Exploring Animation in Bryce

Below are seven examples of animated sequences produced by moving the virtual camera or making other permutations to a Bryce landscape. I have built a simple keyframe animation for each: a series of still images delivered onto an HTML page using a recursive (self-invoking) JavaScript function to update an Image object.

In one example ("Corridor") I have also used the simpler technique of automatic page succession, employing the <META> tag.

In another example ("Night and Day") I have rendered a QuickTime movie using the animation-rendering capabilities in Bryce. To create the movie, Bryce extrapolates or "tweens" the state changes from one keyframe to the next. Like all fully rendered animation, this is expensive in production time (3 hours of rendering) and disk space (15MB raw, 1.7MB after compression).

Click on any of the images to run the animation, then follow the backlink to return to this page. The Bryce 4 source files (landscapes) are available in the animations folder within the vWorldsShared folder on Cow.

Corridor Step-by-step progression through a corridor or tunnel, emerging into a large domed room, continuing into a second tunnel terminated by a rotating stone doorway. A second version is available demonstrating automatic page refresh using the <META> tag -- simpler but also less versatile.

Night and Day Passage from midnight to noon and back again from a fixed viewpoint. The effects are produced by moving the globe in Sky and Clouds. QuickTime movie version available for comparison.

Drain the Lake Water level in the lake drops in stages, ultimately revealing a mysterious lighted passage; this example shows how animated transitions can be woven into an exploration game or narrative: state changes can reveal ways to move from one location to another.

Rotor One cylinder turns around another, as in the Gate Room puzzle in Myst. When the portal re-aligns, we are looking at new landscape. This technique could be used to create a transition among distinct worlds.

Cliff Dive Viewpoint approaches cliff edge, looks down, then tumbles into space, looking down. Variable delays are used to portray acceleration. Not for the acrophobic.

Arriving UFO Strange lights in the sky. Effects are generated by manipulating size, position, and transparency of a simple globe. Variable delays.

Relayer The viewer intiates the animation by clicking on the prominent red button (image-mapped link in first panel).