Background music is Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Michael D. Walthius. All Rights Reserved.
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next subject discussed in the editing objects chapter is the
previously mentioned preset materials dialog box. A rendered
thumbnail of the image is available in the upper left hand area of
the materials dialog box. The drop down menu that is accessed via the
small triangle at the bottom right edge of the thumbnail offers some
additional options. The drop down menu and the manual would both have
you believe that the current selection might appear in this
thumbnail. That is true only for Bryce primitives. I could never get
any other type of object to appear in this thumbnail. Even the
objects that ship with Bryce show up as a cylinder, ball, etc. The
user can also pick a primitive if that is desired. An up close view
is also available. The image displayed in the thumbnail may be
rotated by simply clicking and dragging inside the thumbnail. The
thumbnail view can be panned by clicking and dragging inside the
thumbnail while holding down the spacebar. The thumbnail can be
zoomed by clicking and dragging inside the thumbnail while holding
down the control key. 
Preset
libraries or individual presets may be imported and exported.
Multiple individual presets within a given library may be selected by
clicking on each individual preset while holding down the shift key.
Materials may be added to the materials preset by selecting an
object, launching the materials preset dialog box then clicking on
the add button at the bottom. The add preset dialog box launches.
This dialog box allows the user to give a name and description of the
new preset. Presets may be deleted by selecting a preset then
clicking on the delete button that is just to the right of the add button.
ext
the text discusses interactive stuff. An object in Bryce may be
freely positioned by simply selecting it then dragging it about.
However movement can be constrained to one plane by holding down the
alt key, the control key or both. Resizing can be controlled in a
variety of ways. As the cursor is passed over the center of an
object's faces tiny letters for the X, Y and Z axis pop up denoting a
selection point for resizing. A tiny dot or control point will be
found on each face. When the cursor passes over a corner a tiny icon
appears denoting a selection point for resizing. If the user, for
example, selects an X axis of a box then moving the mouse to the
right will cause that face of the box to extrude towards the user. If
the alt key is depressed both faces extrude equally. If the control
key is depressed the back face extrudes away from the user. If the
user holds down the shift key during any of these resizing operations
the object will change size in 50% jumps. Objects may be freely
resized by clicking then dragging on an object's corners. To describe
this process let us assume a box object with each corner pointing to
a cardinal point of the compass with the bottom of the box parallel
to the ground plane. If the bottom East corner is selected and
dragged the bottom of the box and the NE and SE faces all expand. If
the alt key is depressed then the box expands equally in all
directions. If the control key is depressed then the box may be
freely rotated about all of its axis. If the shift key is depressed
for any of these operations then the box will change in 50%
increments. The increments would be in size if that is being changed
or in degrees, which would be 45 degrees, if rotation is being
performed. Holding down the control and alt key causes a number 1
icon to appear on the control points. A click will then restore the
box to its original unrotated, unresized self. It will also snap to
what appears to be the nearest major Bryce unit grid points.
ryce
has tiny buttons that appear next to an object when it is selected.
A click on the A button will provide access to the attributes dialog
box. This box bears a resemblance to the 3D transformations dialog
box but it is different. The adjacent image shows that the selected
object is still in its original size as denoted in the previously
discussed 20.48 size for all 3 axis. 
It
has not been rotated but it has been moved by the amount described
in Bryce unit offset. The user can enter numbers in any of these
areas then click the check mark to accept the changes and the object
will be adjusted accordingly. Notice the positive, negative and
intersect buttons. The manual states that these buttons have control
over objects and groups that determine whether they are positive,
negative or intersect in nature. I had to go to Metatools' web site
and read the FAQ to figure out how to make these options work. 
Basically
you must predefine each object then group them and render for the
desired effect to be visible. In the adjacent image I just made a
ball and a box. I made the ball positive and the box negative. I then
moved the box so that one face penetrated into the surface of the
ball. I then grouped the 2 objects and rendered. Since the box was
negative it subtracted from the ball. The appearance of the wireframe
of the object changes based on whether the object is positive,
negative or intersect in nature. If the locked button is selected the
object will stay in that exact place and can't even be selected
unless the hidden selection palette at the bottom of the interface is
used. The show as box button means that the objects will appear as a
box instead of their real shapes. 
The
family attributes dialog box is accessed via the small square color
swatch just beneath the A button. This is where the user can
stipulate the color of an object's wireframe when the object is not
selected. The area that says default family can be typed in to
provide additional information. A click on the M button will launch
the materials composer dialog box which will be discussed later. A
click on the G button will cause multiple selected objects to be
grouped. When multiple objects are grouped the G changes to a U. If
the U button is clicked then the grouped objects are ungrouped. The
letter E may also be seen on polyhedrons. A click on the E button
will launch the previously discussed polyhedrons editing dialog box
for smoothing and unsmoothing. This E button will also be present for
other objects such as terrains and, if clicked, will launch the
dialog box that is appropriate for editing that object. A downward
pointing arrow is also present. A click on the arrow will have the
same effect as the previously discussed snap to land option from the
align options drop down menu. The last 7 or 8 pages of the editing
objects chapter deals with a lot of keyboard control techniques.
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next chapter addresses the creation of skies. The sky and fog
presets are accessed via the small triangle just to the right of the
sky & fog label. The sky palette has 8 thumbnail type windows. 
The
first 6 appear to be similar. The first thumbnail is called the sky
mode thumbnail. A small drop down menu is accessed via the small
triangle at the bottom right of the thumbnail. This drop down menu
provides options for a soft sky, a dark sky, a custom sky or a sky
with the atmosphere off. These same options may be accessed by just
clicking on the thumbnail or clicking and dragging on the thumbnail.
The custom sky is somewhat interesting. When this option is selected,
a small color band with 3 distinct segments appears at the bottom of
the thumbnail. The first segment is for solar halo color. The second
segment is for setting the sky color. The last segment is for the
haze shift color. Any time the user clicks in any of these 3 color
bands the color bar pops up allowing the user to select from 16
million colors for that particular area.
Some
very interesting skies can be custom created this way. The
atmosphere off option also causes a color band to appear at the
bottom of the sky mode thumbnail. Any clouds or other phenomenon in
the sky disappear. The color band allows the user to select a plain
sky color. The next 5 thumbnails have a color bar or swatch at their
bottoms to allow the setting of color that is appropriate to their
purpose. The second thumbnail deals with shadows. Clicking and
dragging left to right on the thumbnail reveals a numerical read out
that ranges between zero and 100 respectively. At a reading of zero
there are no shadows in the thumbnail. At a reading of 100 there are
maximum shadows visible in the thumbnail. The third thumbnail deals
with fog. There are 2 numerical readouts that pertain to this
thumbnail. Dragging in the horizontal plane controls the amount of
fog. Dragging in the vertical plane controls the height of the fog.
This is a very fascinating control however its power is diminished
because it's so erratic in operation. When you click on the thumbnail
the readouts are at zero and zero. As you drag around the readouts
sometimes change in what appears to be a spontaneous manner.
Returning the cursor to its point of origin does not return the
readouts to their original zero zero points. The edit/undo drop menu
must be activated for that to occur. As the user drags around the
thumbnail image changes to reflect the amount and elevation of the
fog. The fourth thumbnail is for haze. Dragging horizontally will
change the amount of haze. There is a numerical readout that changes
from zero to 100 as the user drags from left to right respectively. A
setting of zero equates to no haze. A setting of 100 provides maximum
haze. The thumbnail changes accordingly as the dragging occurs. The
fifth thumbnail deals with cloud height. The color swatch is for sky
dome color. The numeric readout goes from zero at the extreme left
for very low clouds to 100 at the extreme right for very high clouds.
The sixth thumbnail is for cloud cover. The color swatch is for
cumulus color. The numeric readout goes from zero at the extreme left
for very few additional clouds to 100 at the extreme right for many clouds.
he
seventh thumbnail is very different from all the others. Its purpose
is to control the frequency and amplitude of the clouds. The user can
drag horizontally from zero to 200 and vertically from -500 to +500.
The horizontal plane controls the cloud frequency. A setting of zero
means essentially no clouds and a flat line in the thumbnail. A
setting of 200 gives lots of spikes in the thumbnail and plenty of
clouds. The vertical plane controls cloud amplitude. It can have a
negative or positive numerical reading. This means that an inversion
is possible. Let us assume for a moment that at a given positive
setting there are a certain amount of clouds and clear sky. A
negative of the same numerical value would mean that there are now
clouds where clear sky was before and vice versa. The last thumbnail
to be discussed is the large round one at the extreme right. This is
the sun control. The sun's position can be quickly and easily set by
dragging on this thumbnail. When the bright area is at the very top,
the sun is actually on the far horizon. When it is in the middle it
is then overhead. When the bright spot is at the bottom, the sun is
behind the viewer. The small square below and left of the sun control
thumbnail is the control for the sun's color. A click on this square
will launch the color swatch from which any one of 16 million colors
may be selected. The small circle above and left of the sun control
thumbnail is for selecting day or night. A click on this small circle
will change it to a crescent moon and the nano preview thumbnail at
the upper left of the interface will change accordingly. 
Immediately
to the left of the sun/moon control is a series of 7 small dots that
climb upward in an arc from the seventh thumbnail. These dots are for
randomizing the sky. Clicking on these dots will create a wide
variety of various skies. To the right of the sun control thumbnail
are 6 memory dots. A click on the top one will always return the sky
to the original state it was in when Bryce was launched. As the user
works more and more on a particular sky it may be desirable to save
the sky at various stages of the development. A click on one of these
memory dots will save the sky parameters so that they may be
instantly recalled. Immediately below the memory dots is a drop down
menu that is accessed via the small triangle. 
The
auto update selection means that anytime any change is performed the
image will immediately be rerendering the scene. The link sun to view
option causes the sun to stay in the same view if the camera is
rotated about. This would be an unrealistic circumstance however it
can be valuable under some situations. Stratus and cumulus clouds may
be turned on or off with this drop down menu. The reset sky option is
the same as clicking on the upper most memory dot. The edit sky fog
option launches the sky & fog dialog box. The sun's position may
be numerically set. The manual provides directions for doing so. The
range in the X, Y and Z boxes is from -99 to +99. The shadow
intensity may be set in the shadow window. The range is from 0% to
100%. The fog intensity, fog height, haze intensity and clouds
intensity may be set from 0% to 100%. The edit cumulus and edit
stratus launches the edit texture dialog box which will be discussed
later. Any skies the user creates may be added to the previously
discussed preset skies dialog box.
All pages copyright© Roger A. Moncrief, Indepth Reviews, 1997
Thanks to Judy Gefter, !LuM! and Charles Blaquiere for
their advice and counsel, some I heeded and some I didn't.