Some Useful Bryce 4 Tips

The duplication function

It is often useful to duplicate objects in Bryce. The simplest way to do this is to press the D key on your keyboard while simultaneously holding down the Ctrl key (in Windows) or the Command key on the Mac (also known as the Apple key because it is marked with the Apple logo).

When you do this, an exact duplicate of the selected object is created. It will perfectly overlap its original and thus may be a little hard to detect. Try dragging the current selection. If it leaves a copy of itself behind, you have successfully duplicated the object. (If no copy appears behind the dragged object, select Undo and try again.)

Duplication comes in particularly handy in building interior or hollow spaces. To hollow out an object, duplicate it and then slightly alter the dimensions of the copy (more or less, depending on the desired thickness of walls). Set the space or Boolean value on the original to positive, the value on the copy to negative. Using both top and side views, align the negative object evenly within the positive. Group the objects and you will have a hollow compound object.

3D Transformations Though it's possible to rotate objects by hand using the gimbaled rotation tool in the Edit mode, you'll find that this method produces imprecise results. If you need exact right-angle rotations, click on the triangular button immediately below the gimbal tool. This opens up the 3D Transformation window.

In this window you will see one field each for the X,Y, and Z axes of the selected object. If you're like most people, you'll have a hard time visualizing which axis to use, so a certain amount of trial and error will be needed. You can always use the Undo function if you rotate your object incorrectly.

Changing objects in Edit mode

When you select an object and enter the Edit mode, a double-headed arrow appears on the righthand side of the upper portion of the screen. Clicking on this arrow produces a modified version of the Object Shelf, which you used in the Create mode to initiate your object.

If you select an object from this array in the Edit mode, the currently selected object in the Working Area will change into that object type -- so for instance you could transform a cube into a sphere or a disk into a torus. All the attributes of the object -- size, Boolean space value, and material -- remain the same.

Note that the object array in the Edit mode contains some objects that do not appear in the Create mode, including a 2D rectangle and disk.

Transferring materials settings

It's often desirable to create several objects in the same material, or to transfer a material that you have specially modified. To do this, select the source object and click on its Materials tool (the M button in its tool stack) to enter the Materials Lab. Then select the Copy option visible below the nano-view window. The current material information will be transferred to a buffer.

To transfer these settings to a new object, exit the Materials Lab by clicking the check button, select the target object, enter Materials Lab, and use the Paste option.

Importing 2D images

You can introduce new imagery into Bryce by importing graphics from Photoshop or any other program that will save in a common format (Windows bitmap, Macintosh PICT, Photoshop 3, or JPEG). Sources could include stills captured from video, scanned photography, or slides.

(Click on the image at left to view at full size. The Bryce 4 source file for this image is called billboard.br4 and is available in the class Common folder on Cow.)

To import a graphic, first select the 2D Image object from the object shelf in Create mode. The symbol for this object is the four-armed human figure (named "Leo" after DaVinci). Leo is also the one 2D graphic loaded into the system by default. You can give him lots of company.

Clicking on Leo brings up the Pictures interface. The three large squares in the upper part of the window show the source image, a mask used for incorporating transparency, and the resulting image+mask composite. You can figure out masking on your own: I'll only describe a simple image import.

The smaller squares or tiles below the big three represent all the images currently available to Bryce. In a fresh file only Leo should be visible. To import a graphic, click on an unoccupied tile. You'll see a file-browsing dialog. Locate the image file you wish to import and click Open. The image will be loaded into the empty tile, meaning it is available for use in Bryce.

When you return to the Working Area by clicking the check button in the Pictures interface, you'll see a 2Dd panel that displays your image. These flat panels are the default representation for imported images. They can be quite useful as posters or billboards.

However, you may want to use an imported image as a texture map for a 3D object. To do this, select the object and go to the Materials Lab.

If your object is currently using a very simple material with no texture component, go back and select a material that does have texture (for instance, one of the wood options in Simple and Fast). In the Materials Lab, textured materials show their component graphics in the upper righthand portion of the screen. You may replace these graphics by clicking on the P button, second from left in the lower portion of the texture window.

Clicking on the P button replaces the current texture display with options selected from the Pictures array -- probably the image you entered previously. If you see some other image, click on the downward pointing triangle in the upper righthand corner of the textures window; this will show a menu of available image choices. To lock in your selection, click the main check button in the Materials Lab interface (lower righthand corner of the screen) and return to the Working Area.

here are more than a few complexities involved in use of imported textures. You may notice, for instance, that textures read backwards on the reverse sides of solid objects, or that the image does not show on shadowed sides. There are ways around both these problems, but I leave them for you to discover. Have a look at the Bryce manual available in the Hypermedia Room.

Once you save your Bryce (.br4) file you no longer need the source images (JPEGs, PICTs, etc.); but be aware that imported images are saved with the individual file, not with the Bryce program. Thus imported images in one Bryce world will not show up in the next one I start, unless I begin the new project by copying the older one and (perhaps) deleting all the old objects.

Deleting objects that use a given imported image does not remove the image from the Pictures store. You can delete imported images from within the Pictures interface; and in fact you should delete any images you are not currently using, since they increase the size of your Bryce file and thus lengthen Save operations.