[Help! From Bryce to DS] How to create skydomes in Bryce?
Skiriki
Posts: 4,975
Hello Brycers! Coming in for a visit!
I have a question -- is it possible to create skyscapes in Bryce, and then export the results to DAZ Studio (either via bridge or just turning the final thing into a picture); I'm looking to create night skies of various styles (cloudy, with stars, lights, maybe a remote nebula etc etc) in Bryce, and then use those for skydomes in DS. Basically, just sky -- no treelines, cityscapes, ground, mountains, or stuff like that.
I have used Bryce only once (just to see that it was working and realized it can do nice skies), and what I got for it is basic free install, freebies from current DAZ site, and freebies from the old archive. (I can, of course, nab freebies off Rendo and ShareCG.)
How do I do it? I'm completely clueless here, so a tip or two would be appreciated. Fast learner, though. :)
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Comments
Sounds like a cool idea, would be interested too :)
There are plenty of sky dome props available for Daz Studio, some free. Properly sized, any rendered image could be applied to a sky dome and shifted around to get the desired effect. You can also apply NASA images to sky domes. :coolsmile: There are sky domes and space domes. Look around on ShareCG. Fober's The Hills is a good one:
http://www.sharecg.com/v/39996/View/11/Poser/The-Hills-environment-for-DAZ-Studio-Poser
Yes, but I want to create my own custom sky, and if it is pre-created to fit a sky dome properly, less work for me in postwork. :)
OK this is a commercial so look away now if you don't want to be subject to a product placement...
Righto... Horo and I have been pondering this very problem for a long time now. Well... a few years... not geological time, but a bit of time. And we have come up with a solution. A solution we will put in the DAZ shop, once one or two of the website issues have been fixed. I know DAZ are hard at work on this, but what I don't know is how long it will take to before they are fixed. So as soon as maybe...
What we have made is a spherical mapper. It takes any Bryce scene, whatever you have in your scene and turns it into a spherical map. To either use in Bryce or in any other software that can handle such a mapping mode - for example - DS.
So you could render your Bryce sky as a spherical map. Here's the promo images to give you a flavour of what could be done.
*falls down to her knees and raises hands to heaven*
So, how much you're going to ask for this little miracle, when it happens, soonish?
I think... if memory serves... something like $18... certainly not more than this http://www.daz3d.com/shop/bryce-7-pro-scene-converter/ which does something similar but comes with a greater volume of example scenes. I can't check directly though, due to the aforementioned issues. As soon as maybe... it's all there floating in the aether.
Exactly! I'm a prework kind of guy instead of postwork, which I am not good at. I think all you would need to do is get a suitable dome, and check the pixel dimensions of the image maps that come with it. Render an image in Bryce the same pixel dimensions and slap it on the dome in DS.
David, that spherical mapper looks way too cool. :-) That would scratch many itches...
Well, as you've seen the anaglyph's thread below this, Horo and I put a lot of effort into coaxing Bryce to do things it was never specifically programmed to do and we are always open to suggestions. If you come up with something, anything, I'm not saying we can do it, but it doesn't hurt to try. Most of the things we find come about through experiments of one sort or another. Looking for bugs or working around them. Testing features. Or just a sheer bloody minded desire to try and break the render engine in some new and unexpected way.
:woot: Horo and David to the rescue!
We'll do what we can, no promises, I'm making enquiries. I don't like to pester DAZ too much when clearly they have their hands full. But we'll see.
I can wait, I'm not in a hurry. :)
Patience is more or less the defining prerequisite of anyone using a render engine.
Patience is more or less the defining prerequisite of anyone using a render engine.
True... and the impatient farm it out. ;)
(Gotta get that Reality plugin as soon as it works for 4.5; that way, I could put my four 24/7 computers into good use...)
Here you go...
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/new-releases/bryce-7-pro-spherical-mapper/
To you - Special Price: $12.56
Now that's what I call service.
ZOMG.
*runs to add to her shopping basket*
This looks interesting ... but I am not sure how it would be used (maybe I am one of those Bryce novices ...!) I tend to need practical examples of 'real world' things to help me to grasp things.
If I, in Bryce, 'knocked up' a scene with sky and terrain, etc., and used this product to save as a 'spherical mapped image', how would I end up actually using that in DS4? Would I create a big sphere primitive and assign the image as the diffuse image?
Pretty much that way, yeah. Skydomes often have couple of settings tweaked (ubersurface, "accept shadows" off), but yeah.
Oh hey -- how long this thing is going to be on sale? I checked my banking, and I kinda need it to remain on sale 'till month rolls over + couple of days. (Stupid credit cards. Stupid payments not tweaking the use limit 'till a day or two later.)
In "the good old days" sales continued for 14 days... That wasn't the case with the last product - but that did coincide with the instigation of the new regime. Maybe things are better now?
Okeydoke, thanks. :)
Bryce7Pro has a similiar (but limited since it's sky-only) feature built in -- I used it to create the seamless skymaps I included in this tutorial (click here), which should answer your questions on how to use something like this in DS4.
Although you don't need the Spherical Mapper to do what I did (I didn't have it at the time), it will significantly expand your capabilities since it includes entire scenes -- that means you can make far more complicated backgrounds to use in DS4 than just a sky, and then apply them to a DS4 sphere primitive with the same ease as one of my simple seamless skymaps.
PS: David, thanks again for all your help with the tutorial!!!
spotted and wishlisted :)
I see that in addition to the "Bryce 7 Pro Spherical Mapper", there is also a "Bryce 7 Pro Scene Converter" http://www.daz3d.com/bryce-7-pro-scene-converter/ . I'm a bit confused about the difference between them as it relates to getting a Bryce sky or scene into DAZ Studio as a backdrop; can somebody elaborate?
Also, how streamlined of a process is this? Something I need to sit down and dig into or approach differently for different kinds of scenes, a basic render-and-go where I don't have to worry about anything, a process that can be used for ANY scene or doesn't work as smoothly for certain types of scenes, etc? I'm not trying to get a critique on the product(s), just trying to get a feel for what to expect.
Thanks in advance for any information!
The scene converter produces angular maps of your Bryce scenes - for export as HDRI - in other words light probes.
The spherical mapper - as the name suggests - produces spherical maps.
If you have something like HDRIshop though, you only need one and you can use the transformation tools to convert between either angular map and spherical. In which case I would favour spherical since has less errors.
So if you can tell me what format the DAZ Studio uses I can tell how how to make something in that format in Bryce and what is the most efficient way to go about it.
All I need to know is what files DAZ Studio needs for its backdrops - simple as - because I don't know nothing about DS myself.
@Sean - if you want to use a Bryce sky in Studio, you would rather go for the Spherical Mapper. Both are easy to use and create a full panoramic scene out of Bryce in one go. The Scene Converter creates an angular map projection which can be exported as HDRI to re-use as light probe in Bryce. Studio cannot use angular maps but needs a spherical (or equirectangular) panorama. The Spherical Mapper does that in one go. It can also be exported as HDRI. However, Studio "IBL" works differently than Bryce. You can use the spherical render in Studio to map around a sphere and use it as a backdrop. Studio Uberlight 2 (by Omnifreaker) uses such a LDRI (low dynamic range) high resolution panorama as backdrop and for the light, a small, specular convolved HDRI also in the spherical projection is needed. HDRI and LDRI must be appropriately offset because Studio Uberlight 2 has a mapping bug. However, any render created in Bryce using the Spherical Mapper can be used as backdrop in Studio.
Thanks for the info!
For the Spherical Mapper, will the result be created in a format that I can just directly apply to a sphere primitive in DAZ Studio, or will I need something else to convert the mapping between Bryce and DAZ Studio?
Works directly. You might have to swap left and right, i.e. mirroring it if you have the camera inside the sphere. But that's the same in Bryce. It is usually right if mapped on the outside.
great, thanks.