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BryceTalk Material World
August 3, 1999
Part 2 of 4
1 2 3 4

BryceTalk (Tues) Materials World, August 3, 01999
part 2

Meta AuntiAlias: Tonebone.. what did you mean about moving coordinates? for AB?

Tonebone: No, for the world space AB thingy

I think you answered it :)

Meta AuntiAlias: I didnt' know that I was answering it. I have not tried the AB blend with tweaking offset, scale rotation,e tc. in Texture edits

Meta AuntiAlias: which.. seeing as how I'm talking about the grand scheme of things...

Tonebone: Ok, I think you can move the coordinates a bit

Meta AuntiAlias: I'll mention. For your texture source, you can have two basic kinds: Procedural (bryce generated) and Pictures (from images you import and assign to objects)

when you just click in A B C D columns, Bryce assigns procedural textures

On Texture source area, you can do 4 basic things:

lower left: T/P choose between two texture types

T = texture; P = picture

lower right: choose mapping: Object Space, World Space, and some more...

Meta AuntiAlias: also a lower half of menu that's got other options, too.... miscellaneous powerful things can do in Mat Lab. We'll get to that later

Tonebone: !

Andy21: later.

Meta AuntiAlias: upper right: choose from the overall population of textures of that type: if T= textures, then have hierarchical menu of possible textures. Shift-click on name of texture also brings up a pictoral way to choose

if P, then list of pictures to choose from. Shift-click on name results in another pictoral way to choose

Meta AuntiAlias: and then, upper left, two buttons: for editing textures. What we were just discussing, about changing offset, is done through the button that reads "editor" outside left; is gray, not rosy colored

rosy colored one takes you to the Deep Texture Editor or to the Pictures dialog, dpeending

okay...

Meta AuntiAlias: all da choices you got... so, after Tonebone's comment, I'll dive back into ABC :D

Tonebone: Just tried tweaking offset and scale in AB mode, it doesn't work :(

Meta AuntiAlias: mapping mode?

Tonebone: all of them!

well object and world

Meta AuntiAlias: and did you check actual object in scene, versus checking preview. I just discovered that preview doesn't always tell you what's going on in the scene

Tonebone: yeah did :(

Meta AuntiAlias: k.. well, that's good news.. that is, to know what is actually going on. thanks!

so...

Meta AuntiAlias: (it's also a perfect segue! :D)

Meta AuntiAlias: So... AB mode, where A is lower and B is higher and a smooth blend between them (based on range of heights in entire scene) is limiting

Sky Pilot: !

Meta AuntiAlias: what if, say, you want to "bend" or favor one end or the other?

isanti: heather. do you have a mac or ibm? i need help unstuffing a dem file from the us geological survey so i can import it into bryce

Meta AuntiAlias: what if you want to do a composite action where some other thing is the basis for mixing between two texture sources?

that's where A B C come to play!

isanti: anyone here familiar with infini-D?

Meta AuntiAlias: isanti, we're in the middle of a discussion.

isanti: where is the terrain editor in bryce?

Meta AuntiAlias: it's quasi moderated and I have the floor

it's on a specific topic

EvanTS15: How can I make waves? ..like ocean waves. Am I able to?

isanti: sorry, meta auntialias

Meta AuntiAlias: so... please sssssh!

we're discussing materials.. if you want to talk about something else, please do so in the lobby! :D

isanti: if i be quiet will you help me when your done?

Meta AuntiAlias: So... back to A B and C.....

3d~?~elf: (is, step to the lobby)

Meta AuntiAlias: C is the texture source that acts as the alpha channel

and... speaking of alpha channel.. yes, it's the middle part of the texture source, the alpha/value that does it...

To get an idea of what's going on (if you got bryce launched and loaded)

click in the C column of diffuse color holding down the control key.. three textures appear

Tonebone: Gotta go, thanks again Susan, good stuff :). Bye all!!

Meta AuntiAlias: sorry for the delay.. I was doing stuff in da mat lab

Gigabyte: evanTS15; come to the lobby for a sec

Meta AuntiAlias: I like the following for illustrating what is going on:

rocks > Yellow stroke

you can see what's going on in the alpha channel pretty easily

3d~?~elf: check!

Meta AuntiAlias: You can set C so that it's in world space or obejct space for instance...

or cylindrical or something else entirely!

In fact, I did a nice trick with that I'll tell you in a little bit

to make a checkerboard marble floor

so...

where C's alpha is black, A is applied

where C's alpha is white, B is applied

Meta AuntiAlias: the cool fun neato thing about C is this: you can use any of Bryce's world or object space properties to do the blend between the other two materials

so... can use altitude: low altitude is one, high altitude is another. The "whole mountain" material preset is a gorgeous shining example of the way that C works to blend the two

Heather: ?

Meta AuntiAlias: or you can use slope, or anything else. You have to determine those inside the deep texture editor, where those types of texture characteristics are assigned... that's a whole nother story

: )

heather?

Heather: where is whole mountain preset?

Meta AuntiAlias: hang on a sec. Let me assing that to a different object than one I've got here... so I can get back to this one...

okay:

Gigabyte: heather...it's in the planes and terrains category

Meta AuntiAlias: It's in the plains and terrains category of the materials Library. Materials Library is entire preset of whole material.... (not to be confused with a texture, whihc is only a part of a material) In my version of Bryce, it appears in last row toward the ri

right end

Heather: ok thanks

Mellifluous: ?

Meta AuntiAlias: okay.. .how about this.. we all create a terrain and assign whole mountain to object

then we'll dink with C and see what sorta effect it has on the mix n match of the two other A & B textures.

Mellifluous?

Mellifluous: say I really like B from one texture and c from another texture and i want to put them together in my own teex

3d~?~elf: check!

Mellifluous: texture

Meta AuntiAlias: several ways to do that. By put them together, you mean in an A B C combination?

Mellifluous: yes

Meta AuntiAlias: well.... you gotta make sure that you know the names of each...

and then you just go and assign them where you will

select A to be what C is ...

then you've moved B & C to B and A

Mellifluous: but they are not in my list

Meta AuntiAlias: okay.. got Whole Mountain up in the Mat Lab?

Heather: ?

Meta AuntiAlias: aaah

okay.

3d~?~elf: check!

Meta AuntiAlias: here's what to do

Gigabyte: that's a problem I've had too

isn't there a way to add things to the list?

Meta AuntiAlias: say for instance: this Hills 29, Gray Galets29 aren't in the list for textxures.. (this is for whole mountain)

let's add 'em right now

source A: Hills 29:

Mellifluous: i'm there

Gigabyte: ahhh!

Meta AuntiAlias: I gotta descirbe the whole thing here: press shift key on word HIlls29. The Textures Library appears. Choose your category. Click the Add button

voila!

jonjon: why wasn't it there in the first place? In the library I mean. Where wasit exactly?

Meta AuntiAlias: you assign a name. I gave it same name as was there.

It's part of the Materials Preset.

Mellifluous: cooooool

Meta AuntiAlias: Materials Presets contain Textures in them. Not necessary to have textures be a part of Bryce's permanent list of Textures.

Mellifluous: thanx!!

Heather: ?

Meta AuntiAlias: but we just stumbled on a GREAT way to get them there.

sorry Heather. go ahead! :D

Heather: my Whole Mountain came in with planets 32 in A - I can't find Hills 29

Meta AuntiAlias: wow

jonjon: So where was it hiding? if not accessable by normal means?

Heather: should I have Ctrl clicked to get 2 textures

Meta AuntiAlias: no.. the preset is named Whole Mountain?

Heather: yes I found that and went to mlab

Meta AuntiAlias: the Materials Preset, I mean

Heather: Yes

Meta AuntiAlias: do you ahve three texture sources? what are the other ones called?

Heather: No, only one - planets 32, which appeared when I went to matlab

Meta AuntiAlias: aaah

then it's not whole mountain.

Heather: how do I find hills 29

ojk - I'll go try again

Meta AuntiAlias: are you in Materials Lab now?

click the right arrow next to material preveiw. That gets you to Materials Library. you can get material there.

Heather: now I have it, and 3 textures,

Meta AuntiAlias: same as from outside, when you click arrow next to Edit

cool!

good!

Heather: Hills29, Gray Galots29 and BasAlt29

Meta AuntiAlias: :D

you got it!

Heather: THANKS

Meta AuntiAlias: so...

Gigabyte: BasAlt?

oh...

Meta AuntiAlias: prolly a difference in OS

Gigabyte: ok

Heather: basic altitude 29

Meta AuntiAlias: or a human abbreviation typing difference! ; )

Heather: yes

Gigabyte: I changed it a while ago:)

Meta AuntiAlias: hee!

okay... so.. to see what C does.. do this:

click the menu on C, where you select other textures.

choose Basic > Sin Layers

the red and blue stripes...

Gigabyte: ?

Meta AuntiAlias: Gigabyte, go ahead

Gigabyte: k...

is the pic of the alpha channal in the middle?

in the matlab

3d~?~elf: check!

Gigabyte: or is that bump?

Meta AuntiAlias: yes.. alpha channel is in middle, yes

Gigabyte: ok:)

thanx

Meta AuntiAlias: so.. see how, now that you assigned Sin layers, your entire appearance of the material changes?

3d~?~elf: (pass the mouse over it and the name pops up at the top of the chhannels menu)

Meta AuntiAlias: it's a stripe from pebbles to hills and pebbles and hills

Schbeurd: cool

>>>> Next up: Selectively *not* antialiasing objects

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