Newbie not sure about lighting

spanishrose

I am a newbie that decided to try a landscape but not sure about the lighting or the sky effects
I dd everything in bryce and then went to photoshop to
add the alligators and babies but not sure about the lighting.

they are each on a separate layer and changed the layer modes and played around the brightness
contrast and hue.

Any critiques would be appreciated..

Just noticed I downloaded the wrong image . After this appointment I will do the correct image.

Update

Horo

Well, there's certainly nothing to critisise if you come up with such a render as newbie. The sky effects came out nicely. Care must be taken if 2D elements are added in a graphics application to match the shadows. Here, they blend in nicely. Otherwise, it's difficult to give any advice if your goal is not known. I'd say, keep it up.

GussNemo

spanishrose, those are real nice images. If you're looking for more information about lighting and sky effects look on YouTube at the videos David Brinnen, and others, have done. There are also many tutorials on Bryce-Tutorials.Info that may help.

Dave Savage

Your scene is building very nicely for newbie, maybe the light needs to be a little stronger, don't be afraid to turn the sun up (the sun diffuse control is in the sky lab under the Sun & Moon settings, it's default is 100 but don't let that stop you from increasing it to 200 or even 300), If it starts to bleach out the materials in your foreground terrain you can always turn down the diffuse for those materials in the material editor.

Another thing you may try that's not related to lighting is to put an alligator in your scene instead of photoshopping it in afterwards. That way, you'll also get the reflection in the water.

Here is a free and simple alligator model

spanishrose

Horo Thank you for your input. I have always wanted to learn how to do 3d graphics it is fascinating to me. I want to be able to have some tutorials for anyone that would be interested and perhaps to create some items that I would be able to sell once I get a website for this.

GussNemo I have noticed the tutorials from David Brinnen and I have already bookmarked them. I will be watching those a lot to learn more about the various videos. Thanks

TheSavage64 That is a great idea that I didn't even think about doing. So I will give that a try.
Where do I put that 3d alligator I downloaded it but where do i put it.

By the way another question This is probably a stupid question but how do I close a document (not saved because of making a mistake) I don't want to exit the program but just close.

Chohole

Easiest way to do that is to open a new document. Left hand menu top command is "New Document"

Dave Savage

spanishrose said:

TheSavage64 That is a great idea that I didn't even think about doing. So I will give that a try.
Where do I put that 3d alligator I downloaded it but where do i put it.

It'll most likely be a 3DS file so you can put it where ever you want as long as you know where it is.
Then from within your document, use 'Import Object' from the 'File' menu and navigate to where you saved it.
Once it's in your document, you can then add it to your object presets by selecting just that object, opening the object library (the little triangle next to the 'create' tab), navigating to the 'User' sub folder and maybe create a sub folder called "animals" and clicking the 'Add' button on the bottom row of that window. It will then put the object in the first available blank square and you can then access it in any subsequent Bryce doc you open and work with (you can then delete the original downloaded file if you wish).

GussNemo

One other thing spanishrose, there's no such thing as a stupid question. Never be afraid, or embarrassed, to ask question on this site. People here are more than willing to give whatever advice/help you need. By the way, do you plan on posting that area once the gator is in the water? :-)

Horo

@spanishrose - whenever you're in doubt where anything has to be saved to concerning Bryce, you should find the answer in this document: http://www.horo.ch/docs/mine/pdf/BryceContent_v4.pdf

spanishrose

Easiest way to do that is to open a new document. Left hand menu top command is “New Document”

That worked thanks

TheSavage64It’ll most likely be a 3DS file so you can put it where ever you want as long as you know where it is.
Then from within your document, use ‘Import Object’ from the ‘File’ menu and navigate to where you saved it.
Once it’s in your document, you can then add it to your object presets by selecting just that object, opening the object library (the little triangle next to the ‘create’ tab), navigating to the ‘User’ sub folder and maybe create a sub folder called “animals” and clicking the ‘Add’ button on the bottom row of that window. It will then put the object in the first available blank square and you can then access it in any subsequent Bryce doc you open and work with (you can then delete the original downloaded file if you wish).

It worked for me it came out the default gray color. I was wondering how to change that color with the real alligator hide color. I looked for a bit in my materials, but I need to get to work so I didn't spend a lot of time doing that. Is there a tutorial that I could watch on how to actually change that to the correct color.

Once I have the alligator in the water and the two babies & I rendered them they turned into that color that you will see. I want to be able to change that and also to get an eye that I would be able to get from Google.

GuessNemo Never be afraid, or embarrassed, to ask question on this site. People here are more than willing to give whatever advice/help you need. By the way, do you plan on posting that area once the gator is in the water?

the light needs to be a little stronger, don’t be afraid to turn the sun up (the sun diffuse control is in the sky lab under the Sun & Moon settings, it’s default is 100 but don’t let that stop you from increasing it to 200 or even 300

I went into the sky lab and changed the strength. What do you think about the sun light now.

Thank you for pointing that out to me.

I have the alligator in the water and the two babies. When I rendered them they turned into that color that you will see. I want to be able to change that and also to get an eye that I would be able to get from Google.

GussNemo

Gators look good, but might daddy gator be over sized compared to the land mass the babies are on? If daddy gator, at its current size, were to be placed with the babies he might be as large as the land the babies are on.

Horo

One thing that looks always unnatural in Bryce trees is that the leaves are too large. Reduce scale from 4 to 2 or 1 and increase number of leaves.
Below at left a default tree with leaf size 4 and number of leaves 4. At right, size is 2 and number 12.

spanishrose

Thank you

I need to get to work then getting together with family.

Will update by tomorrow.

spanishrose

Here is the update as promised.

GuessNemo

I hadn't realized he was the size he was so I did reduce him. Much better.

Horo One thing that looks always unnatural in Bryce trees is that the leaves are too large. Reduce scale from 4 to 2 or 1 and increase number of leaves. Below at left a default tree with leaf size 4 and number of leaves 4. At right, size is 2 and number 12.

Great suggestion to change those trees which I did. It is so much better than what I had before.

Thank you for the great help.:lol:

Horo

Size is always difficult to get right, at least I often struggle with that. We see improvements here. Keep it up.

spanishrose

Thanks Horo