Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123
Results 21 to 30 of 30

Thread: Creating 3D contour maps of land

  1. #21

    Default

    Hi Don,

    Unfortunately Bryce and photoshop just don't work together 'that way'.

    One way of creating a landscape in Bryce might be as follows:

    1. In photoshop, make a 'height map' (I recommend that you use a square canvas of 1024 px), using one of the many tutorials about how to make one - ie. cloud filters etc.

    2. On separate layers paint your landscape so that it works with the heightmap.

    3. Save the heightmap as a .bmp or .png img and save the detailed map (colours, etc) as a separate image (bmp or png).

    4. Open Bryce, delete the infinite ground plane which loads as a default (just click on it and press delete) and then create a terrain object (press the little mountain symbol on the top of the screen). Select the terrain created by clicking on it. You should see a little sub menu of letters on the right hand side of the control cage. The bottom letter is 'E'. Click that.

    This will allow you to edit the terrain. On the tabs along the right, click 'New' and then 'Load'. Load the heightmap you've saved. This will give you the landscape shape.

    5. Come out of the terrain editor and then press the letter 'M' to the right of the control cage, this opens the material pallette. Load the detail colour picture, and select 'object top' as your projection.

    That should do it. I haven't set out the details of loading images into materials pallete (I'm assuming you know how to do this) but if you need any help there are any number of tuts on the web.

    Ravs

  2. #22

    Default

    From the Bryce FAQ:

    QUESTION:
    What 3D Object File Formats can Bryce Import?

    ANSWER:
    Importing - Bryce can import objects saved to the following file formats.



    TrueSpace (.cob) Versions up to 4.0 are supported. Material properties are supported.

    VideoScape (.vsa) All versions are fully supported.

    VRML1 (.wrl) Imports all properties relevant to Bryce, including camera, light, and surface and material textures.

    LightWave (.lwo or .lws) Both objects and scenes are supported. The camera, lights, and all objects (with material information) are imported. Versions 6 and up are not supported.

    Heightfield (.hf) Used to import descriptions of heightfields (terrains).

    USGS DEM (.dem) All forms of DEM files are supported.

    USGS SDTS (.ddf) This format is the new USGS format which will replace DEM files.

    Portable Greyscale Map (.pgm) Used to import descriptions of heightfields (terrains).

    3d Studio® Objects (.3ds)

    3DMF (.3mf)

    AutoCad® (.dfx)

    Direct 3D (.x)

    Wavefront (.obj)

    WCS Elev (.elev)

    WorldToolKit® (.nff)
    So I think pgm is the one you want. AFAIK photoshop supports it, depending on the version, (but it might not be installed by default - check your EXTRAS folder ion the CD)

    ...or if not, I know there is at least one 3rd part plugin.

    Attached is a zip of a pgm file made from your jpg (and on a side note, stay away from jpg when making heightfields as the compressions algorithms really mes them up).
    -Rob A>
    Last edited by RobA; 04-27-2010 at 10:14 AM. Reason: Removed attachement

  3. #23
    Community Leader pyrandon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Michigan, USA
    Posts
    1,341

    Default

    Thanks a lot for all this info + help! I imported the hf and it looks odd--far too spiky. But that's ok; I'm sarting to realize I do not want to learn a new program at the moment--I have too many ideas to play with as is & so I don't want to take the time. Bryce is much less intuitive than I had expected. I'll come back to it some day (amybe in the summer, when time is more plentiful) and then I'll take the time to arm wrestle with Bryce.

    Thanks for all your help, though! You guys are awesome!
    Don
    My gallery is here
    __________________________________________________ _______
    "Keep your mind in hell, but despair not." --Saint Silouan [1866-1938]

  4. #24

    Default

    The spikes are probably because of jpeg compression artifacts. I should have applied a 3 or 4 px blur before saving it out as a hf.

    -Rob A>

  5. #25
    Community Leader pyrandon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Michigan, USA
    Posts
    1,341

    Default

    Don't sweat it, Rob--like I said, I really appreciate it. I just don't have the patience (right now) to figure out Bryce (especially since I'm working from 0 skill level/experience in both that program and any other 3D app--plus only slight computer knowledge in general!)

    As a side note, I did use PS's "perspective" tool, the "liquify" filter, a little hand painting to create the image below. Not great, perhaps not even all that good, but this process could serve my needs until I take the plunge into the world of computer 3D modeling. Plus, not bad for about 30 min. work, if I do say so myself! Just need more hand painting, more cut-n-paste, etc. etc. etc.

    Thanks again!
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Faesiddex_Fishseide_perspective_test.jpg 
Views:	329 
Size:	250.2 KB 
ID:	1730  
    Last edited by pyrandon; 11-24-2007 at 12:41 AM. Reason: updated image
    Don
    My gallery is here
    __________________________________________________ _______
    "Keep your mind in hell, but despair not." --Saint Silouan [1866-1938]

  6. #26
    Guild Member Naryt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Utah, USA
    Posts
    89

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by pyrandon View Post
    Don't sweat it, Rob--like I said, I really appreciate it. I just don't have the patience (right now) to figure out Bryce (especially since I'm working from 0 skill level/experience in both that program and any other 3D app--plus only slight computer knowledge in general!)

    As a side note, I did use PS's "perspective" tool, the "liquify" filter, a little hand painting to create the image below. Not great, perhaps not even all that good, but this process could serve my needs until I take the plunge into the world of computer 3D modeling. Plus, not bad for about 30 min. work, if I do say so myself! Just need more hand painting, some images of trees to cut-n-paste in, etc. etc. etc.

    Thanks again!
    Beautiful Don, just beautiful! If you keep this up, we'll end up making Fish Seide our home!
    Innkeeper at the Darkwood Inn. The Foul Punster of the Cartographers' Guild!

    Better role playing than dragon slaying!

  7. #27

  8. #28
    Community Leader pyrandon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Michigan, USA
    Posts
    1,341

    Default

    The attached image is something like the "first step", using just the perspective tool. Touch-up took maybe an hour to 90 min. or so.

    The end result looks neat, I guess, and the results are fine in a faux-painterly sort of way, but the problem is that I had envisioned the town being three tiered, each tier being an ascended elevation from the sea. The image I've produced, however, looks quite flat to my eye. This is why I was hoping to do a 3-D model: to convincingly capture that change in height. I know I could recreate that manually in Photoshop if I felt like taking the time to tweak for a lot longer than I did--but since I was just a play-test-goofing around, it'll do.

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Faesiddex_Fishseide_pre-perspective.jpg 
Views:	173 
Size:	137.8 KB 
ID:	1739  
    Last edited by pyrandon; 11-24-2007 at 04:21 PM.
    Don
    My gallery is here
    __________________________________________________ _______
    "Keep your mind in hell, but despair not." --Saint Silouan [1866-1938]

  9. #29

    Default

    Wow! that turned out great! That looks like a real nice way to "fake" a 3D view.

    -Rob A>

  10. #30
    Community Leader RPMiller's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Watching you from in here
    Posts
    3,226

    Default

    I agree! That is a really great "fake", and definitely so for being only an hour or so of work.
    Bill Stickers is innocent! It isn't Bill's fault that he was hanging out in the wrong place.

    Please make an effort to tag all threads. This will greatly enhance the usability of the forums.



Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •