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| STEP
1 - GETTING STARTED IN PSP |
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Open
your paint program and create a new canvas on which to work,
I choose to make mine 2272x1704 resolution, I like to work
big. Although Bryce's terrain editor likes square images,
i.e.512x512 up 2272x2272, I found the drape folds looked somewhat
distorted after leaving the terrain editor then rendered.
Make sure it is absolute black (0) as this will be removed
when we get to the terrain editor later.
Select a small diameter 'paint' brush, and make your color
absolute white (255). Now ou need to think about what your
fabric is draped over and how it will look. I opted for the
basic drape for this tutorial. With your brush make sweeping
archs to define the outer folds, you can cross them, kink
them, etc. but for a beginning drape keep it simple until
you get the hang of it.
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| STEP
2 - DEFINE THE FOLDS IN YOUR DRAPE... |
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Now
that you have your drape shape established, you can start
to work on building it up to where it actually looks like
a fabric drape. With the 'airbrush' and white, go over the
lines of the outer folds, increasing their size and density
gradually, until the original lines are no longer visible
but you still have space between them.
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| STEP
3 - CREATING THE FOLD RECESSES |
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Now
we'll start to add the recesses to the folds. Using a light
gray, between your white areas, build up gradually, any sudden
transistion will show when the drape becomes a terrain. Use
a continous sweeping motion to keep the drape folds relaistic.
When you have finished filling in go to the next step...
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| STEP
4 - BUILDING UP THE DRAPE FOLDS |
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Select
a medium gray, be sure to stay away from very dark gray as
the darker the gray the closer to black you get. You won't
need to make it that dark to get the effect we are going after.
Paint this between the very white folds to create the recessed
folds. Remember, black will be eliminated in the terrain editor,
so keep this gray towards the medium range, but darker than
the light gray in the last step.
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| STEP
5 - REFINING THE DRAPE |
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Keep
building the drape recesses, and outer folds, gradually defining
it until you are satisfied with how your drape looks. You
can add dips and creases if you want, if you find the white
areas are starting to disappear, just go over them with long
sweeping motions to increase their size and density. White
areas will be the raised, or outward folds of your terrain
drape.
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| STEP
6 - GIVING IT A BLUR FOR THE TERRAIN EDITOR |
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Once
the drape looks the way you want it, it's time to give it
a blur, gaussian blur is what we will use for this drape.
The blur helps the terrain editor create smoother transitions
on the terrain. Save your drape 'with' and 'without' a blur
(to make changes easier), as a bitmap or with the .bmp suffix,
somewhere you can find it again. This image is called a 'greyscale'
image.
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| STEP
7 - STARTING IN BRYCE |
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Now
we open up Bryce. Create a terrain, then go into the terrain
editor. To do this, select the little 'E' in the Object Control
icons to the right of the terrain. This will take us into
the terrain editor.
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| STEP
8 - THINGS TO DO IN THE TERRAIN EDITOR |
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Now
that you are in the terrain editor, there are several things
you need to do. First make sure the 'Picture' tab is selected.
Then we increase the terrain resolution to gigantic (1) and
make sure our terrain is solid(2).
Now you are ready to import your drape (greyscale) image.
In the Pictures dialog box (3) select 'Load' and browse to
your drape with the blur, click 'open', then copy (under the
first box), and 'paste' (under the second box), and then hit
'apply'(4).
You should see your terrain in the upper preview window and
in the editor window. It will have a black background which
you will eliminate by moving the clipping bracket (5) up until
the black is replaced by red. Note: do not click in the gradient
bar. This does not eliminate the background, the bracket is
to the outside of the gradient bar, grab the little end and
move it upward until the black is replaced by red. Click 'Apply',
wait for the change to be made, the terrain will be crisp
white with a red background.
Now go to the 'Elevation' tab (6&7), click it, and next
to 'smooth'(8) click the bead once, do not click too much,
as it will flatten your drape folds and make them look unnatural.
Now you are ready to go out to the work area and make adjustments
to size. Click the check mark in the lower right corner...
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| STEP
9 - FINAL ADJUSTMENTS |
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You
will probably want to make adjustments to the terrain drape
as far as size (x,y,z) goes to fit into the image you are
creating. Now is the time to do this.
Upright your terrain drape and position it so that you can
see if the drape needs any other adjustments. Select the little
'M' in the Object Control icons to the right of the terrain.
This will take you into the materials lab. In the mat lab
click the 'diffuse', 'ambient'and 'specular' ovals to clear
and reset OR select 'Simple and Fast' from the installed presets
and choose the med gray. (The diffuse should be grey and the
rest white, now the drape is a plain grey.) This will help
you see where your drape may need work.
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Go
out to the main window and hit 'Render' to see how the drape
looks in an environment. If everything is satisfactory you
can choose to use a material from the installed mats in the
Materials Lab, or bring in (import) a picture texture to apply
to your drape. I took the picture texture option. Apply your
material and go out to the main work area and render to see
how it looks. If it needs work, or you don't like it, you
can redo the drape in your paint program (the reason you saved
an unblurred version) or start over creating a new drape.
That's all there is to creating fabric drapes using Bryce
terrains...!
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