The Bryce 3D Handbook [Paperback]

Shamms Mortier (Author), Jan Nickman (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1886801584 | ISBN-13: 978-1886801585 | Publication Date: July 1998

A comprehensive reference guide to using Bryce 3D, the latest version of MetaCreations' powerful program. The book covers all the new features with an emphasis on the new animation capabilities. A quick review of the standard function shows how they work with the new features. The book and CD are filled with illustrations, tutorials, and ready-to-use animations. The text emphasizes animation functionality of Bryce 3D - covering paths, 2D and 3D terrains, water, sky, fog, haze, singular objects, composite objects, boolean animations, and rednefing your own animations. It covers f/x capabililies with 2D Pyromania, provides tips from experienced Bryce users, and teaches how to output Bryce 3D to the Web. The CD (Mac/Win) includes approximately 100 animations, colour images, utilities, and textures that artists can apply directly to heir own creations.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This guide to MetaCreations' scene-creation and animation tool helps beginning and intermediate users fine-tune their understanding of the software and learn how to tackle advanced tasks. The book first explains the package and its interface and helps you prepare a Bryce 3D world by setting preferences and understanding the various tools. Next, the book teaches you how to create the different types of 3-D models that Bryce 3D uses; you work with arrays, substitutions, and Boolean operations and go on to create terrain models, which are Bryce's greatest strong point. You also learn about materials, cameras, lights, and atmospheric effects.

In the second part of the book, you create animations, learning the intricacies of path and camera animations; Links and Targets; natural phenomena, such as water and fire; singular, composite, and Boolean animations; and the Advanced Motion Lab, the animation-customization feature. The third section focuses on more advanced topics, such as creative ways to apply materials and textures and animate imported objects, and features advanced tips and tricks from two Bryce experts.

The book features many projects for you to work through, which require files contained on the included CD-ROM. The CD-ROM also has files for the book's "Special Projects," which are for advanced users. --Kathleen Caster

From Library Journal

Charles River Media publishes some of the best 3D design books on the market, and this one is no exception. Bryce is a very interesting and easy-to-use 3D terrain builder that runs on both Macs and Windows machines, and Mortier offers an excellent introduction to the program. He includes user tips and instructions for exporting Bryce files ready for the web. for larger graphic multimedia design collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media (July 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886801584
• ISBN-13: 978-1886801585
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,628,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars as far from the real thng as it gets, September 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bryce 3D Handbook (Paperback)

I have seen other things written by Mr. Mortimer, and I would rate them somewhere between adequate and good. This book is niether. You have to hold your nose and swallow hard to say that a bryce user is much better off with the manual than with this book--which demonstrates hardly anything with it's amatuerish exmples and near useless lessons. I really flelt ripped-off in buying this book. It showed no insight into or mastery of the great product that Bryce is. It was if Mr. Mortimer played with Bryce for a couple of days and said to himself: "I have a great idea, why not write a book." In that respect it failed too. It was little more than a grotesque collection of pictures, and paint by the numbers. Please Mr. Mortimer, we don't mind you making a living, but next time earn it. Save your money.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of time and money, August 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bryce 3D Handbook (Paperback)

I was looking for a book that would both help me getting started with Bryce 3D and would later serve as a source of reference for the countless features of Bryce not covered by the manual that comes with the program. Well, when I bought this book, I got neither. The book is incomplete, pointing you to the manual in every second paragraph. It is superficial, unvariably stopping short whenever the author reaches the real intricacies of Bryce. Its editing is abysmal, with wrong pictures/captions, cut-off paragraphs and a lousy index. And worst of all: the author is a completely uninspired artist, his example artwork being at best boring but more often plain ugly. I am sorry I bought this book and strongly recommend to give it a wide berth.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A superficial book that provides little real instruction., July 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bryce 3D Handbook (Paperback)

Mr. Mortier simply is not a teacher. He has neither the inclination, nor the communications skills, to write a book which provides clear, concise and thoroughly-explained information. Instead, he gives us a superficial meandering through a random series of topics, with a "you work it out, and if you can't understand it, it's your fault, not mine" attitude.

The problem starts with the title: no book this superficial should be called a "Handbook." This is not a handbook, this is just a series of offhand thoughts about possible techniques.

Anyone wanting to learn how to use any program should of course become thoroughly familiar with the program's documentation. But we all know how difficult it is to learn from the index/catalog style of a manual, and how inadequate the tutorials can be for learning to use the tools. A truly well-done "handbook", such as the fine books done in the "Real World" series; or the equally excellent "3d Studio Max 2 Effects Magic" by Greg Carbonaro and "Lightwave 3d Applied" by Dave Jerrard, will provide a thorough grounding in the basics at the same time as they walk the readers (students) through a rigorous tutorial example which gives them a good hands-on training session.

Mr. Mortier completely fails to provide any basic grounding in the program. He sloughs off the presentation of the fundamentals with repeated exhortations to study the documentation.

It's not that difficult to integrate the basics into a book like this. All of the above-mentioned successful books are both thorough and concise. Mr. Mortier should be reading those books, not writing them.

If you want a truly well done "handbook" on Bryce, reserve your copy of "Real World Bryce 4" by Susan Kitchens.