Any benefits of using Bryce 7 if...

FenFen Posts: 53
edited November 2023 in Bryce Discussion

[Any benefits of using Bryce 7 if] I already have Daz Studio and Carrara? Kinda new to 3D animation- definitely new to the DAZ ecosystem and I've read that Carrara kinda does it all. My focus is to model terrians and nature's critters (starting with squirrels lol) and render simple animations. I've seen Horo's work, whiich is amazing, but can it be done in Carrara? Is the Bryce interface better for terrain-based modeling? I know Bryce and Carrara are older but they still seem very useful cerative tools- especially for novices like myself. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.

Fen

Post edited by Richard Haseltine on

Comments

  • NGartplayNGartplay Posts: 3,122

    I can't compare them for you but someone will be by who knows the differences.  What you need to accomplish will definitely be what guides you to the proper software.

    To me, Bryce is a peaceful kind of software.  It's not complicated and easy to learn but has a lot of limitations.  Trees come to mind and if you want real looking skies you need an HDRI or background image. 

  • FenFen Posts: 53

    Hey thanks for the reply, I'm currently having an issue ordering anything so I can't dig in to Carrara or Bryce even if I wanted to. I keep getting an error message saying There was an error processing this request. I've sent in a support ticket and have been tryiing all day to see if it's a data input error, address, CC info etc. and both my wife nor I can find any mstakes so I'm thinking it's some kind of payment-server issue. I have a bunch of items in my cart wanting to take advantage of the fantastic sale prices and I really hope they honor those prices until this gets fixed- I just can't afford regular pricing right now. Anyway, I still have DAZ Studio to mess with although I have little interest in modeling or animating human characters or fantasy creatures right now- Much more interested in modeling and animating small forest critters like squirrels- which are in my cart lol. Guess I'll just wait and hope for the best. Hope you're having a great weekend.smiley

  • mermaid010mermaid010 Posts: 5,512

    Hi Fen welcome to the Bryce Forum. Bryce is a very, very flexible program and it's the only program I use besides a bit of Wings 3D; for landscape, still life and abstracts.

    Modeling and animation are bit of difficulty to learn but others have made awesome models using this software. Give it a try and work to and fro between the different softwares to the the result you want to achieve.

    I hope you get your purchases at discounted prices and have fun filled days ahead.

  • FenFen Posts: 53

    Hi mermaid, I was just about to go to bed and then I saw your message. All I know about Bryce so far is that the interface is really inviting. Beyond landscapes it seems like it might be good for celestial type modeling and renders- planets and moons for instance. I am also getting (if the checkout issue gets fixed grrrr) Carrara which I'm told is an all-in-one software package. Do you have any experience with it? I don't mind if there is some overlap with Bryce but I would like to know if Bryce has any advantages over Carrara. I'm still planning on getting Bryce; with the sale that's currently going on, it seems like a no-brainer lol. I appreciate your reply and I hope you're enjoying your weekend. Now, it's bed time for me for sure lol. Good nightsmiley

  • mermaid010mermaid010 Posts: 5,512

    As I mentioned earlier I only use Bryce, I tried Daz 3D but that was years ago and despite trying many tutorials I gave up. As a hobbyist Bryce's versatility satisfies all my needs of making art. David and Horo have awesome products to compliment Bryce. 

    Hopefully someone who uses both software will see this thread. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
     

  • Hello, I have an issue with Daz hair materials in Bryce, after you imported them. Any ideas?
       
    Please let me know.

     

  • mermaid010mermaid010 Posts: 5,512

    Hi Revolloe, I suggest you start a new thread so someone can see your query and assist you.

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,667

    Fen - welcome! Short answer to your question: the best tool is the one you know best. I have Studio since version 0.8 and I very seldom use it. I have Carrara from version 3 up to 8.1 and though it is a fantastic tool, I hardly use it. Bryce I have since version 5 (but also have v.4) and because I know it best, that is the one I use. I do not do animations, I tried it long ago but decided that animations is yet another hobby and challenge needing additional tools, so I concentrated on stills. However - the limitations are characters. I think Carrara is somewhat better with vegetation (trees) but Bryce is also quite versatile with its Tree Editor and the Terrain Editor is fantastic. Bryce has very versatile Material and Texture editors but is a bit limited with image textures. Bryce is a true raytracer with two different render engines built in. Raytracers are slower than path tracers but more precise. Bryce does not need a great GPU, it only uses the CPU, up to 8 cores. If you have two or more computers in a home network, you can use up to 16 (if I remember correctly, I only have 6) to render. It is very cheap to buy so it may be a good idea to just get it and play around with it a bit. And thank you for your kind words.

    revoline - I cannot help you with hair. For this kind of work, I think Daz Studio is the better choice. And yes, I agree with mermaid: open a new thread for your inquiry.

  • Electro-ElvisElectro-Elvis Posts: 884
    edited November 2023

    Hi Revolloe, Welcome to this forum. I also think, it's a good idea to open a new thread with your hair problem. Maybe you can give a bit more details? A common issue is, that the transparency map is not provided or not selected properly. I can give you hints, how to find it. You have to that by your own. And DAZ hair which is using dForce cannot be used within Bryce (as far as I know). I agree with Horo, as DAZ hair is optimized for the modern DAZ application it runs smoothly there, but a lot of DAZ hair can be used within Bryce althought it can be a fiddelin' task adopting them for Bryce.

    Post edited by Electro-Elvis on
  • FenFen Posts: 53
    edited November 2023

    mermaid010 said:

    As I mentioned earlier I only use Bryce, I tried Daz 3D but that was years ago and despite trying many tutorials I gave up. As a hobbyist Bryce's versatility satisfies all my needs of making art. David and Horo have awesome products to compliment Bryce. 

    Hopefully someone who uses both software will see this thread. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
     

    Sorry, I was half asleep when I read and replied to your previous post. You use Bryce, and me too eventually lol- hey, I downloaded Wings 3D, always good to have other options so thanks for mentioning it. Good morming, by the waysmiley

    Post edited by Fen on
  • FenFen Posts: 53

    Horo said:

    Fen - welcome! Short answer to your question: the best tool is the one you know best. I have Studio since version 0.8 and I very seldom use it. I have Carrara from version 3 up to 8.1 and though it is a fantastic tool, I hardly use it. Bryce I have since version 5 (but also have v.4) and because I know it best, that is the one I use. I do not do animations, I tried it long ago but decided that animations is yet another hobby and challenge needing additional tools, so I concentrated on stills. However - the limitations are characters. I think Carrara is somewhat better with vegetation (trees) but Bryce is also quite versatile with its Tree Editor and the Terrain Editor is fantastic. Bryce has very versatile Material and Texture editors but is a bit limited with image textures. Bryce is a true raytracer with two different render engines built in. Raytracers are slower than path tracers but more precise. Bryce does not need a great GPU, it only uses the CPU, up to 8 cores. If you have two or more computers in a home network, you can use up to 16 (if I remember correctly, I only have 6) to render. It is very cheap to buy so it may be a good idea to just get it and play around with it a bit. And thank you for your kind words.

    revoline - I cannot help you with hair. For this kind of work, I think Daz Studio is the better choice. And yes, I agree with mermaid: open a new thread for your inquiry.

    Hi Horo, thanks for the warm welcome! I've always been fond and curious of 3D arts but for decades that fondness and curiosity took a back-seat to music. The pandemic was a somewhat of a blessing to me because I found myself trying new things so here we are, and I couldn't be more excited; I only wish I would've discovered the DAZ family sooner...at least I made it, finally- only took 20 years lol. I appreciate your valuable information and Bryce is in my cart- the price is just too good, so I'm grabbing it. I looked on Amazon for a softcopy book but all I've seen is a Bryce art book which is great in itself but not helpful to sit down and learn by reading- which I still love to do. I'm sure there are a myriad of videos available but I like having a textual reference (with visual cues) when I'm learning new software, or anything for that matter- just a preference I guess. Obviously, I have nothing against videos but I much more enjoy reading before I go to sleep with a good soft or hardcopy manual or a .pdf up on my monitor/tv. I have a decent gaming laptop (with no games on it, ironically lol) so it should be able to handle my beginner efforts; I'm thinking I won't go above 1920 x 1080 for a while- at least not until I have a grasp on Bryce's architecture and develop a workflow.

    Well, the sun is coming up here and the birds are chirping, Hopefully it's shaping up to be a great day for everyone. I'll be around the way. Later creatorsmiley

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,667

    Fen - great. You are not a fan of videos, but nevertheless I recommend https://www.bryce-tutorials.info/ which has a real lot of themed videos. I made a few videos but for most of them I have a transcript as PDF, as well as  many video-less PDFs on my website. If you are lucky, you may find still the 900 page book "Real World Bryce 4" by Susan A. Kitchens and Victor Gavenda. Even it is for Bryce 4, it can be of great help. What it covers is also valid for Bryce 7.1 though it misses the newer additions like the Tree Lab, much advanced Light Lab and Sky Lab. And we are here to help.

  • FenFen Posts: 53
    edited November 2023

    Horo said:

    Fen - great. You are not a fan of videos, but nevertheless I recommend https://www.bryce-tutorials.info/ which has a real lot of themed videos. I made a few videos but for most of them I have a transcript as PDF, as well as  many video-less PDFs on my website. If you are lucky, you may find still the 900 page book "Real World Bryce 4" by Susan A. Kitchens and Victor Gavenda. Even it is for Bryce 4, it can be of great help. What it covers is also valid for Bryce 7.1 though it misses the newer additions like the Tree Lab, much advanced Light Lab and Sky Lab. And we are here to help.

    Horo! Hey buddy, thanks again for getting back to me. Although reading is my preferred choice I am of course open to video-learning and have used it many times- that's how I learned the basics of Illustrator actually. Thank you very much for the info- unfortunately can't afford the $265.00 US price tag on the softcopy Bryce 4 book, so the pdf will do lol. Still waiting to hear back from DAZ support so I can order the stuff in my cart. Ok, back to work. Thanks again.

    Post edited by Fen on
  • mermaid010mermaid010 Posts: 5,512

    Hope you are having a great day Fen

    I used the Tutorials by Robin Woods when I started my Bryce adventure, the link Beginning Bryce 5 - Course Syllabus - © Robin Wood 2003

    Another nice place for beginner tutorials is Bryce for Beginners (mulawa.net)

     

  • FenFen Posts: 53

    mermaid010 said:

    Hope you are having a great day Fen

    I used the Tutorials by Robin Woods when I started my Bryce adventure, the link Beginning Bryce 5 - Course Syllabus - © Robin Wood 2003

    Another nice place for beginner tutorials is Bryce for Beginners (mulawa.net)

    Hi mermaid, I can't complain (except the annoying checkout issue lol) as I was having a great day, but now it's even better thanks to the awesome links you gave me, sweet! Thank you so much- I just skimmed over both sites and they will definitely be useful. Bookmarkedsmiley. Later creator!

  • Hi Fen, Welcome to the forum. Drachenlord also made a lot of excellent tutorials for beginners and advanced Bryce users. Although they are in German, I am sure you will be able to follow them.

    https://drachenlord.lima-city.de/bryce-tutorials-1.html

  • FenFen Posts: 53

    Electro-Elvis said:

    Hi Fen, Welcome to the forum. Drachenlord also made a lot of excellent tutorials for beginners and advanced Bryce users. Although they are in German, I am sure you will be able to follow them.

    https://drachenlord.lima-city.de/bryce-tutorials-1.html

    Hi Electro-Elvis! That's a fantastic link- again which shows how capable Bryce is to create amazing art. As soon as I get my checkout issue fixed I'll be able to start learning hands on. So far I've been doing some reading and  a lot of watching lol. Thanks for the link- bookmarked!yessmiley

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