32 full-color pages of ethereal, sci-fi, and Dali-esque 3D backgrounds and imagery (also on the accompanying CD) that caters to Bryce users who want to create unusual artwork. The only book to cover handshaking with MetaCreations' Poser, Ray Dream, and Painter. Unlike competing titles ,Bryce 4 f/x and design will cover film and video techniques and will teach the complexity of the software in an approachable, easy-to-follow manner. Delves into the secrets of the Deep Texture Editor and fine-tunes all of the new materials made possible in the Materials Lab.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Bryce 4 is one of those extraordinary and powerful 3D rendering applications that allows a user to create stunning environments and panoramas. The problem with Bryce, though, has always been its obscure interface. Bryce 4 F/X and Design is a step in the right direction for anyone wanting to master this rendering engine.
Bryce 4's most powerful feature, its materials editor, deserves deeper coverage than the chapter allocated in the book. The materials editor has a remarkable depth of functionality, and the number of presets and parameters that are found in each material allows for enormous complexity and subtlety. Unfortunately, chapter 3 in the book barely goes deeper than what the user can find in the software manual or by experimenting.
The strongest sections of the book are its color pictures and the images included in chapter 6, "The Color Plates." There are 31 color plates, and the accompanying chapter is made up of tutorials written by artists describing the techniques used and the thought process behind each picture. Watching someone work is always an enlightening experience.
Bryce 4 F/X and Design is a good reference book for new and intermediate users of Bryce 4. Advanced users may not find as much useful information, although there is some good stuff here. The additional files on the CD-ROM--sky presets, materials, models, background images--are in themselves worth the price of the book. --Mike Caputo
From the Back Cover
Create New Worlds of Wonder with MetaCreations' Bryce 4! Bryce is the software for developing photorealistic environments, and Bryce 4 f/x and design shows you the program's tricks. Learn from the masters as a dozen computer graphics and animation professionals share their secrets for creating spectacular effects and stunning scenes in Bryce. Envelop your worlds in clouds, haze, and fog with Sky Presets. Create mountains, canyons, and myriad organic and mechanical objects with the Terrain Editor. Create new materials and apply them in your scenes via the Materials Lab and the Deep Texture Editor. Add diversity to your Bryce worlds by importing files from LightWave, Wavefront, 3D Studio MAX, and other 3D formats. No other book on the market offers you as much as Bryce 4 f/x and design. In Bryce 4 f/x and design you'll:
Learn how Bryce professionals created this book's color studio.
Master the modeling tools in the Terrain Editor and apply Boolean operators to create exquisite models.
Delve into the secrets of the Deep Texture Editor and fine-tune all of the new materials made possible in the Materials Lab.
Create articulated models that can be animated to move any way your choreography demands.
Accelerate your Bryce skills while creating a creepy insect, futuristic car, flower garden, and more in this book's tutorials.
The CD-ROM, formatted for both Windows and Macintosh, includes:
More than 300MB of project files related to the color images in the "Bryce 4 Studio."
New Bryce objects, including organic elements, such as body parts and flora.
Dozens of Sky Presets that push sky effects beyond the limits. PlantStudio demo for Windows users.
Complete tutorial project files containing objects you can use in future Bryce projects.
Learn how Bryce professionals created this book's color studio.
Master the modeling tools in the Terrain Editor and apply Boolean operators to create exquisite models.
Delve into the secrets of the Deep Texture Editor and fine-tune all of the new materials made possible in the Materials Lab.
Create articulated models that can be animated to move any way your choreography demands.
Accelerate your Bryce skills while creating a creepy insect, futuristic car, flower garden, and more in this book's tutorials.
The CD-ROM, formatted for both Windows and Macintosh, includes:
More than 300MB of project files related to the color images in the "Bryce 4 Studio."
New Bryce objects, including organic elements, such as body parts and flora.
Dozens of Sky Presets that push sky effects beyond the limits.
Complete tutorial project files containing objects you can use in future Bryce projects.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Save you money!,
By Michael Emerson (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bryce 4 f/x and design: Discover What's Behind the Coolest Effects from a Respected Bryce Professional (Paperback)
This is the sort of computer book that gives computer books a bad name. Most of it is a (sub-par) rehash of the user's guide that comes with Bryce4. A whole chapter is given to what EACH of the supplied textures looks like. Jeez! Give me a break! It's just obvious filler. But, this chapter is one of the highlights. Wait until you check out the color "gallery". To say that most of the gallery images are amatuerish is to give amatuers a bad name. They're just awful. If this is the kind of work we'll learn to produce by reading this book, then I have one word of advice: RUN!
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
one primary example of way I don't like this book!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Bryce 4 f/x and design: Discover What's Behind the Coolest Effects from a Respected Bryce Professional (Paperback)
I have a real problem that I have been aching to get fixed and that is....In the Bryce 4 F/x book on Page 312 is a tutorial about making a flying device fly. It is called "Wild Ride" (chapter 7) I viewed the quicktime video which displays the flying device turning corners while flying. The first thing that the author tell me is to import is the"Between 8 and Mobius Ribbon Path" in the document. That lets the flying device move along a path. The path is a figure 8 type pattern, but when ever I try to get the flying device (a kind of an eggshell with a hole in it) to turn the corners, it won't. I cannot for the life of me figure out why I can't make the flying device turn so I can set the animation further along the path. It mentions simply to drag the flying device to were you start. But you are supposed to set two key frames I believe, one to start and the other at the finish. So I try to follow all the instructions to the letter of the law but the darn flying eggshell will under no circumstances obey my command to turn around the bend of the figure eight type corners. The whole figure eight Mobius ribbon path turns with with flying eggshell:(. Because the instructions in the book are not clear I can't get both seperated were one is independant of the other so I can move the eggshell seperately. In other words, this book is filled with areas were he leaves out key steps in order for one to do the projects. I am have not gone over all the tutorials, but I find that this book is not a real great step by step "learn" type book! I bought one of his other books and I found it to be some what the same way. there is some neat drawings of bugs etc. I don't feel it would be right for me to knock his artistic talent. But I craaaaaaaaaaaaave a well written (with nice pics) book on things I love to learn. And I swear, I believe this book does not deliver this. This is coming from a newbie at animation. But I believe I know a good tutorial type book when I see one. One such example is Adobe's Classroom in a Book. I bought the Premiere 5.1 book and it delivers big time. Øf course this is coming from a newbie at that as well. But never-the -less, you get a feel for a good book. I just hope somebody that will be writing a book on Bryce well glean out something of what I am saying. Because it is so true, beginners NEED good books to learn from! Step by step tuorials with plenty of photo's and images, .mov's of what they are trying to get across. They shouldn't leave out steps, that is vital to the life and blood of a good tutorial book. Ever single step should be accounted for,. O how I crave a good tutorial book! Calling all Bryce 4 writers! We need you! William Furner
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
a bit of overpriced mediocrity,
This review is from: Bryce 4 f/x and design: Discover What's Behind the Coolest Effects from a Respected Bryce Professional (Paperback)
I bought this book in Australia, so it WAS expensive. I should have ordered it through amazon.com ...But, it's too late to worry about that.My review: 1. Too many silly pictures. 2. Too wordy. 3. Too little on "tips and tricks" To be fair, the silly pictures are there to show you the capability of Bryce. Just like those steak knife adverts showing a guy cutting tin boxes and shoes with the knives, these pictures (I agree with the reviewer who said the graphics were hideous. They really are!) serve their purpose well. You don't cut tin boxes with steak knives and you wouldn't use Bryce to create stupid pictures like these. I can't wait to read Kitchens' yet-to-arrive book. Overall comment? Save your money! RTFM!
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