Millstones

I won't be the first, nor the last to say how fascinating I've been with your works, David. The current scene is a solid evidence of how you keep perfecting the methods of creating various flora or fauna in Bryce. The image is most impressive. Your way of "feeling" Bryce is extremely rare and it is more then refreshing to see you back here after a year of absence. Now... let's go see the rest of fine imagery you posted :)

Thanks you, Rashad, Nightst4r. Well, due to the recession here in the UK I'm in a position to dedicate a bit more time to my hobby. It is also true that I felt Bryce had been allowed to stagnate since 6.1 and was seriously considering other software - however, when I had the income to contemplate such a move I did not have the time to choose and now I have time but less income. Happily DAZ are working on Bryce again and I have to say, I'm impressed with what I've see so far. The improvement in the scenes is partly down to improvements in Bryce and partly down to having a forum, Bryce5.com, where us Bryce artists can openly exchange our views and images. It is often the case that I will see an image posted here and think - "that's a good idea, but I wouldn't have done "this or that" - so I go away and see what happens when I take a slightly different approach". Without Bryce5.com and the community behind it I'd probably have abandoned Bryce long ago.

Outstanding It looks exactly like I would imagine it! As always, awesome work. Good to see you back again =) I love how you guys can keep going for sooo many years just getting better and better. :)

you deserve lavish praises for being such an inspiration to me over the years. Well David, I am your biggest fan. I have seriously worshipped the ground you float above for years, and I am always excited by your next project. This one is no exception. Millstones look too perfect, no doubt. Seems you did all humanly possible within the confines of Bryce to fix such things. I think the texturing is truly outstanding. At your level, it is hard to mention something you have not already considered to some degree.

Thank you once again Rashad, for your lavish praise, it would seem churlish not to be gracious - but the millstones are a little too perfect don't you think?

That sky...those clouds...that dirty naturalistic ground texture,...the perfect blue tint of the skylight... the intense brightness of the sunlight...this is professional level Brycing. Amazing work David, Jaw Dropping Work!!! Oh and 5+

How long spent mastering Bryce materials? Probably far too long. To give you some idea, the cloud material is the work of several days at least. One cloud material, with another as a starting point, will take anything from three to five hours to adapt to what I'm looking for (I usually work to photographs found through google images - eg, dramatic clouds). As for ground material that simulate grass and moss, there are some in the exchange. One of the trickiest aspects is getting the scale correct for the scene and the size of the render. Each proceudral material has an assoicated array of texture frequencies, these need to interact correctly with the object they are applied to and the render resolution/sampling level. DOF or any priemum effect will tend to help the look of texures that are higher in frequency than the final render resolution allow to be displayed because of additional sampling. Bryce 7 beta has some speed optomisation for rendering - I don't have exact figures. Also consider that I've done extensive testing of the volumetric materials as they apply to slabs and have painstakingly learnt some of their pecularities. The Bryce materials are very fexible but it is not immediately apparent what does what exactly and some trial and error is required to track down the right approach for any particular application. I don't consider procedural materials the be all and end all of texturing objects, for me it is a matter of preference - others do wonderful things with UV maps - something I've never figured out.

It just beautiful! Mr. Brinnen, if I may ask, tell me, how much time You've spent mastering Bryce materials? Lightning and materials are so beautiful! (I always wondered about your ground texture that simulate grass/moss) And this clouds should take a bit to render or in Bryce 7 speed is dramatically boosted?

Very high contrast and well lit. This could almost be an HDRI tone-mapped by someone who knows how to do it. Amazing.