Skylabs

Alpha01

Hi
I am wanting to know how to build my own sky in bryce please.
how would I go about building one from scratch?

Any help or info would be appreciated

pumeco

Can't give you a screenshot as I don't have it installed, but if you go to the main Sky&Fog; screen, you will see a set of windows across the top for controlling the sky. Put your mouse in them, click and drag the mouse to adjust them. You can also click on the colour directly beneath the little windows to adjust the colours.

That's the easiest way to do it.

Alpha01

hi man

I am wanting to know how to insert an image onto the sky box/background.
Is it possible or do I have to create a new sky box and import it too bryce?
If so what is the best software to use ?

I see bryce skylab can use a HDRI image in IBL menu.
Is that the right way to go about making a new skybox?
Can I use the HDRI plugin for photoshop and import to bryce?

........................................................................................
Ah ha!!!
no worries I got it sorted now.

Cheers :)

Dan Whiteside

While this doesn't deal with cloud HDRI it does show how to use HDRI iamges in B7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwK-nykqYCk&feature=relmfu
Hopefully the author of this tut, Horo, will step in and explain creating HDRI from regular photos (presuming your using a PC and not a Mac)

kiwi_gg

Are you wanting to just have an image in the sky or to actually embed it in the sky???????
Also what sort of image. If you want to have a moon visible in a daytime sky, yes, there is a way to do that, if you just want to have an image floating in the air this can be done by placing the image on a 2D plane.

Cheers
GG

Alpha01

I am wanting to embed the picture into the sky, I have managed to embed it using the (use HDRI Image)
Below is a link to a test pic of what I want to use it for..........
(Deviantart account)

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/159/1/e/space_test_1_by_adepenguin-d52rmhd.jpg

Thanks dan I will check out that video.

Horo

@Alpha01 - If you just want a picture backdrop for a sky, click on Create, then on Leo (that's the golden man, named after Leonardo da Vinci) then the picture editor opens. Load the image you want to use. This creates a 2D-Face with the aspect ratio of the picture loaded. In the Material Lab, Material Options, deselect Cast, Receive and Self Shadows. Then place the 2D-Face where you want it and scale it. You may need a light source to adjust the brightness. Use a parallel light with infinite width (in the Light Lab) and include only the 2D-Face with your sky image.

Using IBL only for the backdrop is a bit of "overkill". Though you can use a square aspect ratio picture or one twice as wide as high in the radiance format (*.hdr), it needs to be in the angular map (square) or spherical (2:1) projection, otherwise you'll get distortions if you use a relatively wide camera FOV. You're probably better off with just a "billboard" for the backdrop.

Alpha01

Hi Horo
I know about adding pictures into bryce, I use it to add new textures and meterials.

I was looking to create a full sky box with curve.

Thanks to all replies, much appreciated.

Horo

Alpha01 said:

I was looking to create a full sky box with curve.

What do you exactly mean with a skybox?

Alpha01

A skybox is a collection of six textures arranged to form the inside of a cube.

A dds file can hold multiple textures needed to form a skybox, but you need to download some third party software to get it to export as .HDR through photoshop.

Horo

Thanks Alpha01 - we call it a cubical panorama. You can render the six faces of a cube directly in Bryce - 6 renders. In the Content that came with Bryce 7.1 Pro, you find under Content/Turorials/Horo Wernli/Start.html 4 methods to create spherical HDRI panoramas. But yes, you will need additional programs. A free one would be HDRShop that can do all the tricks needed. Cubical panoramas are good for converting into QuickTime Virtuality Reality movies (QTVR). However, if you need the 6 cube faces separately as LDRI, no additional program is needed.

Instead of creating a cubical panorama, you can also work with spherical ones. These can be mapped on a sphere and your scene is inside this sphere. Unfortunately, at the moment you have to use one of the 4 methods shown in the tutorials. David and I have currently a special lens in the DAZ quality assurance process and once it has passed QA, it will be available. This special Bryce lens permits rendering a 360° by 180° panorama in one go. The result can be saved as normal picture or as HDRI for IBL

Bryce does not work with sky boxes. Either angular maps (we have a lens in the store that renders directly an angular map for IBL).or spherical (lat/long) panos can be used for IBL. If your backdrop is to be LDRI, use spherical and map it spherical on a sphere. If you use the six sides of a cube on a cube, the skybox will look as a box, not as a dome.

Alpha01

:)
Dude your a star, thanks mate.

I will go through it all tomorrow and see what I can come up with.
:)

Alpha01

I couldnt wait till tomorrow, my mind was racing with what you posted, so I set about doing it.........

I know there is a visable break/line in the mirrored sphere this is just a test pic, but its exactly the effect of what I was looking for :)

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/161/7/1/space_pic_by_adepenguin-d530lxq.jpg

Horo

Ah - once we know what we talk about we can help - sometimes. Glad I could this time. Space picture looks cool. keep it up.

Alpha01

Thought I would come back and post a pic....

Thanks again, it makes such a difference when it all works right :)

Horo

Thanks for sharing your work. It looks very nice.