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This is my first of several tutorials on digital design, imaging and graphic design. I wanted to start with something fun, and interesting. So we are going to be creating a realistic environment using Bryce from Corel. From my experience, two kinds of images can be the outcome of a Bryce project. One is an image that has realistic lighting and atmosphere, but the objects lack correct scale and detail. The other is a fully realistic image with realistic detail on the landscapes and other objects in the scene. I dare say the project I am about to provide you with is something most people could do with Bryce, but would lack the details to make it realistic enough. So I welcome you to my first of many online tutorials. Have fun!STEP 1: Ground Plane
Open up Bryce, wait for the intro screen to disappear and you are presented with the working area. I am gathering that you only know a little about Bryce, so I will describe everything you need to know along the way. We are going to texture the ground plane first, so lets select the ground plane, then choose it's material options, by clicking the small 'M' that appears (see fig.1)
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 fig.1 |  fig.2 | |
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STEP 2: Choosing Ground Material
You will be taken to the materials editor and textures section. This is where you choose how you want your objects to appear, and this is also the place where you can make your objects seem 'fake' or realistic, depending on the attributes your apply to your textures.
To choose one of the preset textures for the ground plane, simply click on the arrow to the right of the preview pane (see fig.2). This will bring you to a dialog where you can select a preset texture. From here, select Planes & Terrains, and select the whole mountain texture I have selected (see fig.3).
Once you have chosen the texture, click the tick at the bottom right of the materials dialog box to go back to the materials editor, then click the tick at the bottom right of the screen to go back to your working layout. (You will notice up in your preview pane that your ground is now a grey/brown colour.)
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STEP 3: Creating your terrain.
Creating your terrain and making it look realistic is a crucial part of this project. Bryce is great for creating semi-realistic terrains, but to make them look like natural, real mountains or islands, you need to do a little work on them first. So lets create a terrain by clicking the terrain icon at the top of the screen, also make sure that you are in the 'create' section of the Bryce toolkit, if not, click on the 'create' icon so it is highlighted, then select the terrain icon. (see fig.4)
Clicking the terrain icon will create a random terrain object in the middle of your work space. Before we edit the terrain, repeat steps 1 and 2 to choose the same material as the ground plane for your terrain. So select the terrain, click (M), then go into the materials editor, click the small arrow near the preview pane, then select the 'Whole Mountain' preset material in the Planes & Terrains section, then exit back to the main working layout.
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 fig.3 |  fig.4 | |
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STEP 4: Doing a test render
Before proceeding any further, we will do a test render of the scene to see how things are shaping up. To do this, simply click the large circular button, which is below the camera controls. This will render your scene within your workspace. (See fig.5) You should end up with an image in your workspace similar to the one in Fig.5. You will see your terrain, with greenery, rocks, and some sand merging into some darker rock then the ground plane.
PRO TIP: The reason for using the same material for the ground and the terrain is so that there is a smooth transition between the terrain and the ground, in fact, there is a seamless merge. This is perfect for when you are creating island scenes – such us this – where the water is transparent, and you don't want the island to look like it pops up in the middle of the ocean-bed.
To return to your normal wire frame working view, click the small wire frame cube on the right hand side toolbox, just above the zoom controls (see fig.6).
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 fig.5 |  fig.6 | |
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 fig.7 | ||
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 fig.8 | ||
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One of the first main tips for creating a realistic scene in Bryce, is to make the terrain much larger than normal, usually by about 250%. Then we move the terrain away from the camera so it fits in the scene better.
Firstly, lets resize the terrain, and make it about 250% bigger. The quickest, and easiest way to do this resize, is to click the back upper corner of the terrain. By clicking a black box you will resize the entire terrain, and by clicking on a grey box you will resize the terrain in just one direction. (see fig.7)
We want to resize the whole terrain, so click the back upper black box, then drag to the right until your terrain is about 250% bigger, or similar to the one in my image. (see fig.8)
To move your terrain, you can do a number of things, but I am going to teach you the simple way. We need to switch our view to top view. To do this. Click and hold your mouse down over the select view control. (see fig.9)
This is found directly underneath the preview pane at the top left. While you have the mouse button down, drag to the right, so that the view changes twice, stopping at top view. You will be left looking down at your terrain. Normally you would be too close to your terrain to see your whole scene, so zoom out a little by pressing the minus key on the keyboard a few times. You should see something similar to my image. (See fig.10)
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 fig.9 |  fig.10 | |
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 fig.11 | ||
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 fig.12 | ||
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The final part of this step is to move the terrain away from the camera. To do this, you need to move the selected terrain up and to the left, diagonally, pretty much on a 45 degree angle. So clik and then drag the terrain up to the left a little. It should look similar to my image. (See fig.11)
Now go back to your standard view by clicking then dragging to the left on the view select control, just like you did to choose top view. Make sure you drag to the left and not to the right this time.
STEP 6: Tilt Camera Angle
You will notice now that the terrain is further away from the camera than it was before. Before progressing any further we are going to tilt the camera angle so that we are slightly looking down at the island rather than straight at it. To do this, you need to click on the main camera controls….
The camera trackball. (see fig.12) To move the camera so it looks slightly down at the scene, simply click the trackball and drag downwards a little. Make it so your scene looks similar to my image. (see fig.12)
Now do a test render just like you did earlier on. It should look similar to my image. (see fig.13) Once rendered, go back to normal view by clicking the small cube on the right hand toolbox like we did earlier.
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 fig.13 | ||
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