- Working in Bryce--the Creative Process
- The Bryce User-Artist, Designer, Craftsperson
The Bryce User-Artist, Designer, Craftsperson
The Bryce artist plays several roles: geologist, world creator, architect, sculptor, set designer, builder, photographer, lighting designer, cinematographer, and director. These roles are divided into two main levels. In the first one, creating the world, the creator-sculptor-builder is thinking, "This is my world-this is my dream, my imagination." In the second stage, lighting and setting up the camera and rendering that world, the painter-photographer-cinematographer's work addresses the question, "How can I best show you my world?"
Iterations and Iterations
It's not as though these two main stages of work are separated by a great divide, where first a great flurry of building takes place, followed by a single and final render. Rather, there's constant interaction between the two. Just as each successive render pass results in finer and finer detail, this also describes the process of working in Bryce. First you put things in the world. Render. Adjust and tweak, render, adjust, and tweak. Render again. About this time you get some wild idea and have to go back and build another set of objects to realize it. Render. Tweak. Adjust the way New Idea fits with Older Scene. And then you adjust and tweak some more (and more, and more!) With each step, you add more detail and continue refining as the developing scene draws ideas from you. If you are animating your scene, the process of refinement branches in two directions-perfecting the world, and perfecting the motion until it is time to let your computer take over the work of rendering the sequence.
So...now you've been at this Bryce party for a little while. You've met everyone. We hope that you're feeling a little more familiar with your Bryce companions and are getting ready to dig in. The next chapter takes up the camera in far more detail.