirm and apply your choice. I selected \"Pastels are Pleasant\" Make your choice, click the tick box and further click the tick on the Sky Lab menu to apply your sky and exit out of the Sky Lab menu. You can see your choice of sky in the small top left box of your screen.

3. Creating the orbs The orbs you see in this picture emerging out of the water are comprised of many orbs with different materials on top of each other. This is more complicated than it sounds. If you make a mistake you can\'t fix whilst following these steps, simply delete the section of orbs you are working on and start again. Look to the three options at the top of the screen again (Create, Edit, Sky and Fog) Click \"Create\"

3.1 The Base Orb This option will show below it several interesting objects to click. In the middle of this there are several different shapes We
will be using the second from the left. It is a sphere. When you hover over the blue circle you should see \"sphere\" displayed at the bottom left of the screen. Click the sphere icon. This is the only object we will be using in this tutorial so you dont have to worry about what the others do. By clicking sphere you should now see this on your screen:

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Don\'t worry about where it has placed your sphere. We will be moving it soon. Again to the left of the sphere (which should still be highlighted red. If it isn\'t, click the sphere to select it.) there are four boxes. Click \"M\" to bring up the materials pallette. Again we need to see the different materials displayed so click the small grey arrowhead that points right that is next to the box with a circle in it. The bottom sphere in each of the emerging orbs you see is created from this material. Select \"Simple and Fast\" and choose \"Mirror\" Click the tick on both menus to confirm and apply your choice. Your should now be back at the wireframe view of your image.

3.2 Moving the base orb into position. You could move the base orb by using the \"Edit\" options, but I have found it much easier simply to click and drag the object to where you want. Do not worry if you accidentally resize the sphere. If you hover at the very top of your screen a typical set of menus should appear. Simply choose edit>undo or press ctrl+Z to go back as many steps as needed. I have chosen to move the orb to the following position. You may choose any place you wish. I dragged it to the top right. This is what my screen now looks like:

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The image we are creating shows this emerging orb to be larger. If you feel confident resizing the sphere using the black toggles and the mouse please do. Otherwise, choose \"Edit\" which is next to the \"Create\" menu. Again you will see a new set of icons displayed underneath.

3.3 Resizing the base orb The resize option is the second icon from the left. It looks like a cube with six spikes pointing outwards.If you click on the white cube and drag it along the spike that points upwards it will increase the skize of you sphere. I made mine rather large and placed it higher up to the left so that it was only partially visible as shown here:

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3.4 Duplicating the sphere You now need another sphere just like the one we created and positioned. You could create a whole new sphere, place it, resize it and apply the material or you could simply duplicate the sphere you already have. The sphere must be selected (red). Press ctrl+D. This will duplicate the sphere you have selected. It will duplicate it over the sphere you had selected. The red object you now see highlighted is the duplicate.

3.5 Applying a new material To create the metal cage effect we must now select a new material. You should still have the duplicate sphere selected. The rest of the spheres we will create will not use the \"Mirror\" material. Click M and go to the materials pallette. Select \"Miscellaneous\" and choose \"Steel Cage\" Click the ticks until you are back to your wire frame screen.

3.6 Duplicate the duplicate The sphere now has a metal cage effect. It should still be highlighted red. Once again press ctrl+D to duplicate the sphere. As this sphere is a duplicate, unless it is moved it will simply overlap the previous sphere and the effect we need will not be created. We need to rotate this latest sphere.

3.7 Rotate. You should still be seeing the \"Edit\" menu options. If not, click Edit. You need to select the \"Rotate\" icon, this is the third from the left. It is a cube with blue rings around it. If you click on these rings and move the mouse along them you should see the sphere roatate underneath. You will be able to notice the difference as the wire frame moves around and criss-crosses with the one underneath it. Experiment until you feel it does not overlap the sphere underneath.

3.9 Repeat Duplication and rotation. As the sphere you are duplicating already has the right material on it you do not need to worry about this. Simply repeat the duplication process and then rotate the sphere to a different angle. This is a good time to experiment with the rotate feature as it will make your image unique and different each time. I usually duplicate the steel cage sphere twice so that there are three steel cage spheres overlapping each other at different angles. You can do more or less. More will mean you lose the metal cage effect as it will become one solid object. You also need to be able to see the benefit of the \"mirror\" material the original bottom sphere has. This is entirely up to you so feel free to experiment. You can always delete spheres later or add as you feel needed. After putting three spheres on top of the \"mirror\" sphere, my screen now looks like this:

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4. More emerging orbs Now repeat steps 3.1 to 3.9 (creating the spheres, applying materials, rotating etc). Position these to begin with in the place you wish to see them and at the size you want. If you create say a small set of orbs to the top right of the screen and want to move them down you will need to select them all. By positioning your mouse to the bottom right, right clicking and draging up and over you will create a \"box\" around the shapes. This will highlight them red and select all the spheres so that you can move them all at once. If one sphere is left unselected, Ctrl +Z to undo and repeat the selection until they are all moved at once. I added a phew more orbs in different positions and my wireframe screen view now looks like this:

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5. Render your picture. Rendering basically means that the wireframe is turned into the small image you see at the top left - only larger. You can render at any point during this process to check your work and make changes or wait till the end. It\'s up to you. Rendering may be fast or slow, it all depends on your computer. To render look at the image below. Circled in red are five round grey buttons in a V shape. I have put a red X on the middle one. When you click this it will turn red and your image will render. At first the image will appear grainy and lack detail, as the render goes over the picture again the details will gradually appear. You will know when your picture has finished rendering because the render button you just pressed will no longer be red. This is what mine looked like:

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6. Making changes I wasnt happy with the end result, so wanted to make some changes. To make changes you have to view it as a wireframe again. Below encircled in red is the icon you need to press to achieve this. You may have to press it several times until you return to your original camera angle. This image also shows the final render without changes made.

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You have learnt how to change the sky and ocean options which are the main factors in changing the overall appearance of this image. Use them to create a truly
unique image for yourself. Have fun experimenting and putting the skills you have learnt to further use.


Adrasteia.